Mama Carolla's

 A few weeks ago, Tim and I went to dinner at Mama Carolla's with some friends.  Mama's is an interesting experience--I've been there a few times before, and each time I'm astonished anew at how much they've held on to the old school 'fancy' Italian restaurant thing.  It's located in a lovely old house, but it needs some updating inside.  I mean, it looks like what I imagine Sunday supper at an Italian grandma's house would look like.  In the 1980's.  You can see in the pictures that we had enormous pink-rimmed charger plates on which our bread/appetizer/soup plates were placed.  They took them away when the main course came, but in the mean time they took up a ton of space on our relatively small table.  They should be the first to go.

But the food.  That's more important, right?  Well, it's pretty good!  It is definitely full-on Americanized Italian food--nothing terribly authentic here--but it's a touch more homey and authentic than Olive Garden, at least.  Tim and I started with the fried ravioli, and they were really tasty.  They could have been out of a bag, for all we know, but they tasted good, were crunchy on the outside and cheesy on the inside, and came with a lovely chunky marinara for dipping.

Our entrees came with soup or salad, and we both opted for the Italian Wedding Soup.  It was also good.  If you're not familiar, it's a chicken broth based soup with little meatballs in it--in this case, I'm fairly certain they were pork--plus spinach, pasta, and parmesan cheese.  It had great flavor, and the meatballs were very tender.  The one drawback was the pasta--it was mushy.  Ergh.  Come on, Italian restaurant--get the pasta right!!!  It had clearly been put in when the soup was made and gotten more and more mushy.  They ought to just leave it (cooked, but) out until they're ready to serve it.  Because, gross.

For my entree, I got the Chicken Involtine ($15.99).  It's chicken breasts wrapped around prosciutto, spinach, and fontina cheese, then sauteed in an "herbed champagne tomato cream sauce with mushrooms."  It is so good.  Or, really, that tomato sauce is so good.  I don't know if it's the champagne or the cream that makes it amazing, but something is working magic in there.  The chicken itself is pretty tasty--with cheese and prosciutto, how could it not be?--and well-cooked.  But the sauce adds a creamy acidity that is just outstanding.  It's served with angel hair pasta that is well-coated in parmesan, and was great when mixed with the sauce.  (And yes, it was cooked properly.)  My meal came with the aforementioned soup, and we also received bread (although it took them awhile to bring it out to us--our server was somewhat scarce).  The bread was crusty on the outside, soft on the inside, and warm.  I, of course, used it to sop up my leftover sauce.  The portion was huge, so I ended up taking one chicken breast and half of the pasta home.  It reheated nicely for lunch the next day.

Tim got the Rosemary Chicken Lasagna ($16.99).  I don't know about you, but when I think of chicken lasagna, I think of a creamy alfredo sauce.  This one was served in a tomato butter sauce that was, thankfully, not a let down.  The portion was enormous, and it was certainly stuffed with spinach, mushrooms, chicken, and cheese.  I liked the bite I tried, and I know Tim enjoyed it. 

Overall, Mama's is a good experience.  A glass of wine and a big plate of something covered in sauce, and I'm a happy girl.  It's not inexpensive, as you can see from the prices I mentioned--they're definitely making a killing here, especially since they pack people in (I was practically sitting at the table next to me, the tables were so close).  But, it's nostalgic, and the food is solid.  I've been there before, and I'll certainly go there again!

Website:  Mama Carolla's 

Some Guys Pizza

After running a few errands in the area, Tim and I decided to stop at Some Guys Pizza for dinner one weeknight.  It tops his "favorite pizza places in Indy" list; for me, it's pretty good but not my favorite.  For this type of crackery crust/focus on toppings pizza, I'd pick Jockamo's first, followed by Puccini's.  But it is pretty good.

I was having a very unhealthy craving for something with alfredo sauce, and almost selected one of Some Guys's pasta options before my eye landed on a "parmesean cream" pizza sauce option.  I decided to make my own pizza with that sauce, chicken, and mushrooms ($4.90 for a small, plus $1.10 for the mushrooms and $1.30 for the chicken).  It was delicious!  The sauce was pretty flavorful--garlicky and creamy and cheesy--and the mushrooms went really well with it.  The chicken was also good--it seemed to be at least half of a hearty chicken breast which had been grilled.  The chunks were quite large (I thought a touch too large--would have liked to have seen them diced or cut more thinly and distributed into every bite), but it was tasty.  Tim also really liked this combo.  I will definitely be getting this combination again!

Tim got one of the Wood Oven pizza selections--the "House Pepperoni."  Those pizzas only come in a 10" size ($11.75).  It had pepperoni, of course, plus ricotta and basil.  I always love a pizza with ricotta on it, and this was no exception.  The pepperoni was spicy and fairly thickly cut, and the ricotta provided some richness.  I didn't personally think that the Wood Oven crust tasted any different at all from the regular crust.  But, what do I know?

All in all, it was a solid pizza experience. 

Website:  Some Guys Pizza

Gandolfo's Deli

 The other day, my co-workers and I decided to venture to a new restaurant for lunch.  It is a chain, although not one I had ever seen before.  Gandolfo's Deli is located in Greenwood; from the website, it  looks to be the only one in Indiana.

When we entered, there was a long line.  This is the type of place where you order at the counter and then they yell your name when it's ready.  Apparently we hit the lunch rush when we arrived at 12:15; by 1pm there was no line at all.  The long line, combined with the ENORMOUS menu (I mean, seriously. ENORRRRMOUS) left all of us a little worried.  They had every cold cut you could imagine in every combination you could imagine.  Salami, pastrami, roast beef, turkey, ham, and everything in between.  The menu board was incredibly overwhelming.

I finally narrowed my choices down to an Italian sub or a French Dip, and the dip ($5.99 plus $2.69 for a drink and side) won out.  It was really delicious.  The "half" sub was huge, and it was stuffed with really flavorful roast beef, plus mayo and provolone.  It came with a little (well, actually, pretty large) cup of au jus to dip it in, and the jus was herby and lovely.  The bread was soft and tasted freshly baked (and I believe it was--they had bread ovens going in the back, you can see them from the counter).  I just got potato chips with mine, but they had several "deli salads" (think potato salad, macaroni salad), etc. to pick from, plus soup or a cookie as other options.

My friends got more traditional deli sandwiches.  The one on the left, there, was the I Love New York--pastrami and corned beef on marble rye with swiss and mustard.  She said it was great, and it certainly had tons of meat on it!  It came with a pickle, and she got the sour cream potato salad with hers.  She didn't love the potato salad, so I tried some of hers.  It wasn't my favorite, either--I like a more mustardy/vinegary potato salad, and it was lacking salt--but it wasn't bad.  My other co-worker did like it, and she also enjoyed her corned beef on marble rye.

I would definitely return to Gandolfo's, but might opt for just the sandwich next time to save money.  $2.69 for a side and drink is pretty steep, too steep to be considered a "deal" in my opinion.  In the end, I paid almost $10 for my meal.  It was a really delicious sandwich for a semi-reasonable price, but the add-ons are what will get you--and they really aren't necessary, considering how big the sandwiches are.

Website:  Gandolfo's Deli

Thai Spice

 I have two favorite Thai places in this town.  One is, of course, Thai Taste, which I've written about before.  The other is Thai Spice in Greenwood.  (Technically, it's north of County Line Rd. and is thus in Indy, but it's right across the street from the Greenwood Park Mall, so I'm going with "Greenwood.")

I most often get the lunch specials there, since it's not prohibitively far from work for me.  For $7.80 you get a spring roll, "lemongrass" (i.e. Tom Yum) soup, an entree from a limited menu, and a "fried banana" (a slice of banana wrapped in a spring roll wrapper and fried, then drizzled with honey).

The Tom Yum is excellent--pretty spicy (look at that chili oil floating in the bowl!), with more of a tomato punch than Thai Taste's, which gives it a really full flavor.  The sourness is well represented but not over done, and there are pieces of button mushrooms and tomatoes in there.  Really love this soup.  The spring rolls are equally as good (I prefer spring rolls over egg rolls any day)--lightly wrapped, with thin rice noodles and veggies inside.  I like to dip the roll into my soup.

My entree pick there was the admittedly not very adventurous but incredibly delicious Pad Thai with chicken.  Their version has a really great balance of flavors and comes with all of the standard toppings.  They do put their peanuts on the side, but I love that it's usually a generous portion of peanuts and they are pretty finely ground, so you can get a bit in every bite.  This version isn't as sour as Thai Taste's, or as sweet.  It can get pretty spicy--I ordered mine medium and it was perfect, with a good but not unbearable burn.

On this trip, we weren't given our bananas!  It was a travesty.  But, we were in a hurry to get back to work, so we asked for our check early and I think it threw their whole rhythm off.  Or something.  Not sure.  Either way, we were sad.  They're a great little sweet bite at the end of your meal.

Website:  Thai Spice

City BBQ

City BBQ is another chain, it's true, but I think it's relatively new in Indy.  There are stores in Avon and Carmel and Greenwood (the one I visited).  I'd heard a bit of buzz about it, and wanted to check it out.

I decided to get carry out for Tim and I on my way home from work one evening a few weeks ago.  You enter and if you go to the left, you can be seated for in-house dining.  To the right, there was a counter at which you could order take-out.  There were a few people in front of me; all-in-all, the wait was probably about 15 minutes from entering to leaving with my food.  Not too bad.

I got the 'famous' 1/2 lb pulled chicken sandwich ($5.99 plus $2.99 for 2 sides), which is first smoked and then pulled and simmered in their white BBQ sauce.  They describe the sauce as being a "perfect blend cayenne & black pepper, horseradish, vinegar and other secret ingredients with sauteed red onion."  It was really good.  Really, really good.  It had such depth of flavor, it was completely addictive.  I would absolutely get it again.

For one of my sides, I chose a summer special--cucumbers and onions in vinegar.  It was pretty good, but borderline TOO vinegary (when my family makes them, we add sugar and oil to cut the acidity slightly).  Also, there was a strange herb thrown in--I want to say oregano.  Kind of odd.  Maybe they were trying to go a Greek direction with it.  I also got the corn pudding, which was fairly tasty.  Tons of corn in there, and slightly sweet.

Tim got a 1/2 lb smoked turkey breast sandwich ($6.59 plus $2.99 for 2 sides).  He let me try a little piece, and it was also really delicious.  Some good smoke flavor, very tender, and well seasoned. 

His sides were mac & cheese and green beans; I didn't try the mac & cheese, but it looked like pretty standard mac & cheese.  The green beans worried us at first--they look like sugar snap peas.  They were very wide and flat, not round like a standard green bean.  But looking at the website again, they are called "Kentucky Wonder beans," and I guess are just a variety of green bean.  Either way, they were tasty, cooked with bacon and onion.

I would really like to try their ribs, but I'm not sure I can venture away from that pulled chicken...it was just SO good!

Website:  City BBQ

Starbucks: Chicken BLT Salad Sandwich

I rarely eat food at Starbucks.  Once in a great while I might get one of their breakfast sandwiches (I'm particularly fond of the turkey bacon, cheese, and egg white on an English muffin), but I've definitely never had lunch there.

However, the other day I needed something very quick that I could eat in the lobby of CarX while I got my oil changed, so I picked up a Chicken BLT Salad sandwich.  It was on the way, and a deli sandwich sounded nice and light on that hot day.  I knew the sandwiches were prepackaged--normally a huge negative in my book--but was willing to try it this once.

It wasn't bad!  While it looked nothing like the Starbucks website's picture (shocker!), which featured large chunks of chicken, it was pretty tasty.  Everything was kind of smooshed together (in my picture, to the right, it almost looks more like tuna salad), but the flavors worked well together.  The chicken seemed to be all white meat, and was mixed with bacon, tiny bits of roasted tomato, and "scallion lemon pepper" mayo.  It was on a nice soft wheat bread that wasn't at all soggy thanks to a layer of bib lettuce on both sides.  My one complaint was that the bacon was a little limp and kind of fatty and --you know how bacon gets once it gets cold and is mixed with anything containing moisture (be it potato salad, chicken salad, etc.), and it loses its crispness and gets sort of gross and anemic looking?--yeah, it was that.  Most of the pieces were too small to bother me, but I got a couple larger pieces that were a little creepy.  Still, the flavors were there.

This wasn't the largest sandwich in the world, but combined with some fruit and veggies I had brought from home, it made a decent lunch.  I think it was around $5.95, a bit on the steep side (would it have killed them to include an apple or some potato chips or something?), but that's to be expected from Starbucks.  I don't see this becoming part of my regular rotation, but if the craving struck me for chicken salad, I might try it again.

Website:  Starbucks