We bring you something we have been wanting to review for a long time: Cork ‘n Cleaver. The Cork has become a staple in Evansville; more so for the business crowd, but is a treat for the rest of us.

The Cork is interesting in that the initial impression of the building gives off a Southwest feel, but upon entering, it starts to feel a bit more up-scale pub-like. Of course, it keeps the southwest vibe by relying heavily on beef and hearty entrees. There is plenty of chicken and seafood to go around, but steaks are their specialties. The lights are very dim no matter the time of the day, the tables or booths are comfortable but with a rustic feel, and most interestingly of all, the menu is actually written on a cleaver (dull of course).

The table started out ordering cups of cream of broccoli or tomato garlic soup. Both were a different take on what would be perceived as the original. They were good, but extremely thick and creamy. I would have liked more broccoli in mine. Myself and another ordered one of the daily specials: Artichoke Pesto Tilapia served with rice. The fish was cooked well, not over done, and the topping was extremely large chunks of artichoke lightly coated in pesto. Very good, though the artichokes were a bit difficult to eat due to the size. Another member of the party ordered the Cork Burger which came out slightly too done to her tastes, but ended up being very tasty all the same. Finally ordered was the Hawaiian Pecan Crusted Chicken. This came out to rave reviews that it had a perfect sweetness and slight crunch. None of us could help getting dessert, and we all ordered creme brulee. It comes in a very tiny personal dish, almost only big enough for a few bites. That left me wanting more. While it was caramelized correctly, it definitely did not seem to be as warm as it should be, which was a disappointment.

Overall, the experience was good, although I wish I could have seen my dining partners a bit better - it was so dark inside. The creme brulee tasted great but was too cold. Small snags to be sure, the food here is good, and there are always daily specials that are different-not reoccurring-and almost always delicious. Overall I do recommend Cork ‘n Cleaver, but it is a bit pricy, so save it for a special occasion like a birthday or upcoming Valentines day.

Cork ‘n Cleaver is located at 650 S. Hebron Ave. (812) 479-6974. Lunch Mon-Fri 11am-2pm, Dinner daily after 5pm.

This week my dining partner and I visited a restaurant more different than our usual reviews: Vietnamese Cuisine Restaurant. You guessed it; it’s a restaurant that serves Vietnamese food! It is tucked just behind Putt-Putt next to Kitchen Affairs on Vogel Road.

Entering, we were immediately enthusiastically greeted by the waitress, and presumably co-owner. At the time, only one other customer was there, but through our meal several more came to dine-in and get carry-out. The restaurant is plain, yet comfortable. The walls are decorated with various framed artworks particular to Vietnam, as well as two small murals. There are plenty of tables and booths, but not over crowded. Though I did notice several space heaters out in the open, which threw me off a bit.

The menu is broken down primarily into noodle, rice, or specialty dishes. I enjoyed that since it helps making your choice easier when you are not very familiar with this style of cuisine. Most entrees are of one of several flavorings: ginger, lemongrass, or curry. We started with spring rolls, which were stuffed with shrimp, pork, lettuce, cucumber, bean sprouts, and mint served with a peanut sauce for dipping. These were very much enjoyed, in part because they were so refreshing. I chose the Bun Tofu Xao Chay: sliced tofu over noodles and mixed vegetables, on the side came a tart sauce to pour over it. I found the flavors to be too much for me, I think in part due to the sauce poured over it and strong emphasis on the lemongrass. However, I have tended to find that I am not one who very fond of Southeast Asian food in general; therefore, I won’t totally rule it out for others who may enjoy these flavors. My dining partner decided on the Ga Xao Xa Ot, which is sliced chicken served with saut’eed lemongrass and vegetables next to rice. Unlike me, he greatly enjoyed his dish and scarfed it down.

I most enjoyed the service as opposed to the food, while he really enjoyed the food. I can say my dislike of the food stems from my inability to eat the food of Southeast Asia, therefore I don’t hold it against the restaurant, since I’m sure those who enjoy this region’s food will enjoy these flavors. I must mention the excellent prices: large plates and bowls each for $6.99, and 2 spring rolls for $3.50. Also the service was excellent, and the food came out freshly prepared in a very timely manner. While I won’t be going back because of my personal tastes, I do support fans of this regions food to go try it out if you haven’t already.

Vietnamese Cuisine Restaurant is located at 4602 Vogel Road. (812) 491-1884. Tues-Thurs, Sun 11am-8pm, Fri & Sat 11am-9pm, closed Mon.

A new place some of you may not have heard of or seen yet is Café 111, tucked behind Brinker’s at Green River and the Lloyd. While not entirely different from some of the other Cafés around town, it does have it’s own zing.

The space inside is open, not forced at all. The glass tables are standard or high-top with plush green seat, and green seems to be the color of choice here, as the entire back wall is painted green as well. You’ll notice the wall to your left has a large mural on it that seems to try to place the Café in old-Paris or something similar. The set up is that of a standard Café. Against the back wall there is a counter from which you order at one end-there are a few bowls of different salads in the case-and move down to the other end to pay and pick up your food. The menu is large and hung on the wall, but to my dismay, without having perfect vision, you can only read the name of the food item, but not any of the details about it. In fact, I had to have my dining partner read it for me even once I was at the counter.

The majority of the menu consists of sandwiches and salads, though there is a small breakfast menu. My dining partner ordered the Roasted Chicken with Tomato Pesto, which, besides the obvious, included roasted red peppers, grilled onions, fresh baby spinach, and provolone cheese. It was served with a pickle spear and chips. I choose the Lunch Combo. With this you pick two of the following for $6.50 : 1/2 sandwich, 1/2 salad, cup of soup, or side. I decided on half the Smoked Turkey Sandwich (including sharp Vermont cheddar and sliced granny smith apples) with the White Chili soup of the day. Other options tend to be familiar sandwiches with a twist, like a BLT with avocado or chicken salad sandwich using raspberry mayonnaise. Salads include traditionals like Greek or Caesar, and nontraditionals like Pear or Asian with Miso Dressing.

We both agreed our food was good, but nothing special. In fact, I would have preferred a little more seasoning in both my soup and sandwich. Also, their whole assembly line system seemed a little out of whack. There were enough people behind the counter, but it appeared not all had a job to do, and others weren’t entirely sure how to work the panini presses. Moreover, they did not get food out to customers in order. People ordering after someone else would get their food first, despite what it was. Another example is a couple who ordered together, but their food came out separately-his more than 5 minutes after hers, while other people ordering after him sometimes got their meals immediately. I even had to wait 10 minutes.

I would go back again, but not if I had to hurry. The food is good, but nothing special stands out, and it tends to need slightly more seasoning.

Café 111 is located at 111 S. Green River Rd, Suite D, behind Brinker’s. (812) 401-8111. Mon-Fri 7am-2:30 pm.

It’s Evansville food reviews has been a bit on a hiatus lately, and we apologize for that. We return to you with a review of a new addition to Evansville, L.A. Grill & Ale House. This restaurant offers a take on the health craze that has swept the nation by offering a “healthy” (LA Grill) and “unhealthy” (Ale House) side to the menu.

Several of us ventured out there the other night to try this new restaurant after having driven past many times. The d’ecor is a take on modern-deco. The color scheme is black, red, and blue with waves of silver around the walls and seats. The booth and high top filled bar is also surrounded by televisions continuously tuned into ESPN. The lighting is relatively dim and the music seems just a notch too loud, but enjoyable artists.

As mentioned, there are two sides to the menu, and it’s more literal than it seems-you start on one side of the menu and actually flip it over upside down to get to the other side. It’s a great idea in that people can easily compromise on what they want to eat by having two full menus of healthy and not-so-healthy food. The healthy side even lists each dishes proteins, carbohydrates, fat, and calories. Dr. Joe Klemczewski offers his expertise to L.A. Grill & Ale House in developing tasty food that can fit any health nut’s diet.

When greeted by our waitress, we were served a complimentary basket of carrot curls, thin slices of carrots that are fried like chips. Surprisingly it was a fresh take on the standard chips and dip that tends to come with meals at many restaurants. Our party ordered two healthy items and one ale house item. The Crab Mango Wrap was a crab salad with mango, cilantro, and red onions wrapped in a spinach wrap served with carrot curls. The Tropical Beach Salad was shrimp with mango, pineapple, strawberry, and mandarin oranges over lettuce with a sugar free, low carb, dairy free Tangerine Dream Dressing. Both were very much enjoyed and recommended, one has even been gotten a second time since the initial visit. From the other side of the menu, the Dream Burger was ordered. This came out a perfect medium, pink throughout, topped with Fried onion straws, saut’eed mushrooms, applewood bacon, swiss cheese and special sauce as well as the standard lettuce, tomato, and red onion. This burger was to die for. Cooked perfectly and there couldn’t have been a better match of toppings.

We had an excellent experience at this new Evansville restaurant and have since been back. I think the restaurant is still getting the “new restaurant quirks out,” as family who went that same night didn’t enjoy their food at all. They said their food was tasteless, dried out, and fries burnt black. I have had two great experiences at this location, so recommend it, but due to hearing a couple questionable to negative comments, try it at your own risk.

L.A. Grill & Ale House is located at 7221 E. Indiana, just next to The Outback. (812) 491-2337. Mon-Sat 11am-11pm, Sun 11am-10pm.

With Thanksgiving coming up tomorrow, people will be ramping up their ovens and stoves with mounds upon mounds of food. I’m not much for the holiday since I’m a light eater, but I know most everyone else in the world indulges themselves on turkey, dressing and pie.

I appreciate a good pumpkin pie, but the whole turkey and dressing thing is not for me. Maybe I’m missing out on the real good food of Thanksgiving. What dish should I be sticking on the Thanksgiving table tomorrow?

If you have a favorite recipe I have to know about, tell us in the comments.

photo courtesy of xybermatthew

You can usually find a holiday for every day of the week, but being a registered choco-o-holic, I will be celebrating National Chocolate Day. Sadly, most of the local chocolate shops (I’m looking at you Libs) are closed on Sundays, so our celebration may have to be postponed a day.

Do you remember when Lazarus (now Macy’s) used to have the bakery and restaurant upstairs? They had some of the best chocolate chip cookies. They were gooey and had big chunks of chocolate. I found the recipe.

1 cup margarine, softened
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups quick cooking oats
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
8 ounces chocolate chunks, found in bulk section

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a bowl combine margarine, sugar, and brown sugar. Stir in eggs and vanilla. Gradually stir in flour, quick cooking oats, salt, and baking powder. Add chocolate chunks and mix again. Drop by teaspoonfuls 2-inches apart onto ungreased baking sheets.

Bake for 10 minutes or until browned around the edges. Remove from oven and let cool.

What are some of your favorite chocolate dishes or recipes? Share them in the comments.

photo courtesy of Phillips Chocolate

We here at It’s Evansville consider ourselves the connoisseurs of Mexican food in town. We’re making our way through every Mexican establishment in this town and reviewing it on the site.

While we won’t be reviewing this new place (no chain policy), I’m stoked to learn that Taco Del Mar will be making its way into Evansville in the near future. The company has given Jeff Troxel and Stella Estep, two Subway franchisees in the area, the right to expand their franchise into our area.

Taco Del Mar is based out of Seattle and features your standard Mexican fare: burritos, tacos, enchiladas and more. I’m looking forward to trying their fish tacos personally. The restaurant will join Qdoba, Taco Tiera and Moes in our expanding fast food mexican establishments in Evansville. Now, where’s my Chipotle?

Realizing we hadn’t yet brought you a review of an Italian restaurant, and that we were craving Italian food, we decided to visit Angelo’s Italian Restaurant in downtown Evansville.

Angelo’s isn’t like your average chain; it is more of a little neighborhood Italian eatery. It’s not large, but there’s enough room. Out front is a small patio just off the sidewalk that holds a handful of tables, inside are two rooms that stretch back in a long rectangle in addition to a very small bar room (which is actually almost more like a closet). The wall in the first room is decorated in an fresco of Italian scenery, while the back room has many pictures of Italian architecture and courtyards. The lights are dim to give a sense of intimacy.

Starving, we decided to start out with the Crab Cake appetizer. We expected them to arrive plain on a plate, but they came out on a bed of angel hair pasta, everything covered in a creamy pesto sauce. The first cut into the cakes proved a very crispy crust with a soft interior, and we soon decided this appetizer course was just delicious. Wanting something traditional, I ordered the lasagna, which came out very hot in a baking dish in a sweet marinara sauce covered in mozzarella. Just delicious. He ordered the Tortillini Alla Pesto, which came with the pasta, peas, and sun-dried tomatoes in the same pesto as our appetizer (possibly a blend of pesto and alfredo?) It was thoroughly enjoyed. To finish the meal ordered Tiramisu, only to find out there wasn’t any left, so we settled on the red velvet cake. It was very good, but seemed slightly dry. Either way, our server gave us the dessert on the house!

When we arrived and seated, it took about 5-10 minutes before we were poured water, and probably another 5 or so before our server came to take our drink order. At first this bothered me, but I learned he was the only server able to work that night, but moreover, the service we received after was great. He made sure we always had everything we needed, without being overbearing by any means. The server and hostess were very friendly. When the tiramisu problem arose, he was quite apologetic, but offered other ideas, even bringing two out to display to aid in our decision making, and didn’t charge us for the dessert.

Angelo’s is slightly out of the way for the majority of the Evansville and surrounding area’s population, but it is worth the trouble. The food is absolutely outstanding, the service ranges from good to great, and the prices are reasonable ($35 for 2 drinks, appetizer, & 2 entrees). I really would recommend taking the trip downtown to try this restaurant, but I recommend it for adults, not families with young children. This is the type of restaurant Evansville needs more of: not a chain, but a small local place serving fantastic food.

Angelo’s Italian Restaurant is located at 305 Main St. (812) 428-6666. Mon-Thurs 11:30am-10pm, Fri 11:30am-11pm, Sat 12pm-11pm.

Once again, we found ourselves at the Fall Festival for lunch. Our goal? To bring you some more reviews of the vast amount of food options there.

First, based on a reader suggestion we tried some gumbo. It looked great, and was served over rice of course. There were large pieces of shredded chicken, but it could’ve used some more sausage. All in all it was good, but needed more spices in my opinion. I also wish the cup had been slightly bigger for the price. The Gumbo is at Booth 23, German Township Booster for $4.

The new offering of Fried Coke was next on the list to try. It’s new and a confusing concept. I was handed what looked like a sundae, but on inspection it seemed to be something like donut balls soaked in Coke, and then fried, covered in whipped cream, topped with a cherry. The Coke-balls were fried too much and were really hard and crispy, and I couldn’t even taste the Coke. All around, I just didn’t like it. However, if you want to try it, Fried Coke is at Booth 67, St. Peters UMC for $2.50.

Next, we tried fried macaroni and cheese with a lemon shake-up to wash it down. The fried macaroni was in thin triangles (I prefer it made in balls), but very cheesy and you could still get the intended taste. Yum. The lemon shake-up was nice and sugary. One reason I chose this booth for these was the long line—always a good sign. Fried Macaroni and the Shake-Up are at the Vanderburgh Humane Society booth (Booth 75) for $2.50 and $3.75 respectively.

Leaving, we decided to try one more thing: the Fried Snickers Bar. You get 2 battered fun-size Snickers that are deep fried. They are topped in powdered sugar and chocolate, speared with a toothpick. These are extremely rich, but nice and chocolatey. Definitely a good pick. Fried Snickers are at Booth 37, Mt. Pleasant Church, 2 for $3.

More suggestions? Tells us what you love, discovered, or always look forward to. If you have you ever eaten a brain sandwich, we want to hear all about it.

We ventured down to Franklin Street for our first taste of the 2007 Fall Festival today. Several things were eaten that we wanted to tell our readers about.

First, I went out on a limb and tried alligator: an Alligator Stuffed Potato to be exact. The baked potato needed to be cooked a little longer, but it was do-able. The alligator was ground and cooked in heavy spices. On top was butter, cheese, and sour cream. More or less it tasted like a baked potato with chili on it. It wasn’t the best, but wasn’t as scary as I thought it’d be. The Alligator Stuffed Potato is at booth 72, Montessori Academy. $3.50, and you get a button with it saying you joined the I Eat Alligator Club.

We both decided to have Chicken & Dumplings, despite the heat. With 6 booths offering this, we decided to go with one we found that ONLY offered this. The dumplings themselves were nice square, doughy ones…a little on the thin side though. Besides needing a touch of salt, they seemed to be flavored well. My one complaint was not having very much chicken. But all in all, I really enjoyed them. These Chicken & Dumplings are at booth 18, Emmanuel Lutheran Church. $3 for small, $5 for medium, $8 for large.

In addition, we picked up some other favorites like pints of cider, apple and cinnamon kuchens, chocolate and peanut butter fudge (25 cents a square!), and buckeyes.

We are heading back again and will have more ideas for you.

In the mean time, what is your favorite thing to eat down at the Fall Festival? What (besides the brain sandwich—because that’s just not happening) might you want us to try? Maybe we will!