What Applebees Might Be Like If Applebee's Didn't Totally Suck: C.R. Heroes Review

The Girlfriend and I have determined as of late that Saturday night will be our night to go out to a sit-down restaurant, but sometimes I have a hard time deciding on place or a type of food I desire to try.  In the interest of this blog I try to steer us toward new places, or places that don't get a lot of publicity. C.R. Heroes is definitely one of those places.  You might have heard about it if you read about it on one of the other Indy food blogs around like I did, but if you don't read those other blogs you're probably as lost right now as I was when I watched the Mission Impossible movie for the first time.  Don't worry because 1. Jon Voight's character was the bad guy the whole time (I don't want to hear SPOILERS from anyone. That movie is old.  Get over it.) and 2.  C.R. Heroes is a small place place with some good comfort food classics.

In true Random Dude Eats Random Food tradition C.R. Heroes is one of those one off places located in a strip-mall on 96th St. East of Cumberland Rd.  Yes, that would be the other side of Cumberland Rd. and not where all the other strip-malls and restaurants are located.  I also found it quirky because of the words "family pub" on the building under the name of the restaurant.  Those usually aren't two words that work together, but based on what I had read I was willing to cut them some slack.

As we walked in the first thing I noticed was the over the top "hero" decor and theme of the restaurant.  One side dedicated to real heroes such as astronauts, military personnel, firefighters and police, and the other side dedicated to to pretty much every comic book hero or character you can think of including Casper the friendly ghost for some reason.  After the decor I noticed that the hosts doing the seating looked pretty young like they  might be in high school, and ours seemed a little frazzled.  He wiped down our table and the seats of  the booth which I could definitely have done without, but it really wasn't that big of a deal.  The menu was quite expansive with a large selection of salads, sandwiches, burgers and several comfort food staples such as chicken 'n noodles, turkey manhattan and even chicken and waffles.  It was a bit overwhelming.

To take some time to decide what we wanted we decided to go with one of their signature appetizers of the big soft pretzel.  We each got one, and they were big, fresh, soft and delicious.  I'm a bread junky and if you set a soft pretzel with butter and salt in front of me I'm going to be ecstatic.  The flavor was complemented nicely with the ranch sauce served for dipping.  It wasn't something I had tried with a pretzel before, and it made the cheese sauce look weak by comparison.

For our main courses she got the hand breaded tenderloin and fries, and I decided on the grilled cheese cheeseburger.  I was immediately jealous of the tenderloin.  It looked enormous yet not pounded too thin.  I tore off a piece for tasting and the meat was flavorful and juicy.  The breading seemed unique also in that it seemed like cornmeal may have been a component.  As far as my grilled cheese cheeseburger I admit to falling victim to a gimmick.  It was a burger with bacon and cheese served between 2 grilled cheese sandwiches instead of buns.  I had never seen that option on a  menu here in Indiana before so I had to try it out.  Honestly it is much better in theory than practice.  The burger itself was juicy and nicely cooked, and Ron Swanson would have appreciated the generous portion of bacon.  However, it was really just too much bread and the overwhelming amount of cheese made it very rich.  I really could have used a spicy or tangy sauce on there to cut the richness just a bit.  We both thought the fries weren't really anything special, and I left a lot of them on my plate.  The menu described them as  "seasoned fries" and I was expecting something a little more aggressive I guess.  Also, I thought they were just a little mushy.

Truthfully, I can't wait to go back to C.R. Heroes.  The execution of most of our food was spot on and delicious and it really screams "my kind of place".  There were so many other things I wanted to try (Italian Beef), and they also have drink specials nightly and a separated full bar area.  Also, I was impressed with how busy the place  was considering I've never seen one advertisement for this place.  Word of mouth still works folks.

Taste 7.5/10  I felt very pleased after eating here.  I enjoyed everything, and you could tell some love and care was put into the food.  Only wished for better fries and sauce on my burger.  Next time I should try their homemade chips.
Value 8/10  We both had large meals that we enjoyed quite a bit and with Diet Cokes and an app we still only spent 30  bucks before tip.  That's a win in my book.