Recently, my family and I traveled to South Bend. We snagged tickets to see the amazing Blue Man Group! They were so good, I gained several new laugh lines. I highly recommend going to see them as soon as you get the chance.
We got to South Bend a little early so we decided to get a bite to eat. My sister heard of the place called the Fiddler's Hearth. We tried to call in a reservation, but they don't take any. Strange.... So we found it on the map and once we found the parking garage, we spotted it right across the street! You can almost see the parking garage in the picture above. We had a very nice lady take our family photo outside the restaurant.
It happened by chance that we actually got a table for the five of us. The seating is "seat yourself"and it was full when we squeezed in the door. The group at the six-seat table was just finishing up, so we ran over to save our table. Our server walked past and asked us if we were new, and that's how they run things. I think it's a genius idea because then they don't have to deal with people missing reservations or stuff like that. The atmosphere is incredible. It's like eating a 5 star meal at your Scottish neighbor's house. Kinda. They have a stage for live bands and 7 tables crammed in the small dining area. They also have a bar wherever wall space is available. They had the White Sox game on two TVs and a soccer game on the other.
We started off our meal with Scottish Eggs. My mom saw these in a recent issue of Food and Wine Magazine and we were feeling adventurous.
I have to tell you that I ate two out of the four that came in a serving. For those of you who don't know, the Scottish like to prepare these hard boiled eggs by surrounding them in sausage and lamb mixture and then deep-frying the whole thing. Wait, it gets better. It's served with stone-ground mustard. This was so good, I can't even put it into words. The lamb made it so tender and the crust from the fryer was perfect. I just might have to dust off the old deep fryer and see if I can make these. don't you love how they plate it on top of mixed greens? Like if you eat those too, it will counter-act the deep-fried-hard-boiled eggs? Yeah right.
We also got an order of Pub Pretzels because after-all, we are a family of five and one appetizer just will not do. These were the perfect combination of moist and crunchy. They were served with a homemade rarebit cheese sauce that also paired well with the Scottish Eggs. I love menus that can be mixed and matched.
The kitchen got a tad bit backed up with the sudden rush of diners, but soon our entrees arrived.
My Dad got the fish and Chips, which had a surprising hint of ginger.
My Mom got the Chicken Wellington which was so tender and moist and a side of kale.
Kenny got a burger, of course, but it was gone within 2 minutes so I bet it was good!
Ally got the Smoked Salmon which was delicious!
And it was only $18.
And then it was gone.
And I cried.
Almost.
But we did have a really good time at the show!
Enjoy!
Check out their full menu at http://www.fiddlershearth.com/menu.html.
