Starting off at Rosie's Place

So I was reading the magazine North and they were featuring a neat-sounding restaurant in nearby Noblesville called Rosie's Place. The owner had always wanted her own restaurant and recently took the opportunity in a spot located in the town square. It would feature made-from-scratch food including baked goods. "What is not to like?" I thought. I also liked that it is a local and family-run business. My sister Corrin and I came up with an excuse to head up to Noblesville and try it out for lunch with my toddler in tow. More importantly, we had decided on a new venture - to chronicle the restaurants we go to and officially rate them on factors we consider important.

Starting with Rosie's Place, we decided we would rank the restaurants we visit by key features using a rating scale of 1-10 with "10" representing the best. In addition, we would be on the look-out for any food item that we considered to be a "10", our description of the perfect food offering. Finally, there would be an overall rating of the restaurant considering all its features. We would also include a brief description of the restaurant and our reaction to it and its food. Photos would be added to enhance the description. After each review we would have a section called Listen Up geared for the restaurateurs. We possibly would compile other reviews from other well known sites and compare them to our ratings. Here is how our first restaurant Rosie's did using our scoring system:

Atmosphere - 8
Service - 5
Price - 6
Presentation - 4
Food quality - 6

Overall - 6

Food chosen:
Paulina - corn beef hash, eggs, biscuits, iced tea
Corrin - House special - chicken and dumplings sandwich (yes, odd-sounding)
Toddler - mac and cheese
To-go - desserts including pecan bar and coconut cake just out of the kitchen


Rosie's had a nice vibe. Exposed brick, quaint photos of grandmother Rosie, wooden booths and an open kitchen were part of the good feel. It was warm, busy, and felt like the town center of all that was going on related to food. Just for that reason alone we would go back but just for breakfast. The eggs, hash, and biscuits were good, although the hash was a tad too vinegary. The mac and cheese was below average with a sharp aftertaste suggestive of Cheez Whiz. The odd sandwich was underwhelming with its clumsy, dried out, thick rolled dumplings on standard mashed potatoes - it was a white-out! My sister did note that the bread was excellent - nicely grilled and tasty. Our waitress provided adequate service but nothing more. Lunch was served on diner-type plates with poor attention to visual appeal. Can we say fresh parsley? Note that although I felt very comfortable with my toddler, it was not necessarily kid-friendly. They did not have booster seats, kids menus, or items for entertainment for the wee folk. The desserts we took to go were rated by my husband as too sweet and not something he would seek out. Overall, Rosie's was a feel-good place with fairly average food at a slightly higher sticker price.   

Listen Up: Did we mention parsley?? Please add visual appeal to your food. Basic menu items such as mac and cheese and dumplings cannot afford to be subpar! Good work on the ambiance.

Paulina, 1/11/12