Owned by the same folks who take credit for the Aristocrat and Union Jack’s, the Elbow Room serves equally tasty food with a break from standard pub fare. Try Sunday brunch with live jazz. Their omelettes rank up there (though not nearly to Cafe Patachou standards) and the begnies (I know I spelled that wrong) are tasty as well. Plus, who can resist cheese, potatoes, and onions on a Sunday morning?
Dufour’s
A quaint little cafe in historic downtown Irvington serves homemade soups and sandwiches. Plus, all their lunches come with cheetos!
The Claddagh Irish Pub
Good beer, yes (what traditional Irish pub would be complete without a big tall pint of Guinness?), but forgettable food. What do I remember about the Claddaugh? Some 18-year-old girl wanted to used the restroom during the lunch hour, and they wouldn’t let her in. Nice.
El Sol de Tala
The same menu as the Washington St establishment offers more authentic Mexican than most are used to (read: goat). The brightly colored, festively painted, never ending dining room has that same Mexican marketplace feel to it, but when you’re two people out of six in the whole place (and four of the six are the mariachi band serenading you), it can be a little awkward to finish your beand and rice.
The chicken mole will forever be Emily’s favorite, and Chris usually goes for the chile rellenos en caldo. Just stay away from the margaritas: for a Mexican restaurant, they just don’t work.
Chicago’s Pizza
Deep-dish pizza. On the Circle below street level. It’s kind of fun to eat downstairs at this pizza joint. Not the best pizza, really, but for going to college in Terre Haute, Chicago’s had one of the better pizzas around.
Amici
We cannot eat here enough! It’s a Lockerbie Square Italian favorite. Romantic (but cold) old building, steaming crusty bread, and excellent house Merlot. The entrees come either carnivore or herbivore-style with crisp veggies, zesty sauce, and stringy cheese—just right for a comfy dinner on a cold night. The selections of pasta with garden vegetables and the linguini with Italian sausage are our favorites. The fettuccini and gorgonzola is good, but becomes monotonous halfway through. We think it could use something to break up the texture a bit. All said, we love this place!
Agio
A pleasant surprise. Walking past, we’ve peered in dozens of times. While the pink neon-lit patio is too hideous for words, the atmosphere inside is quite pleasant, the walls decked with oil paintings for sale. Service was casual, friendly, and attentive (our waiter, Joey, loved Emily’s “ensemble”), and the meals were memorable
The second time we went, we went in without reservations on a Saturday night. We were seated immediately, but in the bar (read: smoking). It wasn’t too bad though, save for a few short bouts of noisy, smoky patrons with little sense for personal space.
Our waitress this time, Justine, was great. Despite the busy atmosphere, she was attentive and highly reccommended the pomodoro over eggplant parmesan, which Jon and Christine both enjoyed. Chicken piccata and paella made us happy, and the baked goat cheese appetizer was a wonderful start to the meal.
St. Elmo Steak House
Another Indianapolis institution, said to be one of the great steak houses of America (just look in the back of any airplane magazine). Emily finally saved up enough to try it, and even managed to keep the reservation a surprise right up until the time we crossed the street. As expected, the restaurant was packed during our Friday night visit, which was designed to quench a serious hankering for a steak. And quench it did. Two days later, we are still eating virtually nothing but salad to try to make up for it.
We started with shrimp cocktail and salad. Mostly shards of horseradish, the cocktail sauce was indeed “super-hot” as promised, and the rush of flames through our sinuses was quite fun. The house salad dressing was also unique, with hints of rosemary, basil, and lavender, perhaps.
Emily ordered a filet, while I ordered a New York strip. The steaks were beautiful, though mine was cooked considerably more than medium-rare, as I had ordered. Emily’s filet was a pleasant reminder of why beef is what should be for dinner more often. The mashed potatoes accompanying my steak were out of this world, probably more cheese than spud. Emily opted for (what else?) steak fries, which were a bit soggy, but any fry is a good fry. She never met a starch she didn’t like.
It was hard not to feel rushed. Our waiter was friendly but hurried, not taking time to engage in conversation with us until he brought the check. The host staff did have their act together, though, noting that our party was celebrating a birthday and sending a wedge of carrot cake to our table, which was a pleasant surprise.
After being touted as having the best service in Indianapolis, we were a bit disappointed. For the price of the dinner (and the effort it took to get Chris to wear a tie), we wanted to be doted upon. Friday night was not a good night to have this expectation met.
The food, however, was worth the price (and since red meat is a rarity–no pun intended–in our house, it’s nice to be able to treat ourselves once in a while. Happy Birthday, Christopher. I’ll have mine medium rare.
P. F. Chang’s China Bistro
We’ve decided that for a chain Chinese food restaurant, Chang’s does pretty well. Their food is very reasonably priced (you can have leftovers for lunch, no problem) and always very tasty. I recommend the big fat rice noodles, but the moo shu pork is good and the fried banana dessert, while not terribly Chinese in origin, is awesome.
Unfortunately we have reduced their rating by half a star because we’ve found their service to be spotty. Of note was our last visit, in which our server seemed to have little interest in speaking loudly enough for us to hear him, or offering wine, appetizers, or dessert (I don’t recall having to initiate the request at a restaurant of this type in recent memory &ndash we wanted all three), and he disappeared for long stretches, including when our dinners were to be brought out. My dinner waited on a tray next to our table for some time while he was summoned to finish preparing it, during which time it grew cold. No reason was given, and none could be assumed, given that the restaurant was not nearly as busy during our late Tuesday visit as we usually see it at other times. Still, this poor service has not proven to be the norm, but we’re going to wait a while before we return, and when we do, we’ll hope for better luck.
Ram Restaurant
Typical brew pub…beer is good (you can even buy it to bring home on Sundays!) but food is way overpriced and not nearly worth it. Except for the Titan toothpicks. They’re OK.
