It wasn’t a good sign when I walked into this place and saw the article about the fact that the place used to be Indy’s Planet Hollywood (thankfully, I did not live here for this dark period)(and this place is a chain too). Anyway, we had spent the morning at the zoo with the kids, and thought we would just go into the first brewpub we passed on the way home and check out the food. The kids instantly liked the giant gumball machine filled with toys that is right inside the door, but more on that later.
Man this place is huge, and pretty empty on a random Sunday for lunch. And I didn’t order the beer, so maybe that is the draw, and not the food, but the food wasn’t very good. I did like that they offered half potions of many appetizers and just to try more than one thing, we ordered the calamari—it wasn’t bad, the calamari wasn’t chewy or anything, but the sauce (remoulade with some hot chili oil I believe?) was blah. Did nothing for the calamari. At least give me some lemons to squeeze on top or something.
For my main, ok, maybe I should have known better (hubby made fun of me for ordering it), but I ordered the seafood Cobb salad. It was described as coming with shrimp, salmon, egg, gorgonzola, avocado and cherry tomatoes. A couple of puff pasty rolls were served alongside and it was served with a tarragon vinaigrette. It was a strange thing, this salad. There were like two totally different types of shrimp—sort of larger prawn-like ones and then the typical smaller salad (aka bay) shrimp. They weren’t horrid, but it sort of made me think they were just throwing all the leftover shrimp from the day before in the fridge and putting them on the salad. And the salmon—even weirder. It was like little nuggets, and I mean, little nuggets, and various flakes, of very well-cooked (and I mean temperature-wise, not quality-wise) salmon. And it was all mixed together-the various shrimp and the salmon. I don’t know, it just didn’t seem right. The salad greens themselves were seemingly just shredded iceberg. The tarragon vinaigrette—too sweet for me. And there was no gorgonzola—did they forget it? I don’t know. And it was impossible to get the server’s attention to find out. At this point I had pretty much given up on the salad. On the bright side, there was a nice ripe half an avocado on the plate.
Hubby had the burger and fries—they were fine he said, but nothing special. Kids menu wasn’t bad and I liked the way they brought the kids “appetizers” of carrots with ranch. That was cute.
The service was pretty bad—I think our server was having a bad day or something, as she seemed really grumpy and that was only when I could find her—and this place was NOT busy, so it was a little weird.
Ok, so on the way out, I gave in and let the kids each get something from the giant gumball machine. Let’s just say that I didn’t really look at it very carefully, but maybe this gumball machine is more aimed at adults, as my 3 year old has his first shot glass.
Ram Restaurant & Brewery
140 S. Illinois
Indy 46225
317/955-9900
www.theram.com
Man this place is huge, and pretty empty on a random Sunday for lunch. And I didn’t order the beer, so maybe that is the draw, and not the food, but the food wasn’t very good. I did like that they offered half potions of many appetizers and just to try more than one thing, we ordered the calamari—it wasn’t bad, the calamari wasn’t chewy or anything, but the sauce (remoulade with some hot chili oil I believe?) was blah. Did nothing for the calamari. At least give me some lemons to squeeze on top or something.
For my main, ok, maybe I should have known better (hubby made fun of me for ordering it), but I ordered the seafood Cobb salad. It was described as coming with shrimp, salmon, egg, gorgonzola, avocado and cherry tomatoes. A couple of puff pasty rolls were served alongside and it was served with a tarragon vinaigrette. It was a strange thing, this salad. There were like two totally different types of shrimp—sort of larger prawn-like ones and then the typical smaller salad (aka bay) shrimp. They weren’t horrid, but it sort of made me think they were just throwing all the leftover shrimp from the day before in the fridge and putting them on the salad. And the salmon—even weirder. It was like little nuggets, and I mean, little nuggets, and various flakes, of very well-cooked (and I mean temperature-wise, not quality-wise) salmon. And it was all mixed together-the various shrimp and the salmon. I don’t know, it just didn’t seem right. The salad greens themselves were seemingly just shredded iceberg. The tarragon vinaigrette—too sweet for me. And there was no gorgonzola—did they forget it? I don’t know. And it was impossible to get the server’s attention to find out. At this point I had pretty much given up on the salad. On the bright side, there was a nice ripe half an avocado on the plate.
Hubby had the burger and fries—they were fine he said, but nothing special. Kids menu wasn’t bad and I liked the way they brought the kids “appetizers” of carrots with ranch. That was cute.
The service was pretty bad—I think our server was having a bad day or something, as she seemed really grumpy and that was only when I could find her—and this place was NOT busy, so it was a little weird.
Ok, so on the way out, I gave in and let the kids each get something from the giant gumball machine. Let’s just say that I didn’t really look at it very carefully, but maybe this gumball machine is more aimed at adults, as my 3 year old has his first shot glass.
Ram Restaurant & Brewery
140 S. Illinois
Indy 46225
317/955-9900
www.theram.com
Erin,
ReplyDeleteYour experience is NOT unique...the Ram, while not ever a "destination" in my opinion, has gone WAY downhill recently.
My wife works across the street at Nordstrom so we've given them 2 chances to earn our Sunday lunch business with my 2 kiddos...and our experiences are EXACTLY like yours. Very mediocre food with terrible service, made all the more galling because the place was empty.
The only postive that came from our last trip there was we were supposed to meet one of the city's best chef and his wife for lunch but they were unable to make it at the last minute. Since we invited them, that was DEFINITELY a blessing in disguise because we would have been horribly embarassed!
I hate to rip an establishment so relentlessly, but unfortunately they deserved it. Hopefully they can either get it turned around or fail miserably because that slice of real estate is a gold mine for the right establishment.
Too bad you skipped the beer. I think their beers are good, but I could do without the food. :)
ReplyDeleteI agree. I went there awhile back and wasn't too impressed, although their circular booth that could fit all five of us comfortably was cool.
ReplyDelete