Ripple Bagel Deli

I met my favorite Pilates instructor for lunch the other day at Ripple Bagel Deli—we were trying to find a place in Broad Ripple (she’s working there now) that I haven’t been and she really likes this place (and so do some other friends). She was very enthusiastic about going when I mentioned it.

So the menu at this place is enormous. You can pretty much get any combo of deli meat/cream cheese/cheese /veggies that you can imagine. I ended up with the “Sarah’s Secret” without sprouts and on a garlic bagel ($5.60). Sarah’s Secret is a bagel topped with very thin sliced turkey, mustard (think brown mustard here), cream cheese, and avocado.

Ok, I had my doubts about how good a bagel could really be just topped with ordinary sandwich ingredients, but this was pretty darn good. The secret here is that they steam the sandwich after they put all the ingredients together. This makes for a warm, and somewhat squishy, sandwich that just tastes really good. It also makes for an extremely messy sandwich that requires many, many napkins to keep your hands clean (I seriously wonder how much they spend on napkins in this place).  The avocado was ripe, the turkey didn’t taste overly processed, and it had a fair amount of a mustard kick. 

I was hopeful to try the potato salad but they hadn’t yet made it the day I was there, so I just went with a bag of chips. My fitness-obsessed friend insisted on the fancy rice crispy treat though that involved a rice-crispy-based bottom (with some peanut butter mixed in) and a chocolate layer on top. It was pretty tasty, although tasted like it had probably been made several days prior. I did notice that probably 75% of the people coming in picked one up though, so there must be something slightly addictive about them.

The people are nice here, but the ordering system is kind of random. I am assuming it is because the menu is so big, a lot of people take some time to figure out what they want. But they just sort of shout out, "who's ready?"and if you are, you go and tell them what you want. But for a cheap, filling meal, this was a great deal. The bagel was really good and it is the first time I have had a bagel sandwich made quite this way. Something about it made me have to keep eating it after I was pretty full. I can certainly see how this place has built a substantial following of late night partiers on the Broad Ripple strip. It tasted good when I was sober, I can imagine how good it would taste after a few too many drinks. 

Ripple Bagel Deli

850 Broad Ripple Ave

Indy 46220

317/257-8326

www.ripplebageldeli.com