Road Trip: Wagner's Village Inn

Back on a road trip to meet up with our friends from Cincinnati—meeting halfway between—this time we decided to try Wagner’s Village Inn in Oldenburg. This place was remarkably similar to the Fireside Inn, both in style and menu. The bar area was a little nicer and bigger I would say though. Our server was very friendly and patient with us (it always takes us awhile to get our order in when we’re all together).

Naturally, the plan was to order the fried chicken, which we did, but of course we needed some other fried things first right? And always on the quest to find the perfect chicken livers, we ordered a starter of a mix of chicken livers and gizzards. Again, I was disappointed because they were pretty dried out. I think I may be giving up on the deep fried chicken livers (that is unless one of you guys can point me in the right direction). We also had a starter of the fried mushrooms, which were the better choice even though I am guessing they weren't housemade. Singe your mouth hot, but decent and served with a side of ranch.

The chicken was served family style and three of us ordered it. You get a big ol’ plate of chicken and it was good. Really good. You could really tell they put some seasoning into the coating—lots of peppery kick. It was smoking hot and fresh and had a super crispy skin. Totally worth eating and definitely in the top 1/3 of fried chicken. It came with lots of included sides. I’d say the highlight of the sides were the dinner rolls—super soft and served hot. I am pretty sure they weren’t making them in house, but for rolls, they were just right. They were my favorite side. The coli slaw was your super traditional, just shredded cabbage and carrots and a lot of the classic creamy sauce. The mashed potatoes were a bit thin, but served the purpose for me, which is the thing to dip your chicken into. There were green beans too, but I didn’t eat them. They were the canned variety and I’m just not into that. I’d totally go back for the chicken though.

The town of Oldenburg is an old German town and has a lot of charm on its own as well. We took a little walk around and saw a couple other places to check out on a later date. One was Pearl Street Pub. Anyone been there?

Wagner’s Village Inn

22171 Main Street

Oldenburg, IN 47036

812/934-3854

Rail Epicurean Market

I’ve been hearing lots of good things about Rail Epicurean from a lot of sources and met my friend Suzanne over there. The first thing I will say about this place is that it is ridiculously cute. It’s an old barn smack in the middle of a residential neighborhood. It has a nice little patio to sit on in front (we did) and a warm interior with several wooden tables as well. They serve beer and wine and I can totally see myself sitting outside if having a glass if this was my neighborhood (Westfield is a bit of a hike for me). I would say it functions as a store as much as it does a restaurant, selling many different local products (including my favorite cookies from 4 Birds Bakery.)

We were there for lunch though, and chose from the 4-5 options on the menu—there are like 3 sandwiches and a soup and a salad or two as well as a daily quiche. It’s a small menu. I think maybe expanding it a bit might be helpful. I had the chicken salad (no nuts! no fruit!). It was pretty straightforward—a lot of chicken, some celery, mayo and some dill maybe. It probably could have used a bit of salt and pepper. The bread was good—very dense in relation to the amount of filling on the sandwich though—I ended up eating it open-faced in order to really taste the fillings. It would be better on something lighter, like a croissant (lots of local choices there too). I had a side of the house made potato salad—it had a lot of dill in it but because it was very minimal on the binder (a very little amount of mayo), it was pretty dry. I also wasn’t a huge fan of the somewhat soft green beans in there.

Suzanne had a ham and Brie sandwich that they heated up and this was definitely the better choice. It was the same bread, but the heartier meat (Smoking Goose City Ham perhaps?) stood up better. And the cheese was nice and melty. I think if I were going for lunch again, I would give the quiche a try or get one of the sandwiches that could be heated up.

If I lived nearby, like I said, I can see this being a great warm, casual space to grab a glass of wine (or beer). If it were my restaurant, I would add a couple of cheese and/or charcuterie plates to go along those lines. And maybe jazz the sandwiches up a little. 

Rail Epicurean Market

211 Park Street

Westfield, IN 46074

317/450-4981

www.railepicureanmarket.com 

Plow and Anchor

I was really psyched about Plow and Anchor opening—I am glad to see John Adams back in Indy. I have enjoyed his cooking for years both at Bluebeard and H2O Sushi (he does know me, so my visits here are not anonymous). I was so excited I couldn’t wait the requisite few weeks I try to always wait before trying a new restaurant and went the first week. I’m basing this review off the second visit a couple weeks later (I don’t think it’s really fair to review a place based on the first week), but will reference a couple of the dishes from the first visit too.

First, I love the fact that the menu changes fairly frequently. For me, this makes it a place you want to go more often. Luckily both times we went with friends willing to order lots of stuff and share, so I got to try a lot of things (so I apologize in advance for the length of this post). Probably my favorite appetizer from both times (and it was from my first visit) was the lamb tartare. The meat was served on crisp toast with an egg yolk underneath. It had the exact perfect amount of acidity and saltiness to balance the rich flavor of the raw meat and egg. They did a salmon version the following week that I really wanted to try but they didn’t have it when I was in. If they have tartare and I’m there, I’m ordering it.

I also really enjoyed the prawn Louie starter ($11). A Louie salad is one of my favorite salads, and I make them frequently at home—this was more of a deconstructed, lettuce-less version, but was super tasty. There was wonderful perfectly cooked shrimp, hearts of palm, avocado, boiled eggs, tomatoes, a few olives and a chili mayo (their take on a Louie dressing, which is basically chili sauce with mayo and other ingredients.). Honestly, how could I not love it? It was a bunch of my favorite things and it was done well. There was enough of the dressing to get in every bite. Simple, but every ingredient flawless.

We all shared the pig tail croquettes ($7)—some of the better ones I have had. They had a nice porky flavor and were very tender inside but hot and crisp on the outside. Sometimes I feel like croquettes are too bready, but these were spot on. Loved the pickled mustard seed sauce on top and the ham hock rouille (a thick olive oil-based sauce) underneath. A tomato salad was also quite good-chunks of tomato mixed with vinaigrette and parmesan. Reminds me of the version from H2O.

The chicken liver toast ($7) was also tasty. This one is certainly on the rich side, as liver-based dishes usually are. It had a Sherry-based sauce to it, onion confit and summer savory. The livers were nice and tender and I appreciated a bit of fresh crunch from a few fresh red onions on top. Definitely a sharing dish for me though because it was so rich.

Scapes and scallops

We all shared a side of the garlic scapes with lemon zest and parmesan ($6). So scapes are the flower stalks that come out of some garlic plants in the garden—I love that people think to eat all this stuff. They are sort of like a denser crisp green bean with a more garlicky flavor. A nice side dish to share to get a full on vegetable-type dish.

The most disappointing appetizer for me was the scallop crudo ($9). I was expecting this sort of super-composed dish with very thinly sliced scallops across the plate with the shaved asparagus, pickled strawberries, watercress, jalapeno and avocado sliced and lightly placed around and on top (and actually my mental vision of the dish seems to appear on the home page of Plow and Anchor’s website, so maybe it was just an off night?). The dish was more like a soup with a ton of small but whole raw scallops in the ponzu sauce and the other ingredients on top. Even though there was a fair amount of the broth, I felt like it didn’t have enough flavor. I was kind of excited about the pickled strawberries too, but they were also very very lightly pickled for me.

I ordered the octopus tartine ($13) for my main dish, although it is an appetizer. I ordered it because the octopus panzanella we shared the first time was so good. This was similar and also very good. The chef has a knack for getting octopus very tender. The dish had a somewhat salty flavor with olives and the seasoning on the octopus itself, but it was balanced nicely with the chorizo yogurt. I liked it and would order it again, but would prefer to share it with others as an appetizer just because of the salty flavors.

Hubby ordered the roasted halibut ($26) and it was very well prepared as well. The fish, which can so easily become tough if overcooked, retained its delicate texture and was really nice with the spring pea nage, butter-poached radishes and the ramp greens.

A couple of bites of the orecchiette ($16) with mussels and clams in an heirloom tomato broth with kale and snap peas were very good as well. I thought at first glance the broth might be bland, but it had a great flavor both from the kale and the tomatoes. I maybe preferred the version of this from the first visit, which was served with a spicy tomato sauce and spaghetti, but both were worth ordering. Another friend had the plancha burger ($14), which he really enjoyed—it was a big messy burger made with a combination of meats in the patty and topped with drunken goat cheese, onion jam and spicy ketchup. The only downside is with all the toppings, the bun could not hold up. It was pretty soggy by the end. 

Speaking of which, we tried both the sweet desserts—the lavender biscuit ($7) with strawberries, rhubarb and pea anglaise and pea shoots (yep, peas in a dessert). It was really quite good as were the beignets with caramelized bananas, nutella and crushed peanuts ($6). Ok, I was probably partial to the beignets--I mean caramelized bananas and nutella with fried dough?? Both are worth ordering though for sure.

The interior is nice—a fairly sleek look where you can dress pretty much however you want. The service is friendly, although still working out some kinks with pacing I think. Also, the cushioned church pews that are used for some of the seating are comfortable, but a little low for the tables.  

Overall, Plow and Anchor is definitely a great addition to Indy’s restaurant scene, in an area of the city that needs more choices. I am excited to watch it grow over time. I would love to hear if you guys have been and what you thought about it. What were your favorite dishes?

Plow and Anchor

43 E. 9^th Street

Indy  46219

317/964-0538

www.plowandanchor.com 

The Tamale Place

I had a meeting at the City Market at lunchtime, so I was excited to try something new. I often fall back on The Pantry, but this time I went with some of your suggestions and decided to try the Tamale Place (they have another location on Rockville Road as well).

It seems that most people tell me to get tacos at the Tamale Place, which I did, but I felt obligated to try one of the tamales as well. I mean, it is their name right? They have these little “tamale sliders” which are just mini tamales. Seemed like a good compromise. I had a spicy pork and cheese slider ($1.75) and a spicy chicken taco ($2.99). The lady at the register told me it was one of the most popular.

Well, I really liked the taco. So all of you who had been telling me to try them were right. The chicken was marinated and had a smoky chipotle flavor and was very tender. They give you a ton of meat to corn tortilla ratio though, so after a couple of bites, and the fact that I was wearing a white shirt, I moved on to knife and fork. It was topped with fresh cilantro and diced onions, giving it some fresh crunch and extra flavor. I had the mild salsa along with it, which was tasty for seasoning and a little extra moisture. I also used a bit of sour cream and guac with it (you can get 2 oz sides for  $.25 and $.80 respectively). I had the spicy guac and it had a fair amount of jalapeno in it. It was fresh and tasty.

The truth is, with tamales, I have never had one that really sticks out in my mind as being really amazing. I just don’t think they are totally my thing. This one was fine as far as they go—it had a lot of pork and cheese mixed in with the masa, but just no real hook for me. A little sour cream was nice with it. Maybe it’s the uniform texture or something, but I would stick to tacos here. And I would definitely go back for some more tacos. I would like to try all the flavors. So tell me, which ones are your favorites?

The Tamale Place

City Market 

222 East Market Street

Indy 46204

http://www.thetamaleplace.com/

Meridian - Revisit

For Mother’s Day, my family took me to Meridian. They were offering a special brunch menu, and we hadn’t been since the new chef (Dean Sample) took over so I was kind of excited for it. I have really enjoyed Meridian the last few years and was anxious to see if the new chef had started putting his own spin on things.

We ordered some fried oysters ($15.50) to start. A version of these has been on the menu since the restaurant opened, and has varied a bit from chef to chef. These were one of my favorite versions, mainly because the oysters were small bits (honestly can’t say they were all small oysters and maybe have actually been cut into smaller sizes) but they were really good—juicy inside and with the right amount of crunchy coating outside. There was a swipe of spinach puree underneath and a swipe of hollandaise. A couple of dollops of Sriracha alongside were nice to zip it up if you wanted too. The thing that made these so good was how perfectly the oysters were cooked though. The boys split a Caesar salad ($7.75) as well, and it was one of the better ones I have had in town (I am extremely picky about Caesar salads). It was tossed in an appropriate amount of a nice and zippy dressing.

I was enticed by the crab cake benedict ($29) they were offering that day—it was kind of a deconstructed version and was mostly crab cakes—but I saw someone else get it as we sat down and the nice round poached egg attracted my attention. It was a good dish—but again was mostly focused on the crab cakes, which were nice and crabby, but pretty dense and filling. There was no way I would finish both. And sadly my egg was punctured and therefore deflated when it arrived. It still tasted good, but wasn’t as visually appealing. The crab cakes were served on top of slices of bread with what was I think more of the spinach puree, but the bread just increased the overfilling nature of the dish. The asparagus alongside was cooked and seasoned nicely. The whole thing was drizzled with a nice lemony hollandaise and some crumbled bacon (in retrospect, the flavors were pretty similar to the oysters).

Honestly, the best thing on the table entrée-wise was the burger ($22.50). Wow, that thing was delicious. It was beef topped with Fisher Farms ham, a fried egg, Gruyere cheese and garlic mayo. The soft eggy Brioche bun is perfect (the dinner rolls are just smaller versions and were a huge hit with my kids)—it’s soft yet holds up to all the toppings and the very medium rare meat that hubby had on his burger. You can get the burger on the menu all the time, although the egg, which was SOOO good—just runny enough without soaking the sandwich—I think was only available because it was a “brunch.” The variation of using Gruyere was great—and with the ham as well, it was like a really good ham and cheese sandwich on a burger. The burger here is worth going for by itself. The fries were fine, although not as crisp and as memorable as I remember them being in the past.

Cross section of the burger

All in all, we had a nice brunch and my kids were on extra good behavior for me. The food and service were good, nothing was spilled and we had a really kick ass burger (thank goodness for a hubby who goes halfsies on entrées).  The kids were only bummed because we couldn’t get dessert because of nut issues. But I was pretty darn full anyway. I am interested to see what the regular dinner menu is like—will have to give it a try here soon. Anyone been since the new chef started?

Meridian

5694 N. Meridian

Indy 46208

317-466-1111

www.meridianonmeridian.com 

The Legend

I was out to lunch with my parents, and told them to choose the place—my Dad has been after me for years to try The Legend because he really likes it, and because he grew up in Irvington and wanted to show me around his old ‘hood. I wasn’t avoiding The Legend, but just hadn’t made it over there yet.

After looking over the menu, and hearing the specials, I decided to go with one of their classic dishes—Dad’s Crunchy chicken (which comes with 2 sides) ($7). After discussing my own Dad’s love of their mac and cheese, I decided to get two sides of mac and cheese—one of the original and one of the pepper jack version. I have to say I was won over with the flavors (usually my Dad and I don’t agree on restaurants). The chicken had a nicely seasoned breadcrumb coating with a fair amount of flavor. If I had to complain about anything, it is just that the word “crunchy” in the title is a bit of a misnomer--it was not really crunchy at all. But it was very tender and very tasty and I would get it again. As for the mac and cheese, they were both good, but I would say that like my Dad, I preferred the original one. It isn’t anything fancy—but just really good creamy mac and cheese made with real cheese—not the processed kind. I liked the pepper jack version as well, but the classic just hit home. 

My Dad had the meatloaf ($8), which he really likes—I had a bite and it was a nice tender meatloaf covered in gravy. If meatloaf is your thing, you would probably like this. He loves the mac and cheese so much, he made both his sides mac and cheese. My Mom ordered the special—I was really happy about this because I had really wanted to order it as well but was torn. It was a half of a sliced roast beef sandwich topped with a gorgonzola spread and red onion jam (ok, it was supposed to have cucumbers but neither mom nor I like them on our sandwiches) ($9). It also came with 2 sides. She had a Caesar salad and a cup of soup. The sandwich was good—so good that I ordered it to go for me and hubby to have for dinner (my son had a game so it was perfect). The meat was tender and mostly fairly rare, and had a nice balance between sweet (the red onion jam) and sharp (from the blue cheese). I didn’t try the salad, but the parmesan cauliflower soup my mom had was delicious. It was a totally smooth puree, but had an exceptionally rich flavor of the cheese and a hearty cauliflower taste as well. I went back for a couple more bites of this because I enjoyed it so much.

So yes, overall I think I liked this place just about as much as my Dad does. It’s a nice friendly and comfortable atmosphere and I feel like the pricing is pretty reasonable for the amount and quality of food you get. This is comfort food done well. And I got to see my Dad’s old neighborhood too. So everyone was happy.

The Legend

5614 East Washington Street

Indy 46219

317/536-2028

www.thelegendcafe.com 

Thr3e Wisemen - Revisit

Hubby and I thought we would have brunch recently on a weekend day—you know one of those days when it was freaking gorgeous outside? Ha! Apparently so did half of Indy. They were all in Broad Ripple looking for brunch. So, we hopped into Thr3e Wisemen instead—they had just opened for lunch and weren’t so crowded (finding parking was still a challenge though).

We had to adjust our minds to pizza and such rather than eggs, but that was fine. We were just happy to not have to wait an hour for a table. We ordered the chop chop salad ($8.99) and some breadsticks ($4.99) to start. I actually really like the breadsticks at Thr3e Wisemen—I can’t say there is something that makes them stand out, but the dough has a nice chewy texture and a good taste to it (apparently there’s a little beer in the dough)—I like that they brush them with garlic butter as well. I also like that you can get a side of the garlic butter sauce to dip in as well as the standard marinara and nacho cheese. We had garlic butter and nacho cheese—both are good. Interestingly, the nacho cheese has a little more spiciness to it than most. As far as a processed cheese dip goes, this is one of the better ones.

I like the chop chop salad—they come and toss it tableside. I have noticed that it has gone the way of many chop salads in this town though with the amount of non-lettuce ingredients. It is meant to have bacon, red onion, pepperoni, mozzarella, goat cheese, mushrooms and spinach mixed into the lettuce. You could certainly find a fair amount of the spinach, pepperoni and the mushrooms, but I only had one bit of bacon and I am pretty sure there was no goat cheese in our salad (one of my favorite things). Like I said they toss it tableside in a house vinaigrette, which is tasty, but it needed a little more than what they gave.

The first pizza they brought out was the wrong one (mushrooms and red pepper vs. mushrooms and red onion) but they were very apologetic and brought us a new one as quickly as possible. The manager stopped by to apologize again, which was nice—I was a little surprised they didn’t offer to buy us a drink or anything, especially since we ordered a second one due to the delay of waiting for the pizza that we wouldn’t have ordered otherwise. The pizza ($10.97) was very good. Again, I liked the chewy crust and I like that it is thin crust, but still strong enough to hold the toppings without being soggy in the middle. I really like their cheese blend as well—it has a unique flavor of its own. This is probably one of my favorite pizzas in town—particularly when you eat it there fresh from their ovens. It has a good amount of toppings and the marinara sauce has enough spice to make it taste unique and special on its own as well.

I also really like the popcorn they give you on the table as your little freebie. They even sent me home with a bag for the kids. And it was still good the next day. Thr3e Wisemen is definitely my favorite Scott Wise joint--I like the more focused menu here and I feel like more of the menu is being made in-house (although I will admit to not having been to a Scotty’s in awhile). 

Thr3e Wisemen 

1021 Broad Ripple Avenue

Indy 46220

317/255-5151

www.thr3ewisemen.com 

Road Trip-- Big Star--Chicago, IL

I finally got a chance to check out Big Star when we were in Chicago last month. It’s been on my list forever to grab lunch and I just hadn’t been able to get around to it. It is brought to you by the same executive chef that own Avec, Blackbird, The Publican, etc.

This place has a very similar vibe to Bakersfield here in town—the menu is very taco-focused with a couple of other options. We started with guac and chips and some margaritas. The guac was also similar to Bakersfield—quite lime-centered, which I have no problem with.  The chips were pretty standard as was the margarita—I think maybe a top shelf version might be the way to go here. Or the La Paloma cocktail my friend had was better too.

I enjoyed the tacos. My favorite was the fried fish taco ($4)—a big tender chunk of beer battered tilapia, which was super hot and super crunchy. It was topped with cabbage, red onion and cilantro and had chipotle mayo on the tortilla under the fish. I enjoyed the freshness of the cabbage and onions and it had just the right amount of the mayo so you could taste it in every bite. We ended up getting a second one of these.

The chorizo with poblano and Serrano chiles, fried potatoes, onions and salsa verde ($4) was hubby’s favorite (and a close second for me). The sausage is housemade and the taco itself is more uniquely flavored to many I have had. I liked the crunchy, salty potatoes and the kick from the peppers. The chorizo had a great flavor.

The chicken taco ($3) was also interesting because of some slightly more unique flavors—the chicken was marinated dark meat with roasted red salsa, yogurt, cucumber, queso fresco and pickled red onions. You know I liked this one because there were pickled red onions. Plus I really liked the tangy yogurt and freshness from the cucumber. 

The most standard one, and probably my least favorite that I tried was the al pastor taco ($3) with the spit roasted pork, grilled pineapple, onions, and cilantro. Maybe it was just a little too dry. It helped to add a little salsa to the top from the bottles on the table (there was red and green and both were good—with just enough heat).

It’s a crazy busy place with a big patio (on the day we were there it was pretty cold still, but yet people sat out there anyway). I enjoyed it for a quick lunch before hitting my favorite shoe store and because we are often in that neighborhood while in Chicago, we might try it again. Not sure I would go out of my way for it, but it hit the spot for lunch.

Big Star

1531 N Damen

Chicago, IL 60622

773/235-4039

http://bigstarchicago.com/ 

Room Four -Revisit

Hubby and I decided to have dinner at Room Four the other night—I am subscribed to the emails that tell you the menu every day, and while I don’t always read them, on this night I did and it was very appealing (and we had a sitter). Honestly, I think Room 4 is still kind of a hidden gem, even though it has been open for several years. It seems to be the place that when people ask me about my favorite restaurants, and I mention it as one, they have never heard of it. They know Recess usually, but not Room 4. And the crowd was still pretty light when we got there at 6:30 or so (it did pick up though). 

Room Four is such a good place to get some of Chef Hardesty’s (and staff) refined food but in a more casual, a la carte setting. Often the things being offered are using ingredients from Recess, and in our case, our dessert was the exact one being served at Recess the night we were there.

We started with the cream of celery soup with porcini mushrooms ($14) and their version of a Caesar with tomatoes, mushrooms, sweet onions, Parmesan and a Caesar vinaigrette ($12). The soup was very good. It had a deeper earthy richness than most vegetable-based soups have because of the porcini flavor. It also had hunks of soft celery in there, which is something I like in a “cream of” soup. I don’t like them as well when it’s just a puree. The taste of celery was very strong though so you had to really like celery to like this soup. 

Frankly, we were a little disappointed with the salad—maybe because we always have such high hopes from salads from this kitchen as they are usually perfectly balanced and dressed. This one was heavy on the lettuce and light on the dressing. It wasn’t as composed as salads here usually are.

After that though, things certainly improved. The rest of our dinner reminded us that Recess/Room Four is definitely one of Indy’s best.  We had a second course of the roasted flank steak with Napa cabbage, shitake mushrooms, scallions, spicy ginger sauce, and chopped peanuts ($13). What a great take on an Asian-inspired dish. The beef was cooked nice and pink and the sliced shitakes blended in with the meat just adding that additional depth. The dish had just a teeny bit of heat, but mainly was seasoned with an acidic ginger sauce. In this case, the fresh veggies were marinated in the sauce perfectly, and the crunch and saltiness from the peanuts added texture and seasoning.

For the main part of our dinner, we split the crisp whitefish with kalamata olives, asparagus, roasted tomatoes, basil and yellow beet coulis ($20). I also think fish has always been a strength from Hardesty’s kitchen and this was no exception. Perfectly cooked and not dry at all, with the briny salty olives (one of my favorite things) and the acid from the tomatoes. Neither hubby nor I are huge beet people, but we even enjoyed the beet coulis underneath. We both love asparagus and it was really good and well cooked-- just enough to preserve the flavor and a bit of the toothiness. We also shared one taco—we were torn as to which one to get and decided on the pork. It was grilled pork tenderloin, queso fresco, avocado, cilantro, onions and salsa ($6). Ok, I have heard people complain about “six dollar tacos” but come on, these things are delicious. And I like them because it isn’t just the meat and the tortilla. You get all kinds of goodness in there too. Let’s face it; while I appreciate the cheap, basic taco, these are fancy. And gooey. And super good. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still restrained in some ways—the stuff isn’t totally spilling out of the tortillas, but it’s just a great combination of flavors and textures. We had to restrain ourselves from getting another one. 

We did however, get lured in by dessert. Because it was cheese—the cheese course they were serving as one of the dessert choices at Recess on this particular night ($12). And it was fantastic. It was Sartori gorgonzola dolcina paired on a plate with blueberry honey and toasted nuts. There were these super thin crisp slices of bread served with as well. Every single part of this dish was perfect together. The lightly sweet light blue cheese with the sweet honey but a slight acidity from the fruit. And nuts and cheese—well, they’re made for each other right? In theory, it was simple, but comes across as complex when you get all the flavors together.

I love the food here, and we are seriously lucky to be able to get these delicious little ever-changing tidbits so easily at Room Four. I also took note of the fact that they serve a fancy burger every day and I saw a family with a kid come in and order it plain for him for dinner and he loved it. So my kids might start seeing the inside of this place soon as well.  The service is spot on and professional. My only complaint? We went on one of those really warm evenings we’ve had recently and the place was FREEZING inside. Seriously. I still don’t get why only in Indianapolis do they have to turn the thermostat to 50 degrees just because it gets warm outside. I have never noticed this problem in any other city. Even other midwestern cities. Our server did his best to adjust it for us (he said others had complained as well) but it didn’t change much. It won’t stop me from going again because I love the food so much, but next time I will dress appropriately.

Room Four

4907 North College Ave

Indy  46205

317/925-7529

www.recessindy.com