Skip to content

Top Navigation

Food & Wine Food & Wine
  • Recipes & Cooking
  • Drinks
  • Travel
  • Holidays & Events
  • News
  • F&W Classic
  • Video
  • Kitchen & Home
  • F&W Pro

Profile Menu

Your Profile

Your Profile

  • Join Now
  • Newsletters
  • Manage Your Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Give a Gift Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Wine Club
  • Podcast
  • Logout
Login
Subscribe Subscribe
Pin FB

Explore Food & Wine

Food & Wine Food & Wine
  • Explore

    Explore

    • F&W Cooks

      Food and Wine presents a new network of food pros delivering the most cookable recipes and delicious ideas online. Read More Next
    • Our 22 Best Crock Pot and Slow-Cooker Recipes

      Looking to amp up your beef stew but unsure where to start? A slow cooker can can take your comfort food to the next level. Read More Next
    • 50 Affordable Wines You Can Always Trust

      We’ve assembled a list of 50 of the world’s most reliable, inexpensive wines – bottles that offer amazing quality for their price year in and year out. Read More Next
  • Recipes & Cooking

    Recipes & Cooking

    See All Recipes & Cooking
    • Chicken Recipes
    • Comfort Food Recipes
    • Breakfast & Brunch Recipes
    • Salad Recipes
    • Dessert Recipes
    • Vegetable Recipes
    • Pasta & Noodle Recipes
    • Chefs
    • Meat & Poultry Recipes
    • Soup Recipes
    • Appetizer Recipes
    • Side Dishes
    • Fruit Recipes
    • Seafood Recipes
    • Special Diets
    • Cooking Techniques
    • Steal This Trick
  • Drinks

    Drinks

    See All Drinks
    • Wine
    • Cocktails & Spirits
    • Coffee Drinks & Recipes
    • Juices
    • Beer & Brews
    • Champagne & Sparkling Wine
    • Tea Recipes & Ideas
  • Travel

    Travel

    See All Travel
    • Wine Regions
    • Restaurants
  • Holidays & Events

    Holidays & Events

    See All Holidays & Events
    • Valentine's Day
    • Halloween
    • Passover
    • Hanukkah
    • Christmas
    • Gifts
    • Super Bowl
    • Easter
    • Thanksgiving
    • New Year's Eve
    • Holiday Entertaining
  • News
  • F&W Classic
  • Video
  • Kitchen & Home
  • F&W Pro

Profile Menu

Subscribe this link opens in a new tab
Your Profile

Your Profile

  • Join Now
  • Newsletters
  • Manage Your Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Give a Gift Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Wine Club
  • Podcast
  • Logout
Login
Sweepstakes

Follow Us

  1. Home Chevron Right
  2. Travel Chevron Right
  3. Best Date Restaurants In Indianapolis

Best Date Restaurants In Indianapolis

By Food & Wine
Updated August 09, 2016
Skip gallery slides
Save FB Tweet
Credit: Courtesy of Sophisticated Living/Andrew Kung
From small, chef-driven venues with serious, elevated and creative cuisines to food sourced straight from local farms and classic steaks and chops, below are our favorite date restaurants. And, if you don’t have a date or significant other, no worries, go with friends!
Start Slideshow

1 of 8

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message Print

Bluebeard

Credit: Courtesy of Visit Indy

Taking its name from beloved local writer Kurt Vonnegut’s 1987 novel, you can idle for hours at owner Tom Battista and chef Abbi Merris’, Bluebeard. With a bounty from local farmers, there’s plenty of comfort found in starters like country ham, fingerling and cabbage potato salad, shrimp and grits with Andouille sausage and the joy-inducing pappardelle noodles with butcher shop Bolognese. The beloved Amelia’s is connected to the restaurant that only features their Italian hearth-baked bread.Bluebeard

1 of 8

Advertisement
Advertisement

2 of 8

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message Print

Marrow

Credit: © Justyn Denney Strother

At the homey Marrow, you’ll find a global, exotic soul food and spices galore from chef John Adams. The sprightly colored room is peppered with colorful reclaimed barn wood and the daily changing menu has been known to feature brisket tacos, and hearty mains like a fried pork chop with red beans and rice and ramp butter. For dessert, sink your teeth into the banana banoffee (caramel) fritters with shaved chocolate. Marrow

2 of 8

3 of 8

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message Print

Pioneer

Credit: Courtesy of Pioneer

Housed in a sturdy brick building in Fountain Square, its northeastern Italy meets Austria, Germany and Swiss cuisine. Try the chicken liver mousse with Amelia’s bread or the gnocchi with porcini cream sauce, speck, ramps and morels. Come evenings, a stage lights up the mood with live music. Outside, the 65-seat beer garden is ideal for a few rounds of suds (featuring both cans and drafts). Pioneer

3 of 8

Advertisement

4 of 8

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message Print

St. Elmo Steak House

Credit: © St. Elmo Steak House

Strut into this fabled downtown steakhouse for some serious beef, seafood and chicken. St. Elmo’s (named after the patron saint of sailors) is a place to be seen. If you want proof, among the brick walls are snaps of celebs that have graced the 114-year institution. The signature shrimp cocktail jolts your sinuses with a hearty punch of horseradish (that pairs nicely with a martini). St. Elmo Steak House

4 of 8

5 of 8

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message Print

Vida

Credit: © Visit Indy

This hip new spot is a cross between an Indiana barn and a chic Napa Valley restaurant. Inside, you’re greeted by a leafy, hydroponic wall of greens (the city’s one and only) and a lineup of star cocktails. Inside the kitchen, chef Layton Roberts creates starters like housemade charcuterie (cured in a visible meat locker) and entrees like a golden chicken scallopini and duck pastrami with sweetbread schnitzel and accompanied by local farmers’ ingredients. Vida

5 of 8

6 of 8

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message Print

Bakersfield

Credit: © Thunderdome Restaurant Group

With a tagline bearing the idea of “tacos, tequila, whiskey” it’s easy to plop down at this Ohio-based joint and chomp on a sunny California-style street menu (a la carte of course) of tortas, tostados and tacos. Featuring highlights like fish, short ribs, pork belly, mole and earthy huitlacoche with fresh guacamole, there are also ample margaritas, served in mason jars, perfect for sipping while the tunes of Johnny Cash roll on.Bakersfield

6 of 8

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

7 of 8

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message Print

Cerulean

Credit: © Audra Sternberg Photography

Inside this minimalist, mid-century modern-esque “temple”, you’ll find edgy, locally-sourced American cuisine. Chef Alan Sternberg works his magic on textured dishes like stuffed calamari (and pork belly with kimchi, forbidden rice, sorghum glaze and farm egg. The thirsty should drink from the generous spirits program while desserts are almost too pretty to eat. Cerulean

7 of 8

8 of 8

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message Print

Tinker Street

Credit: Courtesy of Sophisticated Living/Andrew Kung

With 34-seats, this lively neighborhood restaurant and wine bar doubles as creative hub for small plates of steam bums with local mushrooms, hoisin, kimchi’d pickles and sesame, the Great Lakes Walleye with Provencal ratatouille and of course, the Tinker burger on a brioche bun with shoestring fries. There’s also an interesting and affordable wine list. Wind down the experience with cornmeal hoecakes and local fruits. Tinker Street

8 of 8

Replay gallery

Share the Gallery

Pinterest Facebook

Up Next

By Food & Wine

Share the Gallery

Pinterest Facebook
Trending Videos
Advertisement
Skip slide summaries

Everything in This Slideshow

Advertisement

View All

1 of 8 Bluebeard
2 of 8 Marrow
3 of 8 Pioneer
4 of 8 St. Elmo Steak House
5 of 8 Vida
6 of 8 Bakersfield
7 of 8 Cerulean
8 of 8 Tinker Street

Share options

Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message Print

Login

Food & Wine

Magazines & More

Learn More

  • Subscribe this link opens in a new tab
  • Books from Food & Wine
  • Contact Us
  • Media Kit
  • Content Licensing

Connect

Follow Us
Subscribe to Our Newsletter
Other Meredith Sites

Other Meredith Sites

  • 4 Your Health this link opens in a new tab
  • Allrecipes this link opens in a new tab
  • All People Quilt this link opens in a new tab
  • Better Homes & Gardens this link opens in a new tab
  • Bizrate Insights this link opens in a new tab
  • Bizrate Surveys this link opens in a new tab
  • Cooking Light this link opens in a new tab
  • Daily Paws this link opens in a new tab
  • EatingWell this link opens in a new tab
  • Eat This, Not That this link opens in a new tab
  • Entertainment Weekly this link opens in a new tab
  • Health this link opens in a new tab
  • Hello Giggles this link opens in a new tab
  • Instyle this link opens in a new tab
  • Martha Stewart this link opens in a new tab
  • Midwest Living this link opens in a new tab
  • More this link opens in a new tab
  • MyRecipes this link opens in a new tab
  • MyWedding this link opens in a new tab
  • My Food and Family this link opens in a new tab
  • MyLife this link opens in a new tab
  • Parenting this link opens in a new tab
  • Parents this link opens in a new tab
  • People this link opens in a new tab
  • People en EspaƱol this link opens in a new tab
  • Rachael Ray Magazine this link opens in a new tab
  • Real Simple this link opens in a new tab
  • Ser Padres this link opens in a new tab
  • Shape this link opens in a new tab
  • Siempre Mujer this link opens in a new tab
  • Southern Living this link opens in a new tab
  • SwearBy this link opens in a new tab
  • Travel & Leisure this link opens in a new tab
Food & Wine is part of the Meredith Corporation Allrecipes Food Group. © Copyright 2021 Meredith Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policythis link opens in a new tab Terms of Servicethis link opens in a new tab Ad Choicesthis link opens in a new tab California Do Not Sellthis link opens a modal window Web Accessibilitythis link opens in a new tab
© Copyright . All rights reserved. Printed from https://www.foodandwine.com

View image

Best Date Restaurants In Indianapolis
this link is to an external site that may or may not meet accessibility guidelines.