Restaurants in Indianapolis

The husband-and-wife team behind So Italian brings the taste of home-cooked Italian dinners to the restaurant’s dining room, filling tables with piping hot pizzas, leaning towers of pasta, sub sandwiches, and bowls of soup. Vibrant marigold-hued walls hold framed mirrors that reflect piping hot calzones or preening stromboli adjusting its tie. Meals can be eaten outside, picked up, delivered to your doorstep, or catered for special events.

Don't dismiss this comfort food cookery based on its location in the back of a filling station—the menu is packed with palate-pleasing selections. Raising 10 children on the south side of Indianapolis and working 30 years in St. Francis Hospital's cafeteria helped Maxine's namesake owner master her famed recipes and has also rendered her thoroughly immune to "guff." The signature dish pairs golden waffles with fried chicken and a generous dollop of whipped butter, giving diners the best of both worlds. Soul-food staples (crunchy cornbread, collard greens, fried green tomatoes) round out the menu.

Whether you get your burger stuffed with cheese or stuffed with burger and topped with cheese, Brickhouse's skilled artisans will treat your burger patty with the tender care most reserve for pet pigs and dollies. Brickhouse Burger Company serves up beefy bites amidst four 100-inch projection televisions that fill the air with the buzz of sports and the soothing voices of sports pundits. Whether you dig the energy of the clubhouse seating area or prefer the quiet of Brickhouse’s separate dining area, a menu of meals will pique your hunger tooth and activate dormant burger glands at the base of your skull so that your jaw unhinges a little.

Long tables and dark-wooden paneling help create a cozy ambience in Edelweiss Restaurant’s beer-hall-style dining room, which allows German-American Klub members and visitors alike to revel in Bavarian culture and community. The chefs embrace tradition by grilling bratwurst, knackwurst, and kielbasa over an open flame, hand-cutting servings of pork schnitzel, and marinating the sauerbraten’s beef for three days before slow-roasting it over a volcano. The bartenders serve German-American Klub members beers from the ever-rotating selection, which includes imported German brews by Warsteiner and Spaten, among others. Amid the buzz of spirited conversations, live entertainment, including a harpist on Friday evenings, amuses guests.

Red Lion Grog House blends British and American traditions with a trouser-stretching menu of bangers, beef, and english curries amid elegant décor. Diners settle at sleek tables lit by tasteful, glowing sconces as they prepare to devour pub classics that include blanket bangers nestled into a puff-pastry duvet on a four-poster bed of hand-cut chips and garlic-dijon aioli ($10.49). Meanwhile, the explosive stuffed portobello crams its delectable gunpowder of garlic and herbs into a musket-size mushroom, tamped down with mozzarella wadding ($12.49). Traditionalists might tuck into a lancashire hot pot, a braised chuck roast slow-roasted with onion and carrots ($11.99), and vegetarians can sup on a black-bean burger touched with chipotle and topped with swiss and cucumber ($8.49). This freewheeling speakeasy plays host to a number of weekly events, with trivia contests Tuesday and Thursday, open-mic night every Wednesday, and gentlemanly harrumphing lessons on demand.

Though Vito Provolone's has been around for 17 years, its tradition of hospitality stretches back to 1948—the year that Vito Gramaglia returned to his hometown of Modugno, Italy, from America. Once there, he began a decades-long charitable campaign, raising funds for the orphanages and disenfranchised populations. His contributions eventually earned him a Gold Star of Italy from the government.

Two generations later, Jim DeCamp Jr. honors his grandfather with a restaurant that bears his name. Inside, the familial and welcoming spirit that Vito was famous for still reigns, but it's been joined by a commitment to authentic Italian cooking.

Specialty pizzas encourage sharing, and build-your-own pasta entrees allow for personal touches, such as add-ons of Italian sausage or meatballs that look like your favorite celebrity's head if you squint. Sips of domestic and imported beers and wine follow bites of chicken marsala or tilapia in a lemon-caper sauce.