Best steak in Indianapolis?
 

My GF is arriving at IND and would like a steak soon after she gets off the plane. I've always been a fan of Ruth's Chris, but was told that St. Elmo Steak House is better. I don't care much for a wine list, although that may change when I go to Bern's in Tampa, so we're really just looking for the absolute best steak available in/near IND.

Thank you.

You can get a Ruth's Chris steak anywhere. I'd go to St. Elmo's. The steaks are excellent, and the shrimp cocktail is fantastic and really a required appetizer unless you're allergic to shellfish.

Don't let them seat you downstairs if it's just two of you; the downstairs section doesn't have the same ambiance of the main level.

Cheap parking in the Circle Center mall, $1 for 3 hours.

No question...St Elmo ^^^ (coming from an Indy girl...)

E-Nick mentioned the downstairs....I've only been seated downstairs once & my sense is that they only use this for larger groups (8+) on the weekends.

The Indiana State Fair!^

That takes some good timing, though.

St Elmo's would be my first choice. If the GF wants steak the next night, try Georges Place on East 86th St (near Keystone). Small place, in a strip mall, but George believes in great steak.

FT is great.

I just made reservations at St. Elmo for 6:45 tonight and am looking forward to trying this restaurant. Hopefully the GF won't be too upset as she did request Ruth's Chris. But anyone who was able to be talked into making a MR should be willing to try a new steakhouse.

Thanks for the input.

Unless either of you has allergies that would prevent it... Ya gotta have the shrimp cocktail :)

Enjoy! I am sooooooo jealous! :)

What's so special about the shrimp cocktail that folks keep mentioning?

Did you try it?? :)

The sauce is outstanding. One of my colleagues asks for extra sauce and eats it with crackers.

I'm going to be there next week with a co-worker, so I'm not jealous.

When a few of us got together a while back for a mini IND-Do (as some of the posters remember) where did we choose? St. Elmo's. Now that should be all the recommendation another FT'er should need. Hope you and GF enjoyed the dinner. Hmm.. a MR with a great steak house at the end -- interesting idea.

Sadly, George's Place is no more. It closed over a year ago. A Sullivan's opened down the street and it pretty much did George's in. A few weeks ago a Flemings opened up across the street from Sullivan's, it'll be interesting to see them duke it out.

Indy loves her chains, even for steak. Downtown we have Shula's, Ruth Chris, Morton's and Mo's. Non chains include St. Elmo and while not a traditional steakhouse, Dunaway's has great steak.

I have to agree with St Elmos as the recommendation. It is unique.

The cocktail sauce. Is is 80% horseradish, 20% red stuff. :eek: :D

You're not supposed to tell!!!!!! :eek: :eek: :eek: We're going to have to consider rescinding your club card :D

To the OP....So how was it????

So I'm going to be down there at least twice and probably three times from about 10/24 through Thanksgiving. We should have a FT dinner some night, probably a Monday.

Let me know, I've got no travel plans until just before Halloween.

Aww, CRAP. :(

Oh well, St Elmo's is still the first choice. :)

My GF and I enjoyed our dinner at St. Elmo. I ordered the strip and she ordered the filet. Her's was outstanding but mine was nothing special. I was also a little disappointed as I was told that the upstairs was full, so we had to sit downstairs.

We did order the shrimp cocktail and I haven't cried that much in a long time. Sure clears you out. Not sure if I would order it again as it was fairly pricey, but it sure was an experience.

The end of the night was awful. We opted for valet parking since we were running a few minutes late getting to the restaurant. After dinner it took more than an hour to get our car. There apparently was a high school football game in the RCA dome that got out a few minutes before we left the restaurant. The garage where they park was a zoo. I do blame the parking company for this as they easily could have told us when we arrived that there was an event and that it might take longer than usual to get the car if we tried leaving around a certain time. We would much rather have remained at our table and ordered dessert and maybe some more wine had we known about this problem. After standing outside for about 30 minutes with a few other very unhappy customers, we opted to go back inside and sit at the bar. The restaurant employees didn't seem to concerned that the valet company was making a lot of customers quite angry right outside the door.

This was an excellent dinner than unfortunately had a very bad ending due to the parking situation.

Is it sad that I can't wait to have some Steak n' Shake? :p

Nope! Took the kids there last night! :D

Monday nights are Bloomington Concert band rehearsal nights for me (I play the trumpet and am the Associate Conductor) but for St. Elmos -- I'd seriously consider playing hookie.

I'm sorry to hear you experienced those problems, and that your steak wasn't at the same level as your gf's filet. RE the valet parking, I've never used it as we typically just park across the street, so I don't have other experience to compare for you...but I'm disappointed that it left your dinner at StElmo ending on a sour note. Other than the disappointment of being seated downstairs the one time, I've never had anything less than an excellent experience with St Elmo.

I grew up in Indianapolis and recently went back on a Mileage Run just to relive the food of my childhood (which, like most American kids, was primarily fast food).

Number one on my list was Noble Roman's pizza. I've been craving the Breadsticks and Sicillian style pizza for years, sadly it seems to have changed hands and the is a mere shadow of what it was when I was a kid. The crust was ok, but the sauce was terrible. The breadsticks were still excellent.

Next up was White Castles, anytime I'm east of the mississippi I can't help but buy 'em by the sack.

Then of course there's steak & shake. Nothing like a good steak burger. I just wish they had better fries!

I should have planned for more than 12 hours on the ground!

Relating to the original post, My dad took me out for steak and shrimp cocktails at St Elmos on my 15th or 16th birthday. To this day its still one of those meals I can still taste in my mind.

If you don't mind me asking, how old are you? I spent most of my growing up years in Indy as well.... and I'm going on an MR to Indy next week ^

Noble Roman's was great... now I see the Noble Romans stand in Casino Royale in Vegas, and I think "crap". I'm definintely getting a sackful of White Castles while I'm there. I love how Steak n' Shake is open late.

What I'm really excited about is going to Cracker Barrel for breakfast... mmm :)

Funny thing... I never went to St. Elmo's when I was there.... perhaps I'll give it a go 'round next week :D

I used to miss Noble Roman's until I moved to Cgo, and then in recent years after it changed the pizza crust...it just isn't the same. Can't even think of how many packs of breadsticks we consumed off the back of those little trucks crusing campus in WL :D

As long as we're on IND favorites, I have to add Mug n Bun on 10th St in Speedway. Had the opportunity to stop through there last week...yum! And of course, another tenderloin favorite, the Ice House

Hopefully next trip I can twist a friend's arm into heading to StElmo with me ^

I'm 40, I think I left Indiana (sounds like I wasn't the only one who ended up at Purdue) in the early 90's and hadn't been back since. I grew up in the Carmel area, boy has that changed. I remember when fishers was just the little farming community best known for having a liquor store that would sell to us without asking for IDs. Now its sprawl central.

One of the most funny things about going back was everytime I would think of something to go check out and see if it was still there, it had turned into a starbucks!

In West Lafayette, I used to frequent the stuffed pizza place in the little shopping center off campus, I can't remember the name exactly but I vaguely think it was something like Garcias.

I"ll try not to hold that against you :D :p
Definitely Garcias -- spent a lot of time there too. The Flying Tomato Brothers, Garcias Pizza in a Pan

Anyone remember Campus Caboose? ;)

I worked at Brad's my senior year. Still have the recipes for the cream cheese brownies, Chocolate-covered PB Rice Krispy Treats & "Stu's Cookies" :D

I'm very sad... we're going to a barbeque tonight, and that means steak. So that means no St. Elmo's tomorrow night. :( :(

I'm going to have to wait three more weeks. :(

You do realize you don't have to twist very much, especially if you're buying... ^

Oh how cool... I happened to grow up in Fishers, went to HSE and all that. I'm 27, and even for me things have completely changed, so I can't even imagine what it was like when you were there.

Talk about sprawl... when I left HSE, we were overcapacity (at 1200 students), so they spent $60mil to renovate the high school for 4000 students (the community voted to keep it one HS and not split it up). This was just about 5 years ago. They are now building a 2nd HS that's just as big :(

But yeah, back on topic.... mmm, steak! ^

I go to Indy every November with my wife's business. Saturday night dinner at Sullivan's has become something of a tradition, and they've yet to disappoint us.

I am, however, glad to hear that they've finally gotten a little new competition in the wake of George's closing. The reason I say this is because last year, Sullivan's had apparently become too arrogant to take dinner reservations (at least on Saturdays), unlike each previous year.

It took several phone calls, but I finally got through to a manager who apologized profusely and accepted our ressie.

Now why was a simple reservation such a big deal?

The short version is that after five 12-16 hour days, Saturday evening represents the first break of any sort. The last thing we want is spending an hour or more in "cigar bar hell" waiting to sit down for our first decent, relaxing meal of the week! (BTW, the manager also sent us a personal note in the mail thanking us for choosing Sullivan's).

I know I am little late coming to this thread but I think I am about the only person around who really doesn't like St Elmo's. For me on a few occassions, they don't make any attempt at cooking a steak properly.

Shula's on the other hand, I think is absolutely great. It was the first of the Shula's and I went there fairly soon after they started and was impressed and have been impressed every single time I have been back.

I see that as I post this, FlyerTalk has a Ruth's Chris add to the right of my post with a big filet that looked awesome.

I hit up St. Elmo's last night and the food and service was excellent. Especially the shrimp cocktail! I ordered the filet mignon medium-rare and it came out with a dark red center. A tad rarer than I would have liked, but I enjoyed it nevertheless. I saw a lady at another table return her steak twice because it was too rare for her liking. Anyway, the staff was very attentive and promptly removed (or brought out) my plates. Another couple placed their order with my waiter right before I did, and I finished my meal by the time their steaks were brought out. They were talking a lot and were obviously looking to have a leisurely meal so the waiter accomodated them appropriately.

In general, Indiana isn't exactly a place where a lot of people like their steaks rare.

As one person who grew up in Indy, I have to disagree. It was there that I developed my never-ending passion for beef as close to saying "moo" as possible -- ah, the Sunday buffett at Highland Golf & Country Club with Chef Bob whacking off slice after slice of RARE prime rib!

You would be the exception rather than the rule. I would say 65% or better of the steaks ordered in this state are medium well or well. No facts to back that up, just a guess.

Happy to report this past Saturday night's 2005 annual visit to the Indy Sullivan's was our best ever. Everything was pure perfection.....well, almost.
Tables seemed jammed a bit close together, but this is a very minor point. Food, drink, presentation, service, all outstanding.

Just as good, there seems to have been an attitude transplant....for the better. I reported last year a touch of arrogance in the restaurant's refusal to take my reservation. Not a problem this time around, and they couldn't have been nicer about it!

Our last "big steak" night was a $300 blowout earlier this year at Bardi's in Toronto....a tiny, easy-to-overlook place, but no slouch when it comes to bigtime steaks. Sullivan's was twice as good for half the price!