Ash & Elm Cider Co. Indianapolis Taproom — Restaurant in Indianapolis

I never knew this hidden gem was located in Washington Street. I’ve seen it mentioned a few times and definitely driven by it. I decided to find where it was and go eat! A group of 3 met for dinner last night.

I’ve never tasted a cider I liked but decided to go for it. I got the semi-sweet and a friend did the flight. You can choose any 4 ciders and they are $2.75 each. I think that’s a great deal. Mine was very good and I drank the whole glass. Surprised the heck outta me. His favorite was the Sunset with had cherries in it. I wish I would have asked to try it. The other three are the semi-sweet, the margarita, and the fleeting youth. He enjoyed all of them.

Now on to the main event. THE FOOD. If you’ve seen any of my post you know I(we) go hard.

Tonight we chose 3 appetizers: The fries with choice of 3 dipping sauces. We couldn’t make a choice so got all six. Here was my preference Atomic Mustard(leaps and bounds above the rest) ketchup Pesto Spicy Ranch Garlic Aoili Lime Crema

Next we got the herbed deviled eggs and the Brussels sprouts. The eggs had a mild flavor and I loved the addition of the fried capers on the top. The star of that plate was the pickled onions. I don’t know what they use to pickle them but I wanna drink it. I seriously think I could eat a whole bowl of them. The pickles on the plate were quite spicy but good.

The Brussels sprouts were fried. The outside was crisp but the inside was still soft. I think they tasted really good. They used one of their ciders to make a gastrique sauce to coat them in. So far everything is going perfect.

Time to order the entrees. A couple of us couldn’t chose so we decided to each get 2 so we could try all the things. I decided on the Fish special which was halibut, those pickled onions, and Shaved Brussels sprouts with cherry tomatoes and the Bugolgi beef noodle bowl. The bowl had pickled mushrooms(yum!) bulgolgi beef, runny egg, kimchi, green onions, and broccolini atop noodles. Another person in my party ordered the burger of the moment which was a patty melt with the vegan 3 bean chili and also the Scallops and Risotto. The third person wanted the smoked ribeye with wild mushrooms and potatoes and onions.

Here’s were the stumble was…..a medium rare steak order came out well done. The potatoes, mushrooms, and onions were good. Instead of waiting did another steak she opted to get the cider braised chicken sandwich. A braised chicken with carmelized onions, smoked Gouda, and honey mustard.

All the entrees were delicious(minus the steak). If I had pick a winner, hands down the Halibut. It had a nice crust on the top and superb flavor. Subtle but enchanting. The scallops were delicious. Risotto was lemon flavored for your reference. Cider braised chicken had crispy bread and a nice balance of the other ingredients. The bugolgi bowl was good too. I didn’t try the patty melt but the chili has a nice little spice to it. Not hot at all.

I’d say we picked a winner tonight. No room for dessert but they offered a skillet cookie and a lemon tart. We packed the leftovers that my husband gladly ate when I got home and paid the bill. I can’t say enough good things about this meal. I’d love to come back and try a few more items on the menu and get some more of those pickled onions and atomic mustard.

Ash & Elm Cider Co.

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I was looking for a place to bring our group of eight on Indy 500 weekend out of the hustle and bustle of downtown. I'd heard and read some good things about Ash & Elm but to say our Saturday night dinner out was disappointing is an understatement. I made the reservation weeks in advance and requested outdoor seating. When we arrived at 7:30 I asked if we could sit indoors as it was warm and it looked like there might be tables available. I was told all the tables were reserved. So we were escorted outside where not only was it super noisy, we were seated at two different picnic tables. The hostess said she reserved three because she didn't know what we needed. What we needed was a table for 8 together for our whole group that traveled separately from Maryland, Maine and NJ to visit our Indy family living in Indy. We sat for a few minutes and ordered drinks. I then decided to see if there was any way the hostess could move us inside to one table. I stood at the hostess stand for a few minutes while she rang up another customer purchasing cider. It took quite some time before I was even acknowledged at which time the hostess (sorry don't know her name) seemed completely annoyed that I even asked to be reseated when the place was nearly empty. She grudgingly agreed to clear off a high top that a large party had just left - this took seemingly forever. (We could have just pushed together two four-tops in about a second). Newly seated, our drinks finally came after about 20 minutes. (It was now 8:10 pm and we had been there 40 minutes) Our waitress THEN told us that the kitchen closes at 8:30 if we wanted to order dinner. Ummmm....that's why we're here. We ordered, got our food, ate and had a forgettable outing. Our waitress was friendly and the situation clearly wasn't her fault. The hostess was sadly not engaged or happy in her role - at all. And besides the food, this hostess interaction was the one that made the entire situation worse. We had the fettucine and salmon (good), buffalo tofu sandwich (not good), southwestern bowl (average), steak frites - frites (good), steak (not good). Margarita slushy cider was good, some of the other ciders our group tried were too sweet but that's a personal preference. And the water served in growlers - described as "stank water". Everyone noticed it and no one drank it (and we're a BIG water drinking, carry our hydro flask family). Definitely not our best dinner outing. Expensive for the quality and gratuity included for our large group which only made the bill for the experience that much more painful. Will NOT be going here again- so much so that the experience that it prompted me to lookup my yelp password. BTW all those tables inside the hostess said were "reserved" did not fill up. (For those who might enjoy this place, maybe it was just a really bad night and some people had some really bad days.) PS Just asked my husband to review for fairness and clarity and he wanted me to add that the front windows were filthy. And they were huge windows that add a lot of light into...

Let me start by saying I'm super disappointed to be rating Ash & Elm so low! I've been a fan of their ciders for some time (especially the seasonal Autumn Tide!) and I was looking forward to visiting their tasting room. We were in the area today for some other activities, and couldn't resist the opportunity to go by when we were so close. Unfortunately, the experience left a lot to be desired.

The tasting room itself is beautiful, with lots of exposed brick and natural light. The location isn't super ideal; it's one of those areas that's close when driving (it's near both Irvington and Fountain Square), but it's not a spot to easily hop to when you're out walking between spots.

When we walked up to the bar to see what the growler fill options were, a server approached my boyfriend and asked what we were looking for. After inquiring about the (sadly unavailable!) Autumn Tide, I asked if I could try a couple options (they had a couple on draft - a seasonal Marigold Chai and the Extra Special Dry - that I hadn't tried previously) before choosing one for a growler. He asked to see my ID, and then the friend I was with said "oh, do you need my ID, too?" and the server very rudely retorted "well, I mean it's alcohol, soo......" with an eye roll. I'm not sure why the attitude; my friend hadn't asked to try anything, and at that point I didn't even have samples in front of me, so it wasn't as if there was alcohol available. It seemed like an overly aggressive reaction when my friend was genuinely asking if the server needed to see his ID, despite him not ordering anything and the server not asking for the other IDs of the rest of our party. Just one of those moments that leaves a bad taste in your mouth, which is a total bummer because I've been looking forward to visiting for...