BODHI — Restaurant in Indianapolis

Authentic Thai Dining Experience!

Our group of three were in town and looking for healthy, from-scratch dining: we hit the jackpot.

Relatively easy to find with decent parking. Be patient with Google Maps as there is construction in this formerly semi-industrial area.

BODHI is a 21 and older establishment that is first-come-first serve. There is a time limit of 1.5 hours, which is plenty of time to enjoy BODHI. Well worth the planning process/adjustments to your schedule.

Beautifully repurposed building! BODHI offers indoor and outdoor seating that accommodates solo dining, to couples and their outdoor community seating can easily fit a group of 10+.

A very nice blend of exposed brick, beams, and metal with natural woods floors along with antique and modern lighting. Also, a mix of natural and tastefully done artificial flowers and greenery, accompanied by various metal and high polished wood tables and seating outside.

Once we opened the heavy front door, we were greeted with smiling staff that were poised to facilitate a memorable time. Alex was our server and helped us navigate the amazing, handcrafted cocktail menu and plate options along with the backstory of BODHI.

We started with iced water, handcrafted cocktails, and an appetizer.

Our cocktails included the Tom Kah which blended dark rum, whiskey and Mezcal with pineapple, orange cream of coconut. Finished with two dried chili peppers and basil, poured over cubes of ice. Alcohol forward, without bringing a tear to your eyes, and a smooth finish with the Mezcal laying flat on your tongue.

The second cocktail was BODHI's take on a French 75: Françoise & Étienne. What an interpretation! Gin base with rhubarb liqueur and Rose sparkling wine. This was finished with lemon and tangerine infused ice.

Finally, Bua Loi, which is another delicious gin-based drink with lychee (strawberry/pear-like) liqueur and coconut water – very refreshing!

Water and cocktails helped washed down our scrumptious springs rolls (5 come in an order with plum sauce). This helped set the stage for a phenomenal set of platters.

Each of these dishes were an explosion of balanced flavors that danced wonderfully between savory and sweet, hearty and light, quick and lingering. Amazing!

Request share plates, bowls and utensils to chopstick, fork, spoon or otherwise get the food in your mouth.

First was the Coconut Soup. This is on the lighter side of spicy, however, this ended up being the table favorite. Coconut milk base with lime and sweet tomato to finish this foundation. Onions and mushrooms for the next layer, finished with galangal (ginger meets turmeric) and aromatic herbs. The tofu enjoyed this bath of flavor. Also available with either chicken or shrimp.

Next was the Papaya Salad. Medium spicy and the most complex dish. Thai green papaya and carrot base, with tomato, edamame, and sweet corn second layer, finished with peanuts, cashews, Thai chili, lime, and garlic. Tastefully decorated with dry pork rind.

Finally, the heat was brought with the spiciest dish: Drunken Noodles with tofu. Again, this dish is also available with chicken, shrimp, or steak. These rice noodles are wide and flat. Think of broken lasagna noodles, in terms of size. Wonderful Thai basil base, almost creamy with mushrooms, edamame, and spring greens. Enveloped with sweet onion and red bell pepper. The spice arrangement kept us coming back for more while the heat kept serving, we were not deterred. Flavor wins! This is not hot for the sake of hot. This was flavor delivered on a flaming, classy steam engine.

A clear re-visit, with one in our party committed to making a trip to Indianapolis just to visit BODHI. I am also considering a destination dining experience at BODHI.

As I close out this novel of a review – which is a testament to how good this experience was – the overall price points allow a larger audience to enjoy high caliber, and authentic culture cuisine. This is karma in action!

BODHI nails it and receives a truly earned and genuine...

Overall, our group enjoyed our experience at BODHI. It's an attractive space, the table service was great, the drink menu is extensive, and the food was tasty. The criticisms I have that make this a 3-star review are all likely a result of growing pains, but need to be addressed nonetheless.

When we first walked in the door, we stood at the host stand for a solid 5 minutes or so without being acknowledged by anyone in any way. I believe the person who was acting as host was also the manager and also trying to help with running food, which is understandable. The bigger issue is that there were plenty of other employees around who definitely were aware of us and didn't bother to tell us that someone would be with us shortly. That's pretty fundamental training to provide to your restaurant staff so that someone doesn't feel ignored at a host stand long enough to start to wonder if they're in the right spot or if you need to seat themselves. Ultimately, not a huge deal, but not a great start.

After we put our names in, we supplied our phone number and were told that it would be an hour wait. No problem. We wandered over to the nearby food hall and grabbed a drink. I started to get nervous around the hour mark though and suggested to our group that we head back and check on the table just in case. When we got back, we were told that our table was ready, and the host seemed concerned that we hadn't received a call. Again, not a huge deal, and likely not anyone's fault in the restaurant. But this is for sure something that needs to be figured out.

When we sat down, our server greeted us relatively quickly given how busy he was, and we were all excited by both the food and drink menus. We ordered our drinks and asked questions about the standards they use to set the spice levels (spicy food lovers know why this is important!). We also ordered an appetizer that our server forgot to enter in and didn't come out until after our entrees had. Another small but not ideal issue.

The final concern is probably the most relevant to people looking to eat here. While our server did a great job explaining the spice levels, when our food came out, the heat was very inconsistent between the dishes. Their spice levels are indicated by a chili pepper symbol with the following scale:

1-Mild 2-Medium 3-Spicy 4-Extra Spicy

Everyone in our group wanted a good amount of spice in their food, but didn't want it overly intense. We were told a 3 would be that range, so we all ordered 3 across two orders of drunken noodles, one panang curry, and one chili & basil stir fry.

My friend had the curry, and I had the stir fry. We both like a good amount of spice and were struggling just a few bites into our meal. The food was good enough that we both finished, but we hadn't wanted to be that uncomfortable as we ate. Meanwhile, our partners who had both gotten the drunken noodles didn't feel that their dishes were very spicy at all. Now, you could chalk this up to spice levels affecting dishes differently, which happens, but it didn't even seem to be consistent between them. I tasted my wife's (I should clarify that I tasted her leftovers the next day since I was in no position to gauge a lack of spice during our meal .

A Seating Saga: When Dinner Becomes a Hunger Games Event

My recent visit to Bodhi left me with a bitter taste, and it had absolutely nothing to do with the food itself. This review is solely dedicated to the baffling, frustrating, and frankly, unnecessary seating "experience" at this establishment.

Let me paint a picture: I arrived at Bodhi at 4:36pm 5/30, hoping to secure a table for a reasonable dinner time, say around 7 PM.

What ensued was an hour-long purgatory in a winding queue, a line that felt more like a test of endurance than a path to a dining experience.

I finally reached the front, only to be met with an astonishing revelation: I was told to get back in line. The reason? Apparently, Bodhi operates under a mystifying policy where they "can't add people to the waitlist until they seat the whole restaurant."

I'm still scratching my head trying to comprehend this system. Why, in an age where online booking, phone reservations, and countless efficient waitlist apps exist, does Bodhi cling to such an archaic and customer-unfriendly approach? Why can't they simply take normal reservations like virtually every other restaurant? It's utterly bewildering why they feel the need to make it so incredibly difficult for patrons to simply come and have dinner at a normal hour, like 7 PM.

The absurd reality of their system means you have to essentially dedicate your entire early evening to the chance of dining. Standing in line at 4:30 PM, only to potentially get seated at 5:45 PM, and then be told you can't even get on a waitlist for later because the restaurant hasn't been fully seated yet – but, oh, if you want to eat now, you can. This isn't a dining experience; it's a game of chicken with your hunger.

This method not only creates unnecessary stress and frustration but also severely limits accessibility for anyone who can't dedicate hours to queueing. It's an inconvenience that detracts entirely from the potential enjoyment of the meal.

While I can't comment on the food due to this egregious seating process, I can confidently say that Bodhi's seating policy desperately needs an overhaul. Until they adopt a more customer-centric approach to reservations and waitlists, I cannot recommend it to anyone seeking a relaxed and straightforward dining experience.

Your time and patience are worth more than enduring this...