Broad Ripple Brewpub — Restaurant in Indianapolis

Broad Ripple Brewpub is the staple neighborhood gastropub in the Broad Ripple area. The cozy interior with small doorways that open to vast, yet intimate, areas transports you to any pub in the UK. The option of delicious brews in a queen's pint only reinforces this feeling.

Outside seating is ample and with the restaurant being positioned next to the Monon, it is easily accessible and offers small town views in an urban setting.

The menu is unexpected. Catering to both omnivorous and vegan patrons. Most items are absolutely delicious. The MUST TRY item has to be the beer cheese. Made with a Brewpub original brew, the cheese and fixings sit well with any pint or cocktail.

The Brewpub has offered me and my visitors to Indy a nearly flawless experience for 20 years UNTIL our last visit...

My husband and I sat outside with our one year old son. The waitress asked to take our drinks and appetizer order. My husband asked if they had sweet tea to which the waitress replied "Yes." We were disappointed when she returned with tea and told my husband that they had "sweetener" if he wanted sweet tea. If you know the Brewpub, a mainstream soda is not an option either because all they serve are organic sugar cane sodas, so water it is.

After dropping off the drinks and taking away the tea, the waitress returned for a third time and asked again about appetizers. We obliged and ordered the Mexican White Wings as an app and our two mains, the Chicken Manhattan (special) and the Grilled Lawnmower Chicken sandwich (BRB local beer marinated).

After waiting 20 minutes with nothing other than a refill on water, our mains arrived without any appetizer. We mentioned that our app never showed up at the table. The waitress responded with a confused look and an "Oh yeah. You're right" and no solition or offer to make it right. We asked that it be removed from the bill and with empty stomachs dug into the food before us.

The chicken breasts in both the Manhattan and sandwich were cold and dry, as if they had been sitting in a window waiting for 20 minutes. Good thing we had that water. The sides, cole slaw, Brewpub fires, and shoestring onion rings, were fine. Cold like the chicken but edible.

Overall, the Brewpub gets 4 stars for all the years or good times and service. Just go knowing that the experience may be inconsistent and, over time, hopefully on an upswing rather...

Service: 1/5, Quality: 1/5, Value: 3/5 Vegetarian/Vegan Options: 1/5

In short - Cardboard food for the brave or desperate. Also do not go here if you are vegan because you could get non vegan food instead of what you ordered.

Further- This has been recommended time and time again by friends, but all three times we have visited expectations fell flat.

Service- I find myself waiting. Waiting to order. Waiting to get drinks refilled. Waiting to pay. Not to mention staff hasn't seemed super familiar with the menu when asking relatively basic questions.

Quality- I have yet to try something to write home about. If anything eating food here makes me sad because I have wasted money on something I could've done better with, faster and cheaper to boot.

Value- The menu prices aren't completely unreasonable, and if you are able to eat cardboard until you are stuffed then you'll leave full and satisfied.

Vegetarian/Vegan Options- RUN. They added real cheese to our vegan options even when we explicitly ordered vegan. After spending the evening on the toilet thanks to this mistake (lactose intolerant) this is enough to make me never return. Beyond that, all the vegan options I have tried are terrible. The vegan burger is what turns me to tears because I can make a beyond burger at home that tastes better, or my homemade bean burgers are better too. The Rueben also was particularly disappointing, and the wings left much to be desired.

Edit- to respond to the response. Yes, i could've written this in a more friendly manner but why would i? I'm not trying to put this company out of business. All i want is to share my experiences. And how to respond to such a review? Well, maybe try to respond to the actual issues that can be addressed, like i don't know, how non vegan food is served instead of vegan food, or any one of the other issues i mentioned. It's not like i just wrote this review to bomb the place. I use the same review format everywhere i eat, so yes, i will share my experiences in multiple categories and if it is bad in multiple areas then that gets shown. And ignore me and trust your friends? I mean, sure. We trusted some internet strangers and see where that got us? Anyway, i don't need a real response. As far as I'm concerned I'm unwilling to trust this restaurant again and no words will...

How is it that I've never reviewed my favorite brewery in the world??!! Actually, I did, but it was on Yelp, and now that I am banned from Yelp (for making fun of Californians for being "holier than thou") I need to go back and re-review all my favorite spots on Google. So here goes: this is, no joke, a place I fantasize about now that I live in Miami. Thankfully, I am weathering the Covid storm in Indy, so I am making up for months of being away and have probably dropped $300 here in six weeks. The beer is sooooo good. It must have something to do with the grain bill and yeasts because it's as if they can do no wrong (the experimental cobweb beer might be an exception). I am particularly fond of the cask conditioned "real" ales and consider their ESB to be the world's best beer. Granted, I think my tastes are far from pedestrian and tend towards the contrarian (i.e., disliking mega popular brews and loving weird, poorly-rated/regarded ones). I have logged thousands (no exaggeration) of beers on Untapped.com, and I try to be mega stingy with my 5-star reviews. I think Broad Ripple Brew Pub has brewed 4-5 of my 6-7 5-star beers (the aforementioned ESB, their signature IPA, Lawnmower pale ale [drinking it now], Boro Brown, Wee Alec on cask, and their altbier).

The food looks fantastic, but I've only ever had the Scotch eggs (which were, to be fair, the best I've ever had). I usually bike in, get a couple of growlers, and leave. The environment is awesome, though: multiple outside areas/patios, a fire pit where the local patrons get drunk, a cozy, quiet fireplace area (inside), a darts corner, places for families and big groups, in other words, something for everyone.

If you are a beer lover and live in the midwest (or are visiting the area), you owe it to yourself to check...