Fat Dan's Deli — Restaurant in Indianapolis

I wish I could say my partner and I had a good visit. It was our first time at Fat Dan’s & definitely our last. I don’t think I’ve had that bad of service in years.

The atmosphere inside & the humor sprinkled through the menu are incredibly charming. The fact that the food is brought out on a huge sheet of paper is hilarious.

Getting to the restaurant is rough, but that’s not on the restaurant in the slightest, just something to keep in mind.

Their servers attitudes however ARE. The sign said to seat ourselves, which we did. I wouldn’t say we waited too terribly long to have someone take our drink orders, but when our waitress came up to us. She didn’t introduce herself, just snapped “Two waters?” My husband told her actually “I’d like a Coke.” & I told her a water was fine. We looked over the menu & while it has humor sprinkled throughout the descriptions of the food are extremely minimal. It doesn’t say if the burgers come with a side or not. It doesn’t list the dressings that come on the burger. And when our waitress came back to take our order she snapped at us again “What do you want?” We tried to get clarity on the menu, but our waitress was incredibly difficult to talk to. We both ordered burgers, a small fry, and I ordered a pickle. Our burgers came out & I unfortunately found that my burger had an ingredient I can’t eat (not an allergy, just can’t stomach it). My husband and I were just going to swap burgers but his came dressed with mayonnaise, something that’s NOT stated on the menu btw. So he got the attention of a different waitress who was very friendly and she got us a menu to order something else. We told her that we considered it our bad. I ended up ordering a corn dog & double checked with the friendly waitress that there wasn’t anything on the corn dog, she assured me that there wasn’t. After I ordered my new food, our original waitress came up to us & wanted to know what was wrong. We relied the same information. That we didn’t know it came dressed with Mayo. But it’s our bad. So we had just ordered something different. She snapped at us again that if I couldn’t eat Mayo I should’ve said something. I told her that it doesn’t say on the menu that it came that way. & she snapped back at me that “Its common knowledge that burgers come with Mayo. Every burger in the world comes with Mayo. “ I responded back to her that “in my experience that’s not the case.”

She walked away & I got my corn dog 5ish minutes later. A 5 dollar corn dog mind you that wasn’t completely covered in batter and half the size of what you would picture a corn dog being. I also at that point hadn’t received the pickle I ordered earlier. My husband was going to ask for it but I told him I just wanted to leave at that point. As long as we weren’t charged for it, it didn’t matter.

We asked the other waiter on the floor for our check and he brought it. I saw the friendly waitress from that night talk to him, so I assume they decided to take the burger off our check. Which was a nice thing to do but in combination of the rest of the experience didn’t really change the overall rating of Fat Dans.

After our plans in Indy all I wanted to do was eat a burger. I had beaten myself up enough about not being careful enough when I ordered because I have such strong aversions to certain foods. To only have the waitress come by and shame me further was honestly pretty cruel. We weren’t making a fuss. We were planning to pay for it. I definitely would’ve felt more comfortable getting clarity on the menu if our waitress had been more welcoming. Perhaps the whole experience would’ve been avoided if she had asked us if we had been to Fat Dans before. Who knows.

If you’re at all sensitive to certain foods, or sensitive to strong attitudes. I’d avoid this place...

Word of mouth brought me to Fat Dan's when I was looking for somewhere to watch the Bears opener. Fat Dan's Chicago feel in Indi was making me feel homesick and acting as a cure all at once. I haven't thanked my co worker yet. I really should.

There are a few Chicago-style places to go in the area, but Fat Dan's was the most like being back home. I've gone back again recently. I think I found a new place to get my work done, and have a drink while I read high-school essays.

I ended that first night with some Goose Island 312s, but before that I wandered around a bit on their draught list. There's some tasty stuff there, some dark stuff, and some strong stuff from recognizable breweries all over.

The food was great! I've only had the beef sandwiches in my visits so far, but honestly, why should I go for anything else? That is one good beef. The fries are great and inexpensive for the quantity. I'll probably try something new the next time i'm in. I do want to get more of a taste of what they have to offer. Some of the menu items sound great.

It's a Chicago friendly place no doubt, and I needed a good one since I spent the first 35 years of my life living in the shadow of the Sears Tower. It's okay to bring your Colts fan with you. Everyone is accepted, even that Packers fan I wanted to shut up.

The only thing stopping me from giving this place 5 stars is the lack of deep-dish pizza. (HMU if you decide to hire a pizza chef) Maybe that's unfair since it's a big investment with pizza ovens and all. Some harder drinks would be nice too. But everything they do have is 5 star. Service is fast, the staff is friendly, and the feel is comfortable. Great place to hang...

Looked up for Wings near me. Came to Indy to drop off some paperwork and it was 5 o'clock madness on the roads at 5pm. So decided to find some dinner to kill a few hours. Fat Dan's Deli was on the list but not the top. Having a 4.6 rating and over 1k reviews I decided to check it out. Super plus when I pulled the map it was about two blocks from where I was leaving.

Outdoor seating available, parking is a bit crazy if you can snag a spot you must back in on one side of the street or curb parking on the other and it's a one way street.

In the door and the Blues are playing. The best part of making it a great spot for me. Felt like I was back in the south. I was greeted at the bar as soon as I sat down. Another customer at the bar introduced herself and we talked like we had known each other for years. Made it feel like the old days of walking into a hole in the wall bar in my younger years.

Ordered up the 10 pieces of smoked dry rub wings with the fresh cut fries. You just cannot go wrong with fresh cut fries. Got the wings with the teriyaki dipping sauce. First dip I knew I went wrong. Most of their sauces are made in house but not this one. The ginger in the sauce was just too overbearing for my liking. Changed my extra sauce out for the hot BBQ made in house. It definitely had the kick but the flavor just wasn't right for me.

Very clean, staff very welcoming. If you are a fan of Chicago sports, there is plenty of that on...