The Inferno Room — Restaurant in Indianapolis

I despise having to write this. I spent 15 years in the service industry. In that time I did everything from customer service, bookkeeping, training, expo, bartending, serving, hosting, and travel catering. 10 of those years I spent in the same restaurant. You don’t spend that time in one place not knowing how to take care of people. I spent 3 years in fine dining giving me the ability to have people spend thousands at times on my service. They enjoyed themselves so much they would come back often. Bars are built on the backs of regulars. The people who get off work and choose the bar that they want to spend their money at to have a drink. Inferno room has been that place for my fiancé and I since we started dating. It is the place we recommend to everyone. I’ll first and foremost say that the only reason this isn’t a zero star review is because your bar staff is absolutely incredible. They are some of the most kind bar team members. This has zero barring on them or the fact that we will happily follow our favorite bartender to her other job as her regulars. The second we walked into the door August 18th around 10:30 at night we were surprised it was slow on a Friday. We worked all day at the convention and wanted to have a drink with our friends not from here. We were quickly pre judged by the host Brent. He was snarky from then on, antagonizing my fiancé of how many people we would have. He told him we were 6 and if more people joined we would move/ split up to another table for half the party. He aggressively told my fiancé “it kind of matters” instead of finding an option for us. I know from my time hosting that the proper ettiequte would be to find a solution for us in the event more people came. We were bringing money to this establishment that would have otherwise been spent at the hotel bar. This man looked at the way we were dressed/ looked and decided we didn’t have a tiki vibe that fit his establishment so he constantly tried to antagonize us into leaving. The bartenders were so mortified at his behavior that they tried to talk to him and get him to back off. When I had my drink I walked to the other end of the bar to check on my sisters and he aggressively slammed a stool down behind me and told me I wasn’t allowed to stand at the bar I had to sit down. Like a child. I had already decided that would be my only drink I wanted to leave after that. Just then our friend walked in and was immediately turned away when there were 3 open seats at the bar. My fiancé brought him back in and asked if we could get two tables. He refused to sit us next to each other because “you’re just going to talk to each other anyways” what? We were forced to split up. This opened up 4 seats at the bar and left them with 4 open upstairs. Two of our friends walk in and are told to leave. Why would you split us up so we could all sit down and then not allow our party in that we have seats for? None of this made any sense so our party upstairs left. The only reason the girls stayed is because one of us ordered food. During that time the remainder of the bar sat mostly empty for the next hour. He cost the restaurant money. He cost the bartenders tips and seats while musical chairs are played. He cost the server upstairs money that had her table held for no reason. Not to mention he lost the bar regulars that come in on weekdays. He embarrassed the staff. He embarrassed the patrons. My fiancé picked us up and decided to ask him why this was personal. This excuse for a man chose to have a half smile at my fiancé and fight with him. What manager does that? Here’s what he didn’t know when he judged us. Our party was made up of -Multiple small business owners -The proprietor of one of the most well known horror shops -One of the most iconic horror artists in the community who has worked for Disney, HBO, and more -A woman who works for the the biggest celebrity manager in conventions handling major names -An independent film maker and his girlfriend who runs a film festival

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Completely Honest review of my wife and I's night here on 2/17/24

TLDR: WILL NOT BE RETURNING. Great Potential, but VERY poor employee attitudes making you feel unwanted, and like a burden. alcohol very strong, and employees will not take your request to water them down.

Firstly, my wife and I planned a weekend around visiting this place and making an evening out of it. We're in our early 30's and enjoy letting a bit loose on Saturday nights.

We ubered here with plans to hang out until close. When we arrive we were walked through a bustling environment with comfortable seating, and a lively bar to what we were told was the newest addition to the building. It was a quiet area, great for a couple trying to have privacy.

Shortly after being seated the bartender came over to serve us, we needed more time so he came back. We started with drinks, were not new to drinking Alcohol and as adults know what our pref is. We discussed different alcoholic beverages they had, chose beverages, my wife informed the bartender she wasn't a fan of anything that tastes very strong. The bartender informed her that "This is a Tiki Bar, everything is going to be strong". We all laughed it off thinking it was just a brash joke. He served our beverages then our food. I got the Hawaiian rice, she got the fried chicken sandwhich. Neither had an issue with the food, we enjoyed it.

While enjoying our food we noticed a couple employees having there lunch or getting off work hanging out for a few, taking a shot together, then back to work. Thought it was odd at first but just shrugged it off as Maybe a one off thing.

Then a few other employees ran to the room, and took a couple shots, then back to work, then again a few of the same employees back to take a couple more shots. I overheard one say there closing down the kitchen but needs a shot before getting started.

Then another employee sits at the bar and makes a joke to the bartender stating "well at least your done" where as the bartender looked over at us, and responded "speak for yourself".

We opted to close out with this bartender and move to the other side of the building to an additional bar.

It looked as though after we left the room we were sat in the original bartender closed it down and came over to the main bar.

We had a new bartender already and he was quite a bit more friendly then the original.

We re-explained to this bartender how we liked our drinks, my wife likes to drink alcohol beverages that don't taste like rubbing alcohol. She had to turn away 2 drinks after sipping on them a couple times because they were too strong. She had a difficult time overcoming the flavor. I have to admit, it was quite difficult for myself as well.

While we know preference on taste can widely differ, we witnessed another couple having the same issues as we did with flavor. They opted to leave after a couple failed attempts at drinks.

While sitting at the second bar, which would be the main bat in the building we also noticed several employees behind the bar taking shot after shot.

My wife and I felt very unwelcome here, we felt that most of the workers who interacted with us made us feel that we were burdening them.

We saw a Facebook post about this place and we're thrilled to drive over an hour to this establiment, get a hotel and spend several hours here. We spent well over $300 here hoping that the experiance was going to turn around at some point.

Sadly.... it did not. We really wanted to enjoy this place and it saddens me by the experiance. The place has alot of potential, and AMAZING ambiance. The vibe is just very destroyed by the employees attitudes.

Good luck, and I hope...

THIS PLACE IS DANGEROUS! HORRIBLE MANAGEMENT! I have been sober for a very, very long time. My friends and I specifically decided to go to the Inferno Room because they have mocktails. I tasted my drink and it seemed off but I didn't want to complain. I asked all of my friends if they thought their drink had alcohol in theirs. Since they are tiki drinks it was hard to tell if there was alcohol but they thought so. Finally, I asked my server. She had SERVED ME THE ALCOHOLIC DRINK. Obviously I was devastated. She offered to comp my drink and my friend's drink since he obviously did not get what he ordered. When it came time for the checks, she sent the manager over. First, he came in very hot headed. He said "I hear you have questions about your bill." I explained that I am sober. I was served an alcoholic drink. My friend was served a mocktail, not what he ordered. The management argued with me and also yelled at us that "if you consume the drink, you have to pay for it. You should have said something before consuming the drink." WHAT?! That is horrible. He also went back and forth with us as we stated we didn't know she switched the drinks. Obviously. I wouldn't have cried in the bathroom about it if I had known she had given me had alcohol in it. My friend offered to just pay for the mocktail to end the argument because it was embarrassing to be getting yelled at by a manager in a crowded area. The manager was very rude and said it is our policy that if you consume the drink you pay for it but we will comp it for you this one time. My friend did not ask for his drink to be comped. The server volunteered to do so. Also, that is a horrible mistake to serve someone alcohol when they ordered a non-alcoholic drink. If I was the manager, I would've been so embarrassed and not made any of the people at my table pay for their drinks. I would not have argued with a guest over an $8 mocktail after my...