Ivanhoes — Restaurant in Upland

Long story short- this place is obscenely overrated. Do I think it’s a fun place for people to check out once? Sure. Cross it off your list of popular places to visit in Indiana. Take some pictures with the Garfield statue, post it on social media and call it a day. On to the actual review- first of all the place is ALWAYS packed and there isn’t nearly enough seating nor is there any sort of organization to where you order/pick up food at. There are just people standing everywhere trying to form some semblance of lines. The place has been around for decades and they haven’t spent a penny on any sort of upgrade. The space is cramped, noisy, and the lighting is poor. The booths are decades old wooden benches that are as uncomfortable as the rickety wooden chairs crammed around tables in the dining room. If you like enjoying a meal with dozens of people standing right next to your table waiting in line to order or collect food then this is the place for you. As for the food- mid to below par at best. This is the kind of food you can expect to find at the county fair. Fried, frozen, or boiled. It will fill you up and may even satisfy a craving or two but it’s by no means anything to write home about. It CERTAINLY doesn’t justify the obnoxiously long wait times to order and then to actually receive your food. They boast an enormous ice cream/sundae/shake menu which is admittedly impressive and is the ONLY redeeming part of this establishment. That being said- again- it’s nothing to write home about. It’s your typical run of the mill bulk ordered ice cream. However, it does satisfy a sweet tooth on a hot day. This place survives on hype and the fact that it’s one of the only restaurants is the area as well as being right next to the local college. Visit it once, and then save yourself the time and money and skip it next time you’re in town. I say all this as someone who’s lived here for the last 10 years and have continually tried to convince myself to...

The food is good, especially the ice cream, and the prices are reasonable. The problem is the current way they run things is horribly inefficient and they have a hard time keeping up with demand. My wife and I took our young kids out to celebrate my wife's birthday with her family. We ordered our meal which was approx 25 min wait not bad at all. After we ate I went to order ice cream (one sundae), the line was long, but manageable at first glance. While waiting I am observing how things are run, because I have time to kill. There were paper orders all over the counter in a jumbled mess, customers standing in line forever waiting to place their order, customers standing against the back wall waiting forever to pick up their ice cream. There were several times where it would take 5 mins plus and not a single persons order would be called to be picked up. It's a sea of people waiting, and waiting for an absurdly long time. They really need to figure out how to speed things up. I've been coming for years, and I'm glad they are doing so well, but I'm not going to wait over an hour plus for ice cream, no matter how good it may be. After the hour mark it wasn't worth it, there were still several orders ahead of mine that were still in need of being fulfilled. I ended up asking for a refund which they were nice about. Our little ones had waited long enough and they were getting restless/almost time for bed. I will try again someday, but it won't be for awhile. Please figure out a way to cut down on wait times and overall efficiency. Your current setup can't handle the volume of people that frequent this...

Most of the food is on the generous size of portion sizes with a fair to inexpensive price. The fried foods are properly cooked. The breaded tenderloin has good flavor (unlike some other places in Indiana where there is no flavor). The burgers are a good size and taste good. In general, I would describe the food as upscaled small town greasy spoon meets fast food.

They have some fun and delicious beverage options. Strawberry tea and strawberry lemonade are popular. I do not recommend the tap water. We drink water with our meals everywhere we go and this was the worst. But that's true of Upland's water so not a fault of this restaurant.

The desserts are numerous (if you have trouble making up your mind, you're going to struggle here), but they mostly follow a pattern. Take soft serve ice cream and add anything you can think of and you get a sundae or blend it and you get a shake. If you like runny or thin shakes, this is your place. I would recommend the strawberry shortcake. You can get it with ice cream (soft serve) or whipped cream.

This is an icon of the area in the pattern of small towns across the Midwest. Well loved. Salty. Greasy. Sickly sweet. 'Merica. This one happens to do it all better than most.

(They do have great salad and fruit options for those that want or need them, but those aren't why you go here. They could be, they...