You are going to get hungry no matter what you are doing, whether it is searching Carmel’s Arts & Design District for just one more life-size Seward sculpture, biking the Monon Trail, or going to a concert at the Palladium. Breakfast, lunch, and even supper may be found at some of the city’s most acclaimed restaurants in Carmel, Indiana. The following is a list of the restaurants that I consider to be the finest in Carmel, Indiana.
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Contents
- 1 Top 7 Best Carmel Restaurants, Indiana
- 1.1 Best Rester
- 1.2 Best Breakfasts in Carmel, IN
- 1.3 Best Carmel Restaurants for Experimental Lunch
- 1.4 Best Fast Casual Carmel restaurants
- 1.5 Best Carmel Restaurants for Meatballs
- 1.6 Best Carmel Restaurants for Burgers:
- 1.7 Which one of these Carmel restaurants, IN do you most want to try? Let me know in the comments section below!
- 1.8 If you enjoyed this post please consider pinning it using the image found below!
- 2 FAQs
Top 7 Best Carmel Restaurants, Indiana
Best Rester
Eggshell Bistro
51 West City Center Drive // +1-317-660-1616
In the heart of Indiana, Chef Larry Hanes is establishing a haven with a focus on European cuisine. Some of his customers joke that it is less expensive than a flight that goes directly to Paris.
Eggshell Bistro, which can be found on the north side of the City Center, has elevated the traditional Sunday brunch to the level of an art form. An example of this would be the truffled egg brioche, which is served on brioche and consists of a sous-vide poached hen’s egg, asparagus, preserved lemon, porcini white truffle oil, fontina cheese, and bottarga, as well as a truffled egg.
Another customer favorite is the asparagus strata, which is a cassolette made with eggs and bread that also contains double-smoked ham, caramelized onion, Jarlsberg cheese, and basil pesto. The dish is accompanied by a variety of fresh fruits in a mix. Around the cassolette’s perimeter are delectable pieces of caramelization that have been baked into it.
Toasted nuts, seeds, and savory spices are the primary components of dukkah, a traditional Middle Eastern spice blend. At Eggshell, you’ll find that hazelnuts and sesame seeds are used quite frequently. The spice blend typically consists of mint, both regular and black cumin, coriander, anise, fennel, sea salt, and black pepper. Other common ingredients include mint.
At Eggshell Bistro, the shirred dukkah eggs are made with dukkah as the main ingredient. Add some Merguez, a spicy lamb or beef sausage that is combined with roasted pearl onions, red pepper, and golden raisins for a touch of sweetness. Merguez can be made with either lamb or beef. A cast-iron Staub pan is used to bake hen’s eggs, and a dollop of hazelnut romesco is served alongside the eggs. The eggs come with a baguette that has some impressive grill marks on it.
The exquisite presentation of each dish is due in large part to the chef’s signature combination of fresh and dried flowers. It shouldn’t come as a surprise because Chef Hanes was a graphic designer in a previous life.
Biscotti is Eggshell’s take on the traditional cookie dessert. Biscotti dipped in chocolate and sprinkled with sea salt are sure to be a hit with chocolate fans. The corn almond biscotti is a sweet treat that pays homage to both Indiana and Italy. These are perfect for a snack in the middle of the afternoon and are easy to transport.
Pro Tips:
- It is not acceptable to make alterations, substitutions, or display any extra creative ability. If you have an allergy to any of the ingredients in the dish, you should select another option.
- Eggshell Bistro’s laid-back vibe was a deliberate design choice made by Chef Hanes. If time is of the essence, discuss your needs with the person serving you so they can recommend an option that fits.
- The only meals served throughout the day at Eggshell Bistro are breakfast, brunch, and lunch. Check their website to see when they are open.
Best Breakfasts in Carmel, IN
Café Patachou
Multiple Locations
You are never too far away from a Café Patachou thanks to the establishment’s two locations in Carmel and its six locations in and around Indianapolis. Martha Hoover, who started the restaurant and owns it, is one of the semi-finalists for the James Beard Award for Outstanding Restaurateur in 2019. In the late 1980s, Hoover was perplexed as to why restaurants in the middle of one of the most fertile agricultural regions in the country served frozen and processed foods. She was one of the first people to start a farm-to-table restaurant when she opened Café Patachou.
Corn, for instance, is used in the preparation of Indiana sweet corn cakes, which is an example of the use of a regional ingredient. To begin, they start with layers of corn cakes and sliced avocado in alternating order. The topping is completed with a relish made of pickled beets. A heap of arugula salad that has been dressed with the house vinaigrette is served as an accompaniment to the stacked corn cakes.
The pumpkin bread is a delicious way to celebrate the harvest in the fall. To begin, two slices of pumpkin bread that have been toasted in a skillet are sandwiched with mascarpone and cream cheese that has been whipped with maple syrup. Each layer is finished off with puffed quinoa and sugared pecans. The server recommended sprinkling some fresh berries over the dish. The blueberries, strawberries, and raspberries brought a splash of color and a burst of vitality to the dish.
Pro Tips:
- After you have been added to the waitlist, they will SMS a link to your phone that will allow you to easily check how much longer you will have to wait.
- The only meals offered at Café Patachou are breakfast, brunch, and lunch. Check their website to see when they are open.
Rosie’s Place
1111 Main Street, Suite 100 // +1-317-688-7350
The restaurant gets its name from Rosie, who was Debbi Bourgerie’s maternal grandmother. It serves breakfast and lunch and uses ingredients that are locally sourced and prepared according to the season.
In the morning, in addition to the traditional breakfast of two eggs, toast, and country potatoes, there will be other, more interesting options available. An illustration of this would be the Spring veggie hash, which consists of quinoa topped with baby red potatoes, asparagus, Brussel sprouts, red onion, mushrooms, baby spinach, and thyme, and then two poached eggs placed on top of everything. In the style of eggs Benedict, it is finished with hollandaise sauce and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar.
Their sandwiches are a delicious choice for a lunchtime meal. The hot pastrami sandwich begins with a grilled ciabatta roll topped with hot pastrami, melted provolone cheese, creamy coleslaw, and Rosie’s special sauce. The sandwich is finished with a drizzle of Rosie’s special sauce. The sandwich is served with potato chips made in the house.
The pork tenderloin sandwich is a popular option in this area. Due to the high volume of pork tenderloins produced in this region, there is an entire trail of restaurants that serve this particular sandwich. On a bun made in-house sits a pork tenderloin that has been hand-breaded and is topped with lettuce, tomato, and red onion in addition to mayonnaise.
The bakery used to sell the famous gooey butter cakes from St. Louis, but over time, the cakes were transformed into gooey butter cookies so that patrons of the restaurant could enjoy them as an afternoon snack. If you’ve been to Rosie’s Place and become addicted to the gooey butter cookies, you can satisfy your cravings by purchasing more of them through their online store.
Servers are identified by their attire, which consists of jeans and logo T-shirts bearing amusing sayings such as “Hugs & Quiches” or “Everything’s Coming Up Rosie’s.”
A helpful piece of advice is to pick up something sweet from the bakery to enjoy as a snack at a later time.
Best Carmel Restaurants for Experimental Lunch
Tina’s Traditional Tea Room & Tavern
30 North Range Line Road // +1-317-565-9716
Tina’s Traditional Tea Room & Tavern is a British restaurant that can be found in a building with two stories and brightly colored trim. It should come as no surprise that Tina’s Traditional Tea Room & Tavern serves traditional English high tea, but what did catch us off guard were the more substantial meals.
The traditional British dish known as the ploughman’s platter was made to be shared with others. A bed of greens mixed with cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, and sliced grapes was centered on the wooden plate that was similar to a charcuterie platter. This bed of greens was just waiting for the accompanying vinaigrette to be drizzled over it. The salad was surrounded by three different kinds of cheese: an orange Cheddar, a yellow Irish Cheddar, and a Sage Derby, which got its green color from the sage that was added to the cheese.
The quiche without a crust made for a delicious and healthy gluten-free morsel. The platter received the perfect amount of zing from the addition of a round pie made of meat and filled with beef that had been seasoned with hot peppers. Two butter-slathered savory herb scones with a hint of sage and thyme; these scones were flavorful and moist, with a hint of sage and thyme. In the end, the traditional British sausage roll, which is made with phyllo dough that is crispy on the outside and filled with pork and beef, was discovered to be the ideal complement to the well-known Taddy Porter.
Another traditional British dish was the chicken salad called the Coronation chicken salad, which was created for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. The spring greens, grape tomatoes, English cucumber, and grapes are all sliced and added to the salad as the first ingredients. After that, the dish is finished off with Tina’s well-known coronation chicken salad recipe. Tina’s chicken salad recipe is one of a kind due to the fact that she uses a curry powder with a more subtle flavor and incorporates dried cranberries.
The Traditional Tea Room at Tina’s serves English high tea in addition to a variety of other delicacies.
A helpful hint: there is no charge to park in the lot behind the tea room.
Best Fast Casual Carmel restaurants
Oca SKS
351 Monon Boulevard // +1- 317-671-1640
Oca, which is Spanish and Italian for goose, is a restaurant that specializes in meat and is housed within the Sun King brewery. You make your purchases for their meals at the food counter, in the manner of a food court.
The muffuletta is definitely up there as one of my top choices for a sandwich. Mortadella, Cotto salami, and city ham are stacked atop a roll that has sesame seeds encrusted on its top. Also included are layers of provolone and mozzarella cheese. After that comes the toppings, which include a giardiniera that is only mildly spicy, a salad of olives, and mayonnaise. It is served hot, and the cheese is allowed to melt down the side of the dish.
As this establishment is a craft brewery, you’ll have the ability to choose the handcrafted beer that goes best with your meal.
Best Carmel Restaurants for Meatballs
MiMi Blue Meatballs
8702 Keystone Crossing // +1-317-574-1970
You may order the meatballs just like sushi by using the markers that are in the flower vase. Place a checkmark next to the amount of meatballs you want next to each kind. The next step is to choose the sauce. Make a note of your selection directly on the menu, and then give it to the waitress.
You are free to have them in whatever manner you desire, and there is a wide variety of options available to you. It’s a menu where you may mix and combine items. Pick your sauce, your meatballs, and your sides, then pick your meatballs again. Every aspect may be altered to suit your needs. Marinara, garlic cream, hot Bolognese, spicy cilantro, honey sriracha, bourbon BBQ, mushroom gravy, sriracha aioli, and a unique sauce are the nine varieties of sauce that are available.
It was really well put together how the four meatballs were presented to the customer. A square dish made of white porcelain was cut into four equal quadrants, and each of those quadrants had one meatball topped with the right sauce. Because of the little separators, the sauces from the two meatballs that are next to one another will not get mixed together. As a result, each flavor will remain distinct and unadulterated.
Despite having “meat” in the name of the restaurant, Mimi Blue Meatballs offers a number of vegan choices. There is the vegetable option, the black bean quinoa option, and the Wonderball option. Combine either of these options with the marinara or the spicy cilantro sauce, depending on your preference.
One unique meatball is featured on the menu at Mimi Blue once every week. Take, for instance, falafel accompanied with tahini sauce.
Banana mousse should definitely be what you have for dessert. You gotta have it. This sweet treat is comprised of three homemade elements: the banana mousse, the whipped cream, and the white chocolate topping, which is presented in the form of crumbles and is comprised of more than just crushed nilla wafers. The pastry chef makes a component that resembles brittle by combining nilla wafers prepared in-house with white chocolate. This component is then crushed and presented as a crumble on top of the dessert.
Tip: If you are unsure whether or not the honey sriracha will be too spicy for your taste, the waiters are happy to provide you with samples in metal shot cups, which may be sampled with baby-sized tasting spoons.
Best Carmel Restaurants for Burgers:
Bub’s Burgers & Ice Cream
210 W Main Street // +1-317-706-2827
When you’re riding along the Monon Route in the Carmel Arts & Design District, be sure to stop at Bub’s Burgers & Ice Cream, which is located in a yellow home on the trail. It’s the ideal place to have some ice cream. The proprietor, Matt Frey, was given the nickname “Bub” when he was a boy, and the name of the restaurant comes from that.
The ground chuck used in the burgers is always fresh since they are hand-formed, and they are never frozen. The last step is to perfect them over an open flame. Every day, the buns are handcrafted in-house to ensure a perfect match with the burgers. Each burger is served with a side of lettuce, tomato, onion, and pickle.
After being cooked, the Big Ugly pound-and-a-half burger weighs exactly a pound. It begins with a weight of 22 ounces before it is cooked. If you are able to consume this, then your image will be hung on the wall.
Elk burgers, in addition to beef burgers, are on the menu here among gourmet options. Burgers made from elk have a high protein content, yet they are low in fat, calories, and cholesterol.
Hand-dipped milkshakes are the perfect complement to a juicy burger.
Which one of these Carmel restaurants, IN do you most want to try? Let me know in the comments section below!
If you enjoyed this post please consider pinning it using the image found below!
Author’s Biography:
Freelance travel writer, photographer, and blogger Amy Piper is one of her many talents. She was born in the state of Michigan in the United States, and she has now visited 41 nations and 42 states, the most recent of which is New Mexico. Her bucket list includes a trip to Antarctica, which would complete her tour of all seven continents.
She routinely takes trips with her husband, daughter, and two grandchildren, and specializes in both eating and travel with many generations at the same time.
Amy has completed stints as an expat in South Korea and Argentina, each lasting for a period of six months. She has been the target of bomb-sniffing dogs in the middle of the night in Bogotá (working late), been denied boarding on an aircraft from Buenos Aires to Paraguay (wrong visa), and had her seat number published by Federal Marshals when they were searching for a murder suspect on a flight (traded seats). It is never not an exciting experience!
She is a member of the International Travel Writers and Photographers Alliance, the International Food Wine and Travel Writers Association (IFWTWA), Travel Massive, and TravMedia (ITWPA). You may find her on Twitter under the handle @amythepiper.
FAQs
What is Carmel in known for?
In point of fact, Carmel is now recognized throughout the entire world as the “Capital of Roundabouts.” According to information provided by the city of Carmel, beginning in the late 1990s, Carmel began the process of constructing roundabouts and replacing signalized intersections with them. More than 125 roundabouts can now be found in Carmel, making it the city in the United States with the most of its kind.
What food is St Ives famous for?
St. Ives has a number of restaurants that have won awards for the quality of their seafood. We have compiled a list of the best seafood restaurants in Cornwall that serve locally caught seafood. Lobsters caught locally, local food sources that are sustainable, and mesmerizing scenery are what you can look forward to. You can look over the menus and book a table by contacting the restaurants directly.
Is Carmel Indiana worth visiting?
The world-famous Monon Rail Trail, which is also one of the most incredible and extensive hiking trails in Indiana, runs right through the middle of Carmel. You’ll find additional information about it right here! Other well-liked pastimes outside that can be enjoyed in the area include world-class golfing, hiking and biking paths, parks, and even more.
What is a traditional Cornish breakfast?
An incredible variety of dishes, including eggs, bacon, sausages, fried bread and beans, mushrooms and tomato, fried potato, and Hog’s Pudding, a traditional Cornish dish, are included in a traditional Cornish breakfast. What a wonderful and heartwarming gesture it would be to make for people who may be spending the holiday season by themselves or who do not have a traditional Christmas dinner planned for themselves.
How do I spend a day in Carmel?
- Stroll along the beach in Carmel.
- Visit Carmel Mission.
- Carmel River State Beach is a great place to go hiking.
- Discover the natural wonders of the Point Lobos State Natural Reserve.
- Have fun sampling different wines.
- Visit several art galleries just to look around.
- Learn the secrets of The Secret Garden.
- Drive along 17 Mile Drive for a while.