Pick-A-Day

March 2024
M T W T F S S
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728293031

Archives

Surprisingly Good Eats in Indianapolis!

This trip I spent a couple nights in Indy attempting to adjust to local time while visiting Koko and Boy. Food-wise, there wasn’t a single restaurant in the city that I really wanted to return to immediately as all my old favorites have either slowly decayed or closed.

I’m happy to report that this time I found three great places to go while I was there: Mo’joe, Down Home Cookin, and Sawasdee.

Mo’joe is, as you might guess, a coffee shop recommended to me by Koko and I’d planned to spend a few hours there on Thursday. However due to a confluence of problems—the aforementioned break-in plus a problem with my US mobile phone, I was there for only about an hour.

It’s a nice coffee shop and it doesn’t mind if you park yourself there for hours—lots of electrical sockets, lots of tables, lots of people-watching opportunities. It’s a vast improvement over my old Indianapolis hangout, The Abbey, which is now closed.

As I only had about an hour, I only had a soy-coffee-latte and one muffin, and only a limited time to enjoy the atmosphere. It was an atmosphere conducive to work and I managed to get a lot done in that hour – mainly dealing with lots of little emails and minor emergencies. Mo’joe is located at 222 W Michigan, in downtown Indianapolis. It’s main problem is parking: it doesn’t have a lot.

Sign for Down Home Cookin'On my way to Mo’joe I was starving and I happened to pass a Down Home Cookin and decided to stop. I believe that technically it was soul food—or at least it was good for my soul. I was starving—as I hadn’t eaten anything in over six hours by that point.

For lunch they have a variety of meats that you can get in combination with two vegetables. After perusing the plethora of inviting options, I ended up going for something rather simple and straightforward: meatloaf. I haven’t actually had real meatloaf in a long time so although a simple choice, it did feed my soul. For my two veg, I was going to have corn and greens, before I realized there were yams! So I ended up with yams and corn to compliment my meatloaf. In combination with a Sprite, I paid $11.16 for lunch.

The food was really great and I was starving, so I managed to scarf it down at an unreasonably fast rate and seriously, there’s nothing more awesome than this kind of lunch.

Additionally, the place featured Obama-art—including the piece shown here, which was probably the most over the top out of the bunch. Next time I’m in Indy, Down Home Cookin is on my short list—it’s at 2621 Dr Martin Luther King Jr St, if you want to try and find it yourself.

Painting of President Obama

Finally, while comparing iPhones with Koko and her husband, Boy, (between the three of us, I believe there was an original, a 3G, and a 3GS in the room), I remembered that I have the Urban Spoon App, which is useless in Germany, but that I’ve never deleted. I fired it up and after a few shakes, it suggested Sawasdee, a Thai food restaurant. With a 91% approval rating, out of 200 votes, I suggested we actually try it.

It was great. Well, the food was great. The décor was a bit rough and the parking difficult, but the lunch pricing was reasonable. I had the Padd Kee Mow (Drunken Noodles) with Chicken, hot, which was quite pleasant and delicious. Koko and her husband both enjoyed their meals. Being the kind of person I am, I noticed a few typos on the menu, like on dish coming with “fired” rice. Boy observed that Number 4, the Ladd Nar is in a “light grave sauce.”

Regardless, I think that we would all be more than happy to return.

2 comments to Surprisingly Good Eats in Indianapolis!

  • disenchanted

    The Abbey closed? Geez, it’s been forever since I’ve been to Indy. As for the Obama art – oh, yuck.

    • Honestly, the last few times I went to the Abbey, I was underwhelmed. I finally realized the last time I was there that I didn’t want to go back — I’d been fueled by nostalgia. That was gone and then I found out it closed.

      No great loss — although I do miss The Abbey from Mass Ave.