Best Dubai Chocolates
Yafa Golden Coffee
The pastry case brims with sweet showpieces at this busy cafe that specializes in the flavors and traditions of Yemeni coffeehouse culture. Among the most popular are several variations of the gold-standard Dubai chocolate combination of pistachio cream and crispy spun pastry, including a brownie, a croissant, and a drizzled strawberry cup. But Yafa’s classic, ultra-rich, break-apart chocolate bar is the gateway dessert for this irresistible food group.
14160 Mundy Dr., Noblesville, 317-400-5959
Dolce Vita
Crepes and gelato in endless combinations make up the menu at this northside sweets shop. The Dubai chocolate crepe combines the feathery crunch of knafeh with a chocolate-drizzled and pistachio-sprinkled warm crepe.
4825 E. 96th St., 317-663-8497
Melt N Dip
The local branch of this Illinois-based chain draws the sweet-toothed crowds with its crepes and Belgian waffles served under lava flows of melted chocolate. The Dubai Chocolate Waffle is thick as a brick, liberally striped with chocolate and pistachio cream and topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream—all covered in a shower of flakey knafeh. There is also a Dubai Milkshake that travels a little easier.
9840 E. 116th St., Fishers, 317-827-2120
Punkin’s Pies
This sugary booth inside the AMP food hall built its business on chocolate-covered strawberries. It comes as no surprise that owner Joanna Wilson assembles a Dubai chocolate fruit cup that includes the berries in a parfait of warm chocolate, pistachios, and flaked pastry.
1220 Waterway Blvd.
Best Coffee-to-Cocktails
The Alchemist
The owners of Fountain Square’s Espresso Enterprises and Red Lion Grog House marry their passions in this historic brick building just off the Monon.
1660 Bellefontaine St., 317-683-0957
Almost Famous
By night, this Mass Ave bar serves cabaret vibes, but in daylight, it’s a barista-driven espresso bar. 721 Massachusetts Ave., 317-986-7877
Parlor Public House
Tucked in a former industrial space between Lockerbie and Cole-Noble, this sharply designed space transforms from java-fueled workspace to laptop-free bar at 7 p.m. daily. 600 E. Ohio St., 317-610-0106
Thieves
Broad Ripple’s longstanding Starbucks is now a semi-gothic coffee shop that flips into an unapologetically swanky lounge at cocktail hour.
854 Broad Ripple Ave., 248-762-9788
West Fork Social House
Patrons at this sunlit, high-ceilinged Fountain Square business must be over 21 years of age, from its 8 a.m. opening for the caffeine crowd to its whiskey-laden last call.
1233 Shelby St.
Other Top Foods and Drinks Of Indy In 2025
Alfresco Party
Fishers Flower Farm’s Secret Garden seasonal dinners are as enchanting as they sound. Hosted by mother-daughter duo Kayti Robinson and Mackenzie Baker-Robinson on their 8-acre woodland flower farm north of Indianapolis, these evenings blend rustic beauty with a four-course meal, cocktails, and live music amid the blooms. With add-ons such as portrait photography and floral crafts, these one-off escapes are nature’s way of saying you literally need to get out more.
Rooftop Bar
People often praise restaurants or bars that transport their patrons elsewhere, but the appeal of Astrea, the indoor/outdoor venue on the 11th floor of the InterContinental hotel, is exactly how Indianapolis it is. Sip an excellent cocktail or enjoy a small plate crafted by one of the city’s best chefs as you enjoy the downtown skyline and a truly spectacular view of Monument Circle. Why would you want to be anywhere else?
17 W. Market St., 463-303-0400
Shop for the Sober Curious
Orangily offers a broad inventory of everything from spirits to sodas and teas, all free of booze, making it easier than ever to be a non-drinker in the Circle City, even if it’s just for one night.
5790 E. Main St., Carmel; 1051 E. 54th St.; 317-670-8661
Restaurant Pivot
After buying Nicole-Taylor’s in 2023, Erin Kem and Logan McMahon slowly started bringing their own vision to the popular pasta business. In 2025, they hit the gas, closing for a remodel and relaunching as Corridor, a lunch (and more) spot with a seasonally changing menu and influences from across Africa and the Arab world. But the beloved Nicole-Taylor’s market and pasta brand, as well as the restaurant’s evening chef’s tables dinners, remain. Truly the best of both worlds.
1134 E. 54th St., 317-257-7374
Coq au Vin
Josephine’s version is especially hearty and fresh, with tender, long-braised chicken that maintains its character, a chunky mirepoix, and roasted potatoes in a jus that’s not too heavy.
110 W. Main St., Carmel, 317-548-3589
Grown-Up Slushies
SoBro brewery Half Liter has the chillest frozen cocktail game in town, with flavors far beyond the usual “red” or “blue.” The Pina Colada is spring break without leaving home, the strawberry daiquiri boasts Amaro di Angostura, and you can marry the two in Half Liter’s Miami Vice, which blends them into a dangerously drinkable (mind the brain freeze) combination.
5301 Winthrop Ave., 463-212-8180
New Open Kitchen
Dining at Tom Main’s celebrated but compact Tinker Street in Herron-Morton has always been about being close up to the cooking, with most tables near the kitchen. While there’s slightly more elbow room at Freeland’s, Main’s latest enterprise, the dining room in a storied estate dating to the 1840s provides diners with a cinematic view of the work in the kitchen, which is now overseen by former Tinker Street toque Braedon Kellner.
875 Freeland Way, Carmel, 317-316-9875
Steakhouse Starters & Sides
Diners wanting a prelude to the bone-in main course at local chophouses are typically limited to staid salads, the soup of the day, and seafood standards such as crabcakes, oysters Rockefeller, and (ahem!) shrimp cocktail. Not so at Lone Pine, Josh Mazanowski’s inventive recent addition to Carmel City Center, which defies the steakhouse moniker at every turn. Chef Aaron Hansen’s kicky, herbaceous Pizza Mushrooms with roasted peppers and a lush basil aioli is all the best parts of a pizza, while his roasted carrots are earthy yet elevated with elegant lavender honey and tangy yogurt. And his hearty, Sunday gravy–worthy meatballs served over rich polenta will have you wondering if you even need that ribeye after all.
710 S. Rangeline Rd., Carmel, 317-907-0177
Cinnamon Rolls
Cinnamon rolls are harder to perfect than you might think. The ratio and configuration of dough, sugar, and butter are delicate, and the only way to achieve perfection is practice, which the team at Borage has in abundance. Led by co-owner Zoë Taylor, one of Indy’s top pastry chefs, the bakery side of the operation has exactly what it takes to produce a perfect roll every time.
1609 N. Lynhurst Dr., Speedway, 317-734-3958
Dirty Soda Bar
At Twisters Soda Bar, owner Jaclyn Chadburn delights in mixing up wildly sweet, inventive concoctions—poured over chewy nugget ice, of course. The menu includes hits like a Dr. Pepper with marshmallow cream, but the real fun is building your own creation. Start with a base—soda? Red Bull? lemonade?—then layer on syrups like salted caramel, huckleberry, and blue cotton candy. Add purees (mango, maybe, or piña colada), a splash of cream (coconut is a hit), or even candy mix-ins.
1007 S. 10th St., Noblesville
Seafood Tower
If you think seafood towers are for those hoity-toity folks at the other table, you haven’t had Nick Detrich’s generous Gulf Coast–inspired assortment of smoked whitefish dip, garlicky tuna confit, anchovy skewers, tangy pickled shrimp, and some of the freshest, best-dressed oysters in the city, elevated with subtly bracing mignonettes. It’s worth it alone for the earthy, aromatic Sazerac-cured salmon, as well as all the extras from the current menu that Detrich’s staff at Magdalena is sure to toss on. Coming in at just under $100, it’s easily a meal for a quartet, with expertly poured cocktails and an innovative dessert to share to complete the experience.
1127 Shelby St., 317-691-8021
Ice Cream Croissant
It would be easy to dismiss this curly topped mashup as just another viral food trend. But, guys, do not sleep on the towering swirl of vanilla soft serve rising from a hollowed-out croissant at the Carmel Prufrock Coffee Company. The creation sits embarrassingly high in its cup and is topped with a little beret of lamination. As the ice cream melts into the flaky layers, it creates a sweet union that is delicious down to the last, wonderfully soggy bite.
275 Veterans Way, Carmel, 317-602-3004
Chilaquiles
They may be a standard hangover dish at most Mexican joints around the city, but at this lively Latin spot with locations on the northeast side and in Speedway, the chilaquiles are a top-of-the-menu, all-day dish that gets regal status. At Mexico City Kitchen, fried tortillas come bathed in your choice of full-flavored, house-made salsas (try the tangy salsa verde that benefits from a hit of just the right heat) and garnished with two eggs, cooling crema, queso fresco, and slightly sweet, slightly smoky grilled onions. So revered is the dish at both spots that diners get their choice of meat at no extra cost. While well-spiced chorizo may be the logical choice, thin, marinated cuts of beef called cecina are a tender and tasty choice that complete the hearty dish any time of the day.
6144 W. 25th St., 317-992-8453; 7437 Pendelton Pk., 317-762-1490
Farmers Market Mushrooms
The array of succulently moist mushrooms in shades of yellow, russet, and dove gray trucked in to the Indy Winter Farmers Market and the Garfield Park Farmers Market by Forage and Cultivate’s Emma Brown in summer will make you want to forsake grocery store mushrooms. Her king trumpets and delicate oysters are some of the meatiest, richest mushrooms you’ll find around, among those favored by Julieta Taco Shop and Baan Thai Bistro. But the shiitakes Brown grows in a Greenwood pole barn on her parents’ farm are deliciously fresh and can be used all the way down the stem, containing substantially more moisture than those meant for shipping, which are partially dried. Recently, she’s added enokitakes and maitakes to her growing list, which means there’s hardly a fungi-forward recipe you can’t make with Brown’s inventory.
New Pizzeria
There’s no better champion for Brooklyn’s ultra-crisp pies than Benjamin Butterworth, who visited all the borrough’s pizza shrines before opening Brooklyn Char. 14765 Hazel Dell Crossing, Noblesville, 317-564-0660
Egg Salad Sandwich
Gluten-free breads and pastries have long been regarded as mere health food, not something you’d relish if you weren’t avoiding wheat. Yet the baked goods at Lara Cooney’s bohemian-chic cafe and pastry spot Fire & Ice defy that reputation at every turn. Especially good is the milk bread, which is fluffy, rich, and holds together perfectly for a lunchtime egg salad sandwich that’s a notch above the ones you grew up eating. The straightforward treatment of the filling, with a light touch of mayo, mustard, and chives, hits just the right notes.
6211 Allisonville Rd., 317-997-5774
Carnitas
With a name like El Puerquito Caliente, this recent addition to Indy’s Latin scene promises a hot take on classic pork dishes. But this darling taqueria, housed in the chrome-trimmed original home of Meadowbrook Diner dating to 1958, delivers a surprisingly sophisticated version of carnitas, perhaps Mexico’s most famous meat dish. Rib bones and succulent skin are likely to show up in the platters of ultra-tender, fall-apart braised pork, richly seasoned and garnished simply with pico de gallo, cilantro, and onions. Served with warm tortillas that are often homemade, it will easily provide tacos for the whole table, and bottles of balanced but full-flavored salsas show how much pride the kitchen takes in its signature dish.
5151 E. 38th St., 317-426-4221
New Asian Coffeehouse
If you’re a fan of the intensely sweet and creamy drinks offered at spots like Dunkin’ or Starbucks, you’re in for a thrill at Claypot Coffee House, the spacious caffeine-lover’s dream that opened this summer in a spacious south side storefront. It might be Indy’s only source for kopi, a Malay-style coffee drink brewed from deeply roasted, buttery beans which rivals the punch packed by chain coffeeshop drinks. Mingled with condensed or evaporated milk, it’s a pick-me-up that could double as dessert.
1551 E. Stop 12 Rd., 317-300-1346
New Latin Fusion Restaurant
While restaurants from throughout Latin America abound in Indy’s dining scene, few marry the best of two great world cuisines in as cheery a way as Omar Ramirez and Luz Gonza’s Macizo.
6335 Intech Commons Dr., 463-202-2853
New Restaurant Patio
When entrepreneur and restaurant-owner Bill Pritt set his sights on a new endeavor featuring old-school affordable lunch dishes and dinner entrees, he quickly fell upon the former branch of Regions Bank at Delaware and North, which offered a curious configuration he plays up in a private dining room housed in the bank’s former vault. Instead of dismantling the drive-thru at Harrison’s, which opened this summer, Pritt repurposed the space as a chic terrace with earthy stone, stained wood fencing, and all-weather furniture that has quickly made it a popular warm-day spot.
555 N. Delaware St., 317-826-7361
Gluten-free Bakes
In 2014, after discovering a severe gluten sensitivity, Lydia Bootz opened Gluten Free Creations from her home kitchen. Using butter, eggs, and sugar in most recipes, she crafts scratch-made celiac-friendly treats sold at farmers markets across Indianapolis. Even non-GF eaters rave about her specialty cakes, fruit fritters, and breads.
