3 Best Restaurants in Indianapolis, Indiana

Grits, biscuits and homemade gravy, hickory smoked bacon and fried pork chops. These are some of the mouthwatering highlights at this off-the-beaten path destination for made-from-scratch Southern cooking. Humble beginnings in 1988 as a six-seat countertop diner, Kountry Kitchen Soul Food Place has evolved into a sit-down restaurant serving breakfast, lunch and early dinners. It also happens to be a standard stop for visiting celebs, including President Obama.

The real thing, only better. That's what this full-service restaurant really is, because from 1905 to 1990, the L.S. Ayres Tea Room was a ladies-who-lunch fixture of the L.S. Ayres department store. But when the store closed, the restaurant lost its home. A decade later, it found a new space and new, family-friendly setting in the Indiana State Museum, complete with replicated tables, chairs, carpets and lighting, and a menu featuring some of the old-fashioned favorites like chicken velvet soup and the children's "hobo lunch."

This self-described "student union for adults" definitely has the camaraderie and community feel down, with food appreciated by students and grownups alike. Sourcing locally before it was cool, owner and Texas native Martha Hoover opened her first Indy restaurant in 1989 and by 2002 had earned a shout-out in Bon Appetit magazine. She still does it right, from deliciously flavorful cups of sustainably grown coffee to the famous "broken yolk" breakfast sandwiches and fresh house roasted turkey wraps.