bru burger bar - indianapolis

fancy sauce. despite being extremely busy (though we went the weekend of the mini, not sure what i was expecting.) were defiantly headingbacksometime soon. the set up is slightly strange and its awkward even trying to get a beer from the bar while your waiting for your seat, not to mention the waiting area made it appear as though you were sitting at the people on the other side of the glass' table.
however the food was really good, though the menu has been changed and is not exactly like the one online. they pair a lot of ingredients that aren't typically seen together.they had a decent selection of craft brews on draft and in bottles.

the best part was the thing my boyfriend and i liked to call "fancy sauce" its labeled as chipotle bbq but it doesn't taste quite like that. its an odd blend of what i can only assume is their homemade ketchup and smokey bbq sauce. very interesting and very good. also the "fancy ranch" is to die for....no joke i didn't even eat ranch before i tried theirs.

fantastic mother's day!. great food, great atmosphere, great local beer, great service and great outdoor patio!!! thank you for making my mother's day that much more special!! we will bebackfor sure!

amazing! my boyfriend and i stopped here on our way from new york to arizona and we're pleasantly surprised by the price and quality of the food. we each got a $7 beer flight, a salad, and we split the bourbon burger and the mexican burger. absolutely delicious. we both agreed that the bourbon was the best burger we've ever had. i wish there were more locations. i will be goingbackhere if i'm ever in indianapolis again.

visiting friends from town were happy. two friends from out of town late on a saturday before the indy 500 and we showed up late. i expected a little irritation from waiter but was very pleasant and attentive. turkey burger was really good as was the mass ave blt. i got the mexicali and it was one of the best burgers i've had. reminded me of my favorite burger placebackhome.

great atmosphere. my brothers and i went here for dinner and drinks. we started with the trip dip app. it was very good but they should have given more dip for the amount of naan. the peach margarita was only marginal after sending the first onebackbecause it lacked peach, the second only slightly better. the gorgonzola cranberry pecan salad was fantastic! the accompanying sauces to the chicken tenders and fries were amazing. to finish the meal off we split the peach chocolate bread pudding it was a great finish!

i did not love the bru burger! it may have been the time we went, but the bun on my burger was not fresh. my wife has to eat gluten-free, and they offer a burger that is. however, they messed up her order and put mayo on it. they took itbackand just scraped the mayo off, and they just returned the same meat too. by then, the meat and cheese were cooled off. it was not the best experience.

good burgers. we visited there last night with my wife and 22 and 14 year old boys. we had about a 20 minute wait for a table which was no big deal. once seated, our server was there promptly and we received good service all night. we ordered the hot pretzels as an appetizer and they were delicious. my wife had the provencal burger which she thought was very juicy but also a bit messy. she gave it a big thumbs up though. i had the bourbon burger which was also very good. i had onion rings with my burger and they were ok but not special (a little too much breading for my tastes). my 14 year old son had the 3 cheese garlic burger and found it way to "garlicky" and only ate half of it. my other son just had a simple burger with lettuce and tomato. all but me had fries which were pretty good and we all really enjoyed the homemade ketchup. my wife had a couple beers and one of the kids had a coke. two of us just had water. our bill was $71. the burgers were really good but overall, the place is a little overpriced. we'll gobackbecause we really did enjoy the meal but it won't be often because of the price.

food is amazing. i love the fact they hand make their veggie burgers and will fix them up anyway you like. the roasted peppers and goat cheese was absolutely delicious. the service was pretty good too except when it came to pay and i had a change coming to me ($14) and the waiter brought mebackzero. ha. i did ask him though and he eventually fixed it. it seemed weird. but yeah the food was great.

worst food ever!. my son ordered the patty melt. the rye was extremely soggy, the caramelized onions were practically raw. the patty melt at steak & shake is much better and less costly. i ordered the lamb burger. it was to have cucumber sauce which i couldn't even see except for a little bit on the bun and there was very little of the feta-olive relish. i ordered it well done and it was slightly pink in the center. why bru burger bar is packed with customers and gets rave reviews is beyond me.

we ordered it to go, walked and picked it up to take to my son's apartment. we ended up pitching most of the food in the trash. what a waste of money. we should have walkedbackand returned it.

well seasoned, garnished hamburgers.. we can't speak to the salads or sides, but the two times we've been to bru so far have provided my wife and i with excellent meals--enough to furnish two portions, each. most recently i had the provencal, and she had the house-made veggie burger. the former was smooth, creamy, with a nice edge to the flavor, while the latter didn't taste at all like one of those frozen veggie burgers enlightened nations use to furnish the foundations of homes: it had a meat like flavor and texture, with a spicy core. it's too early to tell, given we've only tried four burgers on the menu, but i suspect our trips to and through indianapolis will include further trips to bru, as well.

a couple of additional points. first, sit in only on an off-hour. the place crowds up at lunch and dinner, especially on a weekend. do take out; you'll be glad you did. second, the directions may be a bit confusing because bru is actually slightlybackfrom massachusetts avenue. it's easy to miss. just park, get out, and go around the starbuck's. you'll find it easily, then.

a second chance at redemption. my first trip to bru burger left me with a bad taste in my mouth. to sum it up, i felt like bru tried so hard to be so trendy with its burgers that it didn't get some of the basics right and kind of lacked tasted. also up there on the lacking part was that a place like this doesn't do fresh-cut fries. even in a podunk town like morganstown down south, a place called kathy's cafe does fresh-cut fries. why can't bru?

the white bean dip was pretty good overall, so i can't complain. my provencal burger was pretty good as far as toppings are concerned (except i wish they wouldn't use red onions, regardless of being carmelized) but the burger patty simply is underwhelming. can't i get more maillard reaction on my outsides?

the bread pudding was above average for bread pudding, but sized too small. what's the matter bru, afraid to break the bank by over-serving on your bread pudding?

in the end, i still wasn't sufficiently wowed at a place like this for the prices that are charged. the perfect burger and fries are all about getting the basics right first and improvising from there.


-----25 feb, 2014-----

come at me bru.... i wanted to like bru, i really did. and in some regards, i did like some things about them. but with a total bill of $86 (over $100 after tip) for 3 people, it made me rethink what we just ate and drank to see if the value of it was there.

first off, our service was spot on. i can't argue with that. our first round of drinks found me enjoying their farmhouse ale but my wife did not enjoy her pear cosmo (although it sounded great) saying that it tasted like pure alcohol. in a second round, we all got what we wanted, but the first one was a fluke for sure. then our appetizer came out, the bbq nachos (chicken) that were really quite ordinary. for a place that prides itself on fancy gourmet toppings on burgers, there sure wasn't anything that stood out.

then our burgers came out. my wife had got the onion rings and my friend had got the fries. i must have spaced out when the server asked me if i wanted fries, because i didn't get any. i did taste my friend's fries and was shocked to find that they weren't even fresh cut fries?! what the hell? serving a premium burger with frozen bag fries is a serious no-no in my book. in fact, you may as well surrender any hopes of thinking you have the best burger in town until you get the fries that canbackit up.

so what about that burger? well my wife enjoyed her mexicali burger. but my "the end" burger failed on so many levels. first off, a truffle aioli had no trace of "truffle" in its taste. and i should know, i keep a shaker of truffle salt at my house to cook with. secondly, i won't argue that the burger was medium, just like i asked, but the outside didn't have that deliciously crisp crunch you get from all the mailard reaction occurring. it also didn't taste like it was seasoned during cooking, i.e. no salt.

the burger was sloppy, which was fine, but ultimately at the end of it there should've been a more fulfilling feeling, but there was none. the bun also fell apart halfway through regardless of being toasted. a more substantial bun would've been extremely welcome (kaiser perhaps?)

in the end, the bill sealed the deal that this place wasn't the value that i thought it was. granted my review won't scare away the long lines of people that eagerly wait in line for this place, but at least i won't have to be one of those people in the future.

almost great. as a food “snob” i am always looking for a good experience. traveling from tennessee to wisconsin, we passed through indianapolis, and decided to find somewhere to have lunch. we found bru on urbanspoon.. the pro’s - the burgers were delicious. i had the bourbon burger, and my boyfriend had ‘the end’ burger. they tasted fresh and juicy, the french fries were crispy and the homemade ketchup was delicious. the cons- we were in very casual travel dress (i.e jeans and sports t-shirts...) and felt very uncomfortable in this ‘casual’ place. our server was also the bartender, and although he was not busy at all, we were ignored quite a bit. he payed a great deal of attention to the customers who were ‘dressed’ and in turn got less of a tip from our normally 30% tipping. the burgers were a bit pricey, but the quality was well worth it. the food was great, the service was not. our overall experience was fine, however we would question goingbackonly because of the service we received (or didn’t)..

this was a spontaneous lunch choice.  we originally intended to try another restaurant on mass ave but left because of the noise level.  i usually would not choose a burger joint.  the atmosphere at bru burger bar was pleasing and dianne and i were able to discuss ideas for my food blog.  the restaurant was busy with lots of hustle.  the interior was more sophisticated than the name would indicate.  clean lines and dark surfaces with colorful artwork on the walls (as well as on the arms of our server).  we arrived for lunch about noon and sat at the bar.  unfortunately, no  tables were available in the outdoor seating area.  the outdoor area is adjacent to a small urban park area – a pleasant change from other restaurants where you feel like you’re dining in the parking lot. we split the bru burger and the chop salad.  the chop salad originally had to be sentbackbecause they did not pay attention to my request to omit the pine nut

great place. went in on sunday afternoon sat at the bar since party of one. jake (not from state farm) was behind the bar and did a great job. had the bacon cheeseburger with onion rings and it was awesome. loved the place and the stout on tap was even better!!!

will for sure be goingbackas it was worth the 12 block walk from hotel (the alexander)

so i had been to bru for the first time a few weeks ago and loved their ahi burger but wanted to gobackfor several reasons. most importantly, it was my foodie friend kate’s birthday and we needed to celebrate. however, i was doubly glad to be going because 1. the ahi burger was great-like really great-but we all know a burger ain’t a burger less it bleeds. 2. last time i went it was for a quick lunch-therefore no sides, drinks, or desserts were sampled. and as discussed in my last post, burgers are all about the accoutrements for me! so my expectations were high. and overall, my visit was very, very enjoyable . but there were issues, so i’ll discuss those first. 1. the name. i mean really. this is a part of the restaurant group that owns mesh , which i am a fan of, and stone creek dining company , whose ribs i would kill a second-degree relative for. but “bru” is really an awful name. 2. the burgers stand alone. this is annoying. it’s always a little annoying when restaurants try to