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Bloomington Food & EntertainmentThere's more to Bloomington than basketball and Breaking Away. Bloomington is a lively and sophisticated college town, boasting art galleries, historical museums, and shops around Bloomington's restored Monroe County Courthouse square—all within walking distance of the conference hotel. From African to Tibetan, Bloomington hosts a wide range of restaurants that accommodate both carnivores and vegetarians. In fact, Bloomington is a vegetarian-friendly city, with nearly every eatery—no matter how small—offering a variety of vegetarian offerings. Most places are casual and generally inexpensive to moderately priced. Several Bloomington and campus film series feature independent, foreign-language and classic film, shown in a variety of venues in town and on campus each weekend. The following index to local eateries and local entertainment emphasizes those within easy walking distance of campus, and also includes breakfast options as well as university food services. In addition, the Bloomington Herald-Times offers a dining guide, which also includes locator maps for area restaurants. Bagels and Coffee
The Bakehouse features bread baked in a brick oven. It also has a wide array of other baked goods, including a very nice brioche. The coffee, roasted by a local merchant, is excellent and the first refill is free. If you want to get something more substantial than a pastry, you can order a sandwich or a bowl of soup.
Best bagels in Bloomington, according to the discriminating palates of the Campus Writing Program staff. A locally owned and operated company, the Bagel Company offers fresh bagels, soups, sandwiches, muffins, cookies, and desserts. The Writing Program Coffeeholic likes the coffee a lot—it's the same locally roasted coffee that's served at the Bakehouse. Service is pretty fast, so even if there's a crowd, you can still get your food and get out pretty quickly. Prices run about $1.75 for a bagel with cream cheese.
Coffee, speciality drinks, and a variety of baked goods. The atmosphere is good for people watching. Prices are about average for the town, with house coffee running around a dollar for a small cup. Speciality coffee will run a bit more.
The Encore Cafe serves a variety of soups, salads, sandwiches, entrees, and desserts. It is also a good place to go for a late night coffee. The house coffee is good. Refills are free. They also serve speciality drinks. Many graduate students have spent many hours drinking up coffee and studying for qualifying exams at the Encore.
The Red Chair Bakery is easy to find; just look for the store front with a red chair hanging over the front of it. The coffee at Red Chair is mediocre at best, but the cookies and scones are wonderful.
Soma is in the best coffee house tradition of good coffee smells, cozy atmosphere, conversation and people-watching. Located underneath the Laughing Planet Cafe (a great lunch spot), Soma offers specialty coffee drinks as well as the "real" stuff. $1.00 will buy a small house coffee. Refills are 50 cents. Soma also sells juices, smoothies, and a variety of baked goods. The Cosmic muffins are a meal in themselves.
Starbucks offers a variety of coffee and specialty drinks, along with various baked goods. Coffee is never old, since Starbucks policy is to make fresh coffee every 30 minutes. The advantage to Starbucks is that it is close to campus. The disadvantage is that Soma and Espresso Cafe Royale are nearly as close and have better coffee, at least in this reviewer's mind.
Located in the basement of Fountain Square Mall, Stefano's is a very comfortable spot for a cup of coffee and yummy dessert. Beware that Stefano's often has many varieties of cheesecake! Breakfast
Open at 7:00 am, the BBC is a great breakfast place if your idea of breakfast is a bagel and coffee. The food is also reasonably priced, and service is fairly fast.
Ladyman's is an institution. It's neither trendy nor bright, and the food is loaded with all the stuff that will contribute to an early coronary. On the plus side, if you want eggs, toast, bacon, grits, and all the coffee you can drink, Ladyman's is reasonably priced (under $5.00) and generally uncrowded.
The absolute opposite of Ladyman's. Everything about the Uptown is trendy, bright, and cajun seasonings tend to be emphasized more than plain ol' salt and pepper. The omelets, though, are extremely good. One of the nice things about the Uptown is that if you are under a time constraint, you can tell your server that you need to be out by a particular time.
Come before 9:00 am and order off of the Early Bird Special menu. For $2.99, you can get any one of five different breakfasts. Coffee is extra, but still very reasonable. Other types of breakfast fare are also available. The service is good; the Deli's logo may be"Eat and Get Out," but the food is good.
Wee Willies is a great breakfast place if your idea of breakfast includes eggs, hash browns, and all the coffee you can swig. Yes, this is coronary country, and it's too far to walk from the conference. You'll need to take the car—about a 10-15 minute drive. You can't miss Wee Willies; it has bright blue awnings visible from a half mile away. The food, however, is good. Lunch
The IMU Food Court is convenient and relatively inexpensive. It offers soups, salads, hot entrees, and a variety of fast-food options including subs, hamburgers, pizza, etc.
Jimmie John's offers sandwiches and subs at decent prices and fairly quickly. The breads are quite tasty, but this reviewer wishes they'd find another slogan than "You lickee, you squeegee" for their door.
If you're interested in a quick and unusual lunch or dinner, we recommend La Bamba (Kirkwood, close to campus), which serves, they claim, a Burrito As Big As Your Head. While this is only true for microcephalic patrons, the burritos are nevertheless large, delicious, and come filled with everything from avocado to barbecue chicken to steak. Side dishes are very inexpensive. The regular burrito costs about $4. The ugliest mural—IU basketball players with burritos for heads are trouncing anatomically correct Purdue players—in town.
A great place for vegetarians and vegans. The Laughing Planet specializes in various burrito combinations, lending more support for Bloomington as a burrito hot spot. Each week, the Laughing Planet offers an "international" burrito—the Thai burrito is a real experience—along with its basic burrito combination of brown rice, pinto beans, tofu or chicken, and cheese. Hemp cheese is available for vegans. Salsa is homemade. The Laughing Planet also has good soups and a variety of soft drinks and juices. Burritos run around $3.50 and are fairly substantial. Expect to pay around $5.00 for a lunch.
Average cost for lunch entree: $5-6 plus tax and tip. Very few Tibetan restaurants exist in this country, and Bloomington is lucky to have one of them. Little Tibet serves "modified" cuisine, which adds elements of Indian and Chinese cookery. Curries, stir fries, "stews"—vegetables (and/or meat) in broth with rice—noodle dishes, and "Mo Mos," large steamed dumplings stuffed either with meat or vegtables. Vegetarian options. To-order food preparation is worth the wait; an hour should suffice for lunch.
The Panda Palace is very close to campus (Kirkwood) and is usually crowded at lunch—the Writing Program staff eats there often, at the selfish insistence of one member of the staff. The buffet (about $6.25; ordering from the menu is not recommended at the lunch hour) is pretty tasty—wait for the sesame chicken. The hot and sour soup is particularly good.
Eritrean/North African. Seating capacity: approx. 50. Average cost for lunch entree: $5-6 plus tax and tip. No reservations Similar to Ethiopean food, Eritrean cuisine is highly spiced (though not hot)—served either on rice or inghera, a large, thin, crepe-like bread. The traditional method of eating this food is truly communal: served on a large platter (containing all entrees), everything is eaten is with the hands—tearing off pieces of bread and using them as a scoop with your fingers. The less adventurous may have forks. Wide variety of options, many of them vegetarian.
Seating capacity: approx 50. Very good Indian food—a good thing, since this is Bloomington's only Indian restaurant. The vindaloo is respectably hot, and all dishes well prepared. Although the food is excellent, the restaurant is not particularly large, so big groups may have to wait for seating. Variety of vegetarian options available. The lunch menu is reasonably priced ($4.25-$5.50 per dish, excluding costs for naan and raita). The only drawback is that you will need to allocate at least one and a half hours for lunch—and this only if you get there just before noon and very few people are seated. If you get there when the restaurant is full, you'll need to allow more time.
Average lunch: $5-7 a la carte; lunch buffet: $5.50. Seating capacity: approx. 70. Extensive menu of appetizers, soups, and curries; chicken, seafood, lamb, or vegetarian versions of many items. Food can be ordered in varying degrees of heat to accommodate the fire-eaters among you. Lunch buffet includes soup, rice, and diners' choice of 3-4 curries (at least one veg.), salads, noodle and vegetable dishes. Buffet is usually very good and quite quick.
"The Horse" is a Bloomington landmark that serves, in a casual atmosphere, the city's best gyros, spanikopita, moussaka, and hummus. The great thing about the Horse is that you can spend as little or as much as you want. Gyros run less than $5; full dinners up to $13. Small items—dolmas, spanikopita, dolmasalata—are ordered a la carte or in "combination" dinners. Good baklava. The Horse also has a full-service bar and a window facing Walnut Street that allows curious pedestrians to watch the gyros meat turn on vertical spits.
The Tudor Room, a public restaurant in the IMU, offers an ample lunch buffet which is very convenient, relatively inexpensive, and pretty quick. Vegetarian meals can be constructed. Desserts are good. Make reservations at least two days in advance if you want to sit in the regular dining area. WAC patrons should tell the staff that they are with the conference and ask to be seated, we're not joking, in the Coronation Room, which has been put aside for them. Note, however, that the Coronation Room seats only 60. If you wish to be assured of a table at lunch, we recommend that you call 855-1620 in advance.
This is fine dining a la Bloomington: great food available in a wide price range. People wearing opera capes or shorts are welcome (never seen anyone in both). The menu, although inflected with New Orleans accents—blackened fish, cajun meatloaf, red beans and rice, and a daily gumbo special—is eclectic, offering pasta, vegetarian, and international dishes (the chicken kebobs with spicy peanut sauce is popular) and a wicked list of desserts.Wine and beer available.
One of the best breakfast places is also one of the best lunch places. Do not be put off by the "Eat and Get Out!" slogans on the wait staff's T-shirts. Instead, take time to read through the extensive menu of creative (as well as traditional) sandwiches available. Vegetarians and meat-eaters alike will find plenty of options. The VD also makes its own "chips"—thick potato chips served hot and sprinkled with seasoning—which are the most popular "side." Dinner
The City Grille is a locally-owned, large-capacity restaurant specializing in, you guessed it, grilled foods. While the menu is more geared toward carnivores than vegetarians, the seafood offerings are pretty good. The atmosphere is a bit generic, but one of the big advantages to eating here is that the Grille can easily accommodate large groups.
Bloomington's first Japanese restaurant, Ekimae has been around for twodecades and offers a down-home atmosphere very different from the starker,more modern sushi bars. Although it offers sushi and sashimi, people comefor the hot pots, tempuras, and teriyaki specials. Try the Japanese-styleseating in the back room (no shoes, no chairs). Located in the old traindepot just north of downtown; beer and wine available.
The Encore serves a variety of food in an upscale cafeteria setting. Tina's, one of the local catering company, runs the Encore, and the food reflects what you might expect. Encore features a variety of soups, sandwiches, salads, entrees, desserts, and beverages. The specials are reasonable. A soup and sandwich, for example, will come with soup, a half sandwich, and oven-roasted potatoes—all for about $5. The chicken salad plate includes a generous helping of terrific chicken salad, home-baked bread, and two other salads on the side for $5.95. Be careful, though. Every item is ala carte, so costs can add up quickly.
This Italian concept eatery is a newcomer to the Square. Meals are good, the atmosphere okay.
This is THE place for carnivores. Vegetarians may want to look elsewhere. Why go to an Outback Steakhouse when you can go to a locally owned restaurant that has, according to some visitors, the best steak anywhere? Serving portions are very generous. Prices are comparable to those of the steakhouse chains. Beer is available.
Lennie's, Bloomington's first microbrewery, comprises a restaurant and an adjoining pub. Anyone can eat in the restaurant; the pub is 21-only. The food is terrific—gourmet pizzas, interesting appetizers, enormous calzones—as is the beer brewed on the premises. Diners, apres-opera crowds, and beer sippers hang out in both the restaurant and the bar. Prices are reasonble; the atmosphere is pretty low-key, although it gets crowded on the weekends, so an early arrival is recommended for dinner.
The best of the Tibetan restaurants (there are two), Little Tibet offers Tibetan, Northern Indian, and Thai food. As with most Bloomington restaurants, vegetarian meals are available. In fact, the vegetarian mo-mo (the Tibetan version of the pierogi) is quite good. Some entrees offer the choice of rice or steamed bread which is traditionally used to mop up the juices. Drinks include Tibetan tea, Thai iced tea, and Indian tea. Dinner entrees run from about $6.50 on up. Average prices run about $7.95.
The Malibu Grill is a "California concept" dining establishment. Menu items range from trendy pizzas to more traditional entrees. Vegetarians can take heart in a fairly wide menu. Outdoor dining is an option if you want to people-watch while eating dinner. Expect to pay about $10 per meal, without alcohol.
Sushi and sashimi in the land-locked midwest? Yes, and the quality and variety is quite good. Watch your chef at the sushi bar or sit in the dining room. Mikado offers an array of traditional Japanese dishes, full dinners, daily specials, and sushi combination plates for those who can't decide. Beer and wine available.
If you want to get dressed up for dinner, this is the place to get dressed up for. The Princess specializes in Moroccan and Mediterranean cuisine. The Apricot Chicken is terrific, but the Mediterranean pastas are also quite good. Nice wine list. Housed in a converted theater, The Princess also has an elegant atmosphere with excellent service. Yes, it's a bit pricey—figure about $14 for an entree—but it's worth it.
Puccini's has lovely, elegant atmosphere, with Italian opera as the background music. The waitstaff is quite good. Too bad the food is so inconsistent, especially since the prices are quite high. The pasta puttenesca is uniformly good, but the other items vary considerably.
Eritrean/North African. Seating capacity: approx. 50. Average cost for dinner entree $9-11 plus tax and tip. No reservations Similar to Ethiopean food, Eritrean cuisine is highly spiced (though not hot)—served either on rice or inghera, a large, thin, crepe-like bread. The traditional method of eating this food is truly communal: served on a large platter (containing all entrees), everything is eaten is with the hands—tearing off pieces of bread and using them as a scoop with your fingers. The less adventurous may have forks. Wide variety of options, many of them vegetarian.
Afghan. This is one of the best-kept secrets in the Bloomington dining scene. The white linen tablecloths suggest a formal, pricey atmosphere that may drive away potential customers. In fact, though, like most of Bloomington, casual dress is just fine. The kebabs are excellent. The appetizer, an eggplant dish served with oil and flatbread, is to die for. Vegetarians have a wide range of food items. The wine list is very good and the service is excellent. This reviewer has never had a bad experience at Samira. Prices tend to range between $8 for a vegetarian entree to $14. Highly recommended.
Seating capacity: approx 50. Very good Indian food—a good thing, since this is Bloomington's only Indian restaurant. The vindaloo is respectably hot, and all dishes well prepared. Although the food is excellent, the restaurant is not particularly large, so big groups may have to wait for seating. Variety of vegetarian options available. Expect to pay around $10 per entree.
The Story Inn is more than 20 miles southeast of Bloomington, in Story, Indiana. If you can find Story, you can't miss the Inn. Its dinners are among the best in the area—their chef is locally famous for comfort food/haute cuisine like chicken in blueberry sauce. You'd expect to find something like "cobbler flambe" on the menu, but it's not. Worth the trip, but not inexpensive. A good wine list.
Tortilla Flat looks like a dump, but the food is good. Perhaps the best Mexican food in town; a specialty is, no kidding, their Southwestern Meat Loaf. You can get a meal and a Mexican beer for about $9.
"The Horse" is a Bloomington landmark that serves, in a casual atmosphere, the city's best gyros, spanikopita, moussaka, and hummus. The great thing about the Horse is that you can spend as little or as much as you want. Gyros run less than $5; full dinners up to $13. Small items—dolmas, spanikopita, dolmasalata—are ordered a la carte or in "combination" dinners. Good baklava. The Horse also has a full-service bar and a window facing Walnut Street that allows curious pedestrians to watch the gyros meat turn on vertical spits.
This is fine dining a la Bloomington: great food available in a wide price range. People wearing opera capes or shorts are welcome (never seen anyone in both). The menu, although inflected with New Orleans accents—blackened fish, cajun meatloaf, red beans and rice, and a daily gumbo special—is eclectic, offering pasta, vegetarian, and international dishes (the chicken kebobs with spicy peanut sauce is popular) and a wicked list of desserts.Wine and beer available. Watering HolesJust so you know: Bloomington is a college town, and has many watering holes; some are also frequented as restaurants. Most importantly, Bloomington has some strange blue laws—many places have only beer/wine liquor licenses. Consequently, the following list of popular hangouts indicates their food-serving status, their licensing, and whether or not you must be 21 to enter them in the evening. You may also want to check out the Nightclubs listings.
Full bar; 21 after 5pm. Bear's does not accommodate large (over 8-10 people) crowds very conveniently. Consequently, it is a (usually) quiet, small-group hang-out that serves drinks, pitchers, and a lot of food. Its back room houses live music, indie films, and comedy shows on various nights.
A good beer place: they have lots on tap (something like 100) from around the world. The crowd is typically older crowd (after-work happy hour types); this is a good place for groups to socialize. It offers the usual pub-type food (burgers, pizza, wings) with a fairly quiet back room for those who want to eat in (relative) peace.
Full bar; 21 only after 5. Kilroy's is usually busy, offers drink specials, and serves muchies. People often eat lunch here, but in the evening, it is mostly a college-aged hangout. Suffice to say that many students celebrate their 21st birthdays here drinking brightly colored drinks with obscure names served in shot glasses.
Beer/wine only. Lennie's, Bloomington's first microbrewery, comprises a restaurant and an adjoining pub. One reviewer says that Lennie's serves a beer that is "sexy, dark, and sweet." Anyone can eat in the restaurant; the pub is 21-only. The food is terrific—gourmet pizzas, interesting appetizers, enormous calzones—as is the beer brewed on the premises. Diners, apres-opera crowds, and beer sippers hang out in both the restaurant and the bar. Prices are reasonble; the atmosphere is pretty low-key, although it gets crowded on the weekends, so an early arrival is recommended for dinner.
Full bar; 21 only. Every college town has a hang-out that is closely associated with the college itself. Nick's is it in Bloomington. Three levels of booths and tables, surrounded by IU paraphenalia, accommodate those who want a drink, a pitcher of beer, or a chance to catch an IU game. Lots of regulars rub shoulders with the weekend college crowd. Although busy and amenable to large parties, Nick's is the kind of bar in which people sit, not roam. Quiet conversations are possible. The food—standard bar fair—is quite good, too, and fast.
NightclubsBloomington does have some nightclubs where you can go check out the local music scene. To get an idea of who is playing where and what the cover charge is, try looking at the Bloomington Independent, or The Ryder. Both publications are free and are distributed all over campus. You can probably pick up a copy in the IMU main lobby or by the IMU bookstore.
Axis, formerly Mars (the old sign is still visible), is a nightclub that features several local bands each week. Cover charge varies.
Full bar; 21 only. B'town's gay dance club. The crowd tends to be young-ish (undergrads) with a sprinkling of older gay town-folk. Decent bar, pool tables, and juke box, although once the DJ starts playing (techno/dance), it gets pretty loud. Again, not much of a sit-n-chat place, but good if you want to dance. It gets pretty crowded later, and the crowd also tends to get more mixed as people filter down and club-hop from Second Story, which is right above Bullwinkles (N.B: if patrons pay the cover at Second Story, typically $4, they don't have to pay to get into Bullwinkles.)
The Cellar Loung is not a dance club. It's a good old-fashioned place to drink and listen to local groups. A cover charge applies.
Another new dance club on the Bloomington scene. Local groups. Alcohol is served, so you need to be 21 to get in. Cover charge.
Bloomington's under-21 nightclub. It's a very laid back, warehouse-like hall where indie, rock and punk bands perform for all ages, usually for just a few bucks. No smoking allowed. Although the dancing is good, the only ounce of nourishment one will find at Rhino's is soda (actually 12 ounces) from the coke machine.
Full bar; 21 only. Good club-like atmosphere—tends to be an older (read: grad-students, older students) crowd. Great live music, good-size dance floor. Probably one of the better places to hear live bands in town. Cheap bar! Not very conducive to 'sitting-and-chatting', but a place to go if you want to dance and enjoy good live (and loud) music. Classical MusicIU has one of the country's best music schools. The Music School offers a variety of recitals. Follow this link to see the schedule. Country MusicNo, it's not in Bloomington proper, but Little Nashville Opry is in Brown County, about a 20-minute drive east of town on 46. Call 812-988-2235 for more information. Films
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Registration | Announcement | Travel & Lodging | Food & Entertainment | Schedule Last updated: 23 January 2001 |
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