Rooftop Garden

Come for the views, wine and experience. A nice gem in Fountain Square. Food was ok, not mindblowing but priced fairly. Beautiful plants and landscape. Waitress was very knowledgeable.

So love this place. I look forward to opening day each year. Arrive early because the wait gets long. Even with that it’s still worth it. The view is wonderful and the food is good. A must try is the mac and cheese, it is delicious.

Arrive early it gets busy and the wait for seating is long. Once your seated the view is wonderful and the atmosphere is charming.
Food is yummy and the mac and cheese is a must.

Excellent service, Georgious scenery, awesome tasting food, and fabulous atmospher!

YOU HAVE SO MUCH POTENTIAL. Arguably one of Indy’s best kept secrets with an incredible view of the skyline. However, the positivity train has ended and now onto the bad. First, I’d like to know why the rooftop has such limited hours? Second, I’d like to know why the hostess refuses to take names for anyone wanting to have a cocktail amongst friends? Thirdly, if I’m spending money wether on drinks or dinner and I’d like to point out that my alcohol tab far exceeds my food bill every time, why can’t I put my name on the waiting list for a table? Fourth, why don’t you create inspired cocktails instead of the basic lineup that I could find at any run of the mill bar? It seems to me that the Rooftop knows what valuable real estate they are sitting on and thusly put forth minimal effort as everyone knows the view is always the best part and helps minimize poor service and food. I have high hopes that in years to come as Fountain Square basks in the glory of the level of recognition and love that downtown Indy receives positive changes will be made to fully utilize the potential that the rooftop has. Until then, I shall lower my expectations and admire the view while I sip on my Smirnoff and tonic water.

Well, the name says it all. It is a gorgeous view of Downtown Indianapolis located on top of one of the oldest buildings in Fountain Square.
First challenge of making it up to the rooftop: find the door. We parked and walked around the building looking for a clear marking, but you won’t find it. Finally after clarification from a server in another restaurant, we find out the door is next to the «Duckpin Bowling» sign. Floor 5. Great, we are off!
Next challenge: fear for your life in an ancient elevator for 5 floors or make the hike up the steps. Steps it is. In heels.
Okay, I arrive a little winded on the 5^th floor, but it is okay. We are seated in the cocktail area only area while we wait for a table to open up.
The drink menu is beer and wine, with only two beers on tap. Ok, oh well, I’m not that picky.
We are seated get the lobster flatbread as an app… I am not blown away.
For dinner, ribs and mac n cheese. Mac n cheese is great, twice baked and delicious. The ribs are decent as well. A North Carolina yellow sauce with a little kick!
Finally, dessert: their homemade cheesecake. It is in my opinion, flavorless. Triple chocolate never tasted so bland!
Summary: great for the view, but once is enough for a photo-​op.

I’m a big fan of outdoor eating spots, so this one is great. Nice high spot with cool billboards and the skyline behind you. We pre-​gamed across the street at New Day Meadery and then came here around 10pm. They were only serving appetizers, so we went with the pub pretzels. Very tasty! We hung for about a half hour only, but I would head back as a date spot or a birthday celebration. The ambiance definitely takes it up a notch.

It didn’t take long to figure out why this place has received such crapy reviews. This place has horrible customer service. As soon as I walked in I totally felt like somehow we totally inconvenienced them with our mere presence. Our apologies for patronizing your business (I say oozing with sarcasm).
This was our first visit. We walked up to hostess station. There were three people just standing around. No one said a word to us for quite some time until a nice bus boy acknowledged our presence then went to clear a table for us. The hostess eventually came over. She asked if we were here for dinner. We were like sure. Then she said well the kitchen is closing soon. Well, Geesh ok. Guess well just get drinks and a dessert. She then takes us to our table, but did so in a huff and barely said two words to us. Our waitress comes over. She was also short with us and tried her best to politely remind us that the kitchen closes soon. Geesh! We get it. It’s not even 10 yet. This is like walking into Starbucks 15 minutes before they close and the barista saying sorry we close in 15 minutes so we can’t make you a drink. Ugh! I ordered a ginger beer and a Heath shortbread, and my friend ordered coffee and white chocolate mousse in a chocolate cup. Our waitress tried to be nicer throughout the evening but was obviously still annoyed. My shortbread was just ok. My friend’s mousse was actually delish!
Shortly before closing time she asked if we «wanted our check now» in the most polite way she could muster up. Yes, we will take our check and never return to this establishment. Totally turned off by this place. Dealing with crappy service for a view of the skyline is not worth it.

I’ll preface this by saying that I’ve never actually BEEN to Rooftop Garden. And that’s the only reason I’m giving them two stars here, rather than one. Benefit of the doubt and all, y’know?
I was really put off recently when I called to ask if it might be possible to sneak up for 5 – 10 minutes before they opened to take some quick photos I was shooting for an engagement session. I was trying my very best to be polite and thoughtful, mentioning I didn’t want to interrupt their dinner service.
Their answer? «Well, you would interrupt setup. And, well, we charge a minimum of $ 150 for photos. But maaaaaybe if you guys got a table for dinner, you maaaaay be able to snap a couple photos while you eat.»
Wha? Seriously?
I have to give them props, though, I’D like to find a way to make $ 150 in ten minutes.

Beautiful view, perfect location, simple menu, how could you go wrong?! Well, they figured out. We arrive a few minutes late and they roll their eyes at us and won’t allow us to sit with our group (the beautiful party with white balloons, we can clearly see them). We apparently ruined their day by being two more than was expected. It was really hard for them to move to two plastic dollar tree chairs over to the table. So, they hated us from the start… the feeling was almost mutual, but we were willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.
We get to the table and find out that not only would they not allow our group to have the cake that we purchased for dessert (fair enough), they wouldn’t allow us to keep it in the box at our table. Someone from our party had to go find someone to hold on to it for us while we ate, since they walked from Fletcher Place they couldn’t exactly put it in their car. Rooftop Garden HATES cake. If they see it, you will be scowled at and given bad service for the rest of the night. You’ve been warned.
Now the food. It all fell a little flat. To be honest, it makes me sad that none of the restaurants in the Fountain Square Theater Building are very good. They have such an awesome location. We ordered pretzel bites, the dill dip was pretty bad, the cheese… well, who doesn’t like cheese. I then had the salad (standard), mac and cheese (dry and a bit bland, added sriracha for some flavor), and the fish of the day (overcooked swordfish). I would go for just drinks, but never again for food.
Last words:
Guest: «I don’t think this is the IPA I ordered»
Waiter: «The tap says it is» … walks away.

This was hands down the least accommodating restaurant I’ve ever been to. It seemed like the staff was under the impression that we were the ones who should feel fortunate to get to spend our money here, rather than them going at all out of their way for the people who keep them in business.
Whoever is in charge here is obviously oblivious to anything that can be confused with customer service. It seemed like everything that we did that didn’t include arriving with the entire group at the same time, sitting down, ordering food, paying, and leaving promptly was a huge inconvenience to them. The majority of this seemed to come from the lady who was the manager that night, but it trickled down to their employees because they were so handcuffed on what they could and could not do that they couldn’t do anything to accommodate us.
The view, on the other hand, is fantastic. It is one of the best places to watch the sun set over the Indianapolis skyline, and being on top of a rooftop provides a unique experience. I am slightly concerned about the giant billboard with the big lights on it that sits right next to you. We left before it got dark but if those come on during dinner, it looks like it would take away a lot from the view that could otherwise be enjoyed. It is an old building, so while the setting itself top notch, it isn’t a place that could at all be confused with a classy dining experience. The old elevator to take you up to the top takes a while and you will likely be packed in to get up to the top. The bathrooms are located a floor down in the bowling alley and haven’t been updated since the 60s. The plastic table and chairs are more of something you’d see in someone’s backyard patio than at a restaurant with such an amazing view. That being said, their food prices aren’t really out pricing themselves so it all evens out.
I got the smoked wings, and the wings themselves were great. The smoky flavor was prominent, they were nice and juicy, and the sauce that they were coated in was slightly sweet with plenty of kick. For $ 13/​dozen, they were on par with other wing places. They completely struck out on serving their spicy wings with a horseradish sauce though. There is a reason wings are usually served with a creamy and cool ranch or blue cheese dip. The rest of the food looked pretty good, and aside from one order everyone enjoyed their dinners. I recommend getting the pretzel sticks as an appetizer. Most options for entrees were $ 10-​$ 15. Their beer options are only ok, and at $ 4-​$ 5 a bottle, not priced great. Their bartender also can’t tell the difference between a cloudy citrusy wheat beer and a clear hoppy IPA. Unfortunately, our server also couldn’t and questioned us when we told him the wrong beer clearly came out instead of just getting the correct one.
I won’t be back here again solely because of the service, but everything else would draw me here many times if they get their one issue changed.

I feel like I really let my friends down with this one. It was my birthday, and this is the place I picked for dinner. What better place to dine al fresco than atop the Fountain Square Theater Building with the downtown Indianapolis skyline as the backdrop? Unfortunately, the fantastic view, decent food and amazing friends who came to celebrate was somewhat overshadowed by the general unhelpfulness and not so nice attitude by the Manager, which infected the rest of her team.
Let’s start at the beginning. My friends are amazing people who like to do everything they can to make special occasions special. They tried to make reservations and were told they couldn’t, so two of them arrived an hour before everyone else so they could put some flowers on the table and some balloons on the chairs. They were immediately told that they couldn’t be seated until everyone was there, so they had to sit around and wait. They brought a cake, which they were told they couldn’t serve. They were told that every single member of our party had to be present before they would seat us. So, my amazing friends sat there for an hour staring across the empty tables waiting on the rest of us to show.
When everyone finally got there, they took us to our seats and my friends started to decorate. They were told the balloons had to be moved because it might affect the people who were sitting next to us. No one sat at that table the entire time we were there.
We ordered drinks, and one person got the wrong beer. The server argued with him about it being poured from the correct tap, and when my friend insisted that it wasn’t right, the server admitted that they unscrewed the taps at night and probably hooked them up wrong. When he came back with a new beer, it was the right one. Not sure why he felt the need to argue, but he did.
Food was ordered and was quite tasty. Everyone was stuffed, so we picked up the cake from downstairs and went somewhere else.
There are a lot of restaurants choices in Indianapolis that offer much better service than here. There are a lot of places in Indianapolis that offer a fantastic view. While the view is amazing here, people will start getting fed up and simply won’t come back. It will be a long time before I decide to go back, and I suspect my groups of friends feel the same.

It never seems like this place wants to have customers — they close their doors if there’s even a slight chance of rain at any point that night, and won’t serve drinks within an hour of their closing time. I have tried to go to The Rooftop Garden at least 5 times and have only been successful once. That one time I had an enjoyable time and the drinks were fine, nothing to write home about. The staff and ownership needs to take a lesson on how to run a business — don’t make it difficult for people to enjoy your establishment and especially don’t be rude to people who want to spend money there!

AMAZEBALLS! We got there right at 10 (they close at 11 on Saturdays), but they offered us drinks and dessert. The apple cheesecake was decadent and too much for two people. There was a good variety of local and craft beers to choose from. It was such a cool place to sit and look at the city at night. It’s right by the Fountain Square billboard and the lights attracted a bat, which was cool and terrifying at the same time! The staff were very nice and got our drinks out quickly. I would love to go back and try the food, but there were plenty of late night eats available close-​by. Once again I feel the need to tell you how amazing the view and ambiance is!

Really rude staff… Run away as fast as you can. Hostess was unreal… Our group just left

Had a group of 11 people ready to have some nice cocktails. However the hostess at the bar was so rude and mean to us we walked out. Felt very unwelcome and won’t ever be back!

Review for drinks and location only, I haven’t tried the food yet.
Awesome spot at night to get drinks. They had a good selection at a moderate price.

Watch out for the breeze! But really this place is perfect. A view to a kill. Did I mention cold beer?