You might be tempted to confuse The Patio with a certain former Broad Ripple nightclub of the same name.
Don't.
The Patio isn't a night club. There isn't any music, though there is a television that was playing a soccer match upon my arrival.
No one's dancing, well, unless they had to go to the bathroom.
The Patio is located in what looks like a former Burger King on East Washington Street. I am comfortable saying that most who drive by the place have either not noticed it, casually wondered about it, or simply thought "what a dive."
Yep, it's a dive.
The Patio is pretty much a run-of-the-mill locally owned restaurant with decent food, better service, and from what I'm reading some pretty awesome delivery within their area that includes Irvington. The Patio has a pretty good variety of sandwiches, salads, ribs, a few desserts, burgers, chicken, and from what I've heard a pretty awesome gyro.
If you're the type of person who gets fidgety inside a less than sparkling clean restaurant, you may want to stay away from The Patio. It's clean, but not spotless and the restaurant has clearly seen better days. However, they must be doing something right because they've been open for awhile.
The truth is I've hardly ever seen anyone in the parking lot as I drove by, a factor that likely contributed to my taking such a long time to try the place. However, I was in the mood for something different tonight and it seemed like a good time to try a casual looking place. They do have a couple accessible parking spots and a curb cut that works quite nicely. They have a couple of glass doors that weren't too bad to open, and it's your basic fast food layout when you enter - the counter to the right and the dining area to the left. The dining area consists of tables, booths, four-tops and two-tops.
I ordered what they called the "jumbo tenderloin," and while it certainly was a nice sized chunk o' meat I'm guessing it was a frozen fritter. Still, it was pretty good and I enjoyed it. The combos come with fries and a drink. The fries are a decent sized order - while they didn't have much uniqueness to them, they certainly were pretty decent. I was a little concerned when I saw that all their drinks are fountain drinks, but they do offer unsweetened iced tea so I was happy. It's a self-serve, so refills were also available.
I wasn't really expecting The Patio to blow me away. It didn't. In fact, I'm a little surprised by the number of five-star reviews, though I admittedly didn't try the gyros and the hot dogs which seem to be getting most of the praise. I could possibly go to a four-star, though I have to be honest and say that my suspicion that my "tenderloin" was a "fritter" leaves me comfortable with a three-star rating.
The real kicker for me is that my entire meal was less than $8.00 - and they had meals that were even less expensive. So, while I may knock the food a bit the simple fact is that it was a decent meal, a nice sized meal, and a terrific price with good service tossed in.
The Patio is certainly not a destination spot, but if you're on Indy's Eastside and don't want to go to the nearby Applebee's then this is a nice opportunity to support a local business. I'm glad I did and I'll definitely go back, though I'll likely try something other than the tenderloin next time around. read more