Recently I had the need to find an upscale restaurant in downtown Indianapolis to celebrate a special occasion. Normally, my go-to restaurant in Indy is St. Elmo's. You can't get a better steak in the city and the shrimp cocktail there is unbelievable. But, this isn't about St. Elmo's. Always seeking a new food experience, I chose The Eagle's Nest restaurant high atop the Hyatt Regency hotel.
The Eagle's Nest sit at the very top of the 23-story hotel and boasts a unique way to view the downtown Indianapolis skyline. It is a revolving restaurant and according to the staff, it is the only revolving restaurant that moves counterclockwise. While I can't verify that bit of trivia, I can confirm that the dining room does indeed revolve. The decor is simple and tasteful and the views are outstanding. You complete one lap around the city in about 45 minutes. The view is impressive, allowing you to overlook the state capitol, Lucas Oil Stadium, Victory Field, and other tall buildings like OneAmerica Tower and the Chase Tower.
We went to The Eagle's Nest during Devour Downtown. Devour Downtown is a bi-annual food festival in Indianapolis where many of the top restaurants in the city offer a fixed price menu to encourage new patrons to try them out. After we were seated, we reviewed the Devour Downtown menu and the full menu. To my surprise, the full menu left quite a bit to ask for. I found the menu to be fairly limited. Just a couple of appetizers, a few salads, and a handful of entrees. After reviewing the menu, I decided that we may as well order from the Devour Downtown menu.
We ordered an appetizer of shrimp cocktail to start the meal off. We received four large shrimp served cold with fresh lemon juice and a wasabi cocktail sauce. To be honest, this was the best part of the meal. Given the price tag, it was a little disappointing that the meal went downhill from there. The shrimp were cold and meaty. The fresh lemon juice was refreshing and the wasabi cocktail sauce was excellent.
For my first course, I selected a bowl of lobster bisque. I love lobster bisque and in my lifetime there have been two places that have served me an exceptional bowl of the creamy, savory soup. My absolute favorite bowl came at the Flagstaff House restaurant on Flagstaff Mountain overlooking Boulder, Colorado. That bowl was orgasmic and will likely never be topped. I also got a great bowl at the Capital Grille in Indianapolis. And so when I am presented with the chance to sample another bowl and to chase the remembrance of that ultimate bowl of bisque from the Flagstaff House, I always give it a shot.
Upon arrival, I noticed that the bowl had a good presentation, but one thing was missing. The aroma. I was missing the aroma of seafood that generally comes with a bowl of bisque. Undaunted, I dug in and took my first spoonful. The soup wasn't too hot, but it wasn't too warm either and I quickly learned that my soup would be made up of shredded, miniscule pieces of lobster meat. No big claws. No chunks of meat. Just little stringy pieces that almost felt gritty in your mouth. This bisque tasted more like a tomato soup with some lobster flavor dumped in. In my pursuit of lobster bisque nirvana, this dish ranks well below any of the others to date.
Next came the entree. The Devour Downtown fixed menu offered the choice of Prime Rib, Chicken Cordon Bleu or Halibut. I chose the Cordon Bleu. The presentation looked tasteful with a large portion of chicken, some lightly cooked asparagus spears and a helping of mashed potatoes. It was obvious that the chicken was handmade from a large chicken breast, pounded thin and hand breaded. The cheese and ham inside looked plentiful.
The presentation was once again, the best part of the dish. The mashed potatoes were molten with an internal temperature of somewhere in the neighborhood of molten lava. I imagine the flavor was closer to molten lava as well. Even the addition of some salt to the dish would have helped the potatoes. I like asparagus and these spears were good, yet very large. The chicken was a little dry and lacked a complexity of flavors. At this point, I was happy to be eating here during Devour Downtown because the full price of this meal would have put me on the verge of being angry instead of simply disappointed. The Chicken Cordon Bleu, for example, is $32 on the regular menu and my entire meal for Devour Downtown was fixed at $30.
And finally I reached dessert. I will say that the service at The Eagle's Nest was good. We never waited long between entrees and our drinks were refilled quickly. Dessert was a ricotta cheesecake served with Amaretto nectarines. The cheesecake was creamy and the nectarines were soft, but the Amaretto flavor wasn't present. The cup of coffee that accompanied the dessert was, however delicious. And needed to keep me awake, since the sensations of this meal didn't do much to keep me motivated.
Overall, I see The Eagle's Nest as one of the many restaurants surviving on a great view and their old reputation. We all know the places with a tired menu and uninspired decor that still make money because people always remember when it was such a great place. The places where our parents went for their anniversaries. The Eagle's Nest is that place. We had to arrive at 5:15 p.m. for our Saturday night meal because we weren't allowed to have a later reservation. Yet most of the restaurant remained empty when we left at 6:45 p.n. Between that and the overpriced menu with uninspired food, I don't think I'll be able to head back. If I need a birdseye view of downtown Indianapolis, I'll rent a hot air balloon or just look out the window while I fly into the Indianapolis airport.
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