Ah, St. Elmo - my favorite restaurant in downtown Indianapolis. I had rare pleasure of being able to eat at St. Elmo on my actual birthday this year! Normally we’re only in Indy in August, but this year we had an event in March as well. My birthday conveniently fell on the day of the event we knew we’d be finished early with, so I was able to secure a reservation for us at St. Elmo. On my birthday! Super exciting!
World Famous St. Elmo Shrimp Cocktail
We both started out with the insane shrimp cocktail. It’s insane because the cocktail sauce is horseradish with some red stuff. It’s a delicious challenge. I didn’t finish all of my shrimp, but Lance was happy to help.
BLT Salad
Lance had his favorite BLT Salad, which I feel has changed since we first had it so many years ago. Now it comes with a choice of dressing and no blue cheese. This makes him happier, but I can never remember the dressing I liked best! The bacon comes in the form of lovely, big pieces and the tomatoes were great for March.
Caesar Salad
I’m glad I waited to get a Caesar at St. Elmo instead of at Harry and Izzy’s the night before! Those anchovies are awesome! This was a great salad, just what I hope every Caesar will be.
Navy Bean Soup
Every entrée comes with the choice this soup or a cup of tomato juice. Lance normally skips both and I do too, but this time I decided to try the soup due to the suggestion a friend had made to me at the event. She told me that mixing the leftover horseradish sauce from the shrimp into the soup makes it rock. I tried that, and she was right! Great taste sensation that really helps to elevate the soup.
Bone-In Filet
Every restaurant we go has filet mignon, but they don’t all have bone-in filet. Perfect as always. Rare toward the bone, medium rare in the middle. I love this stuff. Mine came with mashed potatoes but I don’t think I ate more than a bite.
Asparagus
I love asparagus. I order it whenever I can these days. I ate these like fries, with my fingers, dipped in the hollandaise sauce. I’m so uncouth.
Bone-In Filet
Lance also got the bone-in filet and he felt his was a bit less than perfect – it was too rare near the bone for him so he’s going to try to remember to order medium next time instead of medium-rare. His fries were better than the Harry and Izzy fries!
Sugar Cream/Hoosier Pie
We both got dessert to take back to the hotel since we were full at the restaurant. Lance ordered his normal HUGE chocolate cake which you can see in previous reviews. I decided to try something new and got this sugar cream pie. The water described it as being sort of like the creamy part of crème brulee in a pie shell and that seems like a pretty accurate description. It is more sugary than the crème brulees I’ve had, but it was delicious and I ate every bite. I’m glad I tried something new this time!
This was another great meal at St. Elmo and I’ll be sad when we can no longer take our yearly pilgrimages to Indianapolis. The service was excellent, as always, and the experience was flawless. I’m super excited for our next trip to St. Elmo which will be Art’s first visit! Woo!
Total price: Unknown.
St. Elmo Steak House
127 S. Illinois St.
Indianapolis, IN. 46225
Phone: 317.635.0636
French Onion Soup
Caesar Salad
Seared Tuna
sesame seed crusted, with sushi rice & soy cilantro ginger sauce
Grilled Chicken Breast
with a side of bbq sauce
Our meal started with delicious pretzel rolls and cheddar butter. Sadly, I wasn’t feeling super hungry, since our dinner break was in the middle of a 14 hour shift, so I only ate a bit of one of the rolls. They’re super yummy, though. 
Lance and I both had the Caesar salad for starters. The croutons are made from the aforementioned delicious pretzel bread and the dressing is great. 
Beer Can Chicken
Grill-Roasted Half Chicken, Weber’s Beer Can Chicken Seasoning, Fresh Herbs, Roasted Chicken Jus, Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Teriyaki Skirt Steak
Grill Smoked Onions, Roasted Poblano & Sweet Peppers, and Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Whole Grilled Florida Pompano
Charred Tomato Salsa, Tortillas & Lime
Maine Diver Scallops
Manila Clams, Black Mussels, Tomatoes, Cheddar Grits & Roasted Pork Shank
Pan Roasted Pacific Opah
Shredded Brussels Sprouts, Wild Rice, Indiana Corn, & Lemon Brown Butter
Lance apparently had more of an appetite than the rest of us, or he just can’t pass up a good chocolate cake when he sees one. This was one of those huge slices of chocolate cake and he enjoyed it immensely even though he couldn’t finish it! I ordered chocolate mousse to go, but this was a mistake since I didn’t have time to eat it once I got back to work. Oops. 
The bread here is awesome. Nice, dark pumpernickel, onion loaves, and my personal favorite, the cheesy crispy things. These cheesy crispy things are perfect for dipping in both the cocktail sauce and the navy bean soup. And if you happen to ask for a basket of just cheesy things, they’re happy to comply. Not that I did this. Oh no…
I had a pleasant experience last year. I found out that I liked shrimp after a lifetime of hating it. (I OD’d on shrimp as a small child and then hated it forever. Or until 2011.) My first thought upon this revelation was “I guess I can get the shrimp cocktail at St. Elmos this year!” And I did. So did everyone else at the table. It’s so perfect and horseradishy and I love the way it clears out the sinuses. I did end up giving my last two (of five) shrimp to Brian since I still don’t like shrimp that much, but I’m glad I ordered it. (The restaurant claims to be the largest restaurant purchaser of shrimp in the US. All due to their only appetizer.)
After my sad salad experience at 
Lance ordered the BLT salad with Thousand Island. Big chunks of bacon, tomatoes, and iceberg. It seemed a bit light on the tomatoes, but Lance was happy and that’s the important thing. Their Thousand Island is lovely. 
Each steak comes with the option of tomato juice or navy bean soup. A few of us had the soup and a few of us opted out altogether. I forget who did what but I think I had the soup which was nice. I think I saved all of my appetite from the weekend for this meal. 
Um. We all got the bone-in filet mignon. Yes, it really is that good. Lance got fries with his. 
Brian got mashed potatoes with his. He also wanted to show off his glass of wine with his picture – no idea what type it is, but he seemed happy with it. 
Brian and I shared asparagus with hollandaise. I love asparagus. I loved this asparagus. 
Some shifting of chairs was done since Nicholas and I decided to share a slice of cheesecake. Thank goodness I didn’t try to eat a piece on my own since that would have been a recipe for disaster. It was creamy, rich, awesome. 
And, of course, Lance had chocolate cake. Which I didn’t get a picture of last year so here you go if you’ve been waiting. It’s huge. 
Our meal started off with a nice selection of breads and some fruity butter. I think it was strawberry? Pretzel bread and grainy bread and yummy bread. 
Lance had a house salad which could have been a bit more crisp, but was still tasty. 
I, of course, had the Caprese salad with balsamic vinaigrette. Now we all know how I feel about tomatoes and I’m pretty picky about them. I’ve had suboptimal tomatoes at restaurants before but, since it was in the middle of tomato season, I felt pretty safe. I asked the waiter if the tomatoes were awesome and he assured me they were. 
I can’t remember if this was a special or a standard menu item, but Lance and I both had the Kobe filet with a side of hollandaise. The steaks were great, nicely red in the middle, grilled on the outside, very tasty. The sauce was quite nice as well!
We had initially decided to get the roasted potatoes with bacon, onion, and mushrooms, but our waiter informed us that they weren’t very good at all. So we went with the double baked potato instead. It was huge and we ate maybe half of it between the two of us. It was a potato fit for a crowd! We both enjoyed it. 
And then we had a surprise! Our waiter brought us a complimentary cookie with ice cream for dessert. It was a shallow bowl with a half-baked chocolate chip cookie in it and ice cream on top. Delicious. The cookie was warm and gooey, like a chocolate lava cookie. It also came with a alcoholic chocolate sauce, but I can’t vouch for it since I avoid chocolate sauces which tend to have HFCS in them. 
Bread! This sort of looks like pretzel bread and I seem to recall that it came with a number of seasoned butters. I love bread. 
This looks like a Caesar salad. I love those too. But this one might have been Lance’s.
Teriyaki Skirt Steak - Grill Smoked Onions, Roasted Poblano & Sweet Peppers
I knew I was going to order this before we even got to the restaurant because I’d been envious of it on people’s plates the years before. It did not disappoint. Skirt steak is a fantastic cut of meat and I enjoyed every bite. It looks like it came with mashed potatoes as well. 
This looks like a filet mignon, so chances are it was Lance’s dinner. He also got garlic mashed potatoes. I seem to recall that he did some Prix Fix menu because we were there during restaurant week. 
Asian Sesame Chicken Salad - Marinated Chicken Breast, Nappa Cabbage, Snow Peas, Edamame, Oranges, Wontons, Sesame Ginger Vinaigrette
Being a weirdo, Brian got a salad. At a grill place. Who does that? He was kind enough to let me have a bite and, I must say, when we go back in 2011 I will be tempted to order this salad for myself because it was amazing. Full of lots of amazing flavors that all worked very well together. 
And, of course, Lance got some amazing chocolate cake creation. It was dense and moist and sort of like a bundt cake in texture. Delicious!
This is some sort of salad with thousand island dressing. Lance ate it. 
This is an awesome Caesar salad. The plate was cold, the lettuce was crisp, and it even came with a few tomatoes. I love tomatoes!
Lance had some sort of huge filet mignon. If you’ve been following my restaurant review posts over the years, I’m sure you’re not shocked by this! 
We shared shoestring fries with some sort of herb. I can never seem to remember what kind of herb it is, just that I love these whenever we’re at RC. 
Being in need of green after a day of GenCon, I ordered broccoli as well. I was crispy and lovely. 
This is my standard order for RC. It’s a tuna stack with some lumps of crab. The tuna is beautifully seared and rare inside. Of all the possible ways to have tuna, this is the best. 
We shared this chocolate mousse cheesecake creation.
Even working together we were unable to finish it. The cake was super rich and we were so full! 
The Shrimp Cocktail. This is St. Elmo’s crowning glory. You might think you’re getting normal, mild cocktail sauce, but this stuff is actually laden with fiery chopped horseradish. If you need your sinuses cleared out, this is the stuff for you. I don’t eat shrimp, but I always snag a bite or two of the sauce when Lance orders this because I love it.
And then there was steak. The first two times I went to St. Elmo’s I ordered the lamb chops. Then I discovered the Bone-In Filet and it’s been Bone-In Filet ever since. Lance gets this one too. Mine is shown with a side of mushrooms. In traditional steak house style the sides are large enough to share with the whole table. (This filet is 16 ounces, the angle of the photo makes it look smaller than it actually was.)
And more steak. The special of the night was a tomahawk steak which is essentially a huge, Frenched rib eye. This picture is of Nate’s. He ordered it with loaded French fries.
Mike also got the tomahawk. His came with a loaded baked potato.
Sean’s tomahawk came with a baked potato as well and, since that’s the one I got to taste, I’ll say that it was delicious. The meat had a nice, rich flavor yet was tender and juicy. Definitely a winner.
This is Brian’s Bone-In Prime Rib. It’s 32 ounces. In his defense he did ask if there was a smaller cut, but his request was denied. He managed to eat the whole thing while we watched with astonishment. I also got a taste and it was phenomenal. Some day I’d like to attempt prime rib at home.
We also ordered asparagus for the table which is one of those vegetables I love and rarely eat at home. This was done perfectly and the hollandaise sauce was great. I probably could have eaten the whole platter by myself but, sniff, I had to share.
Lance ordered the Pork Tenderloin Sandwich for his meal. We weren’t super hungry so sandwiches seemed like the way to go. He was only able to eat about half of it, but thought it was delicious. 
I got the Hot Pastrami Sandwich served on rye toast with Swiss cheese and nice, spicy mustard. I was also only able to eat about half of my sandwich, much to my dismay.