For lunch today I headed to one of the few remaining restaurants close to our home in Hyde Park that I have yet to visit, Indigo Casual Gourmet Cafe. I have read some really bad reviews of Indigo, so I wasn’t expecting much, but figured I at least had to try it for myself. The restaurant itself looks like it hasn’t changed in years, thought he copper topped tables were pretty cool. The rest of the decor is very 80’s and could use some updating. It felt like we were seated in a cheap hotel lobby restaurant.

Inside Indigo

Our service wasn’t exactly speedy, but I think the one waitress was taking care of the entire lunch time crowd. The menu is really pretty large and full of specialty salads, pastas, sandwiches, and pizzas. My wife, son, and brother-in-law were all along for the experience, though my wife had already been here a time or two before. After much pondering, I decided to order the creole macaroni and cheese, with andouille sausage, chicken, and a mix of peppers.

Creole Macaroni & Cheese

The pasta was penne, the cheese was mozzarella, and it was all topped with panko bread crumbs before being baked. When the dish was served it was extremely hot and the sauce was a little too liquidy. Once it cooled a bit the sauce was more creamy and actually very good. The flavor combination really worked well, but this is far from a traditional macaroni and cheese. My brother-in-law order the regular macaroni and cheese, and though it too looked very good and full of ingredients, it is not a creamy cheese based dish.

BBQ Chicken Pizza

My wife went with the BBQ chicken pizza,  though I wish she would have decided on the chicken tikka masala pizza instead, which seemed much more interesting to me. I may have to try that in the future. Her pizza was also really good and relatively large serving. We’ve all had this flavor combination before, so it wasn’t anything out of this world, but still was a solid take on this dish. Overall the food was really good and I’m sure I will be back for more in the future.