Trending foods around the Circle City

From squid ink to ube, we’ve got you covered with a number of restaurants serving up some of Indy’s most trendy dishes in 2023.

A dish of squid ink pasta

You can grab this squid ink pasta for lunch at newly opened Vicino on Mass Ave.

Photo by INDYtoday team

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Ube

As City Editors, we see a lot of menus. If you’re an Indy foodie like us, you might have noticed a lot of restaurants serving up similar dishes.

We’re giving our top three recommendations to try each one of them.

Squid ink pasta

Vicino | 350 Mass Ave., Ste. 150 | The brand-new modern Italian eatery has a funky atmosphere to enjoy while you’re taking a stab at this almost-black seafood pasta with heavy tomato notes.

Nesso | 339 S. Delaware St. | Called the “Cappelletti Nero” at this downtown Cunningham Restaurant Group spot, its take on the pasta has more of a kick to it.

Convivio | Carmel + Zionsville | This “Nero” noodle dish incorporates lobster, shrimp, and crab in its lobster cream sauce.

A hand holding an ice cream cone

Natural State’s most recent soft serve flavor is banana cream pie.

Soft serve with a twist

Natural State Provisions | 414 Dorman St. | You can bring your pup to enjoy this soft serve, which regularly rotates flavors like Thai tea, samoa cookies, and banana cream pie.

Beacon | 2201 E. 46th St. | We got the scoop that this new eatery next to Black Circle will be dishing out soft serve froyo soon — just in time for summer.

Red’s Super Rose | 5365 E. Washington St. | The Irvington flower variety shop switches up its flavors all the time.

Hand holding up a ube iced latte

You can get this pineapple ube latte at Commissary downtown.

Photo via @salamatcookies

Ube

Commissary Barber + Barista | 304 E. New York St. | This coffee shop’s pineapple ube latte is a perfect introduction to the sweet purple yam flavor.

Salamat Cookies | Indianapolis pop-ups + online orders | Salamat has become popular at other local businesses like Garden Table + Parched by offering up its ube in syrup form.

Ube Love | Bloomington farmers markets | Okay, this spot isn’t necessarily in Indy, but because it includes the popular ingredient in literally all of its treats, we had to include it.

A table full of Asian dishes, including bao buns

You can see the bao buns on the left, among several other dishes from Benyue (formerly Lucky Lou).

Photo via @rdklove

Bao buns

Benyue Restaurant | 6020 E. 82nd St. | We recommend the barbecue pork bao buns, along with Benyue’s classic dim sum.

Modita | 850 Mass Ave., Ste. 110 | These buns are filled with grilled pork belly, asian slaw, and miso aioli.

Saraga International Grocery Store | 3605 Commercial Dr. | The small carryout place, Asian Snack, inside Saraga offers a bao-nty of options.

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