Iaria's Italian Restaurant

My wife and I tried Iaria’s today and it didn’t disappoint. We had there bread, Mate’s mozzarella, minestrone soup, spaghetti and meat balls, and the Drogatto with chicken. It was all delicious. We had sangria to drink. The service was great and the ambiance was nostalgic. Highly recommend! Our final bill was $65.00.

Wish there was a 10 star rating. What a wonderful neighborhood restaurant. Large parking lot for easy parking. Five generations of the same family have been keeping this wonderful restaurant going! Traditional Italian cuisine. Look on line for the complete menu- there are too many choices to list. Appetizers. Salads. Lasagna. Spaghetti. Pizza, etc. There is a full bar. Cozy area to eat in the bar or a large dining room. Reservations are recommended but you can walk in if you get there as soon as they open/ early. It fills up quickly because it’s so popular and delicious. Save room for desserts like spumoni and cannoli. Excellent service. Waitress was very attentive. Food served quickly and hot.

Easily one of the best places I have ever eaten in my life! Everything we ate was so AMAZING, the staff was friendly and clean and just a gem to find. If I ever make it to Indianapolis again, this will be a stop for sure! So good you want to throw your fork down and are dancing in your seat while eating.

Food was super good, and it was a busy Friday night. Over all id rate this place like a 7/10-8/10. Would go back. Also got us in immediately Update: we've gone back and tasted the veil. My boyfriend loves it.

So we had the Mozzarella bites to start and they are amazing. Definitely ask for the olive oil with herbs for your bread, it makes the bread so much better! The blue cheese dressing is SUPER thick, like almost just blue cheese. Yummy. I had the Totellini in Creamy tomato sauce and the tortellini were delicious, huge! My boyfriend got the Chicken Dorgato and this dish was really not that great. The sauce was salty and way too peppery. We don’t recommend this dish, but everything else was SO good it made up for it.

This was my first time back since before the pandemic and I am very disappointed in the changes since then. It used to have excellent food with a great vibe. Now it looks like a chain restaurant on the inside and the food was over salted and uninspired. The only thing I really cared for was the dessert. Our server was nice and the other servers also did a good job refilling drinks and helping bus our table during the meal. To clarify, my low rating of the food is not because the food was inedible. It’s because the quality is so vastly different now than since last time I was there.

We were a party of 8 for dinner on a Saturday. Our table was ready right at our reservation time. Our service was great! Everything at our table was excellent! We had apps - calamari, fried mozzarella, and risotto balls. Salads were with great homemade ranch and blue cheese. Entrees - chicken parm, spaghetti w meatballs, fettuccini Alfredo, tortellini, meat ravioli and lasagna- all fantastic!! We took the apple caramel cheesecake and limoncello cake to go - so yummy and had gelato at the table - vanilla bean and perfect! We also had wine and cocktails that were very good. We will definitely return!!

An old-school Italian place, very comfortable, with a bar and a couple of dining rooms. Not cheap but not outrageously priced either. My Chicken Marsala with a side of Fettuccine Alfredo was excellent!. Tiramisu for dessert was very good depending how you like it-- creamy and not a lot of coffee flavor. Service was attentive and not bothersome. There's nothing NOT to like about the place, except the room we were in was a little noisy because of a birthday group next to us, which just added to the stove atmosphere.

I felt like I went back in time and stepped into an Italians house. LOVED! Food was amazing! Seriously everything we had was great. Service was top notch. Our server was so nice to us.

We were immediately greeted as we walked in the door which is always a plus! The atmosphere was dated but I loved as it brought back childhood memories. Overall the experience wasn't bad but the food was just okay. They serve you bread with better which I didnt really care for. We ordered the garlic bread with cheese which was the same bread however with the garlic butter and cheese it was a little better and with the warmed up marinara sauce it was even better. My love said the calamari was ok he preferred the marinara from the garlic bread over the cocktail sauce they provide with it. He also had the seafood pasta which he said was just okay as the wine sauce was a bit too runny. We both had the minestrone soup which we didn't like at all. There was an odd spice thay I couldn't quite figure out but I wasn't a fan. I also had the beef lasagna which was quite horrible. The noodles were still hard, there was more ricotta cheese than beef and the sauce was thin. Overall I'm rating 3 starts because it was just so so but I appreciated the nostalgic.

Was looking for an Italian spot taking reservations on race weekend, and Iaria's was one of the few restaurants with availability!Located in Fletcher Place, Iaria's serves a classic Italian menu with old school ambiance (think cozy, green and red neon sign-Italian vibe). Despite being packed, food was served within 20 minutes. My table ordered the calamari as an appetizer, which had a light, crispy batter. My entree was my server's favorite - the grouper piccata. It was my first time trying grouper and wasn't disappointed at all! The fish came in a lemon butter sauce topped with capers. I knocked down a star simply because the grouper was drowning in the sauce, making it very oily/buttery. However, the taste itself was tangy due to the lemon and capers! For dessert, I got a cannoli, which could easily be split between two people. The cannoli filling wasn't overly sweet and the shell was crispy.

Always enjoy Thursday 1/2 price bottles of wine. We also enjoyed the junior antipasto salad and the All around the world pizza. I always make reservations, so we never have to wait. We enjoy the atmosphere on the bar side. The staff is always fast & friendly. The food is always solid , hot & delicious. But I really recommend the pizza and salad. The blue cheese dressing is really good. For under $50, you get a bottle of wine, a very tasty pizza and a huge salad.

Stumbled upon this well kept secret while in Indy for the 500. From the jump I knew we had made a great decision. The place was packed !( use Yelp to get a reservation or on the seating list). It feels like being in someone's front room on a Sunday when all the family stops by. The food is out of this world. Ate safely as a celiac with the best antipasto salad of all time. And the dressings are home made. The pasta and pizza was incredible! (Per the hubby). Highly recommend!!!!

I love the homey ambiance here. It's family owned and cozy. We got the Drogato and the baked penne. They were delicious though I wished the pasta was a bit more al dente for the Drogato, and it was a bit more greasy than I anticipated. Still, they were delicious and I would definitely come back. For the baked penne I got out with one meatball and one sausage--would recommend!

Love the restaurant and vibe! It is always the most fun to sit in the bar. Love the staff and years of history on the walls! The food is delicious and we have never been disappointed! Enjoy!

Great food, refreshing cocktails, fine wine, attentive service and great family conversation make for an enjoyable evening out. Don't forget to make a reservation!

Food was simply delicious, service was fantastic, and ambience was quiet. My first time visiting Indianapolis. My husband and I stopped by for a quick lunch. We loved it all. We will definitely come back on our next visit.

We went Iarias because we were excited to try the seafood pasta. We arrived on a weekday evening with no wait. Service was friendly. Unfortunately the seafood pasta was out for the night. We received bread that seemed like it hadn't been toasted long enough as it was soft and not crunchy. We ordered the calamari which was a very small plate for $12.99. We ordered the garlic bread hoping it'd be crispier but it was the same bread with garlic oil on top that was flimsy. The chicken Marsala and sauteed vegetables were good. The drogato was very, very oily. I don't think the price matches the value of food we received. We probably wouldn't come again.

Iaria's is a place locals now about and love! It's a 3rd generation Italian restaurant from recipes from Naples, Italy. They have the actual immigration papers on the wall of when they came from Italy. It's a cozy place. No frills just good food!! They bring you fresh baked bread to your table. It's so good!!! It's soft and delicious! Try the olive oil with the seaonsings with it. The chicken Parmesan is delicious! It has the perfect sized chicken to go with the bowl of spaghetti it comes with. Try the tiramisu too!!

Visited on Friday night. Made a reservation for 7:30 but arrived early around 7pm. There was no wait at that time and we were seated immediately. Someone brought bread to our table. The bread was soft and the butter was too hard to spread. It took a while for a server ( there only appeared to be 2 of them working a decent sized room) to come get our order. We ordered soft drinks, a caprese appetizer, and entrees. My pasta came with a Caesar salad. I didn't ask for and we weren't offered oil or seasoning for the bread. On the way out, I noticed several other tables with oil and was jealous! My Caesar arrived. It had tomatoes. Weird. The lettuce was hard, like the center sections not the leaves were used. I ate a few bites. The caprese was great. Fresh tomatoes and mozzarella. Pasta arrived. The seafood pasta has the smallest scallops of ever seen (menu did say baby scallops), 2 shrimp, and about 8 mussels. It was delicious in a cream sauce, but something was still a little off. My wife had the fettuccini Alfredo and enjoyed her meal. We were both unable to finish our pasta, but chose not to take the leftovers. All in all, it's a decent dining experience with average Italian fare. It could be better, but I would go back if I lived near by, but it's not a must have when you're in Indy type place.

I have to add that I wish they would offer fresh grated Parmesan or Romano cheese as an extra tasty finishing touch with their meals. It would take it all to the next level. They only had the shakers on the tables with the dried, cheaper / low quality parm cheese.

Iaria's is incredible. Their garlic cheese bread and tomato sauce is the best. Love their pizza and pasta too.

We have been coming here for quite a while since we moved back downtown in Indy. The family has done a great job bringing the place along, and maintaining great service help at all levels. I am a great fan of this style of Italian, and my wife is a qualified critic after studying in Italy and being an enthusiastic hobbyist. And she is one of those Tuscan chicks, so southern Italian style isn't always her preference. Despite that we have been consistently pleased. From their luscious home made roquefort dressing and crisp salads, including their creamy and tart classic caesar presentation, their beautiful fresh bread that would be weird to toast and serve, in contrast to the expectations of one recent, perhaps not so well versed evaluator, to other yummy special appetizers and classics, everything leading up to a main course has been great. That includes great and affordable wines, and great whiskey pours by the man Dominique who has to be the coolest bartender ever. (Do you know he was a state champion wrestler at Roncalli in High school?) And then you have the pastas and main dishes. We have had all the classics, from meat balls and italian sausage with all types of long noodles, their classic wonderful sauce, and the bolognese which is the best I have ever had, even compared to my favorite Chicago places. Their lasagna is delicate and delicious and generous. Chicken marsala is excellent. My wife Crystal's favorites are the fettuccini and clams, generous and rich, and the vodka sauce. There are many other classic favorites of ours that are consistently excellent. The fruitti de mare fettuccini is way above other dishes I have had in great italian restaurants with generous delicate bay scallops shrimp and mussels. There are many others we have experienced and have not been disappointed. I guess where this family may not have the greatest strength would be in big fancy desserts, but their classics like the light and delicious limoncello cake, and tiramisu are wonderful. The food here can make you glad you came the first time you come. Once you get to know the team, then the family embraces you here and you will have a dining experience that is rare and wonderful. THAT should mean something.

Great food great service It still has the ambience that makes it a classic I have been a satisfied customer for 45 years

I'm not sure how to review a place that is a locals legend with decades of fans when i didn't love it. We made dinner reservations for a Friday night because we had heard it get really busy. It was packed when we got there but our table was ready. There isba large parking lot across the road from the restaurant which is definitely a must for a place this popular. The vibe is so vintage , proud Hoosier and also filled with charming family history. The first thing we noticed was How cold it was, they had the air blasting so high my hands began to cramp, so bring a sweater. We all tried different dishes off the menu and the special dish of the day (mushroom ravioli). The in house salad dressing where amazing and a great example of real homemade dressing. Our dishes came out in a short amount if time and looked amazing. We all enjoyed the meal and thought the portion sizes where perfect, however none of the food was memorable. We split Tiramisu and Cannoli, they were both a very good way to end the night. Not sure we would go back for dinner but maybe a espresso and a sweet treat yes.

Good food but service not so much. Forgot our coffee, but it was hot. We ordered desert to go and had to wait an extremely long time for revive it along with the check. Kinda felt like we got forgotten about because we were sat in the back of the restaurant also seems like our waitress was favoring a table she had know which is disrespecting considering we had been done with our meal and our food had been boxed by another person. Overall good food recommend for the food do not recommend for the service as a whole. The building gives you the classic dinner feel from the 90s really loved that as a whole. Would be returning just would like a different server next time.

Tried this place for the first time for Devour Indy. This restaurant is authentic as it gets, a mom & pop restaurant that lives up to its roots. The food was transported you to a little hole in the wall in Italy. The mozzarella bites were extremely fresh, the cheese was just delicious. The risotto bite with the pesto ranch was an amazing combination that I would not have expected, a must try dish. Being able to try 3 different pasta entrees was just delicious. The flavor of the gnocchi was fresh and delicious. The dessert was a slightly dry but the ice cream helped with it. Overall, I would highly recommend this restaurant. I will definitely be returning!

Service was great and the 2 for $50 is a great deal. However the chicken piccata I had was sweet. Yes, it was sweet...not savory...I did not enjoy it. The spaghetti and meatballs were good. The lasagna was adequate. The place has a simple charm to it.

Really good food. Don't be fooled by the vibes. My partner said "ugh, looks kinda run down" when we pulled up, and the pre-meal soup and salad didn't help the case. The service was... fine. That said, once our entrees came, it was clear why this restaurant has been a beloved Indy favorite for generations. Excellent meals. I got the cheese Tortellini and he got some seafood Alfredo type dish. Both were incredible, as was the dessert we shared - a Tiramisu.

Customer service was wonderful. Food was plentiful and delicious. Definitely will return back.

Old timey Italian Diner. Sit on the bar side or outside. Food is okay. Nothing you can't make at home... grandma style. I like their pizza. Personally I'd say order a bottle of wine and a pizza and sit outside on a nice summer night.. best way to experience this place. Great neighborhood. Never had bad service either.

Very much a family atmosphere and homemade cooking. We ordered 4 different pasta dishes and all were amazing, totally different flavor profiles. Generous portions, lots of flavor! Wished we had better service, which would have made the evening. Highly recommend, if you are looking for real tasty Italian food in Indy

Wowed by this fantastic Italian restaurant. Strong "locals" vibe which is a good thing. Service was incredible and garlic bread and cheese tortellini were perfection. Tiramisu is highly recommended and they served a surprisingly solid cappuccino. Great experience!

Love the food and ambiance, we come here all the time. My toddler loves their pasta just as much.

This place!!!! Best pizza! I have been eating their sausage pizza with extra cheese since I was a little kid and it is still my favorite. Thin crust with lots of toppings! Their blue cheese dressing, which I slather on their excellent garlic bread, is this wonderful chunky, yumminess. (It resembles the consistency of large curd cottage cheese. Oh my!) I keep wanting to try other items on the menu because I see these amazing pasta dishes served to the tables around us but I just can't pass up the opportunity to eat their sausage pizza. The owners and the entire staff are so happy and friendly and do a fantastic job of making sure everything is perfect for you from the time you sit down to the time you leave. They make you feel like family. The restaurant is in the middle of a little neighborhood and the interior reminds me of someplace you would find in New York City. You know, that old established, homey vibe where you just know the Italian grandma is going to pop out of the kitchen carrying a pot of her special marinara sauce? They also have a separate bar area with plenty of tables for eating and getting perfect cocktails! If you haven't been there you are really missing out. Try it!

I looooooved Iaria's. Devour brought me here to try something new and it was great! The Devour deal was amazing and included so much food. The caesar salad evenly dressed and tasted like perfection. The goat cheese was outstanding. I want that again please! Our entree standouts were the chicken parmesan and the cheese tortellini. We also had the vodka sauce rigatoni which was delicious but tooooo peppery. I loved the diner vibe. You could tell it has been a generationally owned establishment based off the wall decor. Our waitress was very friendly. It was pretty busy with people as our meal went on so she was forgetful on some things but we gave her the benefit since she seemed to be only 1 of 2 or 3 servers. Overall, I was really impressed with the food and I will definitely be back!

This was probably the best Italian food I've ever had. When you walk in , it screams Italian. The service was awesome and fast. The tables are really close together so if you want privacy might not be the best place. Let's start with the cheese sticks, they toss them in olive oil and then fry them. They are amazing and the best flavor I've ever had. Then I had the Chicken parm and that also was very delicious. My wife had the Drogon I think it's called and that was better than the Parm. Definitely give this place a try , you won't be sorry

Great food and cocktails , had a great time! The service was great, even when they were extremely busy. Definitely recommend.

Great food and fantastic service for a 10 person family group! This is one hopping place and we get together annually there for a family dinner.

We went during Devour Indy, so traffic in the restaurant was significant. I try to keep that in mind. We did have a reservation, and while we were seated immediately, we didn't have anyone check in/bring us water/etc. for 15 minutes. Not a huge deal as we weren't in a hurry, but having water sooner would have been nice. We did a Devour deal - salad, an entree sampler, and a dessert for $50. We ordered a Caesar salad, pesto gnocchi, Alfredo, chicken piccata, and an amaretto chocolate cake. Best part of the meal was the bread and salad - the entree sampler was lukewarm at best, and wasn't as flavorful as we expected. The chicken was tough to cut through. I had a strawberry gin fizz - it was pretty good. Cake was delicious too, and very rich. Perfect size to split. We'll probably be back, but we'll shoot for a time where they're less busy.

Iaria's never disappoints!! Food remains delicious year after year. Service is always friendly. Cheese tortellini with tomato cream sauce is the best!

The looks and talk about this restaurant hint that it's been a longstanding Italian hub for locals, which id agree with. It's right downtown and we pulled up to an old school diner-like restaurant. Plenty of parking on the side and the restaurant is split with the second have of the space being a bar. It feels a little chaotic when you walk in and I wasn't really sure where to go. The bar side said to come that way while the restaurant side said they'd get a table ready for us now. It was devour Indy to be far but the table we approached I couldn't even tell had been cleaned because it was excessively scattered with menus, papers, napkins, and silverware. Regardless our waitress and all of the waitstaff were super sweet and welcoming. They made us feel like we were part of the neighborhood and the local group that always comes in. To start, we had calamari, lots of bread, and salads. The calamari wasn't very good - mostly just extra fried breading. The salad was a good, simple starter and the bread that comes with mozzarella melted on top and marinara on the side was fine too. The complimentary bread that comes to the table looks like a loaf of white wonder bread. For dinner, I had the penne spaghetti with meatballs. It was too simple for me and had no flavor. Just tomato sauce and noodles with 2 big meatballs. I wouldn't get it again. I don't have super simple taste and am not a picky eater, so it actually reminded me of something I'd feed a little kid - bland and basic. I did try a bite of a meaty pizza and the crust was amazing!! Super thin, bubbly, and crisp like a cracker. The toppings and sauce were great too. No one else at our table thought their dinners were anything special. Nothing tasted like it was made from scratch, but more so just stuff I could get at the grocery store. For dessert, we had ice cream - it was some sort of Italian cherry/Neapolitan flavor and it was delicious! The staff really make this place feel homey and are so friendly. Overall, I probably wouldn't come back BUT if you prefer really simple, casual and cheap Italian food then I'd give it a try.

This place is great!!! Love everything they have! Great old restaurant with tons of character. Been coming here since I was a kid

We were there last night, I had the tortellini in with the tomato cream sauce it came with and addon of bolonese. Oh so good! Others had the special, blackened chicken with Alfredo, Alfredo was awesome! Chicken, dry but well seasoned. Then there was the Lasagne! I got a taste and such great flavor and texture, delicious. Service was great.

Food was excellent, Service was good, could be better The dining environment was good

We love Iarias! My first visit here was in 1990! Can't beat the chicken piccata or the pizza. Everyone in our family loves to gather here for great food and a great wait staff.

This is a fantastic, authentic Italian restaurant! We started with an order of the calamari. I've had calamari that wasn't very tasty, but this was cooked to perfection. It was crisp and tender. We also had Peronis on draft. Following the advice of our server, I went with an antipasto salad and the lasagna for my dinner. My husband couldn't pass up the special, which was manicotti with a trio of sauces (Alfredo, pesto and marinara) along with the antipasto salad. All the food was delicious! The portions were large, so I got to enjoy leftovers the next day! I really enjoy sitting in the bar area. It has that old school Italian charm.

Friendly, laid-back atmosphere. Food is incredibly delicious. Highly recommend the fettuccine with clams. Our server was attentive without being intrusive.

We showed up on a Saturday night as a party of two with no reservation at 5:30 and it was already packed and now I know why... and know to make reservations next time. We were lucky enough to get seats at the bar. Don't sleep on the soup, it's amazing (so good we got bowls to go for tomorrow) and is phenomenal with the fresh bread and seasoned oil. We also took home desserts because we were absolutely stuffed from dinner. My cousin got chicken alfredo and had the chicken blackened. Yum. I did the Marsala and pasta also yum. The other customers were also really nice, had a friendly neighborhood feel to it. Ate so ferociously that I have no photos.

Can confirm: if you're looking to PR at the Indianapolis marathon and need a carb load, Laria's has got you covered! Their house made sauce has been done for 3 generations, and it may not look like much on the outside but we had to wait to get a table because it was so popular! The food was stellar, and we also got a pizza that wasn't pictured! It was the perfect night for a pre-race meal or date night! Jt had a diner like ambiance which I loved!

Excellent quality of food with an inexpensive fine dining restaurant! The food is delicious and the vibe and decor inside is divine. The servers are so good? Will be back!

Everything was fabulous. The food is authentic and amazing. Our server was fast and attentive. Looking forward to going back soon!

We go here every now and then and it never disappoints. The food is amazing & service is always great. The building is small, so seating can be tight on a busy night. However, if you love authentic Italian food it's worth it!

Always an awesome experience! Thanks for your continued greatness. I've never had anything that wasn't absolutely amazing I was so unhappy back in the day when they closed after a fire, devastated the business but never happier sine the reopening. An amazing establishment is Iarias!!!

Feels like you're in an old Italian restaurant in Chicago. Service was friendly and prompt. The food/drinks were delicious. Calamari were large and the Roquefort dressing is a must try!

Family owned good food, good service and good drinks...apitisers, pasta, pizza and salads!

A local favorite. We ordered the baked penne, tortellini, fried mozz, & a cannoli. Everything was amazing as always! Our server was so sweet and handled being short staffed so well.