Livery: Food Reviews by Zac
I moved back to Indianapolis in January 2024. I’ve heard about Livery from several people. My boss calls Livery his favorite restaurant. To add to the expectations, my family decided to celebrate my birthday there.
Livery is an elevated sit down restaurant serving Latin American cuisine. It falls in that space where it’s not quite fine dining, but it’s trying to play in a nicer zone than the likes of Applebees. I haven’t decided on a great legend value for this type of restaurant, so I defaulted it to “Sit Down”. The common thread among reviews is that their cocktails and appetizers are the stand out items here. I saw significantly less comments about their empanadas and tacos.
The Basics
Website: https://www.livery-restaurant.com/
Address: 720 N College Ave Indianapolis, IN 46202 OR 13225 Levinson Lane Noblesville, IN 46060
Cuisine: Latin American
Type: Sit Down
Owner: Cunningham Restaurant Group (CHG)
VIP Rewards: CHG owns several restaurants throughout central Indiana. Ranging from casual burger joints up to fine dining tasting experiences. All of their restaurants use a VIP Rewards Program. It’s a free program that boils down to 1 Point = $1. After 1000 points, you’re rewarded with a $100 gift card. You also get free birthday desserts.
Review
Atmosphere
We had a 6:45 reservation on a Friday night where the summer sun was starting to hint that fall was around the corner. Hamilton Town Center was packed and so was Livery. Earlier in the day, the restaurant had reached out for our preferred seating location. We chose to eat outside, so I didn’t get to see much of the inside.
Livery has a decent patio that is likely let down by its mall location. The patio shares its wall with a playground. Despite a full park, I was never distracted by the background noise. The sunshade that covered the open wall for the sunset did just enough to act as a barrier.
I am curious if the downtown Indy location appears more upscale without the constant flow of families walking through or children enjoying a new game at the park.
Score: 2.5 / 3
The Food
Livery’s menu looks a little odd to me because it goes: primer (first), segundo (second), empanadas, tacos, and finally salads. I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to be ordering waves of food. I tried sweet plantains, ceviche, paella, adobo tacos, churros, and tres leches.
Cocktails: I ordered the Carriage House margarita and Morgan got the lavender lemonade. I had heard from multiple sources that Livery had solid cocktails, and they delivered. The lemonade was dangerously delicious. It was light and bubbly. It may be my picture perfect pool side drink. The Carriage House margarita is their nicer margarita offering. It’s made with anejo tequila, orange brandy, lime, and agave. It’s a lovely play on the standard margarita. The orange brandy has enough orange taste to mimic a standard recipe with grand marnier, but it creates a really different ending note. This also just happened to be one of the strongest cocktails I’ve ever had at a restaurant where I wasn’t friends with the bartender. I’ve seen menus label much weaker drinks as “max 2” before.
House Starter: I actually don’t know what these corn-like crips were called. They act as the free starter given to every table. With a solid crunch and a heavy dusting of tajin, they made for a fun few bites. I do wish Livery would elevate these a bit more. A bit of lime juice or maybe a Cilantro Lime dipping sauce would add to the experience.
Sweet Plantains: This is one of the first Indiana restaurants where I’ve found plantains that are not fried.They were served with a black bean puree and a habanero-guajillo sauce. Initially, I had concerns about the plate overloading my tolerance for soft textures. Thankfully, I had nothing to worry about. The plantains had just enough resistance to play well with the softness of the puree. The partnership continued beyond textures. The savory beans contrasted with the sweetness of the plantains. This was one of my favorite parts of the meal
Ceviche: I can admit that I’m not a huge ceviche fan. This is one of the better ceviches I’ve tried, but nothing I’m going to sing praises about. I really enjoyed their chips, but they provided a mountain of them. There were enough chips for a second order of the ceviche. The balance was a little off here.
Paella: Livery’s paella is chorizo fried rice with shrimp, a scallop, serrano hot sauce and ancho salsa. Like every other item, it was plated beautifully. The seafood had a gorgeous cook on them. My favorite part of this dish was the heat level. It was able to create that fiery mouth feel sensation without burning your tongue off. It was hot and flavorful! For those who have less spice tolerance, you can push the spicy peppers to the side. If you have no tolerance, this may not be the dish for you. The addition of the chorizo was great. It added a non-seafood flavored note and helped build up the heat. If I was to critique this, I’d want crispier rice. The rice was too soft for me to really consider it a paella.
Adobo Taco: Adobo is a word that immediately draws my attention. I love the smoky heat of adobo. The menu mentions the tacos come on a hard shell. I weighed my options and decided to commit. To get my fighting words out early, corn tortillas are the best option, followed by flour and finally hard shells. The main perk of hard shells is that they are more photogenic. With the bright pickled onions topping the tacos, they were visually pleasing. The taste didn’t live up to the presentation. The taco didn’t have any smoke or heat to it. It mostly tasted like filler – rice and lettuce. My order was the most disappointing part of the meal.
Churro: My third review and my second time eating churros. At Livery, the churros are slightly above bite size, come with a side of dulce de leche, and are served with a dusting of sugar. The churro itself was cooked to perfection; it had an incredibly satisfying crunch to it. The dulce de leche was rather tame and didn’t live up to the standard set by prior restaurants.
Tres Leches: The summer seasonal tres leches flavor was strawberry. The plate was gorgeous. The chunks of strawberries and the strawberry ice cream added lovely pops of color. The cake itself was good, but I think the cake was missing the sweetness that I’ve normally experienced with tres leches. I enjoyed the cake, but it didn’t match my expectations. It got lost somewhere between a strawberry shortcake and a tres leches.
Score: 4 / 5
Zac’s Thoughts:
Livery reminds me most of the “Diamondback” Roller Coaster at Kings Island. For the unfamiliar, Diamondback is one of the highlight coasters. It features over 10 drops, with the first being at the tallest at 215 feet. If you asked for my review of the Diamondback, I’d rave about how the ride starts out. You have nearly a minute of climbing before you’re hit with a massive drop with 2 more large drops in quick succession. After one recovers their wits, the remaining 7 drops don’t trigger the same adrenaline rush.
Livery is the same to me. The cocktails and appetizers were the highlight of my experience. While the remaining parts of the meal were good, they didn’t reach the same highs. When I visit again, I’m taking a Lyft, indulging in the libations, and feasting my way through the appetizers. Most importantly, the tacos are staying in the kitchen.
