Champions Indianapolis

Champions is attached to the Marriott downtown. The location is great; it's only a short walk from Victory Field, the Convention Center, Monument Circle, et cetera. In fact, its proximity/convenience is really the only reason I've made return visits. Champions has a very nice look/feel, as far as décor and layout are concerned, but the overall atmosphere is compromised by the stiffness of the staff. The service is good enough, but the staff is not welcoming or friendly-- it's effective, at best. The quality of the food is good, but it is expensive considering the relatively small portion sizes. However, they do offer quite a few regular specials on drinks. I don't think Champions is "bad," but it's generally worth walking a few more blocks for somewhere better.

The time to eat at Champions is not during the lunch rush in a convention week. Dull offerings, overpriced entrees, and head-throbbing volume on the televisions do not make for an entertaining meal or a lively environment. Forget trying to hold a conversation without shouting. Tables are all but stacked on top of one another to maximize floor space.

I attended said convention with my beau and between meetings, we decided to make a break from the Indianapolis Convention Centre for a meal at Champions. They serve standard sports bar grub -- lots of hamburgers, chicken and fries, and a few sandwiches. We both ended up going for the beef dip, and I substituted chips for fries so I could sneak a snack back with me into another 2 hour lecture. Add tea and pop for us, and our total bill was pushed to close to $30 for lunch.

Prices here are considerably higher than you can expect to pay a few blocks over at the RAM or Rock Bottom Brewery. Burgers ranged $10-15 each, our sandwiches came out at $13 for a rather scrawny bun stuffed with a reasonable, but not astonishing amount of meat. His French fries were a portion large enough for two, but we polished them off because the sandwiches left us still hungry.

Our server was good about refills and made a point to check in, the sort of cheery guy you hope to get at these sorts of restaurants. He was the highlight of a lacklustre meal. With little elbow room to actually eat and TVs that were turned up very loud to catch the latest game, plus a few people starting happy hour at 1:30 PM, we felt there was a lot to be desired. I doubt we would go back in the future.

We ate here at about 7:30 PM on a Friday.  The place was almost completely empty, which is sad.  We had a coupon from <a href="/redir?url=http%3A%2F%2Frestaurant.com&s=c5fe485af4df376130bee54f875814d79c4d7913e1258123b1206d2bdbf4873b" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://restaurant.com</a>, which prompted us to go, otherwise I might have never known it existed.  The restaurant is in the Marriott, with the great tunnel/tube system downtown, you can get there from the mall or pretty much anywhere else and never go outside.

They had Modelo on draft, and 22oz ones were on special for $4.  Most of the entree items were in the $11-16.00 range including sandwiches. They also have a couple of steaks on the menu.  I plan to come back soon and try the chipotle rubbed one.  I had the A1 burger which was well sized, cooked right, and tasted great.  It came with a lot of fries, a pickle and cole slaw.  We also had onion rings which had the traditional sauce and this other sauce the was almost a sweet and sour sauce.  Those were vary tasty as well, and both sauces were a nice complement.

My friend wasn't even able to finish all of her sandwich/fries because of the size.  She got a take home box though, so she obviously enjoyed it.

Chris, our server was great, when he heard it was my birthday, he brought me a free birthday sundae, which was easily big enough for two people to share.

So, 3 22oz drafts, some sandwiches and an appetizer came out to just under $50 before the coupon and tip.

If you are downtown and want some good food at a reasonable price, I would definitely recommend this place.  Our server did warn us that it tends to fill up fast after baseball and football games.