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Last Update: Jul 5th, 2019
Indigo is Closed

Indigo Restaurant

620 E Las Olas Blvd
Fort Lauderdale FL, 33301
(954) 467-0045
Overall Rating
2.5
Food
Service
Ambiance
Value
Last Review
10/18/2016

Details

Hours: 6:30-11:30am, 12pm-4pm, 5pm-10pm, Fri-Sat Open til 11pm
Attire: Casual
Parking: Garage, Street (metered) at night.
CC: Yes
Alcohol: Full Bar
Outside Dining: Yes
Delivery: No

Pros

Convenient Location
Sidewalk Dining

Cons

Overpriced
Mediocre Food
Unreliable Service

Insider Tips

Don't Take the Breakfast Option

Critic's Review

Indigo is closed. A Grab and Go will be coming. I suspect they're hoping to funnel their guests into their more expensive Wild Sea and Boathouse restaurants.

Indigo To Become a Grab and Go

Review 10/18/16

Indigo Restaurant (Riverside Hotel Fort Lauderdale)

One of the issues with Fort Lauderdale is that it gets hot fast; usually by 10am it's over 80 degrees already so outside dining isn't much fun. Today at 9:15 it was 78, so I decided to take a chance. Next month it will be cooler, but I haven't gone out for an outdoor breakfast in a long time.

The first different thing is that they finally moved the brass lions our of the doorway. They call the bar "The Golden Lyon", but the things were always just in the way. And clearly not gold.

Riverside lions

The hostess stand was unmanned. I waited and waited but no hostess emerged. Finally a server noticed me and showed me to a table. He tried to seat me right next to another guy on an empty patio; I pointed to something down the row and sat down.

Riverside street

The server dude poured me a glass of water and offered to get me coffee, which I accepted. I expected him to bring me a menu, but he didn't. No music. No wireless that worked. I had time to notice that the tables weren't level and that the chair were selected because they were easy to bring indoors and not for comfort. On thing bad about sitting 4 feet from the street is the road noise. Trucks were zipping by one after another.

Riverside truck

Finally he brought me the coffee and he broke out his pad to take my order. "A Menu would be Handy", I quipped. He scampered off and put a menu down in front of me.

Riverside coffee

They have a standard Hotel culinary team here so I'm careful not to order anything too complicated. The menu on their web site is out of date; when you completely re-do your menu you should update the web site. It's one of the reasons I've never had lunch or dinner at any of the restaurants here.

2 eggs with sausage is now $11, and they now only have hash browns; just like iHop. I ordered eggs over easy with rye toast, because that's what I always order.

No music; I still get to use xfinity wireless even though I no longer have comcast. Once you're in, you're in. At one point in time trucks weren't supposed to use Las Olas unless they had to for business, but those days are over. It's one noisy truck after another.

Riverside truck2

18 minutes later, food was delivered.

Riverside breakfast

Not a bad pile of food. The good sausages. Eggs not over easy but that's expected in Fort Lauderdale. I realized I needed a side plate for the toast; you'd think with an $11 breakfast they wouldn't just pile everyone on one plate. The server dude disappeared for 10 minutes at a time so just when I thought there was no hope, a busser girl emerged and I asked her to get me a plate.

No side plates at the hotel; but a saucer would suffice.

Riverside breakfast2

I had enough butter left to drizzle some over the hash browns. Despite the miniature rye bread, it was a hearty breakfast. They used to be so cheap with the potatoes here it was annoying; potatoes are about the cheapest thing that restaurants can buy which is why you always get a load of french fries everywhere you go.

Another change is that they don't give you a pot of coffee anymore, so when your cup is empty to have to wait. Not a problem with an attentive service, but this place is well-known for SLOW service. He finally came by and gave me another half cup. He didn't once ask if I had everything I needed; typical incompetent Fort Lauderdale service. When the people training the servers have no idea what to do, it translates down the line.

By 10am it was 82 degrees, and I was done eating. No server. Waiting. At 10:07 he dropped off my check, but didn't take my plates.

Riverside done

15% tip and I made a beeline home. Only 2 blocks, but I was sweating when I arrived.

Conclusion

Over time, not much changes at the Riverside Hotel. They're still understaffed, overpriced with clueless service. Decent breakfast at Hotel prices. Not many other choices in the area during the week, however.

Review 11/18/13

Indigo

Casual Dining at Fancy Restaurant prices. Note we have the lunch menu; dinner is largely the same at higher prices.

I hadn't been to Indigo in over 3 years, which seems impossible. I've thought about going there for lunch or dinner, but the prices are outlandish; I know what I'm getting there and I know it's not worth the price. But options are limited for breakfast, and this time of year is the perfect storm of comfortable morning weather and a lack of tourists; so it's a good time to take advantage of hotel dining. I remember being turned away once from a half-empty restaurant as they were holding the tables for guests.

An advantage of waking early is getting out before 8am when Las Olas is sleepy and even the breakfast restaurants are empty. The hostess who has been here forever wasn't here this morning; a dude just pointed indicating that I could sit where I wanted.

Indigo las olas view

I ordered coffee; they don't give you the big $4 pot anymore; they've moved onto dainty little cups, which a finger hold so small that only tiny women could get their finger through it.

Indigo coffee 1113

I'm not sure if the coffee was Cafes Richard coffee or they just use the cups, but the coffee was lousy. I ordered 2 over easy with pork sausage and rye toast; my regular breakfast. They have chicken sausage also so I made sure to specify that I wanted pork. It took about 10 minutes to come out.

Indigo eggs 1113

They still haven't mastered the concept of over-easy as these were steamed in a small skillet; but they still have the good pork sausage. The potatoes are "Roasted", which is "healthier" but not as good as sauteed. Good rye bread. A perfectly satisfactory breakfast.

Service here continues to be professional but Barney Rubbleish; the same dude brought me 2 checks; apparently forgetting that he already has dropped one off. Harmless, if not entertaining.

They're not charging $4 for coffee anymore, which is a good thing. The bill came to $13.26; not diner priced, but at this time of year, a delightful spot for breakfast on the Boulevard.

Review 5/27/10

Indigo is a restaurant in the Riverside Hotel with an indoor dining room as well as tables on a large outdoor patio. When you're on Las Olas, you might not even realize that this is part of the hotel. The Las Olas entrance to the hotel sits between Indigo and the Golden Lyon, which is the bar in the Hotel that also has a small outdoor area.

I haven't been to Indigo for breakfast in over a year. I wouldn't eat lunch or dinner here, mainly because their execution is so spotty and prices too high for what you get. It is, after all, a hotel; the difference with this one is that there are many better restaurants just steps away. Their lunch and dinner menus have changed; they've moved away from their previous Indonesian fusion in favor of some more traditional and more palatable choices, such as salmon.

For breakfast on Las Olas, your choices for outdoor dining are limited, and this time of year its real nice in the morning. Before 10am there's limited traffic on the Boulevard, the the view is quite nice.

They've changed the menus and added some interesting items, but they've also raised their prices. The price raise isn't apparent initially; there's apparently a trend in restaurants to not mention the price of coffee on the menu, and then sticking you with a $4.00 charge on the bill. Luckily you're reading this so you can just pick up a superior Illy coffee at Gran Forno Pronto next door before sitting down.

For breakfast I ordered 2 over medium with sausage and Rye toast; my usual.

Indigo breakfast

Since the last time I was here, they've change both the sausage and the potatoes. They used to have skinny sausages reminiscent of Jones links; they now have large, plump sagey sausages that are much better. Their potatoes used to be a dice with onions and peppers; now they serve red potato wedges with skin on simply cooked with onions. They're good, but its a measly portion. As usual their eggs are a bit wonky; I'll guess that they cover the eggs rather than flip them, but you really can't ruin eggs as long as you don't break the yolk.

Service seemed a bit better than last time; they come by regularly to ask if you want more coffee and they seem to have someone watching the outside to see if anyone needs service. Previously if you had a late breakfast you could sit there until lunchtime waiting for someone to process your check.

On the surface the $12 for eggs with sausage doesn't seem that bad, but when you add $4 for pedestrian coffee it really begins to resemble the gouging down by the beach. Breakfast at Steak 954 was only $1 more. So Cafe Le Bonne Crepe remains a superior choice if you don't mind walking a block and a half.

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