Last week, Brian and I headed to Oakleys Bistro to taste some of their popular small plates for a project that I was working on at work.

Oakleys Bistro is an upscale, local Indianapolis restaurant on the Northwest side of the city.  Not too far from my current office!

The name comes from the owner and chef, Steven J. Oakley, who opened the restaurant in December 2002.  You can read more about Chef Oakley’s journey by clicking here!

I had only heard amazing reviews about this restaurant, yet I still wasn’t sure what to expect.  Once we arrived, we were seated at a nice booth and began perusing the menu.  Literally, everything looked more than appetizing!

The servers first brought out fresh bread with an eggplant puree, kalamata olive puree, and olive oil.  I am a HUGE olive fan and loved the kalamata olive puree.  Things were off to a great start!

Then, shrimp corndogs arrived at the table.  Now, I cannot tell you the last time that I have had anything remotely close to a corndog, but these were absolutely delicious!  The corndogs were drizzled with homemade honey mustard.   I would definitely order these again.

Next up was the roasted red pepper hummus.  Brian and I are very big hummus fans, so we were very excited when this plate came out.  The hummus was spread out on the plate and topped with an artichoke, spinach, and goat cheese parfait served with crab truffles on the side.  Brian and I could not stop “mmming” during this one!

We also got to sample the lobster waffle.  This dish was a basil roasted garlic waffle on top of a zucchini and lobster mixture with a mustard sauce.  This dish was tasty, but compared to the others it was not my favorite.

We then ended our tasting session on a sweet note with some creme brulee, mango sorbet, and a coconut macaroon.  It was the perfect way to end our delicious sampler session at Oakelys Bistro!

If you are ever in Indianapolis, I highly recommend this restaurant.  The service was amazing, the staff was friendly, and the food was absolutely wonderful!!