meetyouatarnis.com
Intro
As you probably don't know, Arni's opened its first restaurant in 1965 in Lafayette, Indiana. According to their website, "Arni's prides itself in providing a fun place to eat, with efficient service, and quality food at reasonable prices." And even though they are lacking in their marketing spin and flowery writing skills, they do seem to deliver on these promises.
Arni's currently lists 18 locations on its website, including five in Lafayette, one in Indy, and another in one of my favorite-named Indiana towns, Floyds Knobs. There used to be a location on West 86th Street in Indy, and my mom liked to go there because they had life-sized bikes on the wall ridden by life-sized historical figures. I don't remember the food being all that memorable, but I do remember the crazy bikes. That location closed (moved) back in 2008, according to Gerry Dick.
I had only been to the "new" Arni's a few times before, the last time being my surprise 40th birthday party a couple of years back. And we, of course, had pizza. So, it seemed like a natural and appropriate place to blog about.
Atmosphere & Service
Arni's is located on 96th Street, between Allisonville and Keystone, just east of the monolithic and uber-ugly hh gregg location. It's in one of the many nondescript strip malls along this stretch of roadway, and I often drive by this place without taking notice. But it still seems to do a brisk business.
The atmosphere is comfortable, exposed ceilings, slightly contemporary, and the service was "efficient". It also seemed like they had a LOT of staffers, which is better than the alternative. We got our sticks and food in what seemed like a faster-than-usual amount of time. Especially for a Friday night.
Pizza (breadsticks)
The sticks were just okay. I probably wouldn't order them again, and certainly wouldn't order them if I was doing carryout. I thought they came with both cheese and marinara sauce, so I didn't order an "extra sauce".
Hey, lookie there, it WAS supposed to come with both sauces. But I didn't complain (or request) because 1) I didn't feel like asking, and 2) since our pizza came so quickly, it really didn't matter.
As for the 'za, we ordered half cheese (always) and half BBQ chicken. While the cheese was rather dull and unassuming, the other half was simply spectacular. Lots of flavor, saucy sauce and tender chicken. Featuring "a blend of mozzarella, smoked Gouda and cheddar cheeses."
Arni's crust is on the thin side, and it's more of a good vehicle to deliver the rest of the flavor versus a good, delicious, flavorful crust that can stand on its own merits.That's why, in my opinion, the cheese pizza was/is sub-par. It tasted like decent bar pizza, but a sub-par pizza parlor pizza... if that makes sense.
RE the breadsticks: Tastes like a Twinkie. (random and not really that accurate) :-)
RE the pizza: It's different. Cheese is awesome, too...If this is not a dream, I'm gonna rank this the best so far.
RE the pizza: This is sooooo good.
Rating (out of 8 possible slices, with 4 being average)
Dad: 6.0 (based on the BBQ pizza, mostly)
Benjamin: 8 (A perfect score! Ben really liked the BBQ pizza!!)
Sophia: 7.5
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