Houlihan's may not initially strike you as being your first choice for a downtown dinner destination, but you may want to reconsider. We were pleasantly surprised at the quality and presentation of the food even compared to Indianapolis' more expensive downtown restaurants. Our meal started out with the chicken lettuce wraps and calamari. The calamari was good, and after asking to substitute the accompanying sauce for a marinara sauce, it was excellent. The chicken lettuce wraps were the best we have had (and we have tried lettuce wraps numerous places) due to the incredibly flavorful sauce. With entrees, you are given a soup or salad and we chose the house chop salad and the original baked potato soup. The house chop salad was quite tasty and the baked potato soup was good, but lacked some flavor. The rib and shrimp combo was a great, hearty meal and the almond trout was good, but a bit dry for my taste. The trout was accompanied by sautéed spinach with bacon and onions that was phenomenal. For dessert, they have a great option, the "mini all three" where you can sample smaller portions of three different desserts. Despite being completely full, each of the desserts was good. Convenient location (walking distance from any parking garage downtown), good food (especially the lettuce wraps) and excellent value ensure that we will be back!

It was surprising to see so few in a downtown popular restaurant at noon on a Thursday afternoon with several meetings/conventions going on. Lucky for us. We were seated immediately and left promptly at 1 p.m. Sandwiches, fries and soft drinks. What more could you ask for?