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Brugge, in Broad Ripple, for their moules frites and blonde ale, casual brew pub & brasserie.
Petite Choux, in Broad Ripple, for breakfast or lunch, business casual.
Elements, Downtown, for an elegant night out.
D'vine--A wine bar, NE Indy, 86th & Allisonville, great little wine bar and small plates and martinis, go upstairs to sit at the bar or stay downstairs to dine, business casual to dressy on some nights.
St. Elmo's, Downtown, ogle their wine list, have their famous shrimp cocktail, everything from casual to black tie.
Fleming's Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar, NE Indy, 82nd & Union Chapel Road, great steaks, the best staff, 100 wines by the glass, love their creamed spinach and bone-in strip, business casual to some serious power suits.
Mama's, Pendleton Pike, Korean bbq house, they bring live coals to set up your personal hibachi for grilling the bbq, very casual, convivial atmosphere...if you're lucky the Dragon Lady will come out and explain all the little "banchan" dishes in front of you.
Tie Dye Grill, Shadeland Ave & 11th(?), burgers, meatloaf, pork chops, very casual, hippy, home cooking.
Wasabi, NE, 82nd, decent sushi, sake, friendly staff
H2O, Broad Ripple, decent sushi
Slippery Noodle, Downtown, jazz bar
Shapiro's, Downtown, deli...oh, they opened a second location in Carmel
And there is every single chain restaurant known to man in Indianapolis. If it's not Downtown, then it'll be at the Keystone Fashion Mall at Keystone Crossing or on 96th St.
Of course, there are more Steak&Shakes than there are Starbucks in Indy.
I wish the list was longer. I've been here for 6 months and I've yet to be blown away by the food scene. I have yet to have a decent Italian meal. Don't try to look for pho. Good BBQ, I think there is a definition problem here. If it's meat and potatoes, no problem, the city is full of that sort of cuisine. The higher end chains (Fleming's, Ruth's Chris, Morton's, Capital Grill, Sullivan's) all do a great and consistent job, but if you are looking for culinary adventure or innovation save it for NYC or drive the 3 hours from Indy to Chicago.
Hmm, I don't mean to sound harsh. There are a ton of places to eat if you want to give BF's mom a break.

Don't know where you're staying in Bloomington, but we were there in December and stayed at The Grant Street Inn. It was incredible and very reasonably priced.

A highlight is their lovely breakfast buffet.

Bloomington has a fantastic food culture, in my opinion. People and their restaurants are adventurous, both in doing the old standards well and in finding new standards. :)

The Bloomington farmer's market and Winter market bring the local marketing season to ten months of the year (all but December and January). The vendors are really excellent, and you can even get tamales at one stall using the pork shoulder you could have bought from another vendor, cooking demonstrations by local chefs, with a really liberal sprinkling of local musicians throughout the market.

There are also two cooking stores downtown, which I think is rather remarkable for a city this size (maybe I'm just from too small a town for this to seem normal? :), Goods for Cooks and The Inner Chef. There is also Bloomington Cooking School, run by a local chef.

Bloomingfoods, the local co-op, and Sahara Mart are two sources for more out-of-the-way ingredients, and they both sell some prepared foods. There are also a handful of asian groceries and other international markets.

There's vegetarian+local at Roots (on the square), Irish pub food at The Irish Lion (just off the square), American pub food at Upland Brewery (ate there last night, in fact...) acceptable sushi all over town (we like Asuka,on the east side), excellent Indian at Shanti (on the main street, Kirkwood), AMAZING Thai home cooking at Esan Thai right behind Shanti (try the yellow curry!), a neat little Creperie which I like even though some of my friends give it mixed reviews (the Cafe et Crepe, downtown), and the Uptown Cafe (just off the square). There are many, many more!

Some of these restaurants have websites, and I hope I've given you enough to find them. My apologies if I've gotten any names slightly wrong, I've had to do a lot of this on memory in a short break from work. :)

So in short, food folks are doing just fine in Bloomington. It has its drawbacks (Seafood, why are you so faaar awaaaayyy!?), but all in all, you'll find a lot of new and old things to make your taste buds happy!

--Sarah

3rd on the tenderloin. Just beware that some places serve really huge ones- like so huge there is more tenderloin than bun. You can fold it in half and attempt to equalize the bun-to-loin ratio or just nibble on the over hang until you finally reach bun!

And come back in August when the sweet corn is best-- nothing like fresh Indiana sweet corn that goes from field to table in less than 30 minutes. Thank god I married a farm boy!

Tenderloin lovers unite!

My only complaint is that a lot of places pound it out so thin all you taste is the breading. Otherwise, how can you go wrong with breaded, fried pork on a bun?

Wow, some great ideas, thanks guys. The BF will be quite relieved to not be forced back into the Olive Garden groove. Any rec's for a good pork tenderloin joint? We do love any and all porky goodness, but I think his recollections are of just finding it at the state/county fair.

nwbywayofla and wookie -

I think I know every good tenderloin in the city and I've eaten at just about every decent restaurant, so I can give recommendations for anything. I know I'm running a big risk here, but feel free to email me at boil3r@yahoo.com and let me know which part of town you're in. Then I can tell you the best tenderloins in that area and other restaurants close by.

In general though, the best tenderloins if you don't care about location...
1. Taylor's Pubs (3 locations - north, northwest, northeast)
2. Union Jack (Broad Ripple and Speedway)
3. Grindstone Charleys (multiple locations around the city)
4. Flag Room Lounge at Brickyard Crossing (the golf club at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway)
5. The Nickel Plate (Fishers)
6. Blue Crew Grill (NE/Fishers on 96th)
7. Ice House (SW close to downtown)

@deeoh1--thanks again! I'm definitely having a tenderloin, soon. I'm familiar with Union Jack, but not the others.

My husband and I have been meaning to check out Meridian. We met the GM of Meridian at another restaurant (Z's). Glad to hear it's good.

@deeoh-- We just wanted to check it out...it was pretty dead that night, but it was soon after they opened. The GM of Meridian and his companion were having dinner at the bar, (not steaks, I noticed). We did a sampling of the apps--steak tartare prepared tableside or barside as in our case, fried oysters, oysters rockefeller, escargot, and shrimp cocktail. I don't remember why we didn't have any raw oysters, we normally love them.
I have been hearing not so great things about Z's, which is sad because the manager seemed so earnest and dedicated and working herself to death.
Is it true that the location is cursed?

There's a place there that has food and drinks too, check it out!