Bub’s Burgers & Ice Cream

Outstanding Ice Cream in an adorable setting! Very cute front porch to sit and enjoy the beautiful landscaping and people watching! Carmel is a very cool place! There are many great restaurants in the area with a variety of food options!

When in need of an American-​style burger, satisfy your craving at Bub’s. I’ve been to the original Carmel location a few times, and the new Zionsville location is just as crazy-​licious!
This family-​friendly burger joint reminds me of Fudruckers. Quarter, half and full pound beef and elk burgers are the main attraction. They also have soups, salads, sandwiches and a kids menu. I typically can only handle a quarter pound «Settle for Less Ugly» burger. The quality meat has the rustic taste of the grill, and fresh bun soaks up the greasy goodness. Yeah, if your watching your weight or health, this isn’t the place for you. We eat it because it tastes so good! I also opt for waffle fries with some ranch. If you like this combo, I’d suggest getting the large.
If you have any room left in your tummy, get some dessert. They have some killer milkshakes! Classic flavors include chocolate, vanilla, strawberry and banana. I go for banana every time, and my hubby gets strawberry. Sometimes, he finds a surprise strawberry at the bottom of his shake! Proof of its authentic, fruity nature. No bananas in mine though, but I think that’s a good thing.
Their staff are awesome and friendly, but sometimes I get annoyed. Many of the staff are high school and college kids. They’re rolling around with their youthful metabolism that keeps then thin while eating this stuff. I have a milkshake and my belly jiggles for a week. Grr.
This is a great location for any occasion! Go on a date because they offer beer and wine! Take the family that night when you don’t want to cook. Take your in-​laws so they will immediately accept you. Take yourself because you deserve a delicious life!

It’s not cheap but no sit down burger place is anymore. The burgers are basic but big and delicious… and I kinda like it that way. I don’t want truffles or caviar on my burger like many places try to push. Just give me a big, basic cheeseburger with lettuce, onion and tomato. Bubs gets it right on this front. Service can be slow sometimes… and the fries are very ordinary. Fresh cut fries would earn a 5 star rating but I’m only giving 4 stars with the current offering

Very average burgers in my opinion. They do have elk which is pretty good. I haven’t had the ice cream yet, but I will my next trip. I won’t be going back for the burgers, but I will be going back for their wings! If their wings weren’t so good, I would’ve given them 2 stars instead of 3

Great food, but if you want bub’s just save yourself the trouble and order to go.
I’ve been to bub’s before, I get their style slow and quality over poorer quality and fast, but I just figured I’d share my most recent experience.
We arrived at about 7:15pm on Tuesday promptly seated, at this point I’m thinking heck yes, we’re not gonna be here all night this time. Yet at 7:40pm we hadn’t had a server even come up to even introduce themselves. At this point, I’m a little surprised. Although still optimistic, but the straw that broke the camels back was when the table next to us was seated and had their drinks taken immediately. So we left and went to the friendly tavern.
If I want bub’s’ in the future I plan on ordering to go or clearing up a couple hour time block to go. If you order to go you’ll usually get your food in about 10 – 20 min, at least that has been my experience for lunch.

So Jimmy sings about rock’en and rollin on a Livingston Saturday night with his Tony Lamas’ on and his jeans pressed tight… you know 15 ‘ill get ya 20… yeah that Saturday night. Well last Saturday night, 7 got us $ 127 (before tip), a 50 minute wait on the kitchen and THE saltiest darn food WE had ever tasted!
Yep, this was a Zionsville Saturday night with a couple of old friend families getting together for a casual burger evening at Bubs. We were greeted, seated and orders taken efficiently: Four ¼ lbs Elk burgers with the works, a portobello mushroom burger, a mahi-​mahi burger, a corn dog, a large side of onion rings, a couple sides of waffle fries, a couple sides of regular fries, cole slaw, 6 beers, and… a coke (sorry Jake, skipped the 4 fried chickens)!
Drinks showed up pronto quick. After that, things definitely turned south… or better still, slow and salty.
Now we all get it that this is not exactly health food. But what we didn’t get was the fact that we needed to be prepared for a case of hyper-​natremia. To a person that was the topic of discussion after each first bite. Well to be fair, hyper-​natremia was my $ 10 word for «holy crap hand me that beer i need to wash this down!»
There was one good thing that came from the evening though, remember Jimmy sang about his lost shaker of salt, well WE know EXACTLY where it is! Take it Coral Reefers! We’re searching for our lost Amlodapine!

Burgers are always amazing, sweet potato fries (don’t forget the mallow sauce), and you can’t forget the ambiance. Been here on multiple occasions and love the setting. Never a bad experience– sit on the patio if you can.

Love the food, great atmosphere, clean, and we always have awesome service. I’ve had multiple servers on different occasions and they always do a fantastic job. Restaurant and deck is surrounded by woods making it a very enjoyable scenery when the weather is right. Would absolutely recommend this place!

Damn shame they are now making the malt’s smaller. Used to be they brought you a glass with your malt and also the tin. The tin still had plenty in it, not now. Too bad.

Lunchtime service is quick and attentive. Good quality food. Love the elk burger — especially Cajun Style. If they would cook it medium, as ordered they would get 5 srars.

So many times I’ve tried to go to the Zionsville Bub’s and faced a really long wait just to get a table. Ultimately, it’s just burgers and not worth waiting more than 10 – 15 minutes at most, especially since you’ll be waiting a long time for you food to arrive. As opposed to the original Carmel location, however, this Bub’s seems to be poorly managed. They are chronically understaffed and the staff who are working are poorly trained. I tried again to go today with a party of three, at 1:15 in the afternoon. A few people were waiting for tables. No one was at the host stand, and one gentlemen waiting in front of me turned around and walked out after apparently waiting for a long time to even see a host. I waited 10 minutes, had several Bub’s employees walk right past me, not making eye contact or acknowledging me whatsoever. I peeked at the waiting list; 4 parties of 3 – 4 each ahead of me, waiting for up to 30 minutes already. Finally, a young man who had made a milk shake walked right past me and I asked if they were still seating people. He snapped at me with «just a minute!» rather more sharply than I care to be spoken to. So I walked out with my guests to go elsewhere.
Sadly, this is far from the first time I’ve experienced poor service at the Zionsville Bub’s. So I don’t think I’ll be going back again. Hey, it’s just a burger place and not really all that great of a burger. It’s not worth suffering through poor service, or a lack of service altogether.

Delicious food and fantastic service. We will stop by again if we make it out this way again from Chicago.

Food is great. Although menu is concise, we appreciate that they have chosen to perfect a staple of foods. The waffle fries are excellent… must try with the marshmallow side sauce. The food is quality. Only con for this location is the noise level of restaurant — the high ceilings and trendy concrete flooring plus the stereo system lend to very loud atmosphere which makes it hard to hear with a large group. But food is superb and parking behind building is very convenient. Owner is super great guy — wish him, his family and his business the best!

I went to Bubs with a few friends and we had 3 toddlers with us so I was very happy to see the kids busy bags with goldfish and crayons. The food was amazing. I tell everyone about the sweet potato waffle fries and marshmallow dipping sauce

This Bub’s is so close now that we have moved but I was a bit concerned due to the reviews found here. Luckily, we were pleasantly surprised! We went around 6:30 on a Friday night and were told a 40 minute wait. Since I’ve worked in the service industry I figured they over shot the wait time and we were right! We only waited maybe 15 – 20 minutes and were sat. We were immediately greeted by a great server that was knowledgeable of the beers on tap, bottled, special burgers, and even nutrition details about the burgers! The elk burger is a great choice! Needless to say, the service and the food were excellent!

Bubs burgers and ice cream was pretty cool the staff was young and fun. The burger came in three meaty sizes. I ordered the mini burger and it was juicy, fresh and hit the spot! The French fires wete a little over seasoned but the ice cream made up for that. Bubs is a nice change of scenery for a classic favorite.

Our favorite family restaurant. We visit 2 – 3 times per month. Perfect place to take the kids. Amazing burgers and BBQ sauce, good waffle fries… upbeat atmosphere, and nice outdoor seating.

Slow Sunday but luckily the NFL pregame shows are on. Great burger spot especially if you’re brave enough to take the big ugly challenge. Server was attentive…

Good food, horrible service. We have been to the Zionsville location 5 times now, and each time we thought the slow /​poor service was just a one time thing. Not anymore. Average wait time to get water (not even a drink order) is at least 15 mins AFTER you have been seated. The last time we waited 35 mins for a beer. Other reviewers are correct, the average age of the waitstaff is only 17. This means only one person in the entire restaurant can take /​fulfill a drink order, and you will be asked at least two or three time to show you ID. On another occasion we asked the waitstaff for extra spoons for the kids and were told they were out and the extra spoons are on the dishwasher. What kind of a restaurant runs out of utensils?

— Great atmosphere, awesome service and the food of course was fantastic. My server recommended an off-​the-​menu item called the Creole Burger. I got the ½ pound creole elk burger with a small order of sweet potato fries and the marshmallow dipping sauce. Fantastic. I highly recommend this place to everyone.

First time visiting Bub’s, was not disappointed, had the «Settle for Less Ugly Burger», small basket of fries, small basket of onion rings, The burger was excellent, reminded me of a home cooked burger you would make on a grill in your own back yard. The onion rings were nicely done, would do without the Creole Mayo dipping sauce the next time. They were good just on there own. The fries, I would say were average, but good never the less. Did try the cole slaw my wife had, I thought it tasted store bought, wouldn’t suggest getting it here. Our server, Katie, was very friendly and attentive. All in all, was very happy with our lunch here today, may even attempt the «The 1lb Big Ugly Burger» some time soon.

The last three visits here for us the food took ~35 minutes to prepare. Friendly service, but beware of relatively slow kitchen especially with hungry kids. I recommend to have ice cream first to tie the kids over for the long wait on meal. Patio is a nice feature during good weather. Also, try to order upfront to avoid long wait, though when I tried that approach the 17yr old server was not prepared to take the order.

Sorry Bub’s, taking you down a notch to 3.5 stars in my book. Service was lagging and the average age of a waiter was 17. They stood behind the counter as a group talking and goofing around. Our waiter at least had his act together and even repeated our order to double check everything was correct — I appreciated the gesture and his thoroughness!
If you’re coming to Bub’s, get a good ol’ burger and fries. The side salad was just okay and not super healthy (lettuce w/​bacon, croutons, cheese… veggies were scant) and my chicken sandwich was subpar and rather chewy.
Surprise of the night goes to the Portobello sandwich — it’s just a mushroom «patty» with cheese on bun but I found it to be quite tasty!

Burgers, fries, hot dogs, and ice cream. Don’t except to eat healthy when you’re here; this is good old-​fashioned junk food.
Our party was 6 adults and 1 young child, and after reading other reviews on here, I was a little afraid when they said they’d seat us upstairs. Clearly «upstairs» is where they put the potentially loud ones, but it wasn’t all that bad. Typical family restaurant level of noise (and with that menu, it doesn’t get more kid-​friendly than that).
We started with the sweet potato fries, which come with a marshmallow dipping sauce. The fries were good and most of my party loved the sauce, but I found it kind of unnecessarily sweet. I think they were just trying to find ways to add more calories to the meal because if you’re going to go, you might as well go all out.
The elk burger was okay. A little dry with the very basic tomato, lettuce, cheese toppings. No frills. My mother-​in-​law had the obscene looking giant chili dog, which was kind of funny. Dessert was decadent, real, full fat ice cream from their little shop downstairs.
The standout of our trip was the service. Our server (Sophia?) was GREAT! Seriously, I’ve rarely had a better server anywhere.
Bottom line: go here if you really don’t care about your diet. At all. I’d call this American comfort food.

This review is specifically for the Zionsville location. I had lunch there today with 2 kids and 1 other adult. The reason for 3 stars is for the food and service. Both adults ordered ¼ elk burgers and waffle fried. The burgers were good but not spectacular. The fries were not good at all to the point where I only ate half of one fry. It just tasted like fried breading with very little potato.
What was a little more disappointing was the service. In comparing our server to the server at the adjacent table, ours seemed to lag behind. He did not present the specials of the day which we had to overhear at the adjacent table nor did we get a free sample of chili which was given to the adjacent table. He also didn’t inform us we could get grilled onions at no addt’l charge or that the side of BBQ sauce I asked for to go with my kid’s chicken fingers would cost extra. These things may seem small but it’s the little thinks that make a restaurant experience great.
Hopefully this was an isolated event.

We were very happy with our Elk burgers and fries today. Elk has less fat and calories then beef. I like that they crumble the bacon instead of strips on the burger. You actually get bacon in every bite.
The marshmallow dip was awesome just not in the sweet potato fries. The friends with us that got the sweet potato fries really liked them. I’m just not a sweet potato fry fan.
We had regular fries also which were great. They were nice and salty and crispy. I don’t know why people have given such bad reviews. This was our third time here. Food has always been very good and service has also been very good.

The half pound burger was simply ok. The food is weighed post-​cook, so keep that in mind prior to ordering. As a business they do an excellent job with the space and concept. There is a very good ice cream parlor inside and if you eat the full pound burger your picture goes on the wall. I had a strawberry banana malt and it was DELICIOUS. The sweet potato fries and burger meat is delivered prepackaged and frozen, and this is where my rating comes in to play. The burger was ordered MR, it came to my plate very rare, and was grey on the outside. This looked pretty gross and I’ve never seen a grey burger before. The bun bread was good I recall, but not the type of bread it is. The dip they give you for sweet potato fries isn’t the cinnamon kind, it is marshmallow sauce. This was my first taste of this stuff, and I won’t have it again as it was clearly 100% sugar, a recipe for diabetes, and the first dip was warm and the rest was freezing cold. It is a very odd bite when you have a hot sweet potato fry and a cold thick white sugar too on it. Not a fan of the super cold marshmallow sauce. It is also overpriced in my opinion for what actually goes in your mouth.
The service was excellent and my server and malt is why it gets 2 stars instead of 1.

Bub’s Burgers is a newer-​ish restaurant super close to the Zionsville strip. When you walk in it looks like a refurbished warehouse. The dinning room is open and cavernous but they do have a nice patio area that looks like it would be nice in the summer months.
The service we received was pretty good and the food is… decent. Nothing to write mom about. I ordered the bacon cheeseburger and fries. It was decent. Pretty standard.
They do have an ice cream counter in the restaurant so that’s nice I guess.
We will probably go back to Bub’s for the patio seating and ice cream.

It pains me to give a Zionsville business a poor review, but Bub’s has made it clear that they’re not really interested in being a Zionsville business. Have eaten here on several occasions and food is good as well as service. Management is the issue.
Despite being listed as members of the Zionsville Chamber of Commerce, they will NOT accept a Chamber gift certificate. How do these gift certificates work? Does it hurt their business? Absolutely not. They take the certificate for $ 50 (in our case) to the Chamber, and are given $ 50. Pretty darn easy.
Tried to pay with ours last night which was given as a birthday gift. They wouldn’t accept it and said it was in the fine print on the website that not all members accept gift cards. We looked at the website again as we did before we left to confirm that they were on the list. Couldn’t find it, but will continue to look. Honestly, it just makes them look bad. It kind of put a damper on our «free» meal out that we had been looking forward to. I’m actually glad that we still have the certificate to use elsewhere.
They do not participate in community programs because they don’t need to. They will be busy regardless because people flock to this place. It’s a shame that we won’t be back because the food is good, but I absolutely will not support a business that thinks they’re too good for the town they’re in. They let me know that they’re not just a Zionsville location and listed their several other locations for me. Thanks, I know that. A place like Bub’s does not represent Zionsville or its other businesses well. If you aren’t from Zionsville and try Bub’s and have an issue, please know that they are an exception to the otherwise great businesses in this town.
This isn’t our first run in in our family in dealing with Bub’s bad management. A company holiday party in their upstairs party room was handled very poorly from a scheduling aspect, trying to get a hold of the owner in Carmel is a nightmare as he has no desire in dealing with any other locations apparently. Whatever you do, please do not ask them for a donation for any type of charitable event. You will basically be laughed at.
They could stand to learn a thing or two from Zionsville restaurants that do know how to treat their customers.

Fun for kids but I don’t get the hype. Definitely would not consider this one of the best burgers in Indy. Service was not good at all. We sat without refills while our teenage waitress stood around in the kitchen doing nothing.
Onion rings were very good.
Overall, overpriced but a fun treat if you have children.

I don’t get the hype???
Big burgers. ok, that is a cool shtick.
The buns and burgers are good but everything else is blah!
Tried the sweet potato fries with marshmallow crème dipping sauce, potato salad, regular fries and a variety of burgers.
The sweet potato fries tasted like,.um…nothing. I might as well been dipping cardboard into the marshmallow crème. The reg fries are just that. The potato salad is about 2 ounces for $ 1.95??? and it isn’t that great. nothing special and one step above a premade tub potato salad.
I am always excited to see the array of local bushiness that grow into Zionsville but this one isnt for me. Tried both dining in and carry out.
Dining in is always a huge wait and this place is SUPER loud! and the carryout is nothing really worth leaving home for.
If your looking for a place that does the «simple» hamburger and fries concept well, go try Five Guys or make your way down to Boogie Burger.

My daughter did a report on Bub’s in Carmel history class. Yes, we literally have «history going way back»… driving by the construction site for six months filled the entire family with such anticipation, the kids were vibrating like violin strings when we finally walked in at 5 pm on a Saturday night. And discovered a 30 minute wait. Well, you want a restaurant to start strong, just be prepared.
The history and family experience continued one step ahead if culinary experience through the night. No Speed Limit family game — five stars. Elk burger — 4. Onion rings — 3. Selection of local beers — 2. Fries — 1. Kids’ corn dog — have to blast off — undercooked, literally made the kid sick. Face expressions registered by an attentive manager before we even had a chance to complain and take off the bill with apologies. Kids and adults appeased with quite delicious ice cream (last impressions matter).
We will let the hype wear off and weekend crowds thin out first, but will come back. For ice cream and in warmer weather for sure.