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The Best Restaurants In Michigan City, Indiana

Surf & Turf with Lobster at William Bs
Surf & Turf with Lobster at William B's | Courtesy of William B's Steakhouse

Located at one end of the Chicago metro area quite close to the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, Michigan City is a small town with big city influences. Part of that, unsurprisingly, is the food. There is a varied selection of restaurants here, all offering you home-cooked meals served with a smile. Check out our favorites below. Did you know – Culture Trip now does bookable, small-group trips? Pick from authentic, immersive Epic Trips, compact and action-packed Mini Trips and sparkling, expansive Sailing Trips.

Shoreline Brewery

Cream Stout

You’re going to get more than just a great meal when you come to Shoreline Brewery. As you may have guessed by the name, their first love has always been beer, and you’ll always find 12 of their delicious brews on tap. They have a couple of mainstays, including a Scottish ale and an Oatmeal stout, and then the rest of the taps are filled with ever-changing seasonal beers. For food, expect the best of pub grub from around the world – think soft pretzels like you’d get in Bavaria, poutine from Canada, and Scotch eggs – plus flavorful and enticing entrées like gumbo and baby back ribs.

William B’s Steakhouse

Midwestern comfort meets Las Vegas shine at William B’s Steakhouse, located in the Bluechip Hotel & Casino. The steaks are the stars of the show, but they’re flanked by an excellent array of supporting characters, ranging from delectable appetizers like bacon-wrapped scallops and Asian pork belly, to house favorites like stuffed shrimp and veal scallopini. You’ll be dining in high style and the luxuriant surroundings will also give you the feeling of a truly classy night out. When you have a big occasion to celebrate in Michigan City, there is no better place to eat.

William B’s Steakhouse, Bluechip Hotel & Casino, 777 Blue Chip Dr, Michigan City, IN, USA, +1 219 879 7711

Panini Panini

Panini Panini will take you across the Atlantic to the Old Country with their notably European atmosphere and selection of specials from various countries. Their menu is seasonal, plus they have a number of weekly specials, so you can expect to find something new each time you stop by. They also pride themselves on their wine and craft beer lists, and they can make very good recommendations about what goes well together. This is a particularly good place to come if you’re a vegetarian, because they will definitely have more options than you’re used to seeing on a menu.

Panini Panini, 1720 Franklin St, Michigan City, IN, USA, +1 219 873 1720

Lakeshore Coffee & Specialties

There’s nothing like a heart-warming latte

Lakeshore Coffee & Specialties is a local favorite that has made itself the first stop for anyone in the area looking for quality coffee and the typical accouterments that go along with it. They have a lot of fun putting together new flavor combinations for their lattes, like a cherry blossom latte with cherry and almond flavors and a ‘frog in a blender’ smoothie, which is made up of a green tea latte blended with pomegranate. Both of these concoctions were made for their special ‘Taste of Spring’ menu. These menus change out quickly, though, so you can expect to find tasty new surprises every time.

Lakeshore Coffee & Specialties, 444 Wabash St, Michigan City, IN, USA, +1 219 874 7006

El Cajete

When you walk into El Cajete, you’ll be greeted by a smiling statue holding a board with the day’s specials, and this is the attitude that you can expect from your whole visit to this cheerful Mexican restaurant. In the style that you might expect from authentic Mexican restaurants, the prices are low, the portions are big, and the food is positively delicious. You might not expect that much from the outside, but this is a great example of how you can’t judge a book by its cover. The staff will make you feel welcome the whole time, so you can spend what you saved on dinner on a tip for them.

Holly’s Restaurant & Pub

Hotdog

When you go to Holly’s Restaurant & Pub, your group doesn’t have to agree on what they want to eat because you’ll have three excellent and very different choices – traditional American food, Mexican dishes, and barbecue. They’ve gotten creative with those cuisines, though, so you’ll see menu items that you recognize in arrangements that you don’t, like spinach and artichoke grilled cheese, for example, or their Diablo burger, which is a normal burger with pepper jack cheese, their own pico de gallo salsa, and Sriracha mayo. With such a long menu, you’ll want to budget some extra time to choose – or just come back multiple times!

Fiddlehead

Newly opened in Michigan City’s Uptown Arts District, Fiddlehead pulls together a great pub atmosphere with a local ethos to make a place where you can get guilt-free comfort food and have a great time out. Their food is all locally sourced, and they take great pride in offering local specialties, like mushroom pierogis and lobster mac and cheese, but their sources of pride don’t stop at just their menu. They also run the FERN program, which they developed to give job training to war veterans, and which they hope will soon expand to other businesses in the area.

About the author

Lani is a freelance writer and translator currently living in Prague, Czech Republic. After growing up in Durham, North Carolina, she went to university at Northwestern University in Chicago and then went on to live in Georgia, Scotland, Hungary, and various cities in the Czech Republic.

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