Nice restaurant in downtown Des Moines. I was there for a business meeting on a Tuesday night. It was not crowded and the service was good. We had scallops and fritters for an appetizer. Both were very well prepared and perfect for sharing. I had the trout for dinner which was slightly overlooked but still really good. The sauce with the trout was excellent. read more

Quite delicious - but expensive. Had the pork belly to start - crispy on the outside and just right on the inside. Interesting presentation with lettuce. There were an outstanding amount of flavored from the sauces and other bits, it lead to a light, savory, and sweet app. I got the braised beef with gnocchi for my main course. The beef was huge and again, every bite had its own flavor, all the way down to the sweet cauliflower - a nice balance to the heavy meal. Would have enjoyed just a bit more gnocchi. It was served with a side of bread and butter and let me tell you, the butter was GREAT. I believe it was a sun-dried tomato butter, an interesting mix that I have never had before, and it worked. The atmosphere was low key, and the food was fantastic. I have tried many times to find a good meal in DM and have failed, this one was perfect. Keep in mind it is expensive, my app, main course, and two glasses of the cheapest wine came out to $70 with tip. read more

Alba - Braised beef with gnocchi. The cauliflower was fantastic. - American Near Me - Des Moines, Iowa

Food was great. I had the beet salad and pork tenderloin with slaw. Every bite was delicious. Good service too. Lovely Sangiovese to accompany. Above average wine by the glass choices. Atmosphere is modern and minimalist. Noise level high, but sitting by a window made up for the din. There is a gorgeous bar in the back of the restaurant, but you wouldn't know it's there. No one was in it, but the restaurant was full. It earns its good reputation. read more

I could have easily given these guys five stars but I try to show some discretion with my reviews and I only had a bowl of soup. I think it was celery leek but I'm truly not sure and I wasn't open to asking a third time what she said but it was damn good whatever the hell it was. My co-worker had the risotto and said it was great. I also had the chocolate lava cake since every review mentioned that bad boy. Probably not under 2,000 calories but didn't disappoint. I would definitely recommend this place. read more

Alba has great food! You can find delicious and innovative items as well as elevated comfort food on their menu. They have an outstanding wine list (half price wine on Wednesday's) and a deep bar. The service is professional, informed, and efficient, but you never feel rushed. My big exception to Alba is the noise. It's the contemporary vibe of noisy but if you are sitting in the center of the rooms you have to raise your voice to be heard across the table. For an upscale menu with an elegant approach to service the "casual" noise level is very incompatible. Still a great restaurant but if you don't like to raise your voice or can't hear well it's probably not your spot. read more

Noisy. Very noisy, in fact. The waitress belatedly informed me that they were out of the first 2 entrees I tried to order. I chose the gnocchi ultimately and paid more to add the prawns, which were tasteless and overcooked. My companions were satisfied with 1 entree and dissatisfied with the other. Given the cost, the noisy atmosphere, and 2 of 3 dissatisfying meals, I can't recommend it. read more

If you haven't been to Alba's I highly recommend it! The service here is very friendly and chefs are awesome. They use fresh local ingredients which makes them even better. I had there pan roasted chicken with lentil croquettes. Delicious I would love to try everything on there menu. The BBQ pork cheeks was highly recommended by our friends! read more

We surprised the folks at Alba with a party of 15. They were amazing in every way. Garrett was nonplussed by the event. We were placed in a semi-private toom. The food was spectacular. Everyone in our group was delighted with their meal. The service was so far above and beyond that I cannot accurately describe it. Our group carried very high expectations into the evening and were not disappointed. My wife and I will definitely be back (most of our group was from out if town). I strongly recommend Alba - in my experience the best restaurant in Iowa. read more

We've been here a few times before and had good food and service. This is "Restaurant Week" in DM, and Alba participates. This is a special prix fixe 3-course meal, for 28.00, that participating restaurants run during this week in August. After previewing all the menus of all the possible places to eat, this one was our pick--specifically for a particular entree, appetizer and dessert item that Alba had posted on this year's RestaurantweekDM.com website. My husband and I made our reservation (they recommend reservations, right?) two days in advance, and looked forward to what we saw on the website. We arrived a few minutes early, were ushered to the bar to wait (fine, we were planning on that) but then were forgotten. "I'll come get you when the table's ready," the hostess had said. The dining room was not even half-full when we arrived. Half an hour went by, so I went to see about our table. We were seated as if this delay was our fault...hostess' eyes rolling and so on. By then, the dining room was filling up fast. Our waiter, who never gave us his name, eventually stopped just to see if we had menus (yes) and said, "I'll get right back to you." While he was busy for ten or more minutes, we saw that three of the six items we were looking forward to were either upcharged heavily (up to ten dollars extra), or were missing entirely from the list they had registered with the Restaurant Week website. There was no alternate option for my husband, who doesn't eat meat, but to pay 38.00 for the only fish entree that was advertised at 28.00 online. The dessert I was going to order was upcharged 4.00 and the one he wanted was not even on this menu, although it was on the website menu. When we brought this to his attention, the waiter argued with us about the upcharging (false advertising just doesn't sit well with us), and abruptly he left our table again, to give us even more minutes to decide... Well, we decided to just pay for the two drinks that were now almost an hour old, and leave. Then, we couldn't get his attention to pay him for the drinks (more minutes!), so my husband returned to the bar, and paid the bartender. He did inform the bartender why we chose to leave. The bartender understood completely, and was the only pleasant experience there this evening. The last moment was laughable. The waiter, who was so absent inside, chased us out onto the sidewalk, because he didn't get the memo that the drinks had indeed been paid for. Geez. I expected so much better from this restaurant. Trendy bistros, whose menus change often, and prices grow from website to print versions within just days, with staff that don't talk to each other or don't have alternatives for those who have dietary restrictions... I guess I should have known better. Thank goodness for Malo. We had an excellent RestaurantWeek prix fixe dinner and experience tonight at Malo. :) read more

I have been wanting to try Alba's for at least 18 months. I chose Valentines Day and was highly disappointed. The restaurant offered a fix menu with choices. Unfortunately at 7:00 PM some of the key dishes were already unavailable, limiting the menu even more. I had the steak tartare which was delicious. My next choice was tagliatelle with boar ragu'. The sauce was very good but the pasta was served swimming in water. The lava cake dessert was really an undercooked brownie. I won't go back. But maybe you will have better luck than me. read more

$170 for two - plus tip (Update - their WEB site is up - apparently it is ok to have a $20+/head New Year's Eve surcharge). For $195 ($25 tip) one would think that you would deserve fine dining - superb food and service - sadly Chef Jason Simon disappointed. My wife and I joined another couple for a nice New Year's Eve dinner. We've been to Alba before and enjoyed ourselves, but I will never ever return. For $195 my wife had two glasses of wine ($24). I had two cocktails ($13). My three course meal consisted of a Duck tureen appetizer, Arctic Char with vegetables and a potato, and an apple crisp with ice cream ($62). My wife had a spinach salad, Pork Loin Duo with vegetables - with chorizo (I believe). For dessert she opted for the butternut squash soup appetizer since she doesn't like dessert ($55). I also had a coffee to go with my dessert ($3.35). Tax was $9.65. I left a $25 tip (14.7% for barely adequate service and an overpriced meal). My tureen appetizer was good and included chips of fried cheese. The Arctic Char and vegetables were cooked well, but by the end of the dish I didn't like it enough to finish it. The dessert was ok - but I would like a little more crisp in my apple crisp - and the apples were overcooked. My wife liked her spinach salad, thought the pork was so-so, and remembered liking the soup much better the last time we are at Alba. All the portions were right sized not huge not tiny. My coffee was good and strong. Fortunately for our friends, they didn't pay as much (only $130 before tip) as the restaurant gave them a partial credit for the main course they sent back for being too spicy to eat (in the opinion of three out of three of us who tried it). At this price level one deserves a meal and service that is excellent - not adequate. I don't remember the prices being this high - but Alba doesn't have a WEB site to review their menu (quite unbelievable in this day and age). As I said, we've been there before and enjoyed ourselves, but before you go, I would ask to see a menu and know what you are going to pay for hit and miss food and barely adequate service. (BTW - our three course meal took over two hours and the corkage fee is $25) read more

We were in Des Moines on a spring break trip and we were lucky to have gotten a recommendation for Alba. The decor is unique and the food as well. This is chef driven and unlike anything you can find anywhere. Dinner was a tad pricy but so delicious. I had the chive potato gnocchi with roasted vegetables. I had to stop my self from licking the bowl. Great service and I heard the lunch menu is more reasonable. That said I am hoping to head back to Des Moines for another trip to Alba. read more

Ive been to Alba a few times, great food previously, horrible bar service tonight. Even though website and door say "5 p.m. - close" I was served a bottle of wine with friends at 9:30 p.m. on a Saturday night and was never checked on, provided additional pours or asked for any additional items by staff. When I asked about 45 minutes later I was told that the previous bartender never should have served us and that the "maestro from the symphony was there and normally the restaurant would be closed." I was given a lecture on how the restaurant is "fine dining" from the new bartender (he was wearing a flannel shirt and jeans) and typically closes around 9 p.m., and that he "needs to get to his other job, he doesnt have time for this." A simple notice that it was last call would have sufficed rather than poor service and poor excuses. read more

Traveling in from St Louis for a weekend away. Amazing food: gnocchi was fantastic. Chocolate lava cake. Relaxing and warm atmosphere. Highly recommend. read more

Good food, slow service. We had scallops as appetizer & they were delicious. We had sweet potato gnocchi. Yummy! We also had the new halibut entree which was also delicious. Creme brûlée was okay. I've had better. Overall good place to eat! read more

I am going to keep this short because Yelp already lost my first review. The Brussels Sprout salad was great. The steak was ordered medium rare and came raw, came back not that much better. The Crab Beignet appetizer was dark on the outside, not completely cooked on the inside (obviously an oil problem). The Duck Breast did not have a crispy skin side and was not very hot, in fact the entire dish was overly greasy. The porridge was more like gruel. To top things off we were enticed to order dessert. The Cinnamon Roll bread pudding was great, the Pineapple Cake and Coconut Ice Cream dessert deserved more than a Tiny Furniture helping. We were celebrating our anniversary, we will not be doing that at Alba again. However we may return and if I do, I'm ordering the pasta. How bad can that be? read more

Fabulous!!! Alba is a special gem we have in Des Moines! It's quickly becoming our special date night restaurant for my partner and I and is my favorite location to take out of town guests. The food is terrific and the service amazing! I would highly recommend trying Alba!!! read more

Waitress didn't offer the specials and didn't bring the bread until the middle of dinner. Brisket was dry, no flavor. Risotto was cooked perfectly. Sea bass was unevenly cooked from the outside (one side crispier than the other), recommend removing the skin before serving the customer and the overall flavor of the dish was bland. Ambience was great! Dessert was good, Creme brûlée and chocolate lava cake. Ordered 2 cups of black coffee and they were not the same, 1 cup had a funny layer of froth and they did not taste the same. read more

Service wasn't great, waited 20 minutes to place our drink order. Food was tasty though

Excellent food, drinks and service! The Gnocchi with chicken was absolutely amazing as were the deviled eggs, fritters and Brussel Sprouts. Highly recommend this restaurant! read more

I've always been a fan of Alba and their seasonal menu. However they were not prepared for Valentine's Day. My boyfriend couldn't get a reservation until 8:45 which I was like it's fine we can have a late lunch. We showed up around 8:35, a little early. The hostess said it would be around a 25 minute wait. It was an HOUR. We were seated around 9:45. Okay. The menu wasn't clear that it was a set three course meal with the price next to the entree (this was also not mentioned when reservations were made). My boyfriend had previously ordered their chicken gnocci the last time we went to Alba for dinner, which was around $30 for a large plate. It was $75 last night. Yes there was a soup and a dessert to go with it. How did those 2 courses make up $45, I don't know. So when my boyfriend saw the hostess walk by, he said "excuse me" and asked about the price markup/menu explanation. The hostess... unapologetically made us wait an hour but proceed to look down on us and talked to my boyfriend like he was stupid "the mark up is because of Valentine's day . It's a 3 course meal". At this point my boyfriend is fuming and considered leaving but I was hungry and we had already waited an hour to be seated. Our food came out at 10:30pm. I thought I was going to fall asleep waiting for it. I got the pan seared scallop as my entree and some bits of vegetables on there was cold and the seared part of the scallop was so salty, it made my lips tingle. I went through 4 cups of water to finish my meal. Our server was nice though and apologized for how hectic it was. I'm not sure if I want to go back to Alba again unless I want a side of humiliation to go with my food. read more

We had the Groom's dinner for our son's wedding at Alba. Jason Simon, the owner, was awesome to work with and made sure the night went perfect. We had eaten at the restaurant previously to try it out and both times the food was excellent. The chocolate lava cake is spectacular. Great environment. read more

My only issues with my first trip to Alba lie with the service, the ambiance, and the food. Everything about the experience was incredibly mediocre: A 25 minute wait for our reserved table. The inability of the bartending staff to get our drink order correct in a timely manner. The server not informing me that they were out of a particular dish and hovering while I rushed to make an alternate decision. The salad having an unadvertised hard boiled egg on it (which I hate) and the server not asking why I hadn't touched the salad. The very mediocre "signature" gnocchi dish which was very small and very bland (and who puts radishes on a dish like that?). And the final insult was bringing me a pen to sign the receipt which not only didn't work, but in fact was oozing ink all over the place. I was looking for something exceptional for my anniversary dinner and instead found underwhelming. I could have gone to a chain restaurant and probably found better service and food, and saved a lot of money in the process. read more

Alba is hands down my favorite place in Des Moines. I go there every time I'm in town. We had my rehearsal dinner for 35 people at Alba. They were very helpful and everyone had a delicious meal! My absolute favorite thing on the menu is their Pork Loin Duo, Fried Green Tomatoes and Shrimp and Grits. The Salted Caramel Creme Brulle is to die for! Their customer service is wonderful, they always come up with great dishes for my mom who is gluten free and dairy free. That is so appreciated as it is can be difficult for her to go out to eat! read more

My husband I stopped by on Saturday night without a reservation and the hostess did a great job seating us without making us feel like second class citizens. The atmosphere is eclectic with a good buzz. Don't miss the extremely well made well chilled Martinis. There is a good selection of appetizers. We tried the jalapeño hush puppies which were quite tasty. The menu has a nice selection of both light and hearty entres. Only in the mood for something light, we had the chicken tacos in a light lime sauce. The couple next to us were eating the signature steak dish and it looked delicious. It will definitely be my choice next time we dine here. read more

Received a raw pork Banh Mi. Blood pouring onto the bun. They took it, reheated it and the manager was rude when he gave it back. They actually reheated it and returned it to me. Manager was worse than sandwich. I didn't eat another item. The server was amazing (trying to make up for the rude manager). read more

My husband and I ate dinner at Alba on Sat. night for our anniversary last week. We had a fabulous time and the food and drinks were fabulous. I would recommend it to my friends! read more

In town from KC along with my brothers from the east coast. On 05/12/10, with our Mother, we had lunch at Alba a place my brother found on the internet. Not knowing or having heard anything about it we stopped by. Was greeted with a smile and hello as we walked in the door. Open and bright atmosphere, attended to right away with another smile. Our order was taken without her writing anything on paper, something that impressed us all. Food was good but I found the service more than one could ask for, you don't mind spending your money for good service. This will be my new spot when ever in DM. read more

Over priced, Burnt food! Steak was burnt on the outside and raw on the inside. Potatoes were burnt, dry, on the outside and tasteless on the inside. Lava cake was burnt thin outer shell of cake surrounding chocolate goo that tasted like uncooked batter. Worst food I've had in years. read more

We went to Alba Saturday night. Started with the Prosciutto Ham and Jalapeno Fritters which were wonderful. Our server - Lulu - answered all our questions and provided excellent guidance. We all ordered a different entre and all were very special. I had the steak Bavette which was one of the best streaks I've had in years, but was not the best part of the meal. The potato, onion and cheese that came with the steak were even better than the perfectly prepared steak. We finished the meal with Lava cake and Buttermilk Ice Cream. It would be hard to find a better meal than we had. My only complaint is that we live nearly 200 miles from Des Moines. read more

Boundary pushing flavor offerings ranging from a reimagined BLT using perfectly cooked sweet breads, to a knock out sauce paired gnocchi and vegetable plate with tender shredded chicken. Solid beer and wine selection and the campfire smores desert was in line with aforementioned flavor highlights that jump outside the box and feel current with engaging cooking deliveries in major food hubs. Likely one of the best places to dine in Des Moines complimented by great service and clever ambiance. read more

We LOVE Alba and have never had anything but stellar service and immaculate, delicious food and drink. Saturday night, June 30, we had an hour before meeting our son downtown, so finally got to sit in the bar. Garrett (later learned he was the GM) made us our first cocktail, the Mother Nature, which we loved so much the first time we had it on the restaurant side that our waiter - without us asking - gave us the recipe! They were brilliant along with the pork belly rillettes... it was a delicacy! Garrett spend time chatting and explaining cocktails and liqueurs and shared three generous pours of different types that we had never tried - so much fun! For our final drink, Steve ordered the Bing Crosby - phenom - and Garrett made me a special Manhatten with some type of chile liquor and it was so different and delicious. The hour we spent was a total experience - good conversation in just the right dose and we learned about and got to try liquor that we would be hesitant to purchase but now know what we like! Thanks Garrett and Alba! read more

Awesome food! Scallops were incredible! Attentive service and great atmosphere! A must in Des Moines! Try the violet Beauregarde cocktail!

We've been to this restaurant many times, including twice in the past two months. They do wonderful American cuisine. We've never had a bad experience or dish here. The ribeye I had most recently was terrific. The brussels sprout salad I started with was perfectly balanced with bits of pork. The seasonal changes to the menu are always keeping things fresh and new. Whenever I'm asked my favorite restaurants in Des Moines, Alba is always on the short list. read more

Eat here. The food has great clean flavor and the menu changes with the season. The portions are not the size of chains but the food and atmosphere can't be beat. Don't come here if your favorite restaurant is Applebee's. read more

Simply a great place. Love the atmosphere and the food is consistently fabulous. We enjoyed the steak and maple pots de creme tonight.

Ate here tonight with my daughter and her boyfriend. Fantastic all around. Service friendly and knowledgeable. Started with the sausages which we shared. Wonderful- the duxelles made it and the sauce was lappable. Ordered garlic soup and beet salad. Salad was okay - had many like it. Soup was unique and special. Everyone loves it. Went on to order the short rib, the gnocchi and the Berkshire pork chop. All were fantastic. I'd say the beef was classic and the least innovative. The pork was wonderful - smoked potato salad was very unique. Gnocchi (with chicken and Brussels sprouts) was creamy, rich and flavorful. Would definitely go here again. read more

This was my first visit to Alba and was there for a private business luncheon. I was very impressed with the food. Usually during these types of lunches I notice no one wants to be the person who finishes their entire plate for fear of looking like a glutton. Everyone must have been very pleased, as those at my table practically licked their plate clean. Service was prompt and incredibly attentive. I will definitely be back for dinner in the near future! read more

We came here as a large group for dinner. They have a perfect space for us all to be together and away from everything else... There were 14 in our party. The food was wonderful, great flavors. The wine list is large, and the bar seemed to be stocked. We ordered wine. I recommend this restaurant! read more

I tried Alba for the first time with friends during Restaurant Week and was not disappointed. The corn chowder was smooth and delicious but the octopus carpaccio my friend had was even better. I had the pork cheek dish, which was tender and delicious. For dessert I had the chocolate lava cake, which was absolutely wonderful. I order this dessert anyplace that has it on the menu, and Alba's was one of the best I've ever had. Service was great, even though they were very busy. They have a good selection of beers and wines on the menu. I will definitely return to Alba. read more