Last time I went here was a busy Saturday night with a bunch of fellow dog trainers. Tonight was a…read morequiet Tuesday with my husband. No dogs in tow to worry about Nothing at Rubes has changed. Delicious steaks, hot grill, fresh vegetables and plenty of butter. It is dark in the dining rooms but there is plenty of light around the grill. It is the centerpiece of each dining room. Rubes is a great place to go to celebrate a special occasion. Or anytime you are in the area.

My first trip to Rube's was in 1989, and there have been a lot of changes since then. I've eaten…read morethere many times and for many occasions. However, I don't want to focus on the past. Let's focus on this visit. I called ahead and made reservations. My wife and I arrived about 5 minutes before our reservation time. The ladies at the desk always seem to make it an awkward experience for some reason. They are nice enough, but they don't really act like they know what they're doing. There was a lot of whispering among themselves, and we were asked to wait while they checked with our server, and then asked to wait again while they seated people who arrived after us, even though that group was missing a couple of people. The lighting in the dining room is always a bit dark. Maybe they do that so the grills stand out when they're lit. They have small lamps on the tables. Our server was excellent. She ushered us to the cooler to pick out our steaks. She identified the largest ones on display as the ones to get, and even asked the cooler staff to put out more steaks so there were bigger ones to choose from. I got a New York strip and my wife ordered a small ribeye. We also ordered a mushroom skillet, which was extra. This is a grill-your-own-steak place, so you are the chef. There are a few seasonings available at the grill to add to your steak like garlic salt, seasoning salt, and table salt. They also have a bucket of melted margarine if you want to baste your steak with it, or put it on the Texas-sized bread while you toast it. I asked if they had butter. Our server brought us whipped butter and sour cream for the baked potatoes that are included with the meal. She melted a few of the butter packets for us to use on our steaks. Unfortunately, whipped butter just doesn't have the same flavor as regular butter. While I appreciated the effort, the end result wasn't what I'd hoped for. In addition to all the baked potatoes you care to eat, there are also baked beans and salad included with every meal. The salad was basically a section of a head of lettuce with dressing and toppings in it. While the presentation was nice, I prefer when they actually had the salad bar that they advertise. The salads used to come with carrot and celery sticks, and I used to be able to get cottage cheese from the salad bar for my baked potato. Now you can request another salad be brought out if you want another one. Let me add that the cups for the self-serve baked beans could be twice as big and still be considered small. There are also fried potatoes on the grill, and you can eat your fill of them. I assume they're cooked with the margarine they have available on the grill. While the food was good and service was excellent, I left thinking that for just the two of us, we could have made a feast for ourselves at home for less than half the price after the tip was included.

1st time customers. We didn't know it was grill-your-own dining. Seated us at a rickety unblanced…read more2-top table in the middle of the floor and then ignored us for 1/4 hour until I got up and asked for service. We ordered off the a la carte menu and the waitress acted like this was a huge inconvenience to her. We then waited for 25 minutes for our food, which was cold when we got it. I flagged her down and informed her of this and she muttered something about telling the manager. No manager or anyone else approached us until we got up. Then she suddenly reappeared with the bill. There was no adjustment or compensation for serving us cold steaks. I went to the manager but when he saw me approach he walked away. We won't be returning.

Place was very busy for a Tuesday evening. We were seated by a very nice customer who bussed his…read moreown table because he saw the crowd waiting to be seated. The wait staff seemed stressed and overworked, and their service definitely was lacking. It took almost two hours to get our raw steak and a couple sides. The place itself could use an update, all the tables seemed to rock and the toilet seat in the ladies room fell off the toilet. I am all for small town places and supporting the beef industry with great cuts of steak. I just wish this place was cleaner and had better service to reflect the prices they charge for an entree.

We were able to get a same-day reservation at 8:30 PM, which is what we wanted because we got into…read moretown late. Northwestern Steakhouse was full of customers when we arrived. We seated promptly even though we were a few minutes early. And our server, Heidi, took great care of us. You should ask for her if possible. Although everyone there was super helpful and attentive. Courtney also helped us. We had a couple of cocktails, which were delicious and affordable. They brought us a pitcher of water so we could refill our own water glasses, which was lovely because of the heat. They also kept my Coke glass refilled. We each had the Greek salad, which was fantastic! Great feta cheese, a little egg and pickle with a wonderful dressing. My wife had the petite fillet and a baked potato and she loved it! Her steak was cooked, perfectly, medium rare as she asked. I had the top sirloin and spaghetti. Mine was cooked perfectly medium as I requested and the spaghetti was something truly special. It looks so simple, but it is unique and amazing. You definitely need to try it. Look forward to returning to this restaurant tomorrow for prime rib.

We were driving through the area again. Called and got a reservation for the same evening. Steaks…read morewere cooked perfectly and our server was fantastic! This is one our favorite restaurants to visit in the U.S.

We were 2 couples. Early Saturday afternoon we made reservations for 6:30pm. We arrived about…read more6:20pm and we were seated right away in one of their booths. The decor is pretty low rate. The whole restaurant desperately needs an update. The restrooms are only for one person at a time. This causes some major lines. But the service and food quality makes up for all of those issues. Our server was on the ball and came around frequently. We all ordered the prime rib. This is the ONLY place I will order prime rib. Everywhere else it's been flavorless, pure fat or tough. It's been none of that here. The salad is nothing special, just iceberg lettuce, a little cheese and a few Fritos. But it was pretty good, anyway. The blue cheese dressing was excellent, with some nice chunks of cheese. The baked potato was very good, nice & fluffy. It was done all the way through. So many time they're hard in the middle, but not these! We've been here several times before and we'll be back again!

I heard it was under new management. Not sure because Jeff was still there. If so good luck and…read moredon't change anything. Best Prime Rib and I mean best. Been to so called "best" in Chicago, New York City, Las Vegas and Los Angeles and they are good but "That Place" is the reigning champ. 5 Star!

First, the food is amazing, service was fantastic. That said, there's the odd; the restaurant is…read moreat the end of a building that hosts a hardware store, the odd part? Three restaurants share a lobby/hostess. I honestly wasn't sure I was walking into the right place, but it's a minor thing (if you know about it). Now for the bad: like I said the food is excellent, no complaints there. But I was more than a bit surprised to see on my bill that I was being charged for mixers!! A double Captain & Coke: $8 for the rum, $0.50 for the coke?!?! Really? The $8 for 2 oz of rum doesn't cover the couple of cents worth of soda? On the menu you can order a side salad as one of your sides, but if you want extra dressing? That's $0.75. This is too nice of a restaurant to be nickel and diming your customers.

Amazing food. Fantastic and consistent service. The ambiance and atmosphere here are great. BBQ…read moreplace on one side, seafood on the other and steakhouse with a bar in the middle. The steakhouse, you should consider no ball cap or shorts. Dress up a little won't kill you. The bar selection is great (Blanton's, Whistle Pig, Four Roses, Basil Hayden are typically stocked). Nice wine selection and the steaks are perfectly cooked and marbled. You'll be back!

Nine members of our family dined here on a Saturday night. We were served T-bone steak, Sirloin…read moresteak, Ribeye steak, Smoked prime rib, and regular prime rib. All members scored the food and the experience a ten rating. The hostess was fabulous as well as the atmosphere.

Awesome food with portion that are great. The price is very reasonable considering you get a bigger…read moreportion than other restaurants. They have good service and nice people.

Had dinner here on a Tuesday evening while in town for a conference. I partnered up with another…read moreconference attendee and we came here for dinner. The menu had a diversity of options with both bistro and full size options. We both settled on the Main St. chicken dish on recommendation from the waitress along with swapping the rice for mashed potatoes. Great suggestion. My conference mate asked to have her mushrooms removed and I asked to have the tomatoes removed. Although we both ordered the same meal, the presentation looked different for each of us and hit the spot for our tastebuds. Mine seemed more like a chicken marsala while hers was a tomato sauce. Either way we both enjoyed our meals. We both also had dessert - I had the delicious chocolate cake with raspberry sauce. Honestly there was too much sauce but the cake was still delicious! My conference mate had the peanut pie and it was divine - imagine a Reese cup with an Oreo crust. If I'm ever back in Ames this will definitely be on my return list!!

Came here on company dinner and we had a great time. Food was decent and I enjoyed my carbonara,…read morehuge portion. The French onion soup was just ok but everyone enjoyed the peanut butter pie. Very good ambiance for group dining and the service was great.

Mother-in-law took us to Brad's Grillhouse formally the townhouse café. Been going here for 30+…read moreyears and new owner Brad is doing well with his own menu food service and great conversation! Perfectly done filet mignon good selection of breakfast lunch and dinner items.

Just moved here and this is my favorite restaurant. From the service to the food it's amazing.read more

Service and food were great! Sat immediately, food and drinks came quick and server was attentive.read more