Food is good , place is small crowded, service is slow, drinks are pricey , nice crowd of people go there , parking is good

Food is ALWAYS so good. Haven't ordered anything bad off the menu! Waiters here are always friendly and helpful.

The typical Italian restaurant that is a disservice to Italian food and culture everywhere. Cheese and oil and heartburn. At least they are a DSM establishment. Many people apparently like this food. read more

Big pizza fan and just moved to the South Side.. Got a recommendation this was the best in the area and a must try. I honestly have no idea why. The pizza is a 3.8 out of 10. Sauce, Cheese, Ingredients, Crust all under average and very plain and dry flour tasting. Not sure why someone would ever recommend this to be honest. The people working were all friendly and I'm sure there are other items on their menu which can be good as well. read more

Baratta's Catering - Pepperoni & Sausage Pizza - Italian Near Me - Des Moines, Iowa

So delicious and such amazing employees. Everything was fresh and perfect. Nicest waitress and hostess.

Great food. Had a retirement luncheon here and enjoyed everything. The table ordered spinach artichoke dip, bruschetta and onion rings. I had the chicken amagio sandwich. Service was a little slow but we had 9 people. The bread served with the apps was also very good and there were different textures. I especially liked the fried pita bread served with the spinach artichoke dip. read more

Tried out the hot sausage sandwich and onion rings. Very tasty. I'm anxious to try more items from here. Note do not order this from Doordash. I think it'll be better and fresher in person. Yum read more

Baratta's is one of the remaining Italian family restaurants in Des Moines, tucked away in a south-side neighborhood in an old house. They've been there for years and have a loyal following. The place is setup using several rooms in the house, walking into a bar area at the front door, with other dining rooms around the corner or up the stairs. We were seated in an empty dining room, but on the plus side there was a line-up of servers waiting to, well, serve, so excellent service (and throughout the meal). The room filled up quickly though, with a smattering of large families and couples. An adjacent room (a sun porch I think?) had a boisterous family gathering of some sort, but it just added to the ambiance of the place. The menu is extensive, focusing on familiar Italian dishes, and lots of different salads. One unique spin here is how they bread the chicken; breaded and broiled. It's good and they do it that way for a few of their dishes. We both had the chicken Amaggio, a specialty of theirs. The servings were plentiful, enough to take home for a second meal. Try their Sangria too. They make it themselves and it's delicious. As noted the service was superb, food well above average, and the ambiance homey. About $60 bucks for an appetizer, entrees and a couple of glasses of wine. About what you'd pay to eat at Applebee's and SO much better. Go find it (that adventure is worth it alone), and enjoy a real local experience. read more

Service was terrible, the server, Tawnne clearly hates her job and her life. Was very unfriendly incredibly rude.

It's another frigid and snowy night in Des Moines, so I decided to order in dinner instead of going out. After scrolling through the options on Grubhub, Baratta's caught my attention. I love Italian food and there were a few vegan items on the menu that looked really good to me so I ordered and hungrily waited for my doorbell to ring. When the food arrived, it was neatly packaged and free from spills. I unpacked and opened everything up. I was pretty underwhelmed by what I saw. $17 vegan pasta was mainly large chunks of zucchini. I tasted it and was shocked by the blandness. I've honestly had hospital food with more zip and zing to it. I immediately raided my spice cabinet and after the pasta was properly seasoned, it was edible. I moved on to the bruschetta. It was a watery, disgusting mess. It tasted nothing like any bruschetta I've ever had . Took a few bites and threw it out. The hummus and pita were fine. That's the only thing I ate. I spent close to 50 dollars to eat pita and hummus. I won't make that mistake again! read more

Baratta's Catering - Watery bruschetta - Italian Near Me - Des Moines, Iowa

One of my favorites in Des Moines. The Hand made cheese sticks are a-mazing especially with their ranch which is super midwest but so much better than other places. The service is always good and I even like ordering foos from home and having it delivered. Tonight they customized a dish for me off menu and it was again. So delicious. Will be back again and again. read more

I order the chicken strips for lunch and they are terrible! No flavor and they were cold. Really disappointed since I have heard great things about this place read more

Baratta's Catering - Chicken Strips - Italian Near Me - Des Moines, Iowa

I went here for a corporate dinner back in March and was not impressed. Bland appetizers. My spaghetti bolognese, which was probably the most vanilla item ordered at our whole table, came out a good 5-10 minutes after everyone else's food did. Very awkward just sitting there watching everyone else eat. My bowl of pasta was also extremely watery - like they knew they were behind with my food and didn't properly strain the noodles. As for the good, the lemon cake was great, tasty frosting and was a nice end to the meal. read more

Southside staple :) We come for the chicken amaggio pasta and sandwich. Our top dishes. Breaded chicken with some light sauce. Service is always great here. The house dressing is yummy on the salad. We also ordered fried raviolis and the bruschetta as apps. Both very good. read more

I had a Mediterranean salad w/I meat yesterday today upset stomach and diarrhe. Not

Fine Italian dining in Des Moines! Somehow it took me a year to find this place.... well truth be told a friend took me here. We chose the dinner special: Pick an appetizer and 2 entrees for $20! Our server was very nice and we did order the Garlic bread and it was amazing! The dining rooms are nice- it is in a unsuspecting location but safe. read more

This was quite the elusive one for me! We attempted to eat here a several occasions only to be met with the CLOSED sign at the door. This was in no way, shape or form their fault, it was mine for not checking the hours. I recommend you checking their hours because they are closed between lunch and dinner and do not serve lunch on weekends. They have a spacious private lot for convenient parking! Upon entering you are greeted with a calm atmosphere of dining. To me it actually appeared smaller than I had imagined. The decor is very nice and has a intimate mood. The menu is pretty extensive and it was difficult for me to make a final decision on what to order. We ending up ordering the Pollo Penne and Broasted Chicken. Each dish came with soup or salad and we tried one of each, both were great! The Broasted Chicken honestly was standard, it was good, but I have had better. Now, after I received my food I wondered to myself why I ordered fried chicken at an Italian restaurant...Anyways, the Pollo Penne was excellent! The flavors and textures were executed perfectly, just this one dish gives me the confidence to say that they know what they are doing with their pasta dishes! Would definitely come back to try their other dishes! read more

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We went last night and it was amazing. We had six adults and two babies and they were very accommodating. Debbie was our server and she was great. Can't wait to go back. Food is excellent and the service is even better. read more

Great service yet unfortunately found several flaws.... Tomato sauce was very bitter maybe just their style but to me was acidic and bitter not fresh and sweet. Was very dark red not bright red like when I make it at home. The veal was tough and thick I was expecting hammered thin this was thick like a veal chop again maybe just my preference .... The mozzarella sticks were great salad was fresh house bread good Was underwhelmed read more

I love this place. Great food, friendly service. They have many great things on the menu. The jalapeño cheese soup is really good. I love the spinach artichoke dip w/crispy garlic toasts. It's a nice family atmosphere. read more

In the top two best italian restaurant in the DeMO area! It is quaintly nestled in a residential neighborhood on the south side. This is the side of DeMo where most Italian families who immigrated to DeMo got their start. The decor is nothing fancy. Much like the residential area it sits in, it use to be a house that exploded into a restaurant. The service is friendly from the host to the bus boys. I have enjoyed everything I have had here. This is not American Italian, this is my great grandmothers Italian. The tomato sauce is sweet with a nice hint of spicy white pepper finish. My recommendations: App: fried raviolis, hand made and delicious not to be missed Skip the salad and get the pepper cheese soup. The only thing that would make a cup of this better is three tortellini hiding inside! Entree: toss up from the dish that Roam would have elected as the Caesar, the cannelloni carbonara al forno, get it with the two sauces, or mikes pepperstak! You can tell that this steak has been marinating with sweet green and red peppers for hours because the taste permeates every tasty morsel! Get the cannoli to go, and by the time you get home your stomach will have room again. read more

Baratta's Catering - The calzones app - Italian Near Me - Des Moines, Iowa

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A little off the beaten path one of Des Moines classic neighborhood Italian restaurants. It has an interesting history the restaurant actually was a home of the Barrata family and they turned it into a restaurant in Italian grocery store. They got all the business maybe 25 years ago and sold it to 3 Lincoln high graduates who are still operating the restaurant. it's on Union avenue very close to indianola avenue close to the old Italian Part of Des Moines. If you've never been you might want to try for lunch it's got great lunch and specials, great Italian specials and wonderful sandwiches. The house salads are wonderful spring lettuce with a variety of dressing choices. They make excellent cocktails and since I'm retired I had a bloody Mary with my lunch and it was great. My friends are regulars there and can't say enough about it. I had the chicken Amaggio which was the lunch special it was wonderful. Marinated chicken breast with light bread crumbs broiled, served over linguine and mushrooms with in Amaggio sauce. A friend had the Italian beef and it was outstanding and another friend had a meatball sandwich which was also outstanding. They have pizza if you should want it but I would go with the Italian sandwiches and they have wonderful salads too! Did not even get into dinner which is a whole other experience and I will cover some time with an additional review well worth the trip. if you're young person check it out if you're a person of a certain age and you've never been check it out. You won't be disappointed! read more

Baratta's Catering - The facade on the restaurant from Union avenue - Italian Near Me - Des Moines, Iowa

Located on south Union (the address on this yelp page says state historical museum which is incorrect) Barrata's is solid Italian. I got the chicken parmigiana which was excellent. My partner got the vegan pasta which she raved about. I also ordered the lemon drop which was pretty good. For dessert I ordered the canniloni. They were very good. Service was excellent. It's hard to go wrong with anything here as it has been operating for a long time and has perfected the dishes. There is a cafe Baratta's that is located in the state historical museum (not rated by me). read more

This is a hidden gem of Des Moines located in a residential neighborhood. The ambience is very nice for a romantic dinner. We came with a couple friends. For the Appetizers we got the stuffed mushrooms which were excellent with a marinara sauce. I would definetly get them again. We also got the scallops and they were fantastic with a cajun sauce. The house salad with house dressing was very good. The pepper cheese soup was fantastic. I got the cajun chicken breast with alfredo. The chicken breasts appeared to be frozen breasts and were dry. The alfredo was very good. The salmon with orange marmalade glaze was good. The steak deburgo was an excellent cut and cooked pefectly. The spinach tortellini was nicely done. Cannolis were absolutely amazing. The chocolate cake was excellent, rich and moist, everything you would expect of a chocolate cake. The wine is over priced, but it is Italian so I guess they justify it that way. I am ok with paying a little over retail price, but double seams unnecessary. I gave this 4 stars because we love the atmospere, I have had better entrees here before and the chicken was disappointing. I feel they can do better on the wine prices also. read more

Dinner with my 2 bestest friends tonight. What a Great experience! We were seated immediately, ordered our wine right away ( huge pours of wine!) and started with a half-order if the Least greasy onion rings I've ever had- SO good. The house salads were big too- lots of frizzee and red, ripe cherry tomatoes and the house dressing- creamy Parmesan- was delicious and rich. I ordered the cannelloni del forno- big tubes of homemade pasta filled with shredded chicken and peas and topped with Alfredo sauce and mozzarella- and baked. It was perfection. Cousin Carol had the house chicken- Chicken Albondonga(??) which she loved and CONNIE had the salmon. She loved it and she's ordered salmon all over town! Too full to Eat dessert so we took coconut cake home! Barattas is hard to find but definitely worth searching for!! We will be back. Service was excellent also. read more

Went to Baratta's for the first time and had an amazing time! We had a reservation at 6:30 since we had a party of 6 but it did not look like there was a wait. We started with an order of Onion Rings (not pictured, they were devoured too quickly) and they were cooked to perfection. They were mid-sized, and crispy. They needed a little salt but we had no problems adding it ourselves from the salt shaker on the tables. I ordered the Pollo Penne and it came with a starter salad. I chose the Creamy Garlic dressing and it very tasty. The salad came with a lot of croutons and extra dressing which I really appreciate. Nothing is worse than a Resteraunt skimping on the small thing like that, but they did not disappoint. Warm bread also came at that time. The main dish was delightful. It came with chicken, mushrooms, tomatoes, in a pesto cream sauce. At this point I was stuffed so yay for leftovers! I would order again. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed eating there and will be back! read more

Baratta's Catering - Italian Near Me - Des Moines, Iowa

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Great owners, great staff and even better food. Love the old school feel...seeing the owner chatting with its patrons and customers that look like they have been there many times. This is all boosted even more knowing we are supporting small business. Doesn't get any better in my opinion...and if you know me mine is the only one that really matters. Great job Baratta's!!! read more

Went their for a Christmas party. Our waitress was amazing! Their spinach artichoke dip was one of the bests I've ever ate. I ordered the chicken amagio. It was not quite what expected but it was okay. Next time I will stick with a red sauces pasta. The onion rings were also very good. They take your plate and package up your leftovers nicely. I'd definitely go again. read more

Southside is the best food in Iowa and Barattas is always good. Love the chicken parm and sue and the rest of the staff are great

Friday night during Lent and I was looking for something different than the norm! There's a TV commercial about people who have a hard time finding the place, but I grew up on the south side, so no problem there. BUT I think it's comical because the inside of the place is a maze! Several levels, many rooms all decorated to match the others. We ordered 2 meals to eat there and one to take home to mom, and onion rings for the appetizer. All meals include their yummy bread, and a salad, I LOVE THEIR HOUSE CREAMY PARMESAN DRESSING! They had a good variety of choices for those of us that can't eat meat on Fridays during Lent! My son ordered the shrimp scampi on linguini. I thought it was great, but he thought it had too much lemon. I had the spinach and cheese tortellini in the white sauce. The sauce was a little bland but I had such a great garlic taste from the salad dressing, that I just added some parmesan cheese to please me. We took home the broiled salmon, with sauteed veggies and a salad. She was very pleased! Our waitress forgot to put in our appetizer order so she gave us free dessert. The orange colored lemon cake with lemon buttercream frosting and a lemon curd was OMG GOOD! My son had chocolate cake with white buttercream frosting. I'll go again! read more

I love the food here, but if you're going to order for delivery, DO NOT pick from the "Dinner Delivery" menu. That is actually their CATERING menu. My bill was about 11.00 higher than what I figured it would be, because the prices come off of their regular Dinner Menu, not the "Dinner Delivery" menu. I called them about this, and unfortunately they weren't real responsive. They just said "We don't maintain our site, we pay someone to do it". I advised that it's not that hard to have their web person change that page from "Dinner Deliver Menu" to "Catering Menu". Based on past performance,.I may have given them four or five stars, but this really brought it down. read more

Their Italian dip sandwich, chicken ammagio sandwich and French fries are great! They make their own bread and their focaccia is amazing.

Baratta's Restaurant is one of the best choices in the Des Moines area for excellent service, food and hospitality! My family has been dining at this hidden gem for MANY years and we plan to for MANY more. The Chicken Carbonara is delicious, as is the pepper cheese soup, cavatelli, fried chicken and pizza! There is literally something for everyone at this family friendly restaurant. During these times of Covid-19, it is obvious that this restaurant is doing its very best for all. The staff is following CDC guidelines in every area...facemasks, social distancing, offering of curbside carryout. This will always be one of my favorite restaurants anywhere! Give it a try! You will want to come back again and again! read more

What can I say, it's the hidden gem on the Southside. I took my mom & her BF here for her Valentine's day gift. They did the $20 duo deal (onion rings, Cesar salads, sirloin steak, & lasagna). I got the cheese sticks, Cesar salad, & spaghetti with red sauce. The free bread had a great crust, My mom struggled with it however. The cheese sticks and onion rings we're both great. Both seemed freshly prepared. Our salads we're good as well. The entrees we're good all around. My spaghetti sauce had a great zing to it, I had the mozzarella added on top, which added a great cheesyness to my dish. My mom & her boyfriend both enjoyed their meals as well. I would warn that the meals were large, so bring your appetite. read more

We were in town for the World Muay Thai Expo and needed pasta for our fighters. Baratta's did not disappoint!! The penne w marinara was wonderful!! We ordered 3 family pans which came w salad and bread. The Italian dressing was not my favorite but everything else was great!! We were feeding 16 ppl and 3 pans was plenty!! We had plenty of leftovers which we had for lunch the next day. Too bad they are only open for lunch as we would have loved to order them for dinner! Thank you Baratta's!! read more

Always hot, friendly, and fresh! We've had Barattas a half dozen times since being closed. Definitely one of our Southside favorites. Can never go wrong! read more

Great Italian restaurant. There were 4 of us and all agreed our meals were awesome. My wife had the chicken Alfredo. Tons of tender chicken with a slightly garlic creamy sauce. I had the manicotti with their Marinara sauce. It had a unique flavor that was very pleasing. I would definitely order it again & try a different pasta dish. They have a great menu with lots of choices. The service was efficient & very pleasant. The waitress brought out a desert presentation tray to another table. They made their choices, but before she left, 3 other tables saw the 6-8 choices & placed their orders to go. I chose the Carmel, pecan cheesecake. Too full to eat now, but it looked great. read more

This was the WORST cavatelli i have ever ate like that other guy said cold and no flavor those things they called bread ,it smelled ,it felt kind of slimmy.needless to say i wasted 15 buck to throw away.DISCUSTING best sums it up I think.they need to learn what and how to make cavatelli.its not link sausage. read more

Great prices ! Food selections are all Italian munja mumja ! The best Italian restaurant in Des Moines Great wait staff ! read more

Baratta's Catering - Italian Near Me - Des Moines, Iowa

The service was solid, and the bar area was really cute. The food is not well-prepared and overpriced for the quality, however--everything was under-seasoned. The pepper cheese soup that was recommended to us wasn't hot. The tortellini was undercooked, so the pasta was still hard. I had breaded shrimp over my pasta (shrimp amaggio), and the oil obviously wasn't hot enough, because the breading was mushy. We all left completely underwhelmed. I think they need to re-think their menu and branding. It could be a great place, and the front of the house is great...but the food just isn't good, and the decor in the restaurant area is very early 90's. read more