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

This is an awesome neighborhood Italian place. I believe I have been waited on by the same waitress every time that I've been. I wish I knew her name, but she has taken excellent care of my wife and I each time. Baratta's catered our wedding dinner - excellent food, excellent value. Our usual waitress was also there catering. We went back for our 2nd anniversary a few months ago, and she recognized us (after having not been there for close to 2 years). She gave us two desserts on the house. For hearty Italian American food, this is an excellent option. It's nothing fancy (in terms of setting or cuisine), but they succeed admirably in creating good food without pretension. read more

IMO, this is one of 3 great Italian places in Des Moines. Classic Italian cuisine great prices and service. Homemade food that is fresh and tasty. Anything with red sauce here is amazing. read more

Baratta's is very very local and filled with a family feel. Dropped in here twice while in town for the USATF Track and Field Nationals at Drake, and was NOT disappointed. Beginning with the great service with a smile, this place has the qualities I love in a Family Style Italian place. Strolling in, you feel right at home. Literally. It feels like you are walking into a home. The reception area is the bar, and you get glimpses of the tucked away dining areas (the other rooms of the house) that seem to expand as you delve further into the place. The food is solid. Good portions of well prepared food for every menu item. While this place is off the beaten path, the venture to find it is worth the go. read more

Excellent meal, excellent service. Our first visit to Baratta's won't be our last. We visit Des Moines often and always like to try new places. Classic Italian and then some. Of course our 14yr d had to attempt the Hungry Man! read more

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

Ate here recently for first time in several years had pizza and onion rings. Onion rings we're good pizza was just okay.

Baratta's is the other place in town I cannot miss when coming to Des Moines. The service is excellent and the staff greets you like you were one of the family. Try any of their pasta dishes that come with red sauce - you will not be sorry. Its got a slightly spicy but sweet flavor that you will want to use your bread to get the last bit of. As the other reviewer said, make sure to get to the creamy garlic dressing but it can't go without saying that the Pepper Cheese soup will have you jonesing for it daily. Its thick, spicy and altogether dreamy. The onion rings are super thin and crisp and are made homemade on premise. I can honestly say there isn't one thing on the menu that I wouldn't want to eat daily. Add all of this yumminess and see how reasonable their prices are and Baratta's will soon be one of your staples too. And don't be discouraged by its "tucked away" location. It is DEFINITELY worth it. read more

Great flavor! The noodles are served al dente. Do if you like them any other way you must tell them upfront. Little out of the way but definitely worth the trip. read more

Had a fabulous dinner and evening at Baratta's Southside. We're traveling and looked for an Italian restaurant in Des Moines. Luckily we found Barattas. Our server was Ali and she was amazing. Dinner was Caesar salad and lasagna that was delicious and the Shrimp Amaggio worth licking the bowl over with house Chianti and Bonanza Cabernet. Dessert was a shared delicious tiramisu with coffee. A wonderful ending to a fabulous meal. If you're looking for an amazing Italian meal with a family atmosphere check them out. We highly recommend and if you're lucky enough to have Ali as your server it will definitely take it over the top. read more

The chicken amaggio is some of the best I have ever had. This place is a jewel on the south side. Old house converted to a family restaurant. My wife had the chicken parmesan and was impressed with the dish. My daughter had the stuffed manicotti and was pleased with her dinner. My boy had a 10" pizza with no complaints. This place has been around forever. If you want authentic Italian head to the south side and give it a try. read more

Amanda and I went here for lunch by chance. Service was wonderful. Food fantastic! Sorry no pictures. The regulars will tell ya what to order. No wait time, lots of parking. I can't say enough good about the experience. Baratta's Italian restaurant is a must try! read more

There's nothing pretentious about this long-time neighborhood favorite. It is a cozy maze of dining rooms. I saw waitstaff greeting diners by name and the manager stopping at tables to inquire about diners' kids. The menu is primarily Italian cuisine. The "2 for $20" special is available Sunday-Thursday evenings, and what a deal! You receive two complete meals plus appetizers for $20. I had a small sirloin and my partner enjoyed the lasagna. That is a lot of tasty food for a reasonable price. read more

Had a great meal tonight. Focaccia bread and cheese sticks appetizers were amazing as usual. I had the chicken parm which was so great. My friend had calzone which she loved. My other friend had seafood pizza with salad. House dressing and balsamic dressing are great. I love the pepper cheese soup. I've had steak and boasted chicken in the past .very good. Chicken Amaggio has also been great. We also got the tiramasu and cannoli. Both very, very good and worth saving room for. Our waitress was great and very attentive as well. Nice ambience and great local south side restaurant. read more

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Real Italian home cooking. Great flavors. Great service. A treasure on the south side. I've been here 4-5 times in the last 5 months, every time is a pleasure. read more

Just had a lovely dinner at this South-Side classic. The food was traditional Iowan Italian fare, with baked pasta dishes featuring prominently on the menu. The feature was Cajun chicken pasta, and the kids menu had 8 or 9 options. The waitstaff was very kid-friendly, prompt, and accommodating. The decor was spartan but workable. Not a date restaurant, but definitely has the makings of a once-a-week do-over restaurant. read more

Ventured to Baratta's last night for the first time. We had a reservation at 7 and waited 5-10 minutes for our table. We were standing and waiting, which I thought nothing of until a very kind couple offered their seats to us while they moved to the bar. I think this had something to do with me being 9 months pregnant but either way, very kind of them. I like the bar area- spacious and plenty of seating. They had $5 Prosecco and a cranberry champagne drink special, which made me very sad. Next time, bubbles. Next time. We were sat in the room to the left of the bar, table closest to the waiter station. The waiter station was impressively clean and tidy, especially considering how much action was going through there. Our waitress was Kelly and she had lots of supplemental help from the nice kids who kept our water full and boxed our dinner up at the end. I appreciated seeing how much youth this establishment employs. We started with the mushrooms for an appetizer. The middle of the mushrooms was just slightly cooler than I would have liked but overall, the dish itself was really good. The marinara dipping sauce was by far the best marinara dipping sauce I've had to date. The bread came out hot and delicious. I ended up just using that to shovel the rest of the dipping sauce in my mouth :) For entrees, I ordered the Amaggio which is a breaded chicken breast on top of linguine (I think?) noodles with red peppers, mushrooms, capers, garlic, and lemon juice... in other words.. amahzing. The dish was $18 and the portion size was huge. I ate half and tapped out. My other half ordered the capattcio (I think?) sand which with onion rings. He also had to tap out after half the sand which but was very pleased. Last, but certainly not least, we shared a piece of lemon cake. Gahhhhh! So good! It was super lemony - the cake, the frosting, the little bit of marange goop on top. From head to toe is was all lemon. I liked that I could taste the tiny granules of sugar in the frosting. If you sent a huge lemon fanatic like myself, I don't think you would truly appreciate the intensity of the lemon but they also have plenty of other delectable items to choose from. Overall, I'm very happy with my experience here. The only item keeping me from 5 stars was the service. Although the service was good, Kelly would periodically disappear because she was busy and we never got our refill on bread that we requested, the one we probably wouldn't have been able to eat anyway. read more

Was in town for a few days, and Baratta's menu was in the room with a big "we're your room service" splashed across the top. My meatball sandwich was so good, I had to call back and compliment them. I chose french fries, which were the hearty steak fry variety. Girlfriend had a steak sandwich and salad, hers looked good also. the chocolate shakes were the best I have tasted in a long time, wish they were bigger. Chocolate raspberry cheesecake was the final experience in a favorably memorable meal. Delivery was timely, near the lower end of what was quoted. We had a generous supply of bread and butter, utensils, napkins, etc. Hope to return to town next year to try one of the pasta dishes. read more

If you're gluten free and they're catering, don't be surprised when your gluten free meal is just a bowl of gluten free pasta with red sauce. And no other ingredients, like chicken, for example. So when everyone else is eating their chicken pasta, rolls, and having a cookie, you get a bowl of noodles. period. read more

Throw away the microwave please..... over seasoned and cold chicken, leftover and microwaved fettuccine Alfredo, oil all over my plate, nasty! read more

This is by far the best restaurant ever !!!!! Must go to now!! They have the best service, best cooks, and best owners! Have you even had Italian if you haven't had Barattas ?????? read more

I didn't understand why there were so many Italian restaurants growing up -- I didn't think the food was ever that spectacular. Then I had Baratta's for the first time a few years ago and now I get it. It's the first time I've eaten spaghetti and marinara in which every bite was amazingly delicious. I didn't know marinara was supposed to be so complex, rich, savory and flavorful! I'm glad for the plastic table cloths and home-like setting. I like the wait staff, bartenders and hosts. I can't comment on the variety of the menu because I always eat something covered in their marinara. If you want a good, hot, authentic Italian dinner, stop by. If you just want to wear a Gucci black dress and pick at some basil chicken to impress your company, stop by anyway. read more

This place is a little pricey but the pepperjack cheese soup is TO DIE FOR. I could eat an entire quart of this if I let myself. The delivery is super speedy and my orders have always been accurate. read more

We chose Baratta's to cater our wedding after having a wonderful experience taste-testing. We absolutely loved what we served our guests; however... we found out the hard way that this business has a VERY difficult time following a contract. We chose to use Baratta's for our alcohol service in addition to food. We worked with Nick Speck to develop a contract that specifically stated when we would like to cap our liquor service and only continue to serve wine and beer. We then set a cap for the total amount we wanted to spend for the evening. On the evening of our wedding, Nick did not stop serving liquor until we were $100 short of our TOTAL ALLOTTED dollar amount, even though our contract said EXACTLY what dollar amount to stop at. Baratta's had continued to serve liquor $1800 past our limit!!!! This put us in a terrible position because we had reached our limit for the entire evening very early due to how expensive the liquor was. Had the liquor been stopped when it should have, I doubt we would have reached our total evening limit until much much later (beer and wine stretches much farther!). We were forced into increasing how much we would spend for the evening so we could continue to serve our guests. In the end we paid $2000 more than our contract had been written for. When we went to Baratta's to complain about this, Joe Gato blamed my husband and I for everything and accused us of trying to cheat them out of money. He said because we didn't come and tell them to stop serving liquor it was our fault they ran past the dollar amount written in the contract. So, whats the purpose of a contract then??? Yes, my husband and I wanted our money back, but more importantly we wanted an apology for not following what was written and signed for in our contract. Joe Gato would not apologize, saying they had done nothing wrong. When asked what the purpose of a contract was, he had nothing to say. I cannot believe the way people choose to run their businesses. Joe Gato- you are a sorry, sorry excuse for a businessman. And Nick Speck, the same goes to you. read more

The decor hasn't aged as well as the capacolla but WOW!! My dad and I went there for lunch and I had the italian club. It was the best club sandwich I've ever had. Absolutely incredible sandwich, my only complaint was the Miracle Whip, I'm more of a Hellman's guy. read more

My boss decided to buy lunch and he took us to Baratta's. This place is off the beaten and very clean. Service was great and the food was OK. I had their ravioli casserole, pretty much baked sausage and cheese raviolis. Decent but not fantastic. It was served with a fresh salad with my choice of dressing. Again just a basic salad nothing over the top. I really expected more after reading all of the great reviews but they came up short. read more

Onion rings were bland, stuffed mushrooms were the same...bland. Italian sandwich was a "patty"! Was thinking a grinder! Not looking forward to the Lasagna al Forno looks burnt and the description does it no justice. First and last time for Barratta"s!!!! read more

The food is overpriced. I ordered the chicken parmesan and there wasnt any parmesan on the chicken. They put what seemed like mozzarella on it. The breading on the chicken was also soggy and comparable to that of microwavable chicken parmesan. Absolutely gross! The spaghetti that it sat on seemed like it was reheated and definitely made hours prior to being served. I will NEVER order or eat from here again. read more

I wanted so badly to like this place after reading the wonderful reviews but I was very disappointed. Perhaps it was an off night but both of my parents and I were left unimpressed. Everything was very oily and our waitress was inattentive, border line rude. The bread however was delicious and the manager was very friendly and welcoming. read more

My friend and I made a reservation to Baratta's on a friday night at 7:00p.m. thinking the restaurant would be much busier than it was but we did get our table right away. The two of us were sat in a back corner of a room with a table of ten right next to us and out server could barley get to our table without asking someone to scotch their chair in. We order fried ravioli as it had been recommended by many on Yelp, they were okay. You get five ravioli with one small meatball inside, and ours were so greasy that grease was dripping off. For main courses My friend ordered the Lasagna al Forno and said it was wonderful. I had the Cannelloni Carbonara Al Forno. I asked the server between this and the Chicken Piccata and she recommended the Cannelloni. I had it with their white sauce, the sauce was beautiful and all the cheese on top was wonderful but the filling (hickory smoked bacon sauteed with chicken breast and cream) was so DRY!! I had a hard time finishing just even one of the Cannelloni because of the filling. I mainly ate the bread and dipped it into my sauce like a fondu. Service was alright as it took ten minutes to refill our waters, even after the table of ten were gone, nice family and servers. I am just so upset that a chicken filling made with cream could be so dry. A plus is you do get a lot of food so expect leftovers for the next few meals! read more

Just got here. Seems a little dirty, silverware, tavle, floor. Food looks good and came out fast.

This family owned restaurant is one of our favorites when we visit Des Moines- my husband had the hand made tortellini that made my mouth water! The antipasto is generous and a great way to start the meal! The service is awesome from the gal who greets you to the busboys who keep your water glass full!! read more

Just ordered my lunch through Grubhub. Craving spinach artichoke dip and the order from Baratta's is delicious, warm, garlicky, yum and huge. Ordered the Caesar salad which looks amazing, fresh and not skimpy on portion size. Too full to dig into the salad now. Ordered cheesecake - chocolate raspberry - wonderful. Too full for this also. I thought through Grubhub it was too pricey for 2 meals. But I have 4 or more meals here. Also, with Grubhub some restaurants don't provide silverware or napkins. Baratta's provided both, and bread and butter. Hope no one takes my food from the fridge! I'll order from here again. read more

Just running through town and wanted Italian and the restaurant had good reviews on here. Staff was very nice, restaurant clean, food was good. I had the Veal Parm which was tasty but a bit overcooked for me. A little tough and dry. Son had the Chicken Piccata and said it was really good. I will say the homemade pasta sauce was very good. I would return if ever in the area. read more

Baratta's is righteous. The only downside I find is that when I'm done eating here, I need some Ipecac or a feather. The put a LOT of food in front of you. I adore their ravioli casserole with a sausage link. Their lemon cake is very good. A bit out of the way, but that's kinda their claim to fame. read more

In Iowa on business and brought here by locals. Broasted chicken was a first for me. Totally delicious. All the flavor of fried chicken but not the slightest bit greasy. Had the pepper cheese soup too which was outstanding. Very nice family feel. Reasonably priced compared to what I'm used to on the east coast. read more

Went for lunch. Seated right away. Our waitress was fun and seemed to enjoy her job. Decor reminded me of a small town diner - plastic blue tablecloths so kinda a hole in the wall type place. We ordered 1/2 order of onion rings and at only $4 was a huge plate. Two of us ate about half. I had salad with the house creamy garlic dressing - I liked the ranch better. BF had the pepper jack cheese soup. He loved it. Not really my taste. I ordered the chicken ammagio and BF had the southwestern pasta. We were both quite full at this point but they were both good. Next time I go back I'll go when I don't have anywhere to go and can enjoy some wine and dessert! read more

We love everything about Baratta's, and try to get there early in the evening to assure a good seat with the neighborhood regulars.

Love this local restaurant! Amazing food, great prices, friendly service. They have extremely affordable catering as well! If you have never been, it is a must! read more

Their hot pepper cheese soup is always fantastic, servers have been there for many years and it is always a delight, pasta dishes are all amazing and the ambience is great. read more

I love this place!!! Foods great!!! It's family! Get the pepper chez soup. Focaccia bread is awesome. Best secret is to order the Cajun Chicken Pasta (not on the menu...but should be)! Or anything with their red sauce! Say Hi to Danny and Angela! read more