Food is delicious, service is friendly & quick, and prices are affordable! Everything was fabulous!read more

This place is always delicious with friendly service. We got right in, and the highlight was the…read moreice cream!

I stole some of my colleagues food it was so delectable…read more Service with a smiley face and the day was perfect for the patio dining. Great experience all around!!

Barbecue for breakfast is a beautiful idea. Smoke, fat, biscuits, gravy, the kind of meal that…read moregives you a reason to put on pants and leave the house on a Saturday. I'd spent spring, summer, and most of fall trying to catch Whatcha Smokin' at the Des Moines Farmers Market. When I showed up, they didn't. When they showed up, I couldn't. Months of missed connections, all building toward the final market of the season. Today, finally, there they were. I ordered the Briscuits and Gravy. Brisket meets biscuits and gravy. With Halloween around the corner, I was ready to applaud this particular experiment in reanimation. Some things deserve to be brought together in a laboratory. Then I took a bite. The biscuits were cold and hard, apparently awaiting identification at the county morgue. The brisket was dry enough to suggest whatever had killed it had happened some time ago. And the gravy was sweet, thick, pasty, and had the texture of something you'd use to hang wallpaper in a funeral home. I kept eating, looking for the bite that would explain the line, the anticipation, the months I'd spent wanting this. A little smoke. A tender piece of beef. Any sign of life. Nothing. There's a particular sadness in a bad meal you've looked forward to. You've already imagined how good it's going to be. Then you're standing there in the October air, holding a plate of evidence that you were wrong. Mary Shelley gave her monster a chance. Mine cost $14 and came with gravy. Scary.

Another fantastic visit to Nite Hawk Bar & Grill! We pedaled up the High Trestle Trail and were…read morerewarded with delicious, reasonably priced cocktails on their inviting patio. Our server Sarah was attentive and friendly, making sure our drinks stayed cold and even refilling our bike water bottles before we headed back out. Even on a Tuesday afternoon, this place has great energy and makes for the perfect turnaround spot during our 32-mile ride. If you're cycling the trail or just looking for a welcoming spot with good drinks and service, Nite Hawk is definitely worth the stop!

Very fun place! A must-stop!…read more Cons: Soda is expensive. To the chef: On patty melts, the onions need to be plentiful and grilled, not raw and sparse. For $14.00 (no side,) it could use improvement. Overall a great place!

Homemade goodness. The service was great. The restaurant was clean and farm like feeling.read more

Best BBQ I've had in Iowa, it was busy in a Monday night but we got a table of 4 no reservation in…read more30 mins max. Service was great and the vibe of the place is awesome. Really nice and welcoming place. I got the Briskey Dip with the fries and aioli dip, so good.

This is the review that almost never happened! My husband were out and about and took some random…read moreroads that eventually led us nearby. I had heard about this place multiple times because we don't live too far away. I figured we should at least drive by since we were in the area and talked about how we had never driven through this town. I'm so glad we did! It was 3:45 and we were hungry. I looked on Facebook to see if they were open. Sure enough they were open and starting in 45 minutes they'd be offering the bbq brisket burger with bacon and cheese with baked beans and potato scoops. We had to kill some time but we called in our order and gave them a pickup time. The burger was ground, grilled and dressed perfectly! The bbq sauce was tangy, bacon was GRILLED perfectly and the cheese was just sort of melty. It was fantastic! I liked the baked beans and potato scoops but the burger was absolutely the star here. While my order was finishing on the grill I was chatting with an employee and she was so friendly and welcoming! I really can't wait to go back and further explore the menu. This may be a small town bar but they absolutely knocked it out of the park!

Best bar around worth the drive out of Ankeny or Ames. Amazing food and great bartenders!read more

Never disappoints- great service and outstanding atmosphere- highly recommended. It has become our…read morefavorite place in Ames - God's Country!

The pub was pretty busy on a Saturday afternoon at 2pm. They have an outdoor seating area. The…read morepub is decorated with British signs and posters. The service was very good for how busy it was inside and out. The food was delicious! We had the cod & chips (added coleslaw) and the German platter (a bratwurst, weisswurst, pork schnitzel, mashed potatoes & gravy, red cabbage and sauerkraut). There were various other items we'd like to try, so we will have to come back! It seemed a little high priced, but it is Ames.

So this place was a lucky find while messing around on Uber. My girls are huge MrBeast fans. If you…read moredon't know him he is a YouTube super star. He has hundreds of restaurants around the country that serve out of "ghosts kitchens". What is a ghost kitchen? Glad you asked. He contracts with existing restaurants to make and serve his food out of existing facilities with existing staff and they serve food exclusively via delivery apps (no store front). It is a brilliant business model and it saved hundreds of restaurants and restaurant employees from going out of business during the pandemic. It's a win win for them to keep their staff employees and kitchens making money. That said, I had heard about it but never came across one till traveling through Ames. We ordered what I assumed would be a novelty lunch that would entertain my daughters but was really impressed with the food. It was a fantastic burger, like a legit, wish this was around everywhere, I would eat this once a week, burger. The patties are those smashed and chard burgers that have all kinds of texture and are made for stacking. They were seasoned fantastically and the whole thing worked nicely. The fries were ok, but they never travel well in my experience with delivery drivers. But we got some beast style, which means covered in all kinds of toppings and that helped because they were good. I was very impressed.

Tasted incredible and was surprised at the quality. DoorDash was great at delivering. Better than…read moreMcDonald's!!

Food, service, & atmosphere all great, new bar/restaurant in waukee for the last year, great place…read morefor sports entertainment and a high attention to food quality which is hard to find nowadays. Highly recommend

4.4* (out of 5) Food: 4* Atmosphere: 5* Value: 4*…read more Service: 4* Would I go back / Recommend?: 5* (Definitely) Total check/person: $20 06/18/2026 Came back on a Thursday specifically to try their all-day Happy Hour Specials for my sister site (www.happyhourdesmoines.com). We tried the Chicago Dog (see picture), Chili Cheese Dog (see picture) and Fries along with one of their Beer Shots (see picture). All of them tasted great, providing a wonderful opportunity to sample some of their top menu items at Happy Hour prices.

Food and decor, service was all amazing! Gluten free options were nice as well! Enjoyed all of it…read moreand will be back. Just wish the burnt ends weren't like $15 for 5 bites!

Awesome place that really surprised. Clearly a farm to table concept with a varied but overwhelming…read moremenu. Came in on a weeknight with coworkers and received good service and fantastic food. Nice drink menu (I enjoyed their take on the old fashioned) with cocktails and a nice craft beer selection. Everyone loved their food, from the barley soup to the ravioli, burger, Brussels salad, and the salmon I got. Hidden gem perhaps was their incredible dessert selection. The cherry tart was a pleasant surprise and the salted caramel chocolate cake will def fix a choc craving. Would gladly come back.

L and I went to Aunt Maude's for her birthday, on a Wednesday. We did not know ahead of time that…read morethe third Wednesday of the month features the Patio Burger. I went in planning to order salmon, but when our server explained the Patio Burger special, we both chose that. The Patio Burger comprises two patties, totaling 8 oz with cheese, garlic aioli, lettuce and tomato on a brioche bun. I must say that this is one of the best burgers I have had in a long, long time. Toppings aside, the reason I say this is that the patties had a very flavorful grill crust and was well seasoned. This was seriously good. The chefs/cooks here know what they are doing, at least they did on this particular night. Burgers like this have become expensive in recent years but this one is comparatively reasonable at $15. Kudos to Aunt Maude's, always a great place to eat. As an aside, my brother and I had a burger and beer at The Boulder Tap House, three months earlier. That burger was a disappointment at the other end of the spectrum. Skip BTH and go to Aunt Maude's for a great burger.

We stopped in here along our road trip and we're pleasantly surprised. We split a house salad and…read morethe pasta dish to save room for their peanut butter pie. Wow! Everything from the service to the food and the ambience was wonderful. This is definitely one of our favorite restaurants in the area and we plan to come again on our next trip through.