We ventured into Boulder Tap House for a later dinner this past Sunday. Boulder Tap House appears…read moreto be a midwest chain with 11 locations throughout Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. It's amazing how many restaurants are closed on Sunday in Ames... Not much of a demand for Sunday dine-in business in a college town I guess...? Lol Fortunately Boulder Tap House is open from at least 1100 AM until 1000 PM every day of the week. Boulder Tap House sits just off of the Southeast corner of South Duff and East Lincoln Way. It has a large parking lot and it's easy to access. We were greeted right away when we walked in and shown to a booth. Seating is a mix of low and high top tables and chairs, booths, and standard stool seating around the bar. There are TONS of TVs around the dining room and bar; most of which had football games running on them. Our server was named Zach. He stopped by shortly after we were seated, introduced himself and dropped off menus etc., and took our drink orders (Pepsi products). He was back shortly with the first round of drinks and to take our food order. We ordered: 1x Unsweetened ice tea 1x Cherry Pepsi 1x Cheddar house made Boulder cheese cubes 1x Medium (12) order of wings with their honey BBQ sauce. Blue cheese on the side 1x Side salad with ranch dressing 1x Swicy burger and fries Zach was attentive and personable and provided good service the entire meal. He made sure to check on us several times and kept our drink glasses topped off. I HIGHLY recommend the cheese cubes! Choose cheddar, white cheddar, or pepper jack cheese. Served with Burger Co. sauce. The Burger Co. sauce reminded me of a spicy ranch. These things are HUGE. Each will take you at least two bites. They were hot and fresh right out of the fryer. I cut mine in half with a fork to make them more bite size... And to avoid 3rd degree burns from the molten cheese! Lol The wings were sauced well and cooked perfectly! Very good! The swicy burger is where I'm torn. I see other reviews of this burger and everyone really seems to like it. It tasted okay... But I feel like it's trying too hard. Here's how it's described on the menu: "A little bit of sweet and a little bit of spice. A 6oz Angus burger patty topped with ghost pepper jack cheese, fried jalapeños, spicy peach sauce, butter leaf lettuce, tomato and pickles. Served on a toasted bun." First of all there was no tomato or pickles on mine... I didn't request them to be held so I'm not sure what happened there. There was a piece of lettuce...it was entirely covered up by the patty. I didn't even know it was on there until I bit into it. I was okay with this. The beef didn't taste fresh to me. I grew up in a small rural Iowa town of 500 where my dad was the city maintenance man. His boss (the mayor) also ran the local meat locker... It tasted like an overcooked frozen patty. Though I believe Boulder Tap House advertises fresh ground chuck...never frozen...at a lot of their locations. I'm not sure how it's distributed to the Ames location. In any case the taste of the beef was overshadowed by the topping to the point it became a texture v. the focus of the sandwich. All of the burgers listed using the 6 oz Angus patty are advertised the same way. Very heavy on the specialty toppings... The regular burger on the menu is advertised as a 8 oz burger patty (not specifically Angus). Same with the Smashburger (two 4 oz patties). Maybe the patties on these two items are different quality? I took a small piece of the burger itself and it wasn't great. It had the taste you come to expect with frozen patties. It was just meh. It lacked the flavor of fresh beef. I expected better for a $16 burger and fry combo. I kind of felt like the last burger I got at a Chili's was better meat. Now the fries though... Lightly battered and then fried! Served hot. On the thinner side... But these were exceptionally good...! I'd probably avoid the burgers on any future trips to a Boulder Tap House. But that's just me! If you like the novelty of topping and don't care about the quality of the beef. You do you! And I could be wrong about the patty...that's just how it tasted to me. I would go back. However next time I'd stick to the appetizers, wings, or one of the other sandwiches! Our meal overall was good. Payment is done with your server at the table. Everything was reasonably priced. Zach was terrific!

This place is casual and lively. When we walked in, I can smell the greasy air in the whole…read morerestaurant. We came for dinner with a group of coworkers and half of us didn't like the food. The servers got our orders wrong (we ordered bone in wings and they gave us boneless) and she took it back and have us waited for another 10 mins. My potato soup was horrible, looks like from bottom of the pot that we so thick that I could used a folk to scoop and tasted nothing like potato. The Caesar salad dressing was sour. The cheese curd was good but can't have more than 2. Overall, didn't like the food and experience.

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

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.

I'm not sure what to make of the "new" Campus Town (at least on the East side of Welch Avenue)…read more I've been visiting Ames since my first campus visit in High School and I still remember that old tobacco/news shop on the corner of Welch and Lincoln way and the home town nature of this area (if you don't count the XXX Theater that once existed). I guess it's the West side's turn very soon and I hope for my Son's sake that Mayhem Comics survives. Anyway, the new Corporate Campus Town has a lot of new things including fun and friendly places to grab a relatively quick meal. Freddy's Frozen Custard and Steak is one of those establishments, and I had a really great cheeseburger and fried combination there recently. A beer would have been great with this, but this isn't that kind of place. So I settled for a soft drink and wished I would have gone all in with some frozen custard.

The food was wonderful and the staff was amazing! Everything we got tasted great. Size to cost…read moreratio is also really fair. It's kind of loud inside, but nothing bothersome. The staff also keeps it very well maintained.

I visited on an extremely busy Sunday early afternoon, and they performed incredibly well, like a…read morewell-oiled machine! The store was clean and not chaotic, and the server (Register 1, 1PM) was an exceptional guy, smiling and pleasant despite his busy surroundings. I liked their food a lot, the service was prompt and courteous, and the entire experience was a good one.

Went through the drive-through while I had my entire family waiting at the hospital we got our…read moredrinks and they were all incorrect. We were missing three we finally got our food got back to the hospital and every single order was incomplete wrong and we were missing items, completely disappointed in their service.

Not an Iowan. I asked around for some recommendations of what's good to eat here and B-Bop's was…read morethe only highlight someone could give. This and Texas road house..... I think it's good here! It's a clean burger. Bun is good. Meat patty is good. Sauce is good. No complaints. I'll have to say though, the price of a fast food burger is just about the same as a burger from the restaurants. Their chocolate shake is yummy!! One of the better shakes I've ever had from a fast food chain.

Never again. Regrettably I took a bit before I noticed the grey, uncooked appearance. Now I have…read moreto wait until morning to see if I have any after effects. The last time I ate there 2 years ago I thought it was the lettuce that took me down, so I ordered without lettuce tomato. I hadn't counted on uncooked beef. How they pass health inspections is beyond me.

Are here on Thursday night with my sister. We were seated immediately. The service was awesome. We…read morehad a gentleman named Elijah as our server. The food was hot and good. Definitely would recommend and eat there again.

It always takes me time to figure out how to make a review that is not as positive as I'd like…read more I've gotten take out here a few times in the last few months. I've gotten boneless wings that they forgot to use sauce on(very hard and difficult to bite), but this last trip was the worst. Everything was ok, except I was so excited to dip that toasted cheeseburger in the tomato soup and eat. Seconds later, my tongue was completely on fire. I could taste NOTHING. Later I tried the burger to see if that was the cause-it was. The sauce they put on my burger was NOT "tangy"-it shouldn't have been on that burger if it was that hot(spice). There should literally be a warning. And it didn't have any bacon taste at all. So, no, I can't recommend this dish at all. Very disappointing. Lot parking. Typical chain prices. Clean. Staff seems friendly. Also, it's 4 days later and my tongue still hasn't recovered.

We go often. Photos are from our most recent visit on 1/14/26…read more Food: The food is great every time we have been to this location. They always get our orders correct, and it's always hot. They also have really great portion sizes for the price point. Service: Every time we've been to this location, the employees are all incredibly nice, helpful, quick, and efficient. Whether it's simply picking up from inside the lobby or going through the drive-thru, we are always greeted with a smile and an upbeat attitude. Ambiance: The lobby has always been kept very clean, as well as the outside seating area. There's never any debris in the drive-through either. Definitely the better of the locations here, in my opinion.

we like their sloppy joe sliders with cheese. we got 5 of 442pm this afternoon - got them home…read morebut no cheese on any of them not a big deal , but tried to call 2 different numbers 2 times just to ask for credit for the cheese but they dont answer without a remote code.tried email them from their website but it called me spam and wouldnt send it. just want my 2 dollars for the cheese back , good food .lousy follow up - ticket 39 - receipt r041 - sat 4/25- 442pm

See pics. They haven't changed much. This has nothing to do with staff-they are the GOOD part of…read morethe experience. This has to do with the owners setting a $4 up charge between what the app shows is the cost and what they ACTUALLY are pulling out of your credit/banking account. If you aren't paying attention, you'll be paying out of your nose. Shameful. Who authorized these bait and switch prices???

Food was good... They forgot the sauces that they charge extra for, went through the drive through…read moreagain asking for the sauces I paid for. The employee was nice until a manager took over and interrupted. After refusing to give me my sauces for two minutes I was able to pull up and get my sauces. After opening my cheese sauce, it was empty with a small drop of cheese. Rude manager, scammed me out of what I was charged extra for. This lady needs to just go get a new job cuz wtf was that.

I've been here before plenty of times. Some good some bad, mostly tolerable, sometimes…read moreunacceptable. I mostly use the app and pick up at counter, as I would never decide to eat in a place I find constantly dirty. The food, especially during college season can be very disappointing. Just ordered today (October 2025) and my "deluxe" mccrispy had 2 pieces of lettuce on it, with a dab of the sauce and tomatoes falling off. Chocolate milkshake that tastes like straight whip cream. I've order a Big Mac in the past that miraculously had no patties on it, and instead had triple the cheese. All of which I sat waiting for for 40 minutes. The staff, while usually non-existent, are atleast understanding. From the looks of it, a high turnover rate paired with the influx of some 35,000 hungry college kids has dramatically impacted the ability of this location to perform, though other McDonalds in Ames, I've had a much better experience with food and service wise. Consensus: don't eat here, atleast during classes, eat at the other McDonald's if you're forced to eat a Big Mac.

45 minute drive thru. 45 goddamn minutes…read more 45 goddamn motherfucking minutes. Never going back; to any McDonalds. Not luvin' it. Why would I wait that long? Masochism? Morbid curiosity after the 20 minute mark? I don't know, but I did, so now, you won't have to: Stay away from McDonalds; go to Culver's or Wendy's.