We had such a wonderful dining experience! The ribeye steak was absolutely one of the best I've ever tasted, and my wife loved her pork chop just as much. We also enjoyed the salad--it was a fantastic addition to our meal! A big shoutout to the friendly service; everything was cooked to perfection. Overall, a excellent job and Planning another visit soon. read more

The Rusty Duck may look a little run-down from the outside, but once you step inside it has a warm, welcoming feel. Our waitress was amazing--friendly, attentive, and so helpful. The portions were HUGE, and the food was very good. Overall, a great experience. Would definitely recommend! read more

Rusty Duck - American Near Me - Dexter, Iowa

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A little crowded but well worth the visit. Food is amazing! And portions are (let's just say, you won't leave hungry!)

lowkey food is good went here for a friends birthday but everything is super expensive cannon and emmett are goated they should get more hours read more

Rusty Duck - American Near Me - Dexter, Iowa

4.5* (out of 5) Food: 5* Atmosphere: 3* Value: 5* Service: 5* 02/03/2024 Our neighbors surprised us with a trip to the Rusty Duck on our last trip out for dinner. It was admittedly a bit of a drive to get there, but all things considered, not much longer in the car than a trip downtown and there wasn't much traffic! I can't say enough about the quality of the food here - if I could give it more than 5* for the delicious steaks, I would. The service and value were also well above average, justifying the 5* ratings in each area. The only thing that was average was the atmosphere / venue, as the tables were somewhat packed into the room, not leaving much room to get around and making it a bit challenging to navigate your way through to the rest rooms or the bar. With that said, that is exactly where I want a restaurant to excel - food 1st, then service and value...with atmosphere last on my priority list. Our neighbors opted for the Blackened Top Sirloin (see pictures - one showing the beautiful medium rare cook) and Open Face Ribeye (see picture). As the pictures imply, both of them were delicious - and at 16oz & 12oz respectively, there was plenty to bring home for breakfast the next day. My wife ordered the Ribeye Steak Deburgo with cream sauce (see picture) and I went with the Blackened Blue Ribeye (see pictures). As with our neighbors cuts - both of them were delicious and grilled to perfection...and at 16oz each, we had plenty to bring home with us also. The creamy parmesan dip was recommended to us for dipping the fries and I concur - you definitely want to order it with the fries. We found both the Homie (large, wedge cut) and French Fries to be very good, so it depends on your preference. It's hard to beat the quality and quantity of the steaks - at a reasonable price. You'll find it worth your while to take the short drive West from Des Moines on I-80 and give this place a try. Make sure to call ahead for reservations though, especially on the weekends. They have an early and a late seating...and the place fills up for both! If you found this review helpful, please show your appreciation with a Like or a Follow. Photos copyright: happyhourdesmoines.com & thefoodanddrinkguy.com read more

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Rusty Duck Dexter, IA Just off I80 and not far from Des Moines. I took my Beautiful wife to The Rusty Duck to celebrate Valentine's Day early. Since she is a Valentine Baby I wanted to keep Valentine's just about her Birthday. I made a reservation and really didn't need one this Saturday evening. We got sat by the waitress cleaning station and they wouldn't let us move. That's my only complaint. We kept getting interrupted as the waitstaff got items. They keep the tray tables there as well as the cleaning supplies. Splish splashing and banging items. That made it difficult to relax for me. We started with the onion rings. I got the Full and we only ate a quarter. It's a huge portion. The onion rings were delicious with light breading. A great starter. I would recommend the half for two people. We both choose the Top Sirloin, baked potato, and salad. The salad was great. I choose the house dressing. Everything was fresh and tasty. I loved the thin croutons and added some onion rings. Perfect. The salad comes with the dressing already mixed in and tossed. I got my Top Sirloin with the creamy Deburgo. So decadent and delicious. The creamy garlic sauce was perfection. My steak had very little fat and was tender. Excellent flavor that just melts in your mouth. I was in steak heaven. The baked potato was perfect with butter and sour cream. Cooked perfectly and easy to mash. It was a perfect compliment to the steak. The portions are huge so skip eating that day. You will probably have enough for the next day as well. The food is awesome and delightful. My waitress was phenomenal and did an excellent job as well as other waitstaff who brought food. The hostess is not much fun and I don't recommend asking to change tables. I will definitely return to The Rusty Duck -- at The Rusty Duck. read more

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Drove 1 hour for an anniversary dinner, worth every mile. Fabulous steak - unique options...great appetizer - again just a bit unique...and pasta was over the top. I highly recommend making the drive; we will be back! read more

Rusty Duck - Blackenedblue ribeye...doesn't get any better. - American Near Me - Dexter, Iowa

Owner is terribly rude to customers who have concerns. He also is very disrespectful to his staff, making the atmosphere very uncomfortable. Food is normally very good but terribly expensive. I will personally not support an establishment where people are treated so poorly. read more

Short and Sweet Absolutely wonderful Never disappointed and great value A must visit read more

OMG Renewed myself w/Rusty Duck Wednesday. It was Soooooooo GOOD. Just like I remembered. The "Spinach/Artichoke Dip" is ABSOLUTELY the best I've Ever eaten anywhere!!! Cheese sticks are equally good, but my Fav is the Spinach/Artichoke Dip. I also had a Ribeye Steak that was also delicious. I've Never had anything that wasn't absolutely delicious. Even accompanying salads were also delicious. read more

A few years ago, we came get for dinner in the middle of the week. We didn't know that on Friday night, you should have reservations. We had the BBQ pork and chicken Romano. You should order the chicken Romano sandwich. Amazing. Onions rings were fantastic! Homie fries crunchy and soft. Bbq pork had too much sauce but otherwise great. Service was fine. read more

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Just down the street from West Des Moines (I-80W)... Hadn't been here since the start of the pandemic.... But your boy turned 52 years young yesterday and that's what I wanted. If you plan on going on a Friday or Saturday make a reservation. We arrived at open on a Thursday with no reservation and had no issues whatsoever. I sure missed my 14 oz Ultimate Burger piled high with sautéed mushrooms, peppers, onions, cheese and bacon! I wanted to do an order of fried mushrooms so I passed on the fries or rings and went with a side salad. The tenderloin is thick cut and massive. The crispy deep fried homie fries are are a thing of beauty. Wait until you see the amount of bacon they pile on a bacon cheeseburger! Hit them up for extra crispy. Ain't nothing small here! The outside of TRD is nondescript and you could easily miss the plain white door on the brick wall. Please wait to be seated at the front. Seating is table and chairs or at the bar. The menu is extensive but everything I've ever eaten there has been solid. The decor is old school. Where everyone else seems to be having staffing issues there were a half a dozen servers working last night. Maybe one or two were bartenders or hostesses... It was hard to tell. They were all helpful. Service was great as usual and so was the food! It's well worth the drive! read more

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First time to go to Dexter to eat at the Rusty Duck. We forgot to make a reservation earlier and called and they were still able to get us a reservation after 7:00. We arrived and there was still a lot of people waiting to get in. We all ordered the ribeye steak de burgo cream sauce. My wife only eats well done steak and of course hers was more medium. Mine was rare and perfect. Great steaks, also we ordered the half order of onion rings to start and there were four of us and there was plenty of them for all of us. The salads were good, however the house dressing was a little heavy on garlic. Overall a great place, but on Friday and Saturday you ou should make sure to get a reservation. read more

The food is always awesome! The drinks are made perfectly! The service is always off the charts! A+ all the way! See ya soon!

The steak deburgo is the best I've ever had! I took my mom there for a very belated Mother's Day dinner. We split the meal. I left full, and she left with left-overs. HUGE shout out to the owner Brad! It's not the cheapest, but if you consider how much food you get, it's about the same price as fast food but SOO much better! read more

This is a little hole in the wall place in small town Iowa but they cut their own Fantastic steaks and make the best ranch dressing I've ever had! read more

Food was amazing Even tough they were super busy, we got our order in and got our food in good time.

Friendly and helpful service. Big portions and everything was delicious. Might try different fries next time, however. Chicken tenders were really good. And half order of onion rings were enough for all eight of us. Worth the drive out. read more

Okay this food though... Yummy and huge portions. Price is great. Atmosphere is pretty good for a small town. Only downside was the flies (but what can you really do about that) and they had the news on lol. Good ole boomers love it here so I guess that makes sense. We got the steak sandy supreme & chicken fettuccini. SO much protein for such a great price! Will be back to try everything on the menu. read more

Met another couple 2 weeks ago here for dinner. Large portions! The four of us shared a small onion rings & an order of mushrooms. Very good. My husband & I shared the Italian sirloin- delicious. Worth the stop! read more

It's worth a try. I got a pasta dish with steak. The steak was tough and the sauce was very thin. My husband got a steak he liked. The salad was good. My dish was a huge! read more

We'd heard about this place through a number of friends and were up for a Friday night family adventure so we thought we'd make the trip to Dexter for burgers. We made our way through the pickup trucks sporting Donald Trump stickers and into the Rusty Duck. All small towns would be fortunate to have such a busy restaurant on their Main Streets. Portions were huge. House salad dressing very good. Burgers gigantic and pretty good. Prices were reasonable but certainly not inexpensive. Servers were very busy but kind and attentive. Bar appeared to be more dedicated to uncapping beers for the tables than making cocktails but that's probably to be expected. An $85 night for two parents and two kids. Not a superior value but we had plenty of leftovers to take home. Not a bad experience but there are plenty of places in Des Moines offering better food and experiences. read more

Had rsvp at Rusty Duck at 6:45 and didn't eat till 9:00 and leave at 9:30. Service was terrible and have never been treated this bad at a restraunt. They need bar rescue and Gordon Ramsay and could maybe get out of it. It's sad because the food was actually pretty great but was later cussed out by the owner and was told to leave his restraunt. My table of 8 spending the most and looked forward to this all week, and celebrated two birthdays. I'm honestly shocked. I understand all faults restraunts face and can give them 1/5. Completely unprofessional and disgusting and zero respect. I am complete lost of words and was thinking of my review to post the whole time while waiting my food. Other tables ask us for food and if we were okay.I wish other people a better experience but to me another time isn't worth it nor advised. Dexter = nice people, bad service and hospitality I would do no stars if possible read more

Steaks rock!! The best in Iowa! Ask for the Black Blue Ribeye!!! Everyone is so wonderful. read more

People rave about the hamburgers but first thing you should know is this place is only open for dinner.

I stopped by on a road trip from oh to ca and this was the only place for miles. It looked closed, I didn't know it was technically a bar- overall I did not think I would be getting a great experience, but I was already there and figured if it was terrible I'd have a great story. This was not the case. I got the mushroom chicken and it was insanely delicious. My dad opted for the burger, he used to own a steak house and is SO picky with steaks. The second he saw a steak pass by he regretted his decision. The steaks looked and smelled incredible. That being said, he thoroughly enjoyed his burger and neither of us could finish the hefty portions. I'd make the drive again just for this. read more

Sooooo good. Small place but big on great food! Huge portions. I had fried green tomatoes and it was so huge it could have been a meal by itself!! Staff is great as always read more

My husband heard the burgers here are awesome and they didn't disappoint. Very large, yummy burgers. I also got a salad with house creamy parm dressing. It came out with it already tossed and homemade croutons . Service was great. Small place I would recommend making a reservation. read more

Rusty Duck - Bacon cheeseburger and onion rings. - American Near Me - Dexter, Iowa

The Rusty Duck is amazing. We had a reservation for 13 (not an easy number to accommodate). We did have to wait a few minutes for our table-not the restaurant s fault-the group before had been lingering for a very long time. Our waitress was on top of everything from drinks, refills, to food. She answered every question we had. All.our food came out hot from the kitchen. The dressings are all home made and delicious. The steaks were made to order. The sandwiches were huge. The Rusty Duck is worth the drive to Dexter. read more

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WOW!!!!! Come hungry to this place! It is a pretty all american place for food but man everything is huge portioned sized and cooked to perfection! I've never had a bad meal here. Unfortunately, I am allergic to beef and that is what they are known for here! Rusty Duck has been voted the Best Burger in Iowa many years in a row. For me I would vote it the best Breaded pork tenderloin in Iowa!!!!! If you have an hunger for tenderloins the rusty duck is no joke... PERFECT! When ordering fries get the steak fries you won't regret it. If you decide you want to start off with an appetizer make sure you are sharing your meal. We ordered a half order of onion rings to start because we were really hungry (apparently didn't know what we were getting ourselves into) it was literally about a whole 5 pound bag of onion ring plopped on our table. Make sure to make a reservation if you want to get in on a weekend. It is in a small town and people drive from all over Iowa to eat here. I have only eaten here twice but both times were tasty, way too much food for a great price and left us with food for days and happy memories. read more

Rusty Duck - One of the best pork tenderloins I've ever had. - American Near Me - Dexter, Iowa

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Usually, I find a lot of good things to write about, and this review would have been one of those. Tonight, I took the effort to eat and support local places, so I made the effort and drove 6 miles from my hotel to try this place, based on yelp reviews. I had a burger, fries, and lemonade...all of which were pretty good... Why the one star? $6 extra charge for some pickles, onions, and BBQ sauce...because of this, my tab came to $23+ $4 tip for the waitress. (I cannot hold this against her...) NOT RIGHT! read more

Had a great dinner there. Small town restaurant with big city quality food, selection and prices. My wife & I both had the ribeye cook as we ask. Awesome flavor & more than we could finish. Our friends had the sausage marinara with pasta, also great flavor & huge portion. Also the salmon cooked to slightly on the rare side of medium. He said it was also excellent. Service was great, plenty of staff and all with good attitude. We live in Des Moines area, but will make a return trip to Dexter just for a great meal. Thanks for great evening. read more

I can see why this bar / restaurant won Best Burger awards. Not only were these the largest burgers I've ever seen - they were delicious! The party was cooked exactly how we requested! The portion sizes were massive - I was only able to eat half a burger and some of my fries. My boyfriend ordered the onion rings - I'm usually not a fan but these were delicious. We will definitely be back. Worth the drive to Dexter. read more

Rusty Duck - This was my boyfriend's bacon cheeseburger with onion rings as a side. - American Near Me - Dexter, Iowa

Food and service were great. Didn't expect much after seeing outside of restaurant but pleasantly surprised.

The burger had full sized mushrooms, big peppers and all the fixings. The meat was full flavored and portion sized huge! Had to box half but could have eaten it all. Just a little grease but expected and came exactly add ordered and piping hot. read more

Rusty Duck - The burger had full sized mushrooms, big peppers and all the fixings. The meat was full flavored and portion sized huge! - American Near Me - Dexter, Iowa

We will never go there again. We called in a 2 person togo order. The Lady was rude on the phone. We was told there was no to go orders during the weekend. Mind you it was earlier Friday evening. My husband explained the website showed to go. Again she was rude and said not on weekends. Absolutely horrible customer service. Do you make so much money that it's okay to be rude and not update the website. Although we are really close I will not ever get anything from there again. I would rather drive to Casey or Adair for better customer service. read more

ate here Thursday 8/18/22. Had the Pasta with Meatball and sauce (that's literally what it's called on the menu). Horrible; sauce was runny and bland from a can. Meatball was dry and pasta was mushy. Our child ordered the Mac n cheese with chicken and added bacon. Cheese sauce was so watery the chicken breading was soaked and not not in a good way. So we spent nearly $100 on the worst meal...normally I'd be silent and just not return again. However, this place used to be worth the drive and the money...not now. the duck is dead to me read more

I have now been here several times and I've been very pleased each time. I really like the staff and the value of your meal. One thing that people in this town understand is you have to provide value to draw in people. The burger that was voted in as best burger in Iowa is huge and very good. I struggle to eat 1/2 of it when I split my meal with my wife. The tenderloin is also very big and very good. I love trying new places and foods nd this place has it. read more

They ignore you. They won't acknowledge your presence if they are busy. Apparently they don't care if they have your business or not. Food is decent but their lack of customer service spoils it. read more

Never dissatisfied with a meal from here. Burgers are larger my gf and mom usually split one when we go here.