Marinated Pork in the delicious form of three street tacos from Viva La Bamba is so good! The pork is truly tender and once the chef adds the toppings with fresh guacamole it is next level outstanding. The wait staff greets everyone as they enter and meticulously monitors your table to make sure your drink is replenished. The total atmosphere has soft music in the background allowing you to quietly scroll your phone and savor the moment. read more

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food is average & service was minimal, slow & not particularly friendly. The restaurant needs some maintenance & cleaning. I'm one & done here. read more

How did I overlook this restaurant! First impressions: - Charming atmosphere - Warm hostess, simply delightful, great smile! - Attentive service, always felt important. - Incredible food! Dishes tried: Chicken Fajita & Sea Food Enchilada. I am guessing the 8 table next to me enjoyed their endless margaritas as much as I did my experience. Rare 5 star. Thank you Viva for exceeding my expectations. read more

I give the food 3.5 stars and the service 3 stars. If you want good, semi-authentic, Mexican food with a variety of food options, give this a try. I've been there several times and the food has always been tasty but the service is hit or miss. One thing that I really like about Viva is they serve warm beans with your chips along with salsa...sooooo yummy! Also, I love a good patio and theirs is covered by a pergola and outdoor lights so definitely check it out when the Iowa weather is cooperating! read more

Viva la Bamba - Tacos Al Pastor - good flavor but the menu said it was supposed to have pineapple but mine didn't. :( - Mexican Near Me - Des Moines, Iowa

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You like margaritas? They have a really good happy hour special for Margaritas. They start to get to you rather quickly as they are tasty. Went here on a week night with some girl friends. The parking lot is tiny so had to find parking in the bank parking lot. It was after hours so there was extra parking back there. The place was full. Luckily my friend had went early to beat the crowd and snagged us a seat. The staff was very friendly and was happy to keep getting us margarita refills. I did not leave hungry as the portion sizes are big. My friends were able to eat the majority of their meals, but it was a lot of food for me. The chips and cheese dip were really good. I tried Pollo Piña which is grilled chicken breast with pineapple. Covered with cheese sauce. Served with rice and romaine salad. I mostly ate the tasty chicken and pineapple and was little full for anything else. read more

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The waiter was rude the entire meal, the food wasn't good, everything was about 2x the price it would be at any similar restaurant, i had to ask the waiter for a water 3 times and he never brought me one so after we waited about 30 minutes in a practically empty restaurant i asked the person who brought our food for a water since apparently it was an inconvenience to our server to bring me one, no need to come back. read more

Viva la Bamba - Overpriced strawberry margarita!!!! - Mexican Near Me - Des Moines, Iowa

First time here and had a very positive experience! Parking was a little tough so had to do street parking but I thought was a good sign!! Nice atmosphere with very timely and friendly service. The tortillas were nice and fresh and still warm when they arrived and the salsa was solid and the bean dip was a bonus! Our table ordered a Chicken quesadilla, and fajita mixed with all meats (chicken, steak, shrimp) and the seafood enchiladas. The dishes came with plenty of sides including guacamole, rice, and more beans. Fajitas meat was seasoned well and the shrimp were a nice size!! The quesadilla came with multiple sauces for dipping! Seafood enchiladas were decent, maybe just a touch on the bland side. Overall an experience worth coming back for and I would probably think the Fajitas are the way to go! read more

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We like this place and their food. The service has always been polite and attentive regardless of our server and the food is tasty and hot. It was hard to find a consistent and comfortable Mexican fare restaurant in the Des Moines area and after trying several places we came upon Viva, and their sister restaurant at 86th and Meredith in Urbandale, and have returned several times. I like that they serve warm bean dip with their chips and that their house margaritas have some taste and alcohol. read more

I've heard great things about their margaritas so when we had an hour to kill we decided to give them a try. My daughter opted for a frozen strawberry margarita and I decided to step outside the box and opted for a strawberry daiquiri. Both were equally delicious!! They serve the normal chips and salsa but they up their game and also serve you complimentary warm bean dip (delicious). Their menu and a lot to offer and other customers meals smelled amazing so we caved and ordered a chicken fajita quesadilla. The serving was perfect for the two of us to share. read more

Viva la Bamba - Strawberry daiquiri... - Mexican Near Me - Des Moines, Iowa

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The problem that I always find with resturaunts is the lack on consistency with the food I order. I often bounce between Mexican restaurants because of the food either not being hot enough the second time around, not enough chicken in the dishes I order, salsa is either too bland or tastes too much like ketchup, or the tortilla chips are stale. So far, I want to say that Viva has not disappointed me yet in terms of the food I have ordered since the two times I have visited they have been good, but the reason I give this place only 3 stars is the quality of service. The waiters aren't all equally as friendly and outspoken and some are very rushy with getting you to order. We had just sat down at our table and had been given the menus to look over. After getting our drinks in just a couple minutes, the waiter is already asking if we are ready to order. As much as I would love to eat, and as fast as I do eat, I don't like to be rushed in making a decision. Aside from that, I can't be too harsh with this place yet because I have been satisfied with my food otherwise. However, customer service needs improvement here in order for me to consider returning more often. read more

Viva la Bamba - Chicken fajitas. Didn't really care for the huge chunks of tomatoes, but very good flavor otherwise. - Mexican Near Me - Des Moines, Iowa

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Not happy with our first experience here tonight! Once seated, pressed by waiter to make a drink selection without a menu. We ordered Steak & Potatoes Burrito and Chicken Quesadilla. We received a steak quesadilla instead of Chicken. Staff took it back without an apology or explanation. Wait it seemed upset after mentioning it was wrong meat. Food seemed to have no seasoning! Queso dip was very watery! Another waiter was taking shots with table next to us while working. Seemed to care more about the girls at this table then customer surrounding them. Overall NOT happy with experience and will NOT go back. read more

Best Mexican in DM. Chips not too salty. Home-made salsa and hot salsa. Margarita mixer feeds four drinks for 8$! Food was awesome, service was even better! David was amazingly fast with our drinks and very attentive. Bring a good lookin gal! read more

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I have been here three times and have seen this place go downhill fast! Terrible service and food! I had to get up and ask for a server and then had to get my own water and remind them to bring more hot sauce. The food came out my chicken was chewy and nobody seem to care. The fastest thing that happened was getting the check. Even when I went up to pay and they knew there was issues, nobody said a word and took my money. I saw another table get upset because the lady asked for more salsa and the waiter handed her salsa that was used on another table. It also upset me that two tables were waited on that came in after I was there.. read more

The food is good, but the service needs A LOT of work. It's not the greatest place to sit and chat with friends as you will have to chase down the waiter if you want a refill on anything. Sometimes I even have to ask for things 2-3 times. Last time I was there I just got up and got my own silverware. Improve the service and this place would be 5 stars for sure! read more

Delicious... Absolutely DELICIOUS! Great service, kids meals come with ice cream cup (which tastes homemade - MY FAVORITE!) Steak tacos were full of flavor and a HUGE portion! read more

Viva la Bamba - Steak tacos Carbon! - Mexican Near Me - Des Moines, Iowa

Every time I go here I'm always singing ViVA LA BAMBA in the sound of VIVA LAS VEGAS by Elvis! I think the King of Rock would love this place! The chips and salsa are 2nd to none and they also bring out out bean dip to soak those chips in. I like mixing the salsa with the bean dip on each chip! I Can't Help Falling In Love with that combo! Now the meals are big too, I usually get a Veggie Burrito, or Veggie Fajitas, the taco salad is also pretty good! They just changed up the menu you a bit and it got a little pricier but the food packs a punch! They have a nice new patio as well, specials every day on food or drinks, lots of Mexican beers to choose from and the Margaritas are grand! The service is sometimes a little lack luster but never horrible! I bet I have been here 10 times and I keep coming back a few times a year, so It's got me hooked. read more

Viva la Bamba - Mexican Near Me - Des Moines, Iowa

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Great Mexican food! The chips are nice and thin! And you get a yummy bean dip along with your salsa to dip your chips in while waiting for your food! read more

Viva la Bamba - Chicken Chimichanga and rice. - Mexican Near Me - Des Moines, Iowa

Great Mexican restaurant with the best meal in my opinion being the steak CHILE rellano or taco el carbon. Margaritas are average. Good service always. read more

Always dependable in service. Good quality food. Nice patio. Good variety of margaritas read more

Viva la Bamba - Great staff. Good food. Good drinks. - Mexican Near Me - Des Moines, Iowa

The salsa served at the beginning was really watered down and didn't have a lot of kick, but the chips were pretty good. Had ordered a strawberry mojito for $8 and that was not worth it as it was watered down and was just basically sugar water as well. If you're going to drink, go somewhere much better than here. Food was decent but I don't understand why some of the plates used to serve have to be burning hot. My friend's food came and he had to wait maybe 15-20 minutes for it to cool-down enough before he could even start eating -- I think that's a big problem there. read more

NASTYYY DO NOT GO HERE. everything was gross. the cheese. the salsa. the chicken. the beef. all gross. the service was good! but the food was terrible. read more

Better than Mexico. Chile rellano is poblano based, not an Anihiem. Wonderful warm booth, more than ample servings. Great service, music not too loud. read more

Viva la Bamba - Strawberry Marg on a Jan night, cozy warm. Viva! - Mexican Near Me - Des Moines, Iowa

I've gone here on many occasions. Never left hungry. The portions are huge, especially on the carnitas plate. My husband loves this plate, especially with the amount of meat included in the dish. With the usual chips and salsa served at Mexican restaurants, they also include bean dip. I almost always get the fajitas and it's always leftovers for the next day. Very delicious. The restaurant is very clean. When the weather is nice, the patio is a great place to enjoy. Clean restaurant and friendly service each time. Thursdays are $2 margs. Can't beat this deal! Daily specials posted. Same as the Urbandale location. Only marked down for the small parking lot and seating inside. Side from the outside, you'd never know it used to be a KFC on the inside. read more

Our FAVORITE Mexican place. Service is good even when they're super busy. Always friendly and genuinely want you to enjoy your visit. Food faves are Steak Viva (bacon wrapped shrimp!!), seafood chimi, scallop and shrimp fajitas and flan. Oh yeah, and the margaritas! Outside seating gets busy on nice days. read more

This place is great again, with ongoing specials, quick service and great warm tortillas with bean dip and salsa! Love this place again!

On Monday, we ordered food for 4 by phone. Order was taken, we were told it would be ready in 10 minutes. We arrived 10 minutes later and were told there were no take out orders in the kitchen. He didn't seem to care. He did say if we ordered while there it would take only five minutes. So we did. Twenty five minutes later it was ready. For their lack of caring I only tipped $1.05 on a $48.95 order. We arrived back home and found one of the four means was missing. I went back, but they were closed. Today, when I checked my credit card statement, I noticed they had without consent upped my tip from $1.05 to $8.00. I'm going to notify my credit card company. I'll never go there again and will tell everyone I know to do the same. read more

I usually write excellent reviews, but our visit to Viva La Bamba was not good. We sat on the patio on a beautiful day and it was very nice. However, the bad experience started with the open dumpster in the parking lot walking into the restaurant. I held my breathe walking up to the restaurant. Then, they were doing construction and had the lawn and sidewalk torn up, along with fresh concrete poured on the sidewalk. There were no cones, no tape, no people directing anyone so I thought I'd have to jump the fence to get into the restaurant. All of that aside the service was awful. The food was overpriced for the worst Mexican food I've ever had. I got chicken enchiladas and the tortillas were rubbery and the portion of rice and beans was very small. My friends ordered different flavors of margaritas and they were pure sugar, hardly any alcohol. The only saving grace was the decent chips and salsa and gorgeous patio. I won't be returning and was sorry to have this experience. I can tell they are in a transition and hope they iron out some of these kinks along the way. read more

Best Mexican in the Des Moines area. Hands down! I got the Fajitas Viva .... it was to DIE for... plus there will definitely be left overs..... who doesn't love a fiesta at home read more

We went for a really early supper on a Monday. Our service was spot on and very friendly. The hubby had a chicken and cheese quesadilla, the kiddo had the rolled quesadilla, and I had the carnitas. We also ordered a bowl of queso. The queso was the rock star of the group-we're all a bunch of cheese lovers so we get queso everywhere but this may be my new favorite-smooth, creamy, and with a bit of zip that made it stand out. We were fighting over the last little bits in the bowl. The carnitas were really good, the quesadillas got great reviews from the hubby and the kiddo. Overall really solid and we'd definitely go back. read more

Full disclosure: my husband and I have been here three times, but only ever ordered three things here: guacamole or queso dip and fajitas jalisco to share. The thing is, the service has been so consistently terrible that we have literally never received the apps we ordered. The first two times we went at lunch and had the same server both times so we sort of chalked it up to him being a bad server. But we went again last night for dinner and had a different server and STILL didn't get the appetizer. It's become a running joke now and we're completely dumbfounded about how this could happen three different times with different servers. It's very odd... We keep coming back, however because the fajitas jalisco are AMAZING. The chorizo totally makes the dish and I highly recommend it. Four stars because despite the terrible and confusing service, we are never disappointed in the entree. read more

I've dined at this restaurant about a dozen times over about 3 years. They recently upscaled their menu a bit and added a patio. I think it's always been a solid place. The service is friendly. The food doesn't come out as fast as at some Mexican restaurants, but fast sometimes means that everything was already prepared. The house margaritas are good and do have alcohol in them, unlike some places that it's mostly sugar. I'm tempted to give this place 4 stars, because there's very few reviews and I think their average is way off, but I believe it's a solid 3 stars, which is good. I've only given a 5 star like 3 or 4 times. The place is always fairly busy, so I think that tells you something. read more

This is a Waterbury/Ingersoll Park family stop, so being a resident, I had to try it, so its off the bucket list and frankly it will not be on a future list. My family and I went on a Saturday early evening (6 pm - if that is considered early). The place was not busy, but I suspect it was because of the Memorial Day weekend travel. Service was fine in the beginning, but it drives me crazy when they bring meals out for some of our table, not all at the same time. My wife ordered the steak and it was easily 5 minutes longer before her food came out. The meals were average at best. The fajitas (steak, chicken and shrimp) light on the meat and heavy on green peppers; I would prefer more onions and meat. My wife's steak was lacking to say the least. My family and I left this place uninspired to come back. There are plenty of other Mexican restaurants in Des Moines that I would recommend; check out my other reviews. Visit them first. read more

Great staff. Fast food service. Lots of quality food for the price. Daily drink and meal specials and happy hour M-W. It's kind tucked away, but definitely worth the trek. read more

Excellent chips n salsa and really good combo fajitas! Reasonably priced with quick service. Dessert was very subpar.

Had a great meal here with friends. Delicious chips and salsa and the bean dip is an added bonus! I ordered a fajita quesadilla and was pleased with the my choice! Warm meat, melted cheese, grilled veggies and a great mix of lettuce, guacamole and sour cream on the side. Also enjoyed a house margarita which quenched my thirst for a salty sweet drink! I will be back. read more

I just had another great lunch here. La Bamba has it going on. I had the Texas burritos that have steak in them with cheese and it was excellent. Service here is quite good. Had a nice waiter this time. Always clean and they have great music too. Grab your friends and give it a try. You'll be a fan too. read more

We drove all the way from St. Louis because we heard this place was TOP NOTCH. At the beginning of our journey here, we started driving to the wrong Des Moines. Who knew there was more than one? After we realized our grave mistake we recalculated our route and ventured on, only adding two hours to the adventure. We were so happy to make it before closing time to enjoy a few margaritas on margarita Saturday. Would definitely come again. read more

Place was fine - a typical Mexican family restaurant in the middle of suburban Iowa. Hot, tasty chips and salsa, a fresh margarita, and a good taco salad. Nothing groundbreaking, but it certainly hasn't done anything wrong either. read more

6101 Grand Avenue, Des Moines, IA (http://www.vivalabamba.com/) I should have known I was in for a bad experience when I arrived ~1PM on a Sunday afternoon and this restaurant was nearly empty; out of the 15-20 tables, only two were occupied. But I had heard from someone that ate here a few years ago that the chicken chimichanga was coated in an awesome cheese sauce. So, since the place seemed pleasant enough and I had a coupon for $5 off a $20 purchase, I stayed. Bad decision. The menus were professional, the waiter seemed friendly, and I was hungry (the chips/salsa had arrived with the menus). Good start. So, I showed the waiter my coupon and swiftly ordered a Diet Coke ($2), chicken fingers ($5), and a chicken chimichanga ($9). Shortly after ordering there was a constant barrage of flies that I had to persistently shoo for the remainder of my meal. The chips and salsa (runny, not chunky) were OK but the bean dip was nearly tasteless. Meals to the other two tables came out piecemeal, not all at once. When my entree finally arrived at my table (quite slow for just a few tables), it didn't appear to be deep fried and only had a thin shiny coating of sauce. Odd. I had never heard of a raw chimichanga but the rice, beans, and toppings looked OK so I dug in. The waiter subsequently disappeared for the remainder of my meal, not even refilling my Diet Coke once. Much to my chagrin, the raw chimichanga tasted as bad as you'd expect, but I was hungry; so I made the best of it. I finally saw the waiter in the other room and beckoned him over. I told him that I wasn't exactly sure what my total bill was, but if a fried ice cream dessert ($4) would bring the meal to the $20 required to use the coupon, to bring one out. He did. I love ice cream but this was freezer burned and again it was not deep fried. I even asked the waiter, "did you fry this fried ice cream"? He said they did deep fry it but it didn't taste like it at all. Very disappointed. Finally, when I went to pay the bill, I handed the cashier my credit card and the $5 coupon. He said, your check is $19.69 so you cannot use the coupon. What! I told you only to bring the dessert if it made the coupon valid. So, I told him to just add whatever was the least expensive thing on the menu to my bill to bring it over $20. He refused and coped a bad attitude to boot. Unbelievable! What a fraud. This establishment is not worthy of your patronage, avoid it and maybe it'll force a sale to new management that will make it good again. read more

This is one of my favorite restaurants. The steak and potato burrito is absolutely amazing. 5/5