Top 100 Restaurants in Central Iowa: Speed Reviews

As I mentioned in my summary of the summer, I stumbled upon a big list that the Des Moines Register made of the top 100 local restaurants (after surveying thousands of readers). As I am a big fan of eating local and most of the restaurants on the list are locally owned or local chains, it seemed like a great idea to start checking some of these places out.

Restaurants on the list that we had been to before I saw the list:

• Waterfront Seafood Market** (excellent fish and shrimp—service can be slow)
• Hickory Park* (cheap, good food—a real institution in Ames)
• Maid-Rite (never quite got the appeal of this—it’s a dry sloppy joe)
• Okoboji Grill (pretty good food—the one near us has lots of big TVs in the lounge/bar area)
• Great Plains Sauce and Dough Company* (great thick crust pizza with tons of cheese—definitely a notch above most pizza places)
• Iowa Machine Shed* (cute theme, good home cooking)
• Ohana Steakhouse (fun with large groups…a bit expensive for what you get)
• Tavern Pizza and Pasta Grill (this seemed like a very ordinary mediocre pizza place when we went)
• Granite City* (good the few times we’ve been there—great waffle fries)
• Maxie’s* (good food, really nice service)
• Chips* (the chips are good :)--they have a pretty good chicken salad sandwich too)
• B-Bops* (the best fast food burgers in Des Moines…hands down)
• Café Su (Americanized Chinese food in a shiny package…meh)

Restaurants that we’ve visited because they were on the list (have visited all of these places just once):

• Tasty Taco (great fried soft shells, good if you’re hankering for decent cheap tacos)
• The Radish* (good homemade chips—my chicken strips were delicious and unique—we’ll definitely go back to try more off their menu)
• Drake Diner* (overall tasty— their onion rings are always voted best in city view—pretty good, but I’m not a big fan of onion strings)
• The Urban Grill (ok—Rob enjoyed his pasta, my burger was overdone and Sarah Ann’s meal was just odd)
• Legends *(I had been to the one in Ames—but it’s more like a bar and grill than restaurant. The local Legends has little TVs at every booth. The food was very good)
• Smitty’s Tenderloin Shop (very fast and friendly service, food was just ok—might go back to try something other than the tenderloin sandwich)
• Ted’s Coney Island* (I had a very good gyro and Rob enjoyed his Chicago dog. The baskets come with fries and rings, but neither are very stellar.)

*Would recommend. **Would recommend if you're in no hurry.

Two restaurants that I would recommend that are not on the big list:
Brickhouse Grill (formerly Cheddars)
and Saigon Cafe

Farm Bureau Day at the Fair!

After the recession eliminated our annual pilgrimage last year, it was good to be back at the fair. Farm Bureau reinstated it's fair day--free admission tickets and half days of work for everyone! Sadly, though, the food vouchers were not brought back...so we had to pay for our smoked turkey legs from the Iowa Turkey Federation booth. It was a cool rainy day this year. Which I much prefer to the hot and steamy that we usually end up with. We got a bit wet from the steady rain, but were still able to do everything we wanted to do.

You can see more photos of our trip to the fair here.

Summer Catch-Up

I've been really bad about blogging lately. So in an effort to catch everyone up on what's been happening in my life, I present the following:

Shortly after our trip to the Wisconsin Dells, Rob and I closed on our first house! The picture to the left is of me entering right after we got our keys. Moving was painful, as moving always is, but it ended up going relatively smoothly. We had a lot of help from my Mom who came back to Iowa with us after the Dells trip. She packed and cleaned away. I on the other hand was not at full capacity as I got a cold on our Dells trip that ended up giving me Bronchitis, so I had to suffer through a bit. While mom was here we also went furniture shopping since we had a whole extra room that we didn't have any furniture for.Pictures of our new furniture etc...can be found here. I'll be adding more photos to this set as we"finish" each room.


This summer has had some nutty weather. We've had tons of rain all summer. Every time it storms it seems to dump at least an inch of rain. About a month ago we had a particularly nasty storm that in addition to the torrential rains also had 70-80mph winds. The tree on the corner of our property lost two of it's 5 major trunks and we spent the whole Sunday cleaning up after it. Recently we've had more storms (in the neighborhood of 9 inches of rain in 3 days) and that tree lost another large branch. It's just one of the "fun" parts about being a home owner I guess. But we're fairly certain this tree will need to be cut down now. :( More photos of the tree can be found here.

Next up on our recap, Rob and I celebrated our 4th anniversary at a very sold out I-cubs game. The company that takes care of the building Rob works in was giving away free tickets that just happened to be on our Anniversary. We didn't have any plans...and rarely turn down free stuff, so we went. It turns out that this was the game that Carlos Zambrano from the regular Cubs was going to start "rehabbing" for his return to the majors (after an embarrassing blow up in the dugout that got him suspended). At any rate, the buzz that Zambrano was going to pitch was enough to sell out tickets on this VERY sticky night. We had to park over the bridge about 4 blocks away near Graziano's (local company that makes sausage). On the up side, we didn't have to pay to park there :). In the end, Zambrano pitched one inning, after which, a good portion of the crowd left. The I-cubs ended up losing. They never win when we go. More pictures of the evening can be found here.

One week after the I-cubs game, we had tickets to see the Barenaked Ladies in concert. They were part of the Nightfall on the River concert series that they do every summer downtown. I was so excited when I heard that they were coming and that the tickets were only $12. I ordered the tickets immediately and kept them in my wallet through our move so they wouldn't get lost. The doors opened for the concert at 6pm and all of the tickets were general admission (since it was outside). Rob's summer hours have him working until 5pm Mon-Thurs. So he doesn't get home until around 5:25. Then we had to have a snack, get out the door and get downtown and get parked. I had received an email the night before that indicated that it was sold out and not to bring your chairs because there would be limited room for sitting. We were both worried we wouldn't get a good spot. We got downtown and got parked in the ramp closest to the bridge the concert was on without any problems. There was a line to get in when we arrived at around 6:15. After we got through the line there were tons of people getting beers and milling about and setting up several rows of chairs in middle of the bridge. once we got past the rows of chairs, We were pleasantly surprised that security was keeping anyone from placing chairs in front of the sound/light booth. There were people gathering all over, but the area in front of the stage only had 20 or 30 people waiting for the concert to start. Rob turns to me and asks "So, are we going to rush the stage?" I look at the crowd and back at him and say, "Heck yeah!" So we found a spot right next to the railings immediately in front of the stage and stayed there all night. It was awesome. When Ed (the lead singer) stood on one of the speakers and held his guitar out over the crowd and asked audience members to strum the guitar...Rob and I were right there ready to do it :). It was a very memorable night. More pictures from the concert can be found here. The local radio station that sponsored the concert even posted pictures that they took from the stage. Here's the one with Rob and I right in front.

The weekend after the BNL concert, we went to the twin cities to visit Kris and Marie and to go to our friend Shannon and her sister Sheila's 30th birthday party. The picture on the left is of Rob and Marie playing ladder ball at Shannon's party. It was so good to get to the cities for a more relaxing weekend. Usually we have all sorts of stuff going on and can't really enjoy ourselves. We got a nice long visit with Grandma on Friday evening while Kris and Marie got to go to their first Twins game in the new stadium and on Saturday we spent most of the day and Shannon's party. It was great to get caught up with her and see her daughter who is getting so big now! More pictures from the weekend can be seen here.

Our last stop on my summer re-cap was last weekend. Our friend Sarah came to visit for the weekend. She works longer hours during the week so that she has Fridays off, so she flew in late on Thursday night. On Friday morning we went to my first ever (and definitely to be repeated) Highway 141 garage sales. Each summer all of the towns along Highway 141 in central Iowa have garage sales on the same weekend. In Grimes and Granger alone there were about 90 sales listed. We, by accident, started our adventure in the neighborhoods on the north side of Grimes...good lord those are some huge houses. This was probably the most palatial neighborhood I've ever seen. So we went to garage sales at these very expensive houses--it was awesome. :) Then we went to the Radish in Grimes, which was on my list of the top 100 restaurants in Central Iowa. Afterward we continued going to sales until we were worn out and they were starting to close up (so around 4pm). We headed home and got a little rested up, and then headed out to the Indianola National Balloon Classic. This is our second time at the balloon classic, it was just as fun as I remembered and totally worth the 3 dollar admission. On Saturday we went to another restaurant on the list, the Urban Grill, and went shopping at the big mall--which was packed because of the tax free holiday for back to school shopping (clothes and shoes under $100 are tax free for two days each August). Then we came back and grilled and watched Whip It. On Sunday we slept in and watched Hot Tub Time Machine and played a game of Pandemic before Sarah had to meet her plane. It was so nice to spend the weekend having little local adventures. :). More pictures of the balloon festival are here.

Ok, so now you're all caught up and I can get back to my semi-regular blogging :).