The Mucky Duck Pub — Restaurant in Ames

Whenever my parents take me out to eat, I take a deep breath and prepare to deal with 'Applebees' esque pre-heated dinner style food. Even when they suggested the 'greatest place in DSM for Fish and Chips' I was skeptical. Sure, my mother is British, but her palate is about as stereotypically British as you can get.

So imagine my delight when I came in here and it was an honest to goodness pub! Felt just like one i had been to when I visited England. There's an extensive amount of English candies and grocery behind the counter. Enough to make it hard to concentrate on what to get to eat. (I mean, is there truly shame in eating a bevy of British sweets instead of a real dinner?!) It's nice and cozy, at least to me, and there's even a dart board.

Sadly, candy for dinner even at my age, is still frowned on by your parents. So I ordered the curry. My mother ordered the fish and chips and my father got the special of corned beef and cabbage.

So, again, there's a part of me expecting bland British food. Just like Mom used to make... because that's often the places my parents enjoy. However, when we got our food I was not only amazed by how good it looked but also how it tasted.

I will warn you, the curry is spicy if you're a complete wuss like me! I had to get a glass of chocolate milk to calm things down but boy was it good. I had a bite of my Father's and it was pretty amazing too. Lots of flavor. And you know a place is good when watching other food come out becomes slightly torturous (even though we had ours). The scotch eggs looked phenomenal, as did the Guinness pie.

I cannot say I had the Fish n' Chips, but will default to my mother (again she's British I feel that's important) who claims they're the best she's had so far in the Midwest. She says it's a good quality fish and it she finished all of hers so it had to taste good.

Oh and beers, they have beers. So many beers and some other great looking drinks. If I hadn't been with my parents (they're not sticklers just over worriers) I would have tried their moscow mule and perhaps a hard cider.

The service was great, it's fairly affordable (about 10 bucks a meal) and you can buy all the imported candy you can manage.

So if you're in Ames and suddenly craving some good British comfort foods, definitely stop in it's very much...

This is a cool little bar and grill trying to pull off a British pub theme. The food fits the theme, but the overall vibe of the place doesn’t really scream British pub to me.

They do have a great beer selection and decent food though.

Here’s the food situation: I had the Scotch eggs with the hot mustard instead of the Branston pickle sauce ($6.25) and the vegetarian curry ($9). The hot mustard was good, but the Scotch eggs were disappointing. They were very salty, the eggs were over cooked, and the ground pork breading was dry. They delivered them to my table less than two minutes after I ordered them. This makes me think they came from a frozen bag or something. Can you even buy Scotch eggs in the frozen aisle of the grocery store? I honestly don’t know the answer to that. Most of the food options hover around the $10 price range – even the burgers.

The vegetarian curry was a lot better than the Scotch eggs. The curry had cauliflower, zucchini, potatoes, squash, tomatoes, and chickpeas and had a side serving of Basmati rice. I mixed the rice in with my curry dish and it was pretty good.

Beer situation: 32 beers on tap, 56 in bottles and cans (I like to count things)

German beers, IPAs, sours, a few British beers, but mostly American beers. Many of the beers on tap are brewed in Iowa or the Midwest region of the country.

I had the Mistress Mistress Amber Ale ($6 for a pint) brewed right here in Ankeny, and it was quite tasty. If they distribute it in stores, I’m going to look for it – it was That. Damned. Good.

I followed it up with a 12-ounce bottle of Smithwicks for $4.25 which I thought was a bit on the pricey side.

The wait staff were very friendly, they took their time to explain the special of the day, the dessert special and the soup of the day. Can't say enough for the hospitality from the 3 different people I encountered. I was checked on often and even when they cleared my table they were very friendly.

There’s bar seating, and about 15 tables in this place. It was pretty full on the night I visited but the crowd wasn't too loud. There’s music playing in the background but even it wasn’t too loud.

One last thing before I let you go. If tea is your thing, this is THE place to be. I counted 39 different...

My wife and I visited Mucky Duck last Friday evening for supper. I've lived in Ames for a decade and my regular restaurant rotation for a sit down meal is; Open Flame, Dublin Bay, El Azteca, The Cafe, Brick City and occasionally Aunt Maude's. We were hesitant to dine in a pub, so other than an occasional beer and appetizer we hadn't yet experienced a Mucky meal. That, as it turns out, was a mistake.

We arrived around 6pm and were immediately seated in a table for two, probably their last open one. The decor is typical British pub style, nothing fancy but clean and quaint. The service was prompt and excellent. I ordered the Fish and Chips, my wife the Reuben with a salad. We also requested the fried mushrooms for our appetizer.

The fried mushrooms were very good, sliced thin with a heavy, darker breading, and well cooked. I'm guessing corn meal is in the batter? Their flavor was superior to most mushroom starters elsewhere.

My wife is a Reuben sandwich expert, and she quickly declared it was one of the best in Ames. I had the Fish and Chips, but opted for cole slaw instead. My meal was why I wrote this review. Their fish comes in 3 sizes, and my medium portion, ordered crispy, arrived as one large, flat piece, probably 8 or 9 ounces. No fish stick sized portions like most places, at the MD they serve real pieces of fish.The breading was light golden brown and just right, not overly thick or too crumbly. The cod was just perfect, flaky, succulent and if it had ever been frozen I couldn't tell. My God was the fish spectacular! As for the slaw it again is the best I've had in a long time. Most of the time the ratio of mayo/vinegar isn't quite right. As an adult I love both flavors, but the balance is key to good slaw. Mucky has that figured out too. It's perfect.

I want to thank the Mucky staff for a wonderful supper. Just imagine, I sat in a pub in Iowa in the middle of winter and had a scrumptious seafood meal. Unreal, but...