Wallaby's Bar and Grille — Restaurant in Ames

I visited Wallaby's with a friend in May 2016. We each ordered a cocktail, and then shared an order of calamari. For dinner, I had the stacked enchiladas verde, and she had a patty melt with a vegetarian patty.

The calamari was served in spears, and was delicious. The cocktails were also of good quality, though both the drinks and dish were overpriced for what they were.

My friend's patty melt came with crinkle cut fries, which, as she said, are the greatest evil of the world. So we ordered a side of sweet potato fries to share in their stead. The patty melt itself was okay, but the sweet potato fries were delicious.

My enchiladas, though, weren't very good. The chicken seemed old, as it was tough and also under-seasoned. The "verde" on top was goopy and unappetizing. I'd highly recommend visitors do not order this dish.

We spent seventy dollars, which was far more than we should have, and far more than the food was worth. But we both became sick later that night, and decided that it must have been the calamari that did it, since it was the only thing we really shared besides the sweet potato fries.

However, the managerial staff was very apologetic and accommodating when I called to tell them we had gotten sick, and said they would notify the kitchen of our experience, as well as leave us gift cards in recompense.

Considering the food, we'll probably stick to drinks when we go back. But we will be going back - the strong sense of customer service as well as the comfortable rooftop patio endeared...

It’s a cool family friendly sports bar with plenty of TVs (duh, it’s a sports bar).

The food is decent, but the service experience started off on the wrong foot. I walked in and found the hostess stand, but I couldn’t find the hostess. I waited for about a minute or two and finally I decided to seat myself. I grabbed a table and waited – and waited – and waited. I got up and grabbed my own menu, then a server finally showed up. He apologized for the confusion and the delay.

After that little hiccup, the service was spot-on. The drink refills were frequent without having to ask, and he followed up frequently to see if I needed anything else.

I had the veggie burger and a side salad with tomato vinaigrette dressing (I’d skip this dressing folks, it tasted like it was just ketchup). The veggie patty was made from black beans, quinoa, and roasted red pepper. The burger was ok, but nothing to really write home about.

The place has a nice atmosphere but it got a little loud around lunch time as customers started trickling in.

Although the service started off bad, it did get better, so I would...

Wallaby's is your average sports bar. The drinks were good and the food was pretty average. I had the Hickory Bacon burger. The flavor was balanced for the most part. Sometimes, the caramelized onions would overpower it, but it wasn't a terrible thing. I must have gotten the bottom of the frys because I got a whole bunch of smaller cold ones. The service was a bit slow, but I think it was because they were training a new server. Overall, it's pretty average, but it was expensive for just average food. The total for two people was 70 bucks with a tip, which is expensive for what we had. We had a drink each and one entree each.

Edit: I have since revised Wallaby's a couple of times since my first review. It is still a sports bar but I have tried a few different foods and they have improved! I recently had a chicken cesar wrap that was really good. And their fry dipping sauce was excellent. However, I did order the Samson Cesar wrap but the chicken was honestly what I was hoping for. Plus their outside dining is...