Ankeny Diner — Restaurant in Ankeny

Tastiest burger i have tried for a while. Friendly staff, quick service. Loved the mashed potatoes. Innitially i gave this restaurant 5 stars. However, i soon had an entirely different experience which caused me to change my opinion about the managers or owners of this restaurant...therefore unappealing to ever dine there again. While staying at a hotel not connected, but behind the diner...the restaurant's service people or whomever was directing them decided to have them power wash the large range hood partially located on the outside of the building. In the middle of the night at the hours between 12 am and 3 am, i was awakened from a sound sleep in my room on the 3rd floor by the loud boiseterous sound of a very large air compressor on the back of the service truck and at least two crew members scattering around scouring down the exterior of the range hood, rooftop, and side of building while the hotel patrons adjacent were trying to sleep. The noise was extremely loud at such late hours well into the night. I opened my room curtains with the lights on brightly with disgust. There were people also staying at the Ramada Inn who were standing on the front porch in their pajamas. I mean REALLY? who does this so late while people are fast asleep? Although the Ankeny police were called, they did very little to remedy the probl em. The crew...would just start right back up again. This went on for hours. Finally i was able to speak with the police officer by phone who was on duty. He said that the restaurant workers told him that the only time they could clean the range hood was during the night while the restaurant was closed since they would lose business if they had to shut down the restaurant during the day in order to clean it. The police officer told me that he was not going to stop it, although i protested that surely there must be some kind of city noise ordinance regarding decibals and times allowable for this level of extremely loud mechanical equiptment operating in an area close to residences and where people were sleeping late at night. The officer compared it to road crews operating on the interstate at night. REALLY? Gosh...i had been thinking that i WAS business for the restaurant when i patronized it then left a wonderful review and tip. Road construction on tne interstate far away from housing is a completely different activity and place. Not only am i frustrated with Ankeny Diner for allowing this and blatantly disturbing their neighbors, but the police for giving them preferential treatment, when i thought my tax money going to the city to pay their salaries was just as green as the restaurant business. The Diner was clearly making far more noise that the allowable 71 decibals after 10 pm. The hotel clerk at Quality Inn where i was staying finally went over to the " cleaning crew" at Ankeny Diner making all of the wracket, explaining that her guests were complaining. They finished up and stopped. Finally...after 3 a.m. I lost much needed sleep and felt sluggish the following day affecting my ability to enjoy the Ankeny Summer Festival. A friend had driven into town to join me. The fllowing morning, i went over and complained to the restaurant manager. She referred me to the General Manager who had just gone home sick for the day. A few days later; he called me. He aplogized that the exterior range hood kept me awake, but reitterated that That was the only time ( during the night) that they could clean it ( without shutting the restuarant down for service repairs). I asked what time they close the restaurant at night and he said 9 pm. To me; even 9 pm is more acceptable than midnight to three A.M. I understand that they need to clean their range hood and perform other general maintenence for health and safety reasons. But why can't they handle it appropriately? I also understand that they do not want to lose money by briefly shutting down their business. But did they really have to keep people awake in the middle of the night in order to do it? The answer is NO and they lost me...

Diner front seems to be well kept and cleaned. I would personally like to see the Halloween decorations taken down. The decorations are just extremely cheap paper cutouts and they make the place just look cheap and bad.

Restaurant seems like it can have potential but seems to fall short. The restaurant is alienating itself from younger crowds and needs to modernize just a little bit more, to bring in a new generation of customers.

Servers are extremely nice and know what they are doing.

Cooks are a bit of a hit or miss, they can actually manage to cook a medium rare burger but Somehow burn baked potatoes.

Now onto the food!

The salad here is store bought, with a single slice of fresh cucumber placed on top, croutons are freshly made but have no flavor at all. Considering we live in IOWA there is no reason salad should be store bought. (Avoid salad if you can, if you want same taste buy a bag at Walmart...)

Chicken tenders are freshly made and over cooked just a little bit, just slightly over. They however lack seasoning which is what makes it a little disappointing.

The baked potatoes were extremely over cooked, dry, and again lacked any seasoning. I can honestly say this is the first time I’ve ever seen someone burn baked potatoes black. It’s rather insulting that cooks and servers saw this and thought “it’s fine send it out.”

Mozzarella sticks are freshly made, but for the third time straight have no seasoning at all. (These 3 appetizers are rather disappointing, but do have potential to being good if they seasoned these dishes.)

Hamburger and fries dish was okay-ish. Can’t really say much because my wife ate this. Hamburger was cooked nicely to specifications (medium rare) which is rare to see nowadays, sadly... fries however were store bought, and have no seasoning at all. Fries are extremely disappointing...

Fettuccine alfredo was a little disappointing to be honest. Noodles are store bought and flavorless. Alfredo sauce could have been better if made with a wine reduction and a little more variety of seasoning other than just parsley... what made this dish an extremely over priced, disappointment, though was the cheese was over powering Everything... alfredo sauce already should have cheese, there should be NO reason to add that much parmesan to this dish. Bread stick that came with this dish was undercooked and doughy on inside.

Overall though this restaurant could have potential to be good and worth the price... but where it stands right now, it’s overpriced and disappointing...

If the owner or anyone in charge reads this, please consider the following: Have more variety of seasoning for chefs, Remove cheap decorations, Modernize the front a little to draw in younger crowd, Please most of all consider this! If a dish is burnt black, Don’t send it out! Those potatoes were flat out insulting...

This might seem like I’m bashing on this place a lot, but I just want to see those who have...

We went for dinner and it was interesting. The location is in the hallway of a hotel that looks like it has seen better days. There are missing ceiling tiles among other various signs of neglect.The interior aesthetic of the restaurant is fairly off-putting. The most egregious issue is the widespread use of horrible daylight bulbs that give the entire restaurant a cold blue 1980's fluorescent tube extremely depressing clinical laboratory vibe. I've been in ER rooms that have more comfortable lighting. There doesn't appear to be any concerted effort into the decoration or appearance of the space. It's the kind of place that is uncomfortable to be in and doesn't welcome anyone to rush back. Change those bulbs and hire an interior decorator, stat. The service was just ok. The server made a faux pas comment or two that I was surprised by and will never forget. She was older and I think had lost her filter. In a hospitality role you must maintain some level of appropriate filter. The service, otherwise, was just fair. The food was up and down. The portions were enormous. I like large portions. This was beyond large portions. Very few people desire the amount of food we received. For an app we ordered a chilli cheese fries deal and it was delicious and huge, the star of our visit. My wife ordered an omelet which was gigantic. She ate 1/3 of it. I had the french dip. No doubt, I'm a critic of french dip and prime rib sandwiches. They look so simple but good ones take more effort than throwing meat into bread. The french dip was boring and among the bottom of my list of comparisons. I wouldn't mind walking back in here to try other items but it's so painful to my...