Bianca’s Grill & Vineyard — Restaurant in Ankeny

SAD...just checking in after working at this dump for a few days almost a year ago...nothing changed. Still a dump. Reviews still suck. When is the health department going to do something? DON’T WORK OR EAT HERE!

I wasn’t going to do this here, but then Koga (the owner) shorted my pay….and when asked she didn’t answer, and blocked me.

The owner doesn’t know anything about food storage, handling or preparation, and she’s the main cook and the one prepping everything. On the day I started, she said “I was closed yesterday because I had food poisoning.” I am not surprised, I wasn't sure why she told me that. It’s mid May and she has orange juice in the bar cooler that expired on March 21. Sugar and salt used for margaritas and other mixed drinks is never dumped out and cleaned. They are not covered, but just left open on the bar. The floor drain in the bar is filled with garbage, old fruit, food and black slimy mold. There is a box of fish in the bar freezer that seems to have been there a long time.

I counted 37 open bottles of wine. Wine in the cooler should be used or dumped within 3-5 days and red wines last for less time, and champagnes even less. The boxes of soda for the fountain drinks are ALL expired! Some of them expired back in October 2023. Granted, you may be able to use these beyond their expiration date, but the quality is greatly compromised and she has no problem serving sub par items to customers.

She refuses to throw things away that should be, and instead freezes them and uses them later. Nothing is labeled. Nothing is dated. Everything in the freezer is old and appears to be frostbit. She puts dressings and sauces into portion cups and freezes those too. Things that say right on them “do not freeze.” There is a cooler directly underneath the line where food is prepared and plates are dished that was FULL OF MOLD! 🤮

Every surface is nasty. One of the grossest things I observed while I was here was the buffet. It’s a large steam table. It’s filled with water that should be emptied every night. Instead, she doesn’t drain it at all. Another employee said it’s not been drained in months. Instead, she just covers it with painted plywood sheets. That means, the nasty stagnant water is heated hot (which breeds bacteria) to steam foods and containers of food and then turned off and cooled until the next time it’s used. The water actually stinks!!

There are no sanitizer buckets anywhere to be found. I never saw anyone wash their hands and if gloves were worn, they were never changed. There is no experienced guidance in the kitchen and no proper training. At the end of the night, it seems like she just turns off the lights and locks the doors. The few days I worked, I came in the morning and there was food still spilled and left from the night before and left there, on the stove, the food line, ALL surfaces and after being closed for a few days, the dishwasher was still full of food that was left there from the last day open.

No wonder the owner had food poisoning!!! The owner blames everyone else, comes up with nothing but excuses and takes NO responsibility for anything. I learned from another employee that his weekly pay was 5 days late, I quit. I was paid, but did not pay me all we agreed to as my salary and I worked the full pay period. THEN BLOCKED ME!

Regardless of if you like someone or not, you LEGALLY HAVE TO PAY YOUR EMPLOYEES FOR THE TIME THEY WORKED FOR YOU!!! If you’re out of money, CLOSE YOUR RESTAURANT AND STOP WRACKING UP DEBTS WITH EMPLOYEES!! Had you been a mature, respectable and responsible business owner, we could have handled this in private, but this is how we’re handling it instead. I don’t expect a response to this review that involves any level of integrity. I expect a response that involves excuses just like all of the other valid reviews people have left. If I get paid the remainder of what I am owed, I will edit this post and delete that part, but I will leave the rest as customers deserve to know what kind of place this is and what kind of owner they...

my wife and i usually hit this place 3 or 4 times a year. been doing it for a long time, but this was actually the first time back this year since winter ended. we immediately noticed it looked quite different inside. that's when we found out it had been sold. i REALLY want this place to succeed, so that's why i'm going to be a little detailed in hopes they make some changes. i get it, you buy an established restaurant, but want to make it your own. however, it's still very much like yannis, but very much not like yannis. i'll explain. the inside had been completely sanitized, for lack of a better word. many of the really neat pieces of ambience had been removed. there was no longer any music playing, so it was awkwardly quiet. we went for the lunch buffet and seriously, there were only two tables with people at them over what was always a really busy time whenever we went in the past, which should be quite telling in itself. and while the food at the buffet was basically the same as yannis, it was just the bare bones in portions as well as missing some of the normal dishes they always had. i'm guessing their traffic has dropped so low that they're not preparing more than absolutely necessary. the steak was always a favorite and just between my wife and i, we emptied what little bit was there and it was never replenished during our stay and i even asked about it early on. and it was missing it's familiar flavor that made it so mouth-watering. perhaps their evening hours see far more business, but the buffet/lunch time was basically deserted. the bottom line is that unless you plan to do a completely different style restaurant, you can't take an established and well-loved location and keep most of what they always did, but also discard a lot of what they did and still expect to retain their customers. imo anyway, if you brought back the ambience and restored the buffet to its original splendor, it'd be a big step in filling the tables. kudos btw to our server. she was extremely polite and even offered a free dessert to my wife because i think she probably sensed we were a bit disappointed in the changes. we'll have to stop back in a while and just see if anything has changed before we officially decide to keep it on our...

This is a fun little restaurant that may not be what you expect. We tried it out for the first time for our anniversary. We like to check out new restaurants, and we were in the mood for some Italian fare. Even though it's right next/attached to Dairy Queen in Ankeny, it has a lovely atmosphere, and you don't even think about what's next door. Surprisingly, there is an African sampler on the appetizer menu, and we gave it a try, along with the complimentary garlic knots. The rice was excellent, as were the meat skewers, but the other, usual option wasn't available that night, so we were given a sample of the chicken Marsala. It was fantastic, and I may choose that as my entree next time.

I just ordered a simple fettuccine Alfredo, which is a good way to gauge a chef's knowledge of basic Italian food (pasta dishes were also on special for happy hour when we went, so- bonus!). The Alfredo was a little thin, but there was parmesan on the table, so I was able to thicken it up to my taste. The menu also didn't mention that it came with chicken, but I was pleasantly surprised that it did. (Vegetarians may not be so pleasantly surprised that it does.) My wife had the chicken parmigiano, which was delightful. We had so much to eat, with the appetizers and salad bar, that we took half of our meals home and traded the next day. We look forward to going back and trying more of the menu. We went on a Thursday evening, and it wasn't super busy, so the lady who greeted us seemed very happy to see us, and was very attentive. She was one of the brightest points of the experience, which was great because the whole time was wonderful. Glad we...