Early Bird Ankeny — Restaurant in Ankeny

My partner and I went on a early Sunday morning 8/13/23 about 7:30 in the morning. Every time we have driven by we saw that it was always packed, so we thought it was a good sign. However when we got there is was early enough it wasn’t packed so we were able to be seated right away.

After being sat (was not busy, maybe 4 other tables when we sat) it took the server about 10 mins to come greet us after being prompted by the manager to see us.

After greeting us we ordered a orange juice and coffee with creamer. The coffee was very cold, and don’t get me wrong I’m good with cold or iced coffee but that’s not what I ordered.

After another 10 mins she came and took our order. I ordered the chicken fried chicken with scrambled eggs and my partner ordered Chicken and waffles.

We were incredibly dissatisfied the eggs tasted not fresh and cold. The hash browns were made in a casserole dish, and these were also sold and had bad seasoning.

The chicken was fresh, however we could taste how much sugar went into the chicken batter and it was just not enjoyable.

During the meal between the waiter and manager they came and asked us how we were doing about 5 or 6 times. Idk to me that’s just excessive.

Now I’m not one to send back a meal even if I don’t like it, neither is my partner, so we did not complain at the time.

But I have to tell you the worst offending thing was the price. 50 dollars for a two person meal for breakfast?? I can go to ihop and Perkins for the same quality if not better, at half the price.

Will not...

We were seated immediately but took over 10 minutes for waitress to come back to take our order. Food came out fairly quick but the biscuit for my sandwich was burnt and hard. We were able to flag down our waitress and she had it remade. The bottom of the biscuit was still pretty tough. They did comp the sandwich but I was still charged for the side (fruit) that came with the sandwich. Kind of odd, especially because she didn't leave the side for me to snack on while they remade the sandwich. So from the time we walked in the door to when I actually got to eat my food it felt like forever because now I'm starving. The food itself was fine. Over priced even for Ankeny, e.g., I believe a side waffle was $9. The table next to us had to flag down the (same) waitress because they needed boxes and to pay. The table next to them had to flag her (same waitress) down to order their food. It didn't appear they were short-staffed, and if they were there was no mention of it. She was prompt on check and payment for us, just not taking our order. Again, maybe they were short staffed. I don't know that they can use the "we are still new to this" excuse either because it's been several months and they have another location. Regardless, we won't be going back. We would rather support other locally owned...

Wonderful new location out here in Ankeny! I took my mom here who came up to visit me from Omaha, she has been to a couple of the early bird restaurants down there and loved them, so I thought better take her to the brand new one up here. It feel a lot more open than the one in West DSM and has a wonderful atmosphere to it.

We made sure to put our name on the list in Yelp so we wouldn’t have to wait to long when we got there. It ended up being about a 20-30 minute wait once there due to the high volume of people since it is the first weekend since they have been open which is to be expected. One of the host was kind enough and handed out menus to us and other people that way we had an idea of what we might want to order. We ended up sitting up at the bar and I really enjoyed the open kitchen once sat. Our server/bartender was quick to help even though the place was super packed due to this being their first weekend open. We ordered and got our food in a pretty good time and it was just the way we wanted it.

My mom loved this one a lot and overall had a really positive experience and will be back in the future for sure!

Our only concern would be how tight fitting it can be at the bar. But it wasn’t a deal breaker for us. Thanks Early Bird for a...