Tornado's Grub & Pub — Restaurant in Cedar Rapids

Tornadoes are a negative possibility in the Midwest states. But, Tornado's Grub and Pub in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, is an excellent and desirable possibility.

Located near the Newbo area of downtown, Tornado has a location that is easy to get to from any part of town and plenty of parking. It is a warm, friendly place to dine in or carry out.

All of this is great, but it is the superior food that brings people through their doors. Tornado's offers a great selection of appetizers and drinks to start your experience. Their menu includes many different breaded items from shrimp, chicken, and vegetables (including fried pickles).

The bar offers a wide variety of tap, bottled, and canned beers featuring local craft breweries and the usual major distributors. The bar also offers the usual cocktail and a nice collection of specialty drinks to bring variety to your liquid suggestions.

The menu offers salads and soups containing the usual fare, club salad, crispy chicken salad, sidesalad, and more.

The strength of the menu is the sandwiches and burgers. The menu offers a nice and varied selection of sandwiches. It starts with the Iowa basic, pork tenderloin (breaded or grilled). Ruebens, French Dip, and fish are some of the items from this section of the menu.

Bringing a twist to their sandwiches and burgers is what makes this the place to go for excellent food. Tornado's has an entire section of sandwiches that are presented on bagels! My favorite is the Twister Bagel, which consists of grilled capacola, ham, turkey, lettuce, and tomato on a bagel.

But, the items that bring me back again and again are the BURGERS! Some of the burgers have names, but most are entitled by an Enhanced Fujita scale (EF) number, which is how actual tornadoes intensity is indicated. For example, recently, I enjoyed Tornado's F3 burger, which is not your average mushroom 1-2 lb. burger, served with brown gravy and Swiss cheese.

I have already decided which burger I will order this week, the F4! The menu describes it like this...Call the fire dept. This 1 is hot - bacon, Canadian bacon, pepper jack cheese, jalapenos, BBQ, and buffalo sauce. I like spicy food, so I am anxious to try this burger delight!

To top their sandwiches right, Torando's sears the top of each with brand of a Tornado.

Great location, warm atmosphere, fantastic service, with superior food and drink makes Tornado's my first suggestion to anyone who asks where to go for great food in...

Can't rate the food, as it never arrived. If you go, off-peak hours are recommended. We had wanted to try their burgers for some time, and finally took our 2 boys. It was fairly busy, but not packed. Our server was friendly and welcoming at first. We placed our order and waited. And waited. And waited some more. After a half hour, we became concerned, but decided to hold off on asking in hopes that our orders would arrive soon. At 45 minutes,I expressed concern to our server. We were told "we're really busy and everything is happening all at once." I asked about how long. She said to hang on while she spoke with the kitchen. Still hopeful. She returned and told us that the kitchen said it would be out soon. Then said "it's only been 40 minutes." Only. We could get no clarification as to when we would get our food. Since we didn't know how long it would take, we opted to pay for the drinks, cancel our orders(2 hungry sons were growing restless). Our server then told us not to worry about it as I offered money to pay for our beverages. Other tables were awaiting their food as well, and we overheard people at a table near us discussing how it was taking a long time and pointing out that we were there longer and had yet to receive our meals. We went to newbo and had immediate service and the food came out quickly.

This began promising enough, but ended in huge disappointment. We were excited to try your food, but it just took too long. Our server went from kind and accommodating to being seemingly irritated when we expressed concern about our burgers taking a long time. We felt as though we were unjustified in our concerns.

So...

Fabulous burger and fries joint! First time here, but it was recommended by a burger-loving friend. The eclectic selection of burgers will allow any burger connoisseur to find something they’d love, plus you can build your own. There are other sides than just the fries, so don’t worry about that. They also have po’ boy sandwiches, which made it really difficult to choose between burger and po’ boy. We’ll be back for the po’ boy! They had local brews and liquor on hand, which I always love to see. We opted out of brew and cocktails this time around because we did an early lunch, but the selection was very tempting! The atmosphere was cozy and fun. The staff was energetic and efficient. Our waiter even gave my partner in crime a high-five for joining the “clean plate club” - very funny! Bathrooms were clean and seating was comfortable. I felt like the location was just outside the Czech village common areas to eat, but it’s absolutely worth the extra minute to go to. PLUS - it has its own parking lot!!!

Pictured: F4 Burger and fries + Hamburger Dip and fries We tried each others and both were outstanding. I loved the crunchy pickle spear and my partner enjoyed the homemade ranch - he said it was a nice light...