Aposto at the Scala House — Restaurant in Des Moines

As I read the reviews of this place, I was skeptical. Surely an establishment that makes their noodles in house, and charges anywhere from 30-50 an entree would not consistently let people down. Well, I gave it a shot. We came here for my wife’s birthday. Started with the bone marrow pizza fritta. It was good. Hard to mess up really. The mussels with crostini were arguably good! Things were looking up. The creamy white wine sauce with faint crushed red peppers was tasty and gave much hope. And then my entree came out: Vongole- linguini noodles in a garlic, parsley lemon sauce with clams… Where to begin. The sauce has no real flavor. I couldn’t make out any of the listed ingredients but butter. It was seemingly not salted or seasoned even slightly. The noodles, soggy. Expecting al dente noodles at a place like this should not be far fetched? Maybe I’m missing something. And then the grit. The sandy, unpleasant, grit. Every bite I took led to crunchy sandy grit in my mouth. Unsure the source but most likely improperly (or not at all) cleaned and prepared clams. After the first couple bites I tried to get my waitress’ attention as she walked by, and was unsuccessful. After sitting there and letting the food get cold I realized help was not coming. Given that I was about to pay $36 for my gritty pasta, I ate it.. with a smile. As taught by my mother to eat what was served to you. (Although I think she meant places other than a ‘fine dining’ establishment lol) Duck confit w/ risotto: Flavor! Seasoning! An evident contrast! my wife enjoyed her food. Fresh lemon punching through the rich duck. Seasoned appropriately. Risotto, overcooked to the point of mush but she didn’t mind. Definitely over cooked but again - the wife was happy. We finished with burnt but ice cream. Good but not perfected. Very faint intended flavor and more vanilla than anything. They tried! We got Orange green tea cake with lavender whipped cream to go: it was on the dry side and hard. But the flavor was there. The lavender whipped cream was tasty.

Overall I’m disappointed. What is really suffering here is truly the lack of culinary consistency. No thought or care in the dish, or else the finished product would argue otherwise! It is my understanding they just released the new Menu a few days ago, and it could be they need to work out some kinks. But to me, these are more than kinks that need fixed. And apparently at the customer’s expense. In this case, everything...

Honestly this place has more potential if some of the wait staff were more attentive and the food was better.

I took my wife here for her birthday. The atmosphere for dinner is perfect for a date night. The hostess was very friendly and the Victorian style home was beautiful. We arrived at 7:45 and the hostess let us wait at the bar until our reservations at 8.

Then we get the table. Both my wife and I got an appetizer. She got a salad. I forgot what I ordered but it wasn't very memorable. Then we order the entrees. My wife ordered the gnocchi (keep in mind it's seasonal and it's supposed to have pumpkin, walnuts, etc.) and I got the seafood risotto. Her gnocchi was under seasoned, literally no seasoning and was nothing like it was described on the menu. My seafood rissoto was the best thing about the night and thats not saying much.

Keep in mind during all this our waitress is not checking in on us. It took us 15-20 minutes just to order our entree. And this wasn't just us, it was the tables around us too. A table next to us had to physically find our waitress to get the check. We were lucky if we would see her within 10 minutes of seeing her last. Sometimes the bartender was bringing the food to us. This was on a Wednesday night and it was not busy to be fair. We ended up getting our desserts to go and asked for the check. Which took another 15-20 minutes to get to our table.

I am generally pretty patient but it being my wife's birthday, spending that much money, and expecting a good experience; it just was not worth it in the end. I will be visiting again at some point to give it another go, but it was a huge let down by the...

We came here for an early dinner on my birthday. I absolutely love that the restaurant is nestled in a historic landmark! The mix of modern with Victorian undertones really sets a romantic atmosphere but it's also chill enough to meet with friends here, too.

We opted to sit inside for dinner because it was a little windy out. They placed us at a table on the bar side which made for a pretty view.

Now, about the food. We got the Pizza Fritta to start. The pork belly and kimchi was such a good combo. Not sure if they also make their own kimchi but it wasn't over-powering like a lot of places that try to do fusion. The Arugula Agnolotti and Gnocchi with crab were perfect for our entrées. Everything was extraordinary! The flavors melded so well and you can tell that the chef put a lot of thought into the menu. So, so good! I'm a sucker for housemade pasta... I'm getting hungry just thinking about it!

Anyway, neither of us are drinking at this time so we decided to forgo the sparkling wine starter and got coffee and tea instead. We're both pretty well-versed in coffee and I have to say that this is some of the best coffee I've had in town. Apparently, it's their own special blend from Zanzibar, a coffee shop on Ingersoll. I will definitely be getting a bag of that if I can!

As for dessert, neither of us are big on sweets but it was my birthday so we got the crème brûlée and olive oil cake. They were absolutely delectable! If you had to choose only one I'd go crème brûlée all day!

Joseph was our server all night. He was wonderful! And, made so many great suggestions. He obviously knows the menu well. Ask for him...