Big Grove Brewery & Taproom — Restaurant in Des Moines

I have been going to this place for a few months now and even though I love the space and catching some sun while having an awesome brew… the service is garbage and the food is overpriced, probably frozen and prepackaged slop. They charge $17.95 for buffalo wings which I absolutely recognize… the flavor / consistency of bulk frozen wings from Costco. I ordered a mac n cheese that was worse than a 99 cent box of instant mac n cheese from Trader Joes. Burger was dry AF, go to Lachelle’s. Pokebowl, horrible fish, big rice bowl… could have done it better at home.

Many of the female bartenders are awkward and make you feel like they’re doing you a favor, also they don’t know how to fill your glass. They are generally rude and make it seem like they have something better to do.

Male bartenders, awesome… love you guys, you answer the questions with a smile while the female bartenders always look at you bored like they cant wait for you to leave and when i ask a question they give a condescending response. This is a point that my female fiancé wanted to emphasize.

NO big business should be charging their customers for use of credit cards… even as a small business owner myself I take the hit when taking credit card payments… its 2025, its part of your cost to do business. Bro… forreal? stop passing on the cost of doing business to your customers, just raise the price of your products if your really feel its necessary for your bottom line.

Im going to include a picture of how I want my beer to be poured and honestly its annoying when you cant fill my glass, fill my glass, just fill it… its a brewery, I dont want 1 inch of head…. if one bartender can properly fill my glass then all of them can if they cared enough but its obvious to me that they dont.

The plain french fries are...

We stopped in while visiting Des Moines and went here for the first time. I was just there for company as I don’t drink, but my husband does. We came on a release day which he got and said it was pretty good! I don’t recall the name of the stout they released. We had a good time sitting at one of the high tables near the bar. The place was fairly clean and also had dining seating for if you want a more intimate eating experience. My only issue, the group of staff at the front when you walk in were a bit snobby. It was our first time there and in Virginia where we live we go to breweries and just walk in and find a seat by the bar or outside. When we walked in we were just met with judging eyes since the group of them were all just talking to each other. No one greeted us so we just walked by going to the bar. Until then one of them said loudly that if we need a table they need to seat us. Maybe if you greeted us we would have stopped to talk with you? Talking with your co workers is important but it’s not social hour. We came back and said we’d like to sit at the bar and was told to go find a seat then ourselves. At this point we were very confused. The bar was busy and no seats so we went back to tell them we would like to sit at a high table near the bar. And again told to go seat ourselves and now we ONLY need to come back to be seated for the “dining” tables. Very frustrating for them to make such a fuss over seating when you could have just greeted us and asked where we wanted to be seated and then explain the seating situation. Everything else about this place is great which is why I’m giving it a high rating but the staff socializing up front and being rude to people who have never been there and don’t know how YOUR brewery works is very...

Food was great. Farmhouse burger was good. Could tell the meat was quality. Bacon was perfect. The egg was over done. Which anyone who gets an egg on a burger knows what I mean. Total let down when it isn't runny. Queso and chips are bomb. Beers were good I had the wheat.

Now the issue with the night. Look I get it 1. It's hard to find good help and 2. It's hard to find help period. But we waited close to an hour when we were told 30 min. They had an event that was wrapping up so we finally got a table but when we were seated we probably sat their for 20 min before someone came over and said they don't take orders you have to go order at the bar with your table number. I was confused because the tables right next to us had a server with a point of sale device. So not sure if the whole restaurant is self service and the servers are just food runners or what but as a first timer it would have been nice if the menu said you need to go order your own food or the host told us that. One person from each of a our groups went to order at the same time the 2 couples got their food and were finished by the time my wife kids and I got our food.

It would have been really handy to have an app to order our food with our table number instead of going to a crowded bar. Maybe there was and I didn't see it. I saw a qr code for a beer menu but nothing to order food/drink.

Final thing for of a PSA... It's loud ... Super loud. This isn't a negative just informing the public if you are at a table of 6 good luck carrying on a conversation from one end to the other.

Would go back for the food it was really good just get the egg right next time. Not so much for the...