Buffalo Wild Wings — Restaurant in Des Moines

I recognize with the pandemic it is very hard to run full staffed, servers and cooks that do their job deserve the recognition and praise, because it's a tough industry regardless. But today was redicoulus. Already operating at limited seating, so no where near as packed as one would usually expect, also after a standard "lunch" time period so in spite of being low staffed, nothing that couldn't have been managed by 3-4 properly trained people. This is also not a situation of someone being triple sat etc.

15+ minutes before someone stopped by to tell us the server would be around shortly. 20 minutes before we were able to even order our drinks (we put our food order in at the same time) and had to repeat ourselves multiple times.

Food was bland, wings over cooked, the child in the party received their food last, (at 40+ minutes) the side for the kids meal was served in a sauce ramiken and consisted of literally 4 slices of Mandarin oranges (some side, I thought those usually came in a bowl?) The child's drink was served in a can rather than a cup with straw and we were charged extra for asking for a second can so we could actually fill up the said kids cup we specifically needed to ask for.

Refills were slow and incorrect. We were surrounded the entire time we were there with dirty unbussed tables.

The bill came, Un-itemized and the card was ran before we were provided with the actual balance due. I realize the card should not have been provided in the first place but when we made it clear we wanted the check, she just took it off the table. Upon bringing this up with the (very polite and "with it" manager....?) It came back to us corrected (for less than the initial charge amount) and then with another % off for the bad service.

I appreciate that the individual who was acting as a manager (unknown if it really was or not) tried to make it right, I recognize that. BUT the person managing should have recognized our server was not ready to be taking tables, and should have still been shadowing.

If you are understaffed, I get it. But don't put your people in positions they are not ready for, that just makes it worse.

Worst experience I have ever had at this location. I might try it again in another year or two but will not be back in the near future.

I wish the server we had the best of luck, and opportunities to improve. I hope at least today was a learning opportunity, but also, shady AF for running a card without providing a balance first, let alone an unitemized receipt for the wrong true balance. What else am I supposed to...

Horrible experience due to being repeatedly duped into thinking we would get our order "soon" or "next." Ordered online. Before finalizing the order, the site said it would take 40 minutes. After submitting the order, it said 1 hour. Went inside and asked, they said it would only be 30 minutes. Waited in car for 30 mins.

Went inside after the 30 mins and the takeout person said she would have our order right out, then went to the kitchen. 10 mins later, came back out with 3 other orders, not ours. Said she just needed to bag ours and 2 others. Went to the back, came out 10 mins later with 2 orders, neither one ours. Said ours is showing on the screens and she just needs to bag it. Goes to back. Comes out 5 mins later and sees a door dash guy. Goes to back. Comes back out 5 mins later with the door dash order. Goes to back and returns 5 mins later with someone else's order. Sees another door dash guy and says it will be right out. Comes back 5 mins later with door dash order. Says again she just needs to bag ours and goes to back. Returns 5 mins later and says they are out of cheese balls, do we want something else? We say no thanks, just refund those and we will take the food that is done. Goes to back and doesn't acknowledge the third door dash guy waiting patiently for an order that was supposed to be ready a while ago as well. Wife comes in from car to see what is taking so long, and says next time the takeout lady comes out without our food, we cancel the order and go to Chick-fil-a.

Takeout lady finally comes back out 10 mins later with our order. We ask if the cheese balls are refunded. She asks for last 4 digits of cc and writes on a receipt, then puts it in the cash register. We ask how do we know it will be refunded, she says "they will do it." Defeated and hangry, we leave with our food. None of the food was even warm, and seemed like it really was just waiting to be bagged for 30 mins. All the food was room temperature, and there was only about half as much teriyaki dipping sauce as one needs for 10 nuggets.

Apparently putting several boxes of fancy chicken nuggets in a bag is a much-needed skill in the current economy, and Buffalo Wild Wings has a hard time retaining employees with this critical skill.

Should have gone to Chick-fil-a. Those guys know how to mass produce chicken nuggets AND put them in a bag while they are still...

I honestly like BWWs, and have ordered from and been to the Ankeny and Merle Hay locations a number of times and have been happy with the food and service.

This last Tuesday (12/26) was horrible service. I can't comment on the food since I never go any...

I had placed an order on the app right about 3pm for a 410pm pickup. That part went very smooth and as expected. When I arrived just after 410pm, my food was not ready, and that itself wasn't a big deal. The lady at the counter seemed a little lost and when I asked her about how long it might be, she leaned back to look through the door and said about 6 minutes. No problem. About 15 minutes go by, no updates, just awkward gazes from her. So I ask if they're even making the food at this point, and she still seemed lost. She went back to the kitchen, came back out, and asked for my name to look up the order. I showed her the order on the BWWs app to assure her that I had placed (and paid) for an order to be picked up at 410pm. Another 5+ min goes by and she eventually prints out a ticket and takes it back to the kitchen.

By now, I just said I want a refund since they weren't even making the food yet. A manager comes out and just says this is the first time he's seen this food ticket and since there were no wings down at the moment, it'd be 15 minutes or so. I reiterated to him that I had now been there almost 30 minutes and wasn't going to wait another 15+. He said he had to run it tomorrow morning and couldn't then and there, which sounded a bit odd, especially since I had to walk away with nothing in hand other than having to trust that they'd eventually do it. I will give a little credit in that I had used a couple of rewards on my order, and he did give me an equivalent gift card for those rewards I was going to lose from this order.

There was no apology or explanation for why they didn't make the food in the first place. And aside from that, I was lied to multiple times by the lady working the desk, either on purpose or because she had no clue what was going on. That's the part that disappointed me the most. There is absolutely no expectation to be perfect, but own up to it so the mistake can be fixed in a timely manner. I would have waited for food to be made had I been informed when I first came in, not 25+...