Exile Brewing Company — Restaurant in Des Moines

I have been putting off my review of Exile Brewing Company for a long time. I LOVE local breweries. I knew that when I would write a review of Exile it would be a little bit bias because of my love of locally brewed beverages. After much consideration, I have decided to finally write my review of Exile.

The beers are excellent! Exile has a few beers that are always available and always on tap that are top notch. One thing that will keep you going is that the brew master is constantly experimenting with different flavors and recipes. Something that I really respect is the trial and error process they go through in order to bring the best tastes and aromas to the consumer.

The food is wonderful. I have ordered many things off the menu and they are all delicious. You will not be disappointed. The entrees are good, the appetizers are appealing, and the sides are delectable. Seriously, try the Exile fries.

The community that Exile has build is one that I want to be a part of. I really like that Exile caters to the bike community in town by providing plenty of bike space and selling a bike jersey with a great gimmick. A beverage with each attendance at Exile for the summer. Really great marketing idea.

With all of the praise I have given Exile, let me share with you the reason I have chosen to not give Exile 5 stars----the service. The service there is awful. Imagine everything you would expect from a dining experience and throw it away. I would vaguely describe my complaints, but that would not do it justice. I want to describe my experience from this week when I had Ellie as my server. Any normal cues that a server would be able to identify went unnoticed by Ellie. The menus were not taken, empty glasses remained unfilled, and empty plates remained until after we had left the restaurant. Even after my table asked questions about the pasta and soup the server never prompted us to order. As a table, we began to wonder what would it take to get noticed. There was even a conversation about how long we would have to stay in order to try to pay for our drinks and appetizer. We began to feel that we were being held prisoner and as ransom we would eventually be allowed to pay for our meal (hopefully). We were going to order a meal after our appetizer, but we decided that we did not want to wait the impossibly long amount of time it would take. Upon getting the check, this prompted a long conversation about the appropriate amount to tip a server. Normally, I would imagine a baseline tip and add or subtract value based on performance. For the first time, I realized that this method has failed me after years of use. What is the appropriate tip for my worst restaurant experience? Do I still tip based on capability? After much discussion, our table decided that we felt bad for our server and anyone that has the misfortune of having the Exile experience in her section and tipped what we thought any server would deem appropriate. Since we did not have the opportunity to order dinner, we left Exile disappointed in search of hope and in search of food. We went to "Iowa Tap Room" where you can get the same beers but what you would expect from a dining experience.

Basically, go to Exile. Sometimes you may have...

So this is an interesting place. We had two starters, the cheese curds, which was amazing. You can taste just enough bacon to really enjoy without being to over powering that it takes away from the cheese curds itself. Very well seasoned. And the second appitizer this evening was the lamb slicers. Not really what o was expecting. It's a lot like a euro on a home made bun. The bun was homemade and tasted great soft but held up. The lamb itself was a bit shadowed by the topping. I was a little disappointed I couldn't taste the lamb but overall the slider was pretty good. For the main course we had the four cheese Mac and cheese. With chicken added it's only 4 dollars for a good portion of chicken . This was very well made. I know people think Mac and cheese is simple but when you go to exile you'll be treated with an array of home favorites made in a new style. Finally the crispy chicken salad. The chicken was an amazing mix of crunchy and tender. The greens were very fresh and crisp. The corn salsa really did give it just that little something extra. The wait was a bit longer then I had hoped, and the seating is a bit tight. There are plenty of booths but last night was a little busy so only tables were only available. Overall the food was a 5 the wait was a 3 seating usually a 4 ( I know I said it was tight I also had larger parties near us.) And style of food and brewery 4. All out of five so four stars great job and keep up...

This past weekend I was lucky enough to propose to my girlfriend Paige on the patio at Exile. I emailed in to inquire about making arrangements on the patio to have about 20-30 friends for the special moment and Michael shot me a message right away. Not only was he fast to make accommodations, but he pretty much laid out the whole plan for how I could do it. He was easy to contact throughout the planning stage, and was there the day of to help it go smoothly. I was a wreck anyways, but without Michaels help I would've been lost. We took a tour with the owner and got to see the inner workings of the brewery which was amazing. The whole staff from the greeter, to bartenders, to event coordination made this day something we will never forget. On top of the incredible beer and service, the food (as always) may have been the star of the show. We ordered meatballs, chicken bites, and truffle fries for the party and its very clear that each item was made from scratch in house. There are so many amazing breweries in DSM and several more are on the way, but there's a reason you see Exile Brewing on tap in every single bar you visit. These guys are the best of the best from top to bottom and they proved that on Saturday.

Thank you guys SO much for everything you...