Hessen Haus — Restaurant in Des Moines

Update January 2024. Perfectly cooked pork shank! Crispy outside, so tender inside, big enough for me to make two meals. The Caramel Mule drink was delicious! Visited in the late afternoon with my friends. We are from out of town. The place was hopping today! The service was very good. Very friendly. Several servers besides our main server checked on us during our time there. They made sure we had everything we needed. Everything was so good. I have added photos from this visit. I keep wanting to try the schnitzel, but I've gotten the pork shank each time. Next time I will try the schnitzel. Take-out, sometime a few years ago: I am from out of town and I stay downtown now and then. I've eaten there twice, and I loved the food both times. The first time I got the Pork Shank, and it was delicious! Cooked just right. This time I ordered the Stroganoff. On the menu it says you can order it with beef or pork, and extra meat is $3. So I ordered by phone for pick-up, saying I wanted the stroganoff with beef, and extra meat - & I wanted the pork too... could I get both? They said yes. So I walked over there and picked up my order which was ready on time. When I got back to my hotel and opened it up, it turned out they gave me Beef and Sausage, not regular pork like I thought I was going to get. Did I misunderstand something on the menu? Or did they not explain to me that they weren't going to give me pork, but thin sliced sausage instead... and still charge me $3? I know that regular sausage is usually cheaper than a piece of pork. I think that there was either not enough information given to me over the phone if they've changed the menu, or I got a substitution because they didn't have the pork? I just feel like it wasn't clear. Also the lady who took my order on the phone was very dry! No friendliness in her voice whatsoever., Just try to the point of almost being unfriendly. Maybe she just doesn't have good phone skills? But it wasn't nice customer service on the phone. So the reason I gave four stars It's because of the difference in my dish compared to what the menu said, and the dry customer service on the phone. But the food did taste good, and I...

As a native of Germany and someone that missed the food, my daughter thought this was the place to get me out of my rut..... Well I've never been so disappointed in my life. Sauerbraten and Rouladen are two staples that are simple and very similar in taste no matter the region and still somehow......an epic fail. The sauerbraten was actually cooked perfectly, but appears someone fell asleep when adding juniper berries, because all I tasted was that. Shame shame shame.......and the Rouladen. My favorite dish as a child, young adult, and now as an adult.....ruined. The way its made is more insulting than the Amana Colonies. No pickle, bacon, onion, or mustard? Rouladen is a beef roll with all that in it. Very disappointed. The red cabbage also tastes like it came from a can and the spatzle tasted premade. One of the other disappointments was the half liter beer. While it was served in the proper style glass..... they couldn't get me lemon wedges which I asked for twice....so my beer tasted like olive water. The party seated behind us recommended the cheese burger......which will be the final red flag. Who wants to go to a German bar and order a cheeseburger? The most authentic thing about Hessen Haus is the decor.....five stars to the decorator. Let me know when you get authentic food. And it's so easy to make that corners should never be cut, so just scratch make it. Maybe then ill reconsider a second visit. Until then.....its 1 star at best. What a waste of a hundred dollars....and people wonder why good food is...

I was Soo looking forward to trying this place for the first time,and having all you can eat fish. I kept hearing radio commercials for all you can eat fish on Fridays during Lent. I was very disappointed to finally make it there only to find out Good Friday is not included! To accommodate my son's work schedule, we needed to eat early so we arrived around 430 or so and we're pleasantly surprised that we did not have to wait for a table to empty for us! The service for the first 30 or so minutes was great. Our waitress was attentive and able to answer our menu questions. We placed our drink and appetizer orders and that's when the service started lacking. We had almost finished our appetizers before we placed our entree order. (Maybe that's just the bar atmosphere?) Our friend cheese curds and fried dill pickle s we're tasty tasty tasty! Great portions for the price! Since the all you can eat fish was unavailable we ordered the fish and chips. I got a side of spaetzle, I love spaetzle! The fish was excellent, love the breading! The fries were OK and the spaetzle was almost dead. I was disappointed! The entrees took a really long time to come, at least 30 after we ordered them, which was about the time we finished our appetizers. The spaetzle was dry and crusty on top, like it had been sitting waiting to be served. The fish was fresh and hot!! I will go back because I want to try many of the meat options! Hopefully the service...