Iowa Beef Steak House — Restaurant in Des Moines

After discovering this little gem of a steak house, we've returned several times. Our recent visit in Dec 2013 was a repeat of all previous and more that satisfactory experiences. Two of my kids are D1 athletes the other two are in high school. (add some bragging - all are honor students as well.) When I told them our Christmas supper was going to be at the Iowa Beef Steak House they were more than thrilled. Our waitress (apologize for not getting her name) was very attentive, jovial and accommodating. The unlimited salad bar has all that is required by my standards. Compliments on the dill pickles. They even have individually packaged crackers. Something I haven't seen on a salad bar since I was a youngster. The meal was just the best. The college kids and I ordered the Teriyaki Steak (24 oz Sirloin) medium rare. They came cooked to perfection, warm through out, red in the middle and no blood. My wife loved the Marinated Beef Kabobs with a side of sauteed Mushrooms. My pickiest meet eater (she trims fat off her bacon) had no complaints about her New York Strip and my lightest eater plowed through the Filet. We teased her that she ate the skew too. I surrendered after devouring 3/4 of my steak. Our take home include that, half my wife's and 1/2 the Strip. Our waitress even took our traditional family Christmas supper photo for us. Sit down to exit we were there 1.5 hrs. We never felt rushed even after our meal was cleared and we were visiting. The atmosphere is classic for a steak house and feels home in a way. My complaint: The last three years we have posed for our family photo in front of the fireplace. They have a table right in front of the fireplace now so we took our picture by the nutcracker this year. All 6 of us ate, beverages and a few glasses of wine, a beer and tip = $265. I am self employed, my wife is a stay at home mom and our income is slightly higher than average for Iowans who are college grads. I travel 150 days a year so am forced to eat out often. (Trust me after day three on the road all food taste basically the same.) I've ate at some pretty fancy, exclusive and notoriously famous steak house and put Iowa Beef Steak House right at the top...

We were there on a Friday night at 5:00. They open at 5:00 for the evening service. We had four adults and one child. We were the first ones in the door and seated, however the people that were right behind us were waited on first and were served first. The salad bar was atrocious! Not much of a selection for either the plain salad or the other various salads. The tomatoes were on the verge of being rotten. The ranch dressing tasted off and the person in our party that used the ranch dressing actually got ill before we left. We are thinking it was the salad dressing. The potatoes were hard and luke warm and not even cut. I have never been to a place where the baked potato was not at least cut. They then served little wrapped up pats of cold, hard butter and packets of sour cream for the potatoes. Who wants to spend several minutes unwrapping butter pats to put on a not so warm potato while your entree is sitting there also getting cold? The steaks were "OK". They were under done and had very little flavor. We did not send them back for fear of them then being over done. The chicken was good. The grilled cheese kids meal was really just a cheese sandwich. It looked like they just took two pieces of grilled bread then just slapped some cheese on it. The cheese was not melted at all! Back to the salad bar. Very slim pickings for children on the bar as most children do not eat lettuce salads. They either need to add more child friendly options to the salad bar or offer more child friendly sides for their meals, like apple sauce maybe. Overall very disappointed for a meal that was approximately $35.00 per person. I doubt if any of us will be returning...

A great restaurant suffering from a lack of innovation and updating during the last 1t years. The good - the steaks are always amazing. They're well cooked, perfectly seasoned, and just beautiful cuts of meat. The steak is to die for. The sauteed mushroom appetizer is also perfectly cooked and worth the price.

The not so good - the place needs to step up the rest of their game or lower their prices. They value a single trip to their salad bar at $8 and some change. While they have beets, pickles, peppercinis and some prepared salads up there, they need to have more variety. Red and yellow peppers, cucumber slices, chick peas, shredded carrot (instead of just baby carrots), snap peas, broccoli, shredded cabbage, kidney beans, mushrooms, radish slices, tomato slices, blue cheese crumbles, and sliced almonds all come to mind. For like $50 a night they could make that salad bar worth the $8.00 for unlimited trips. The sauteed mushrooms served with the steak are horrible. Despite being made on site every night, they have the texture and flavor of canned because they're allowed to saturate in broth for the evening. They could fix this by making them by the pan like they do for the appetizers. Also, offer offer more side options with the steak. Steamed veggies or soup or something. You make a lot of it every night and throw it out if you don't sell it, giving a small bowl as a side costs just as much as throwing it out. That and offering specials would bring in more business. It's sad to see a place going down hill this way.

Tl;Dr - go for the sauteed mushroom appetizer and amazing steak, but don't expect much from anything else, and hurry cause it's on...