Latin King Italian Dining — Restaurant in Des Moines

I have to update the previous 2 star review as these folks went above and beyond to ensure that our bad experience with our prior visit was not indicative of how they run this classic Des Moines restaurant.

We revisited last night for my grandfather's birthday. We were escorted to a private room and were treated like VIP's from the moment we arrived. Champagne was waiting for us and on standby to be poured as soon as our glasses were even the slightest bit low. The waitstaff were beyond friendly and happy to take care of us. Those 2 need raises for sure!!!!

The Executive Chef, Zach, made a point to not only come and introduce himself to our party, but personally apologize for our previous experience. He made several delicious entrees for us to try that he planned to feature this weekend as specials. He spent time asking for feedback and ensured every step our experience was unforgettable. That is the type of chef that Latin King needs to give a raise and never let him go. That is the care and attention that Tursi's deserves.

Our entrees were amazing, best salmon I've ever had in my life. Everyone was so impressed with their meals and desserts. Zach even stopped to say goodbye for the evening and let us know his wife was 39 weeks pregnant and was hungry. We made sure to let him know how much we appreciated his effort over the entire evening. This chef is an absolute gift. I am beyond impressed and thankful for the entire staff making this a night to remember.

This is the place I remember coming to my whole childhood for family milestones and more. I am so happy to have been wrong.

Thank you so much for everything your staff did to make this night amazing!

*Edited from April 2023 * We dined here last night with a party of over 20. Server was on his own, which was a ridiculous ask from management. Minimum of 2 servers should've been handling a party that size to ensure experience and service in a higher end restaurant. Our waiter had no sense of customer service. The restaurant's mandatory 18 percent gratuity ensured he would still receive hundreds of dollars in tips regardless of service level provided.

He never asked if we wanted more wine or cocktails, (an easy upsell for an experienced server) nor refills on regular drinks. Never checked if we were happy with our orders when they arrived. While what we received was delicious as always, many orders were either incorrect or missing items. When these were brought to his attention when he finally asked if we were ready for our bill, he chose to argue with multiple people in our party instead of correct the mistakes or bring missing items included with meals.

We arrived around 6pm and did not leave until 9pm due to the mistakes and staff taking over 45 minutes to get our checks and correct several mistakes and incorrect charges, including losing one of our parties cards. Waiter was clearly overwhelmed and management never came over to rectify or smooth over the situation.

Overall, very disappointed. My husband and I have both worked in food service and in both front and back of house. We certainly understand that some nights are crazier than others. But this was another level of lack of proper training and /or leadership. There were several points where we wanted to simply take over and show them how a historic restaurant like this should be running. We have been coming here for years for special occasions and celebrations. I fear the magic may be gone from a place I've loved since...

Don't bye into the hype! This restaurant will leave you disappointed and unsatisfied. Last night my family decided to try the Latin King for the first time. The only thing that was royal was how big of a ROYAL pain our waitress was. We showed up to a 30 minute wait, that's to be expected on a Saturday night anywhere you go. The owner was in the house, and as I observed him working the lobby, I assumed that his flare and confidence would carry over through the whole meal. That was my first assumption gone WRONG!

We arrived at our table, all 6 of us, it was like we were in the wine cellar, the lighting was straight out of a small town 1970's restaurant. I could only wish this would have been the worst part of the night, because as the evening wore on I only wished the rest of my experience could have been this good.

Our waitress came to the table with a "tude" she was in interested in serving, more into judging. Her entire complexion was disappointed to get a family with 2 small children and it was CRYSTAL clear. The water was delivered and we asked for a wine list, only to have it dropped and NO suggestions made. After about 10 minutes looking through the wine list I had to waive her down to order appetizers. We got those ordered and asked about what would be better an 02 Borello, or a 2000 Brunello. She had the audacity to suggest a $34 bottle of "house" wine. Pretty sure what was 80% less than we were looking at spending, and she was NO help for wine selection.

I chalked it up to inexperience with more higher end wines, at least for this place. When our apps arrived, one was burnt and the other was over fried. The Calamari tasted like we were at the Iowa State Fair. I am confident to say that we could have ordered the same appetizer from Olive Garden and it would have been more satisfying.

After selecting the 2000 Borello we asked what would pair well and got a blank stare. Good job on knowing what works well with the wine. I won't even get into the fact that the Sommelier was younger than the wine. He had 0 food suggestions. Come on people if I am gonna spend $ on wine at least know your stuff and pair it with food!

So we ordered the "Trio." DONT EVER ORDER THIS! The food took over an hour to show up, and it was reheated Chef Boy R D! Terrrible Terrible flavor! The sauce was stale and over garliced, the lasagna had too many peppers in it, and the meat balls were comparable to what I would expect at a Nursing home.

Needless to say we thought dessert would be redemptive... NOPE! The tirimisu was overly heavy and tasted like cheese cake meeting red velvet cake, the canoli had WAY too much cinnamon, and the cheese cake was stale. So we were ready to go when our less than a waitress dropped off the check.

She added 18% gratiuity to the ticket, never once mentioning that she was going to, and ITS NOT PRINTED ANYWHERE! So we spend $286 on a bottle of wine, and spagettio's. I will NEVER take my family here again, nor will I visit this restaurant again. I highly suggest you skip the HYPE and eat a real meal. You can go to another place downtown for the same price and get a HIGH value for your experience.

People who love this place will get into fights for the mashed potatoes at a nursing home, don't believe their reviews... this place is priced as gourmet, but serves you Chef Boy R D's leftovers.

If you are in the mood for Italian - go...

I don’t often post reviews of our dining experience, but I feel the need to share our experience this evening. We had reserved a table because in our past experience, Latin King was always packed, no matter what night of the week it was. We used to go regularly but it has been a number of years since we last were there. Clearly there have been some changes, and not for the better. We arrived about 20 minutes early, no one was at the host stand. We waited about a minute to be seated. No big deal, we were early, but the host(?) was brisk and borderline rude. Our server, on the other hand, while not being terribly knowledgeable, was incredibly friendly and did her best to be helpful. For apps we the shrimp Angela and antipasto. The antipasto was a large pile of olive tapenade, some pickled carrots, 3 toasted slices of bread and 4 slices of provolone cheese and a hard salami. Not great and not what I would usually expect for an antipasto. The shrimp was overcooked and the sauce under seasoned. My husband got the steak deburgo- this was perhaps the worst deburgo sauce we have ever had. The garlic was raw and the olive oil tasted old, and it clearly had not cooked down, and there was not a hint of any white wine or parsley flavoring. I ordered the salmon alla riviera sub angel hair pasta for the potato croquettes. The salmon was seasoned well, but overcooked. The vegetables were overcooked with no seasoning. The pasta was never served, it was served with a potato croquette that tasted as if it was cooked on old oil that was burned and hadn’t been changed in a number of days. We did let our server know of our disappointment, we did have our meals comped, although we asked that we not be comped. We recognize that sometimes on busy nights restaurants can have off nights, but that was not the case. I can count the number of tables on two hands that were there while we were there. I also am aware that this restaurant has changed ownership and there can be growing pains, or changes to recipes. We took all of these into account before I decided to write this review. Please know, this is purely our opinion and if you love this restaurant this should take nothing away from your enjoyment, but I do want those who expecting what they may have experienced 5, 10, or 15 years ago to be aware that...