Mad Meatball — Restaurant in Des Moines

The Bad: Dining area isn't very accommodating for children, so keep that in mind. I didn't see any available highchairs and the majority of seating is counter-height. Not necessarily a horrible thing. Floor was pretty dirty and the seating was pretty beat up. The menu didn't match what was online (sale price per appetizers) and there is no listing for soft drinks. Our server, Joe, messed up our order in two spots: the size of my pizza and the specific sauce my child wanted on her pizza. Appetizer of cheese bread was quite small and it seems likely the appetizers are proportioned to the sale price ($3 of sticker price). We had to wait a slightly long time to be prompted for the check, and I sat and watched our server chat up a table of friends (I assume) and eat food with them for 5 minutes.

The Good: Food tasted great. We got cheese bread, chicken parmesan pasta, and two 7" diameter pizzas. The beer selection was good and the happy hour prices were pretty good. Food came reasonably quickly and the appetizer was pretty well spaced between ordering and the arrival of the entrees. Server was cheerful and courteous, retrieving a lost shoe of my youngest.

The Ugly: Not the fault of the restaurant, but the parking situation was bad. There is a singular row of spots for people visiting the shops, and everything else is permit only. We parked in an unsigned space (no sign or markings in the spot or the one next to it) and returned to find our car gone. It had been towed in the short time we were gone, so expect a somewhat...

I suggested this place to my friends because it was something new and they looked to be always busy. We started out with drinks and cheese curds or cheese balls. I wasn't impressed with the drink menu. It seemed to me a drink menu for a college town or military bar, basically to get drunk. The drink I chose very much reflected that whole getting drunk part so I stopped after 1 and switched to water. The cheese curds had pepper jack cheese which was different. Not bad just different. We ordered 2 large pizzas, a Mad Meatball I believe and a Taco Pizza. We ate the hell out of the Mad Meatball, amazing! The Taco Pizza only had 2 slices missing by the time we were done eating. Really kinda bland. They did give us a lot of time to just sit around and chat but at some point they turned on an Iowa or Iowa City game for the people at the bar, but it was so loud the girls and I were practically shouting at each other to be heard. The most important thing I think was a pain was the parking. Parking all along the wall is for retail and then all the rest of the parking requires a permit for those that live in the apartments surrounding the retail. I know a couple of the girls were worried about being towed. They weren't but there was that worry. After having been there I think it's always busy because it's surrounded by apartments, just...

My first and last time eating at Mad Meatball. I got the all you can eat wings on Wednesday night. The first order of about 7 boneless wings was dry, hard, cold and it took about 35 minutes for the order to come out. The next order of wings didn't come out until 45 minutes after that and we were told that they were understaffed. Understandable, but we weren't told they were understaffed until about halfway through waiting for our second order. At this point we had been in the restaurant for about 1.5 hours and only had around 7-10 wings each, not the "all you can eat" as expected. When our second order of wings did come out there were only 5 in my order... The only good experience to come out of this place was that the manager gave 50% off for the meal which was reasonable as I will pay for the few wings I did eat. I can't blame the waitress as she was attentive and handled the situation very well. We could tell she was genuinely trying her best.

I was saddened that we had this experience. I was really hoping this place would be a new favorite. I usually give the benefit of the doubt but in this case I have to be honest and I would not recommend this restaurant unless they seriously overhaul their...