Malo — Restaurant in Des Moines

Our first visit to Malo was pretty much the worst dining experience we've ever had. We told them as such on our Google review and they sent us a gift card so we'd come back and update our review, which we really appreciate! This time we came for lunch. Five stars for having clean dishes this time. The server was awesome. Great service, friendly, attentive. The food was a lot better this time. To start, we got some queso with our chips, which was just OK, not the best queso I've had, but not bad. Husband got the Malo burger and smothered Malo fries. The burger was good, but he really loved the fries. I had the lunch taco trio so I could try a few of their street tacos. The tacos themselves were pretty plain, dry and bland, but they come with choice of salsa on the side to spice them up. I got the grilled jalepeno salsa with them, which was quite spicy and I wish I had been warned about. I like spicy food, but I couldn't put much on the tacos because of how spicy it was, so the tacos stayed pretty dry. The ground taco beef didn't have much flavor by itself. It was pretty much just browned ground beef with some cheese sprinkled on top, no real taco seasoning to the meat or anything. The Gringa taco is chicken, bacon and cheese was the best of the three that I ordered. And the crispy onion with the avocado, literally just some avocado with onion straws on top in a tortilla, which sounded good in theory, but fell flat. None of them was bad, just not something I would go out of my way for. Like I said, without the salsa, they are dry and plain. I did like the grilled asparagus as a side dish. Some of the better asparagus I've had. Long story short: The service was excellent. The food ranged from OK to great. But if you really want some good Mexican food, there are better options around DSM for less money. I would say, Malo is worth going to at least once, but it's not going to be one of my go-to restaurants. Really appreciate their willingness to make it right with their customers. They are dedicated to good service. If you do go, get...

Order: Guacamole, tortila soup, blackened grouper taco, pastor taco Price: $28 Pros: Amazing grouper taco (up there with some of the best I’ve ever eaten), tortilla soup is wonderful if you like spiciness (see below) Cons: Due to the set up of the building/seating it could get ridiculously loud in there, the tortilla soup is really spicy and while I LOVED IT they should probably warn people LOL

Thoughts: A really good friend of mine lives in Des Moines so I had the pleasure of getting some really good food in, during my recent business trip there. One of the restaurants he said was a "must try" was Malo, and I am so glad we went there. The atmosphere feels very "Tex-Mex"-ish even if the food is more on the Mexican side of things. I got told that I had to try the grouper tacos and tortilla soup so I ordered both of those, along with the pastor taco (it's my favorite kind of taco if done right) and the guacamole as an appetizer.

While the guac was good, they magic really started when they placed a bowl of THE BEST tortilla soup I have ever had in my entire life in front of me. It was the perfect level of spicy, and while you wouldn't like it if you didn't like spicy food I absolutely loved it. I really can’t give this bowl of soup a completely adequate description so you’ll just have to refer to the picture and believe that it was absolutely amazing.

Once I finished up with that my two tacos came out. The pastor taco was good, but I’ve definitely had better. The blackened grouper taco on the other hand, was arguably the best fish taco (if not the best taco in general) I’ve ever had. The grouper itself was cooked incredibly well, and the blackened seasoning was really flavorful. Then they topped it with some absolutely incredible sauce and it came together to make a mind-blowing taco.

Definitely an awesome place to eat and while I could see it getting crowded and loud, it is certainly a place you should seek out if you’ve...

Not the usual Malo experience. My husband and I were excited to try it for brunch for the first time and we didn’t love it. The food was good, but not as amazing as it usually is. Our water glasses were filthy, but that didn’t stop our server from filling them anyways. The service was not great, starting with the absent host. We had made reservations on Open Table last night for 11:15am. Before we left, we told our server we wanted to make sure we got our Open Table points because the gentlemen (not a host) checking us in said we didn’t have reservations. Our server then said the manager will be right over to talk to us and she asked us to write down our info. After watching the manager set tables, have our server talk to her and then continue to set the tables for who knows how long without even acknowledging us, we left. Any other restaurant I’ve been to, the customer is a priority when something needs dealt with by the manager, not the table being set in an almost empty restaurant. I checked my email after we left the restaurant and saw that the restaurant deleted our reservation at 11:13am, two minutes before our reservations and why? I don’t know. Even with our info left at the table, the manager didn’t call. Awful management and customer service. Not the Malo we’ve...