Parlor — Restaurant in Des Moines

We ate here 2 Sundays in a row 10/13 & 10/20. Both times the servers were amazing, attentive to our needs, prompt to fill drinks & make sure our experiences were good. There's nothing that can be done by the servers when the kitchen cuts corners and tries to hurry food to the pass with out care & consistency. If you wouldn't serve that to your family or significant other why send it? Our first experience was amazing, our breakfast potatoes were grilled well & crispy, our over easy eggs perfect, bacon crispy everything was as expected. Today 10/20 our server, she was amazing, epitome of everything a well trained FoH person should. The food sent out, another thing...before you ask, we sent back the bacon to be crispy otherwise we ate what we were served (again not her fault) as I fear retribution when complaining about food. To get to the point....our eggs were over medium or overheard. Our breakfast potatoes were deep fried...there's not any other way to get that even of a color on all sides. Last week's potatoes were a hodge podge of brown, white, some a but blackened, but obviously not just dumped in a fryer. If I'd have wanted french fried potatoes, I'd have ordered the. The restaurant wasn't slammed, there were between 7 & 10 tables in various stages of "do eness". Yes it may be faster, but having experienced the same breakfast the week before, it was hugely disappointing to feel the hurry up & get it done. I don't care about that the customer is right b.s. I do care that the customer is ALWAYS the customer. I'll return @ some point.....just not as soon as...

I believe this is my first one-star review on Google. I got two pizzas to go. These pizzas totally belie Woody Allen's saying about pizza and sex. Let's just say I would rather be abstinent the rest of my life than have another encounter with Parlor.

My main complaint is the crust. I hope that it was a mistake tonight, but it seems like it is made with wheat flour. The result reminds one of a first attempt with an at-home bread maker. My first introduction to it was with the garlic knots. I though to myself, "Weird dough (and no garlic). I hope the pizza isn't like this." I was sadly disappointed as it was exactly as weird and distasteful.

I would like to tell you that the toppings saved the day, but alas no. The toppings are fine, but the cheese seemed more artificial than other American mozzarellas. There also was not enough sauce, but I recognize I like more sauce than most people.

Because it was carry-out, I can't really gage the service or ambience, but the pizza was much, much worse than Dominos. It feels like this is a situation where the pizza is a slave to the concept of Detoit-style pizza, hell or high water, and taste be damned.

Save your money and get Dominos, or even consider microwaving a frozen pizza.

Upped from one- to two- stars as my two-year-old scrapes the toppings...

How was the food? Don't know, we didn't make it that far.

Earlier in the day I called to see if Parlor took reservations, and was told only for parties of 8 or more. This evening when we arrived, we were told it would be a 20-25 minute wait. We put in our name for 2 and waited about 10 feet from the host stand. Ten minutes or so go by, and a few other parties (mostly 4 tops) show up and are told 45-60 minutes wait. Another 10 minutes goes by, and we see a couple booths being cleaned. Just as we thought we'd be getting seated, two of the groups of 4 that had just arrived were seated instead. Slightly annoyed by this, I asked why we had been skipped after waiting twice as long? The excuse, apparently they had reservations?! This, all after we had just heard them being told nearly an hour wait.

When I questioned the host about what I was told regarding reservations on the phone she seemed less apologetic and more embarrassed that I caught her in a lie. This made me more than happy to take my business elsewhere.

Be aware, you might get skipped as a party of 2 on a...