Smokey Row Coffee — Restaurant in Des Moines

Ok, I’m going to start with the good news: You can fairly regularly expect good coffee and food. Granted, my girlfriend and I order the same stuff usually (iced lattes and rise & shine sandwiches). More often than not, you can expect a good sandwich and coffee. Occasionally, like others say, the sandwich can lean more towards the bland side. And every time we’ll get the sandwich, it seems to be made different than the last time (missing ingredient, varying levels of ingredients).

The bad, and this will take a while: I can say that I’m guilty of continually subjecting myself to the same problems over and over with them. But now we’re just fed up. The lack of management and customer service at this place is appalling. I’m not talking about once in a while when we go there, because we’ve been regular customers for over a year.

We’ll stop by there or go through the drive through a minimum of twice a week. And EVERY time we do, the line inside is a 15 minute wait (EVERY time we go). There is only 1 register at checkout, and the line always has 15-20 people ahead of you. There is room for a second register but they don’t do it. It would save SO much time for the customers if they did this. Then, half the staff you’ll talk to at the register will not enter the order correctly, and usually seem confused at how to use their system.

While on the topic if getting the orders wrong, something you can expect to experience: Normally, this is not a big deal. But when it happens EVERY time, it becomes an issue to a bigger problem; When you order your coffee, if you’re asked specific questions about how you would like it made or you specify something about how you want it made, it should be done that way. When we get out coffees, my girlfriend prefers hers with whipped cream. 9 times out of 10, they will already ask me “Would you like whipped cream with that?”, to which I’ll always answer Yes. If they don’t ask, I will specify it. EVERY time the drinks are handed to me, it will not have whipped cream on hers. NEVER. They miss this every time. I recall one instance where her and I went inside, we’re sitting at the bar waiting for the coffees to arrive. The woman who made the coffees hands them to us. I tell her that one of them is supposed to have whipped cream on it. Her response: “Then maybe next time I’m making the drink you can tell me that before it’s done”. WHAT?! Its not my job to tell you how to make the drinks that you were already supposed to be instructed on how to make! What’s the point of asking your customers how you would like your order if you DO NOT FULFILL THE ORDER CORRECTLY?! Its one thing to make incorrect orders, its totally different when you’re rude to your customers for your OWN mistake!

Then there’s the drive-through: Wow. Even if you are the ONLY person in the drive-through, expect to waste 10 minutes of your life. You’d think it would be more convenient. Let me tell you, it is not. Sometimes we’re hopeful the service will be quick. We pull up and get our coffee order in, then pull up to the window… you then spend 5 minutes waiting for someone to take your payment, then spend another 5 minutes waiting for your drinks. We’ve decided that if we see more than 2 cars in the drive through, to forget it. It will be 30 minutes. Every time, no exceptions.

Moral of the story: If you plan to go to Smokey Row in Des Moines to receive fast-food type of service even for drinks… skip it. You will be waiting a very long time. If you want to work with a staff that is well equipped and trained to handle customer service… skip it.

The one thing this place needs is an overhaul of management. A skilled manager will be able to fix the many problems with this place. It lacks process and structure. And for what it’s worth, I am not one to formally complain about bad service. And this is the FIRST TIME...

Leaving a negative review is something that I really struggle to do, especially considering the current environment of inflationary cost pressure, labor shortages, and a supply chain mess. So with that said, I do not take leaving this negative review lightly.

Tonight I stopped through Smokey Row to grab two coffees on my way home from the airport. I chose to use the drive thru for order fulfillment. Upon sitting at the drive thru menu for a bit and receiving zero service, I elected to drive up to the window where I finally received service. After explaining that I had been sitting there waiting, the individual states that sometimes their vehicle sensor doesn’t work. Ok, fair enough, except the employee makes a snide remark implying their sensor not working was my fault (“you must not have been close enough”). Ok, whatever. The better route would have been to apologize for the delay and ask for my order- nope; the delay is the fault of my car and me. I place my order and proceed to pay with a credit card that is a chip & pin card, except their processing system doesn’t like chip & pin cards. It acts “funky” as the employee stated. The employee asks me to provide a different card and I decline- accept my method of payment or I’ll go elsewhere. So we work through getting my coffee paid for and the clear inconvenience I was causing the employee. I then receive my two coffees without explanation of which drink was which- I had to ask. I now realize that one of the lids was labeled with the drink type/flavor but the employee never told me this. And it’s a black lid written on with with a black marker so visibility is not easy. A fundamental customer service rule of a multi-item order when the items are packaged the same is to tell the customer which item is which. Nope, I had to ask.

And then to top it off, the employee did not feel compelled to thank me for my business. Well Smokey Row, I...

Continuing to impress- everyday. When I lived in my hometown, I had two favorite spots for breakfast. Cabin coffee, where I got the best scones, and Lake Coffee and Ice Cream... They served the best spiced chais. I'm the type of consumer that likes to get the same order, Everytime. I've tried many purchased replacements(coffees, scones, breakfast sandwiches, every spiced chai I could get my hands on) from local grocery chains, but all of them tasted nothing like the chai I had back home. I recently moved near the Sherman Hill area. I had my first business meeting at Smokey Row and was excited to see they were offering spiced chais. I quickly made my purchase, and was EXTREMELY happy to find out they use the exact same powder as the (now closed permanently) coffee shop back home. Today I've tried their blueberry scones, only to find they are quite similar to my favorite scones at Cabin Coffee, if not better.

Weird side note, I have an easily upset tummy and their rise and shine sandwich doesn't bother me at all! Edit: they have let me down quite a few times recently, the most recent being that we walked thirty min to get food and drinks, the girl in front of us got her order, and we were turned away because the system suddenly shut down. The last few times were multiple orders of a medium iced vanilla latte, we received mediums, and when we asked for a large, the girl just put milk in it, and dumped the medium in. I've asked quite a few times for guac on my rise and shine, only realizing once I got home that they put guac on it. I had to turn around and come back for a new one. A great place but quickly becoming not my...