Roots95 — Restaurant in Johnston

The siblings were in town so we made a reservation here because of all the gleaming reviews. The four of us came in at 6:15 on Saturday. They seated us right away but were only able to give us one drink menu as the food menus were all being used. We ordered drinks and one appetizer. The appetizer arrived first after 15 minutes, and the drinks arrived 30 minutes after ordering. Before you ask, I know what time everything came out because of my meticulous record keeping through photos. Our entrées came out after 45 minutes. My salad came out the same time as my pasta dish so that was kind of off-putting. Everyone's main was lukewarm and surprisingly underwhelming. Brother's steak was supposed to be medium-rare but was pretty well-done (and somehow still cold). The burger tasted okay (nothing to write home about). The Root's Pie which is their version of a shepherd's pie was mediocre. And, my Chicken Romano was just so plain, and so cold that the noodles and sauce congealed together. I understand the pesto being kind of boring because it's oil and herbs, but the chardonnay romano sauce just tasted like a plain alfredo sauce made with very mild, unimpressive cheese. Maybe drizzle it with a balsamic glaze or something? I will say that the Bang Bang Shrimp were really good and the panko-crusted chicken on my pasta was perfectly crunchy outside and juicy inside. Just cold.

We also didn't get a soda that was ordered at the very beginning. The server barely checked on us at all. So little, that we feared we'd wait another hour if we sent anything back. So, we tried to eat what we had and snacked when we got home. All in all, pretty disappointed in this experience and kind of embarrassed that we brought our family here. Hopefully, it was just an off night but we're not coming back...

Very disappointing experience on Saturday night. Ordered the Bacon Bleu Cheeseburger (medium) and my wife ordered an appetizer and a side Caesar salad.

35 minutes later we received our meal. Even when the restaurant was half full.

My burger came out extremely well done, flavorless, and the size was comparable to a quarter pounder from McDonalds. Our server was largely absent from the beginning of the meal and didn’t check back on our meal for over 10 minutes.

We were hoping for a nice meal before our show downtown but we were now running behind schedule with a very lackluster meal and we didn’t have 30 more minutes to wait for another burger.

I informed my server when she finally checked then a manager came by and said she will make sure to “discount it”. Not take the burger off the check… just a discount….

Then several minutes after we were finished eating and hoping to get out to make our show our server finally came back with the bill machine. When she had us pay she realized the manager hadn’t taken anything off (when we made it very clear to the manager we had a show to catch and were running late.) She then had to flag her down and have her give the discount. Making us wait another 5 minutes.

After coming back, she showed me how much it was and asked me to pay. No receipt. No walking me through the bill. Just asked for my credit. It was an amount I was surprised to hear. After my wife and I tried to figure out what must have been taken out. We think it was like $3 or $4.

Just insulting. For a restaurant that’s charging so much. This was a very poor experience. I don’t believe we will be...

Can't speak a downfall on behalf of the food. Props to the cooks/ chefs, they definitely know their trade! Flavors were bursting and an overall soothing atmosphere to accompany. I'm a New Yorker and gotta say it's hard to find something to light up my taste buds in a city like Des Moines. So the food definitely did it for us. I gotta say I had high hopes walking into a recent restaurant in town, especially on our first marriage anniversary. We're not too big on eating out as my wife can cook up about anything delicious. Although, we had our experience on Monday night (7/21). One of the gals working till close was abrupt about reminding us about kitchen closure in the remaining 15 minutes. I've done sales most of my life and have worked food industry and can assert I can treat a customer substantially better. It didn't stop there as the same gal decided to bring our ticket to the table before we asked for it. My reaction was shoving my last bites down and headed out the door before the food made it down to my stomach. We thanked her and were satisfied with our flavors. And I understand the stress, agitation in the restaurant industry but customers drive business. Which is something i'm willing to say didn't par up to our experience and should be addressed or considered for the overall experience...