Legends American Grill — Restaurant in Marshalltown

One thing other people mention in other reviews is the cost of the food, and many are, sadly, rather negative about it. I am writing, as a former food-service person (and aspiring entrepreneur) to tell you all that Legends is a BUSINESS. You have to factor in not just the cost of ordering food from wholesalers, but paying people's wages to even work there and serve the customers. Plus, there's the issue of all those TVs and the alcohol. Their electric bill and wholesaler tab for the booze can't be cheap, even if the manager is keeping to corporate budget (it IS a chain after all).

Now that we have that out of the way:

My go-to dish when eating any place fancy (yes, it's fancy, for my parents' budget!) that I've never been to is anything salmon or asparagus-related. If those two foods are put together, and it's fabulous, the place has won my heart for good. Legends did precisely that. Oh, and their garlic shrimp alfredo, which my mom had, is awesome too.

As for service: I find it very difficult to complain about the service. Other reviews on another site I've read said that the wait-staff checked up on them too much. I would rather have the wait-staff check up on me too much than not enough, or at all. The reason for this being is that if I do actually need something, the wait-staff are pretty much right there to go fetch what it is I need or want. Of course, the night my parents and I went, there was a newbie being trained, so we got checked up on quite a bit, which we really didn't mind. It meant we were being properly looked after.

Granted, Legends is pricey for some folks' budgets. That cannot be avoided. My folks and I have only eaten there one time because it is so pricey. Plus, we're not huge sports or alcohol fans. But we didn't go there for the sports and booze. We went there for the food, and it was awesome. I've often considered eating there by myself if I ever have the kind of money to just pop in there for lunch like I do with other places in Marshalltown. (Someday I will get to that point.) ;-)

Local-economy-wise, I like that Legends is even IN Marshalltown, because, quality-wise, it gives everyone a break from the fast-food joints, and it gives food-service-oriented people a good place to work if they're going to school at the local community college. Plus, I see a LOT of vehicles at Legends about every other night. That is how many sports fans are in M-town. And I can't say enough good stuff about the food. Oh, and I like their hours, too. They are one out of three nice restaurants in town (other than Applebee's and Perkins) that stays open past 10 at night, which makes it a great spot for night owls...

Horrible horrible horrible twice now so I will never go back. This has to be the worst run of their chain. Waitstaff was horrible couldn't remember our drink order, couldn't remember we ordered appetizers and our entrée's were brought out one by one over a 20 minute period. I received my sandwich last after everyone else in our party were done eating. Forgot this forgot that horrible service with no apology or acknowledgement of the mistakes as it went downhill from the start. Cold syrup for pancakes that came out cold as well. Health issues come to mind of what's going on in the kitchen. We complained to the manager and while waiting to speak to him a waitstaff stood by and made comments like, "yeah we always get a lot of people upset and complaining about our service so don't worry your not the only one" really did an employee just stand here and say that? Customer service is not present here and after speaking to the manager it did not seem to be a priority to him either. Lastly the wait staff was not appealing as far as their appearance, poor hygiene, tattoos, piercings, poor dress code as their uniforms looked worn out and came across as unprofessional and not courteous after the bad experience, our waitress had missing and black teeth, double pierced bottom lip and definitely wasn't afraid to smile as I couldn't even make eye contact as I was loosing my appetite. The waitress that brought out the food had offensive tattoos on her arms. Is this acceptable? Not with me.We as a family have frequently visited the Ames location before it closed and DesMoines but this Marshalltown location is awful and will probably close if nothing is done soon. I hope things change as I will not return until I hear that changes...

DO NOT GO HERE! First off as soon as we got in we could tell it was not busy. We waited to be seated a couple minutes. The teenage staff about 3 or 4 were busy running around finally a young man finally came up and started setting people. He did not sit people as first serve first set, it was more grab someone and go. Once we were finally sat down we had a very nice young waitress about 17 sit us and bring our drinks. And appropriate time later she took our order. I ordered the chicken and shrimp, my wife ordered pasta, and my daughter chicken tenders. The other party ordered 2 adult meals and a child's as well. We also ordered two appetizers, chips and cheese dip and cheese bread. It took an hour and 3 minutes to get the appetizers. When our cheese dip came out the top was filmed over and none of the dip was warm. About five minutes later we were asked by our very nice waitress if we wanted to put the kids meals in. It took about ten minutes to get our children's meals. Another ten minutes went by and the kids finished. We had not gotten our food. We asked for a check. Our waitress had stated the manager would print it off. The manager didn't even have the common respect to come out to apologize. We had to ask for her to come out. The manager claimed to give us the appetizers for free. Then went on to say they are normally free. We further explained how this was 1 star service and she knocked off 50% off my wife's long island ice tea. I then told her I have heard nothing but bad things about Marshalltown Legends and she was speechless just took our money. No type of apology or any sign of being sorry just speechless. Save yourselves do...