Barn Town Brewing — Restaurant in West Des Moines

4.6* (out of 5) Food: 5* Atmosphere: 4* Value: 5* Service: 4* Would I go back / Recommend?: 5* (Definitely) Total check/person: $30

06/25/2025 Quick update following another great stop for dinner with my wife, son and Grandson. This time, we took advantage of the Tendies & Pitchers Wednesdays - and what a great value!

My wife and I both ordered the Pound of Chicken Tenders & Chips, but with different dipping sauces (see picture). As we've come to expect at Barn Town, they were delicious - crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside. Of the dipping sauces we tried, my favorite was the Hot Honey...but they were all pretty good.

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Food: 4* Atmosphere: 4* Value: 4* Service: 4*

2/29/2024 Another great stop with our son and daughter-in-law to celebrate her Leap Year Birthday. We again started with an order of Dips & Chips - have always enjoyed the thick-cut homemade chips and the dipping sauces...tonight was no different.

For dinner, I ordered the Nashville Hot Ramen (at the server's suggestion - see picture) and really liked it. I will warn you though - I like spicy food and typically order Thai above average on the spicy scale...and this was the upper edge of my preferred spiciness, causing my lips to burn and eyebrows / nose to water. My wife ordered the Brewer's Burger (see picture) and really enjoyed (and of course I stole a couple of bites and will recommend it).

2/23/2023 Have found this to be a solid stop on previous visits - enjoying the beer and food selections and the casual environment. This time was a first stop for our friend from Brazil who joined us along with our son and daughter-in-law and everyone enjoyed the evening.

For Happy Hour, our son got us started on the PB&J (yes, Peanut Butter & Jelly) Grape sour, so we enjoyed a glass of it. Ordinarily, we aren't big sour fans, but this one was self-described by our server as more sweet than sour and that is a great description. You taste definite peanut butter and grape jelly flavors and it is fairly sweet.

For Happy Hour food, we ordered Dips & Chips (see picture) and Wisconsin Cheese Curds (see picture). The chips were nice and thick and crunchy (as expected) and both the cheese and sour cream dips tasted great. The Cheese Curds were also great - a light breading filled with nice soft cheese and the provided dip was also very tasty.

For our dinner, I ordered the Pollo Diabllo Wrap with sweet potato fries (see picture) and my wife ordered the Braised Brisket with Fries (see picture). Both were fantastic, with great flavor and fries cooked and seasoned perfectly - crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside and delicious!

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Photos copyright: happyhourdesmoines.com & thefoodanddrinkguy.com

05/2022 This is a unique place with a lively and friendly atmosphere and good food.

We started with fried pickles and Wisconsin cheese curds based on the waitresses recommendation. Both were very good - the pickles were crispy slices with good flavor and the cheese curds were tasty. Both had minimal breading and neither seemed greasy (see pictures).

I then enjoyed the Nashville Hot Chicken sandwich with Roasted Brussels Sprouts and my wife had the Brewer's Burger (see pictures) - all were delicious!

Food: 4 Atmosphere: 4 Service: 4

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For a list of great Happy Hour food and drink specials in the Des Moines area,...

Not a frequent reviewer... but 2 individuals working here tonight earned it (also, sorry for the long winded review ahead time and that I didn't remember their names) ANYWAY... I ordered some food to go, and omw there I blew a tire. Got a call that my food was ready and I explained, "I'm sorry, I'll be pretty late, got a flat etc"

I finally arrive an hour later. When I get there the host (tall, black hair, young) confirmed my order and then asked "how's the tire?" I replied, "terrible it's a long story..." he empathized then stated "your food's been here a while, can we make it fresh for you?" I replied "I'd really appreciate it man, could really use a 🍺 anyway. They didn't have to do this...he didn't have to offer that...

At this point, grab a seat at the bar. The bar tender is really friendly (middle age guy, average height, short beard). We chatted a bit and we remorsed about my recent minor/could have been major misfortune (I'll save some time, but long story short, I narrowly avoided a horrific injury when it happened) this guy doesn't know me, but he even offered to buy me a beer. This, though some may see as a small gesture, meant alot to me.

I probably walked in there with the dumbest look on my face. Embarrassed for being late, wind burnt/sun burnt from golfing all day, mad at a stupid flat tire, and in a bit of shock from a near accident all at the same time.

Yet, these guys turned it all around. Idc if it sounds dramatic... These are 2 good humans that made a huge impact on my day. This was the best way I could think of to say thank you after gimping my car home. So... THANK YOU!!! (This was at around 5:30pm)

Owner/management;

Feel free to reach out to me if you want more details. These 2 should be recognized.

PS; Food and beer was great as always! PSS; Your staff is even better! And I'd give your food and beer a 9/10!

Cheers...

Decent place to eat. The burger was PHENOMENAL (I had the Brewer's Burger, and Bacon Blu for my man), and there are so many novel and delicious burgers to choose from. However, the fries were really unimpressive which is unusual. Mine were overcooked/burnt and tasted like dirty burnt oil and weren't really salted at all. My friends had slightly better fries but my fat *ss didn't even wanna finish my fries, they were that bad. So I was disappointed. Plus, I saw another review where they got 2 cuts of pork belly on the burger 10 months ago, and yet I only got 1 when I went... It feels kinda cheap and scummy, especially since the online mobile menu picture looked like maybe it just cropped out the 2nd skinny slice.

I was also disappointed by the meal size overall for the price, but the drinks were super great. I like it when I can't really taste my alcohol, and the flavors were fun and most tasted great. I thought there were better flavor options in the summer though. We got a flight of 4 to sample 4 flavors. It's a shame how often they run out of the ones you want though, so we got the cotton candy which was just weird. We went home with cans of the blackberry pie though.

However, like other restaurants, the appetizers are outrageous... They're the same price as the meals for half the size or less. They looked delicious, but were way overpriced, so we ended up not getting any.

2 burgers, one flight of 4 flavors, and 1 4-pack set us back over $100 with tip and tax... And I was hungry pretty soon after.

I'd maybe go again with friends or a big party, but I didn't really feel like I got the greatest food experience or bang for my buck. Only reason I have 4 stars is for the amazing burger (alone) and service.

P.S. the menu is a QR code on the tables. I liked the visuals/pictures I had...