Gilroy's Kitchen + Pub + Patio — Restaurant in West Des Moines

On August 30th, we hit Gilroy’s around 11:30am and were greeted by a very cheerful and engaging bartender, Erica who greeted the three of us as we sat at the bar.

We had shared that we were celebrating my wife’s cancer journey and just found out radiation was not going to be required as part of the process. Believe me when I tell you this Erica girl’s reaction was like she was in our family. We enjoyed the Red Berry Basil Cranberry- Lemonade craft cocktail and mimosas. Erica’s pour was perfection. I might add their soda selection includes Pepsi products and their Diet Mountain Dew is a perfect vintage-one of the best syrup/carbonations I have had, not typical in a bar or restaurant.

We ordered the Cheese Curds that were a very light tempura fry with amazing homemade ranch dressing.

I ordered the Fish and Chips which was also a tempura batter, but it was well seasoned and hand battered. Most times I find restaurant Fish and Chips too bland, but this was some of the very best I’ve ever had. It came with Parmesan French fries that were amazing. The coleslaw was perfect and not overly sweet. Even the spot on ‘tart’ tartar sauce was homemade and delicious. Erica also served up malt vinegar, offered by her.

My wife and sister-in-law split the special of the day that was a Crispy Salmon Sandwich. This bugger should be a daily feature! It was seasoned with a light crunch, but the salmon was perfectly moist and not overcooked.

While we were 1/2 way through, Erica presented a card to my wife (we have never met Erica before) that was a congratulations on her good news. The entire kitchen staff and servers signed the card, including Winston the dog, complete with a mini paw print. It also included a generous gift certificate. All three of us cried, and I can tell you with specificity, none of us, two with prior service industry experience, have ever experienced such a personal touch from a complete stranger. I am tearing up simply writing this review.

I will be back for the Fish and Chips for sure, but more so because of the way Erica...

FRIENDS, Gilroy's is a must for brunch! Gilroy's provided me and my family with our first pandemic brunch and our expectations were exceeded. We had a group of 6 for Mother's Day brunch and planned ahead, so we made a reservation on Yelp/Open Table. To our surprise we were seated outside. We would have preferred sitting inside; however, we were pleased with the outdoor space that offered portable heaters. I thought this was a nice touch for outdoor seating.

I looked ahead, and found out that the restaurant would be serving brunch family style. The menu had options for everyone. The bottomless mimosas and bloody mary's could be interchanged. We ordered a few different dishes to start off - pancakes, potatoes, eggs, and biscuits & gravy. Our table ordered seconds of the pancakes and biscuits and gravy. Some of our favorites were the biscuits and gravy and red potato dishes. For a family style buffet, we definitely got out moneys worth with how many times we ordered. Quite honestly, I prefer the family style brunch now.

I would say the only downside to the family style serving was the amount of time we waited between orders. It seemed that every time we placed an order for more food, we waited about 15 minutes. Now I totally understand it was a busy day, but something to note.

The service was good, it was a busy day, so I imagine we saw our waitress a standard number of times. Every time she visited our table, she was able to fulfill our requests.

TIP: Call for reservations! You can request indoor or outdoor seating. If you make a reservation on Yelp/Open Table, you don't get to request indoor or outdoor seating. The outdoor seating has both covered and uncovered options. The covered patio also has portable heaters for those chilly Iowa evenings.

I look forward to visiting Gilroy's to explore their main dining menu...

I gave the atmosphere less because the hostess gave me a horrible first impression right off the bat. We came in last night for an early dinner to specifically sit and eat on a patio. We saw the whole extended patio open and 5 tables open on the patio. I asked her if we could sit on the patio, she said it’s full you can sit inside. I said we don’t want to sit inside I saw numerous tables open outside can we wait for one. She got a horrible attitude and said “I guess you can sit on our extended patio”. As we were walking back she was throwing a passive aggressive attitude sighing and angry body language. I wanted to turn around and leave. I would like to note the tables were open on the main patio the entire time we were there. While we were eating a waitress needed help from the hostess holding something she helped and turned around stomping mad she had to do something sighing. My oldest daughter is 11 and I see a similar attitude with her when I ask her to put on her shoes. Not something for a work place. It seems she was irritated having to walk people to their tables outside, because she’s lazy and would prefer to lie to customers. After we were seated multiple others were seated on the extended patio. We really liked our food, it was more expensive, but we were happy to pay for the unique quality. I like that you have numerous NA drinks since we gave up alcohol. This specifically upset me, because we drove to multiple restaurants to sit on a patio and she was refusing to let us sit on...