Iron Wok — Restaurant in West Des Moines

I've been searching for a Chinese restaurant that serves great Szechuan chicken since our old favorite place closed during Covid and I think I've found it. This has been on my list of places to try for a while so today my husband and I went there for dinner and we're so glad we did. We went with low expectations because so many other places have let us down in the past. So, we were pleasantly surprised by how good the food was.

It's kind of confusing because when we first walked in there, it looks like your typical strip mall fast/casual restaurant where you order at the counter and then they bring you your food when it's ready. There's even a fountain pop machine next to the counter. It totally gives off kind of fast food vibes. But you're actually supposed to sit at a table and wait for them to take your order. The decor is simple but nothing fancy.

I got the Szechuan chicken and my husband got the Hunan chicken. They both had wonderful flavor. The sauces were excellent and they came with a lot of vegetables, which I loved. He also got a cup of hot and sour soup, which was a tiny teacup size but very delicious. The prices were pretty high for a carryout Chinese place. It was $15.25 for each of our dishes and $3.50 for the tiny cup of soup. We thought that was pretty high for the type of place that it is and the fact that they served our food in plastic to go containers and our drinks in plastic cups. They did give us glass plates and silverware, but for the prices they're charging, I feel like they could have served the food on nicer looking glass dishes.

The kid who served us was excellent. He was super friendly, nice and attentive. I wish more servers were like him. He checked on us several times and asked us if there was anything else we needed. He seemed to genuinely care about us as patrons and wanted to make sure we were happy. He even asked us if we needed more rice since we ate all ours and had leftovers of our entrées. We told him no because we didn't know if they would charge us extra for that. But we were delighted when he brought us extra rice in a to go box and it was on the house.

We absolutely loved our dishes and we'll definitely be back again. It's so nice to finally find a good Chinese restaurant that serves tasty food with...

We stopped in last night for dinner and were immediately greeted and told to sit wherever. Our drink orders were taken right away, and when we mentioned it was our first visit the woman was extremely helpful in going over the menu, spice level, etc. We ordered Beef Pad Thai and egg drop soup, and Orange Chicken and tom yum soup. The egg drop soup was good, and similar to what similar restaurants serve. The broth for the tom yum was amazing - be warned, it was very spicy. Both the entree's were absolutely amazing! The servings were extremely generous, and we will get at least 2 more meals out of the leftovers which is nice because the prices seemed a little higher than "normal", however not excessive for a sit down restaurant with table service ($15-16 for each entree, $3-5 for each soup). The meals were brought out in a plastic to go container with a lid and a Styrofoam container, however they also brought us nice plates and silverware. I appreciated having the food already in the to-go container as it avoided the messy transfer of leftovers when we were done eating. We served up our own portion sizes on the plates and ate off of those and were very happy with that. While we ate the staff came up multiple times to fill our drinks and check on us. I also love that they have the long tube fortune cookies, as they are so much yummier than the traditional vanilla cookies! As we left they said good night and told us they hoped we would come back soon. I loved the interaction with the staff - I don't like to be overwhelmed with attention/questions when trying to eat, however it was nice to have drink refills and to be acknowledged when we were leaving. We will definitely be going back!

Oh, and one of the staff mentioned they do not serve alcohol, but you can bring in your own bottle of beer (she suggested the Indian grocery next door) and have it with the meal, the staff is just not allowed to handle the alcohol beverage. I thought it was nice of them to offer this...

So… never been here before and I Googled some reviews and decided to try it out. I’m sure glad I did!! I was greeted by several people there and I felt very comfortable about getting there 45 minutes before closing. I was the only one in the restaurant and I felt like I belonged here. Jada, my personal food assistant helped me with some of the options and since I wanted to sample a few things made some great suggestions. Let me say, from the hot and sour soup to the jalapeño rangoons and egg rolls to the Angry Combo… my taste buds were singing and dancing!! It was all super amazing. The freshness of the veggies to the broth in the soup, you could tell it was super fresh and packed with flavor. Truly didn’t disappoint! The jalapeño rangoons were to die for! Tons of jalapeño bits and creamy cream cheese… I swear the rangoons were the size of my fist! It was like getting 3 regular rangoons in one! The most amazing dish was the Angry Combo. I went with the mid level spice called, yep, you guessed it, Angry. I’m used to eating spicy foods since I was raised in a southern Arizona city. No lie… this dish was the high point of my trip to Des Moines. The shrimp was plump and succulent like it came straight from the ocean. The rest of the dish was buttery and savory and made me wish I had this restaurant back home so I could be the Cliff Claven of this place! I could go here and take a break from all my worries and know that everyone here would know my name and glad that I came! I will miss this adventure and yes, I will certainly...