PerKup Cafe — Restaurant in West Des Moines

TLDR: I enjoy trying new places and maybe this wasn't the best showing they had to offer. Food was cooked and edible just not quite there yet as for flavor and texture. Service was fine, great even, considering it was during an obvious rush time. I might visit Perkup again to see if they improve and get the flavors to come together. As of right now I have no immediate plans to return anytime soon.

My party had the following.

Biscuits and gravy Eggs Benedict Kids french toast and bacon

Ultimately service was great, atmosphere was fine if not a bit strange (could tell it is strip mall but made into a diner. Not being held against them just was unexpected), pricing was normalish and food was edible. It came down to the food just missing the mark on every piece. Eggs Bennie had some of the best poached eggs I've ever had, the ham was super thick, on a wheat English muffin and (I'm not joking) drowning in hollandaise sauce like, muffin is just soggy sponge boat for the ham and egg. In the end eating it in bites as intended you could only taste ham. Just missing the mark of the things being balanced proportionally.

Biscuits and gravy missed it with flavor and consistency, the gravy being too runny and not enough of... anything it wasn't salty it wasn't peppery it wasn't meat it was mostly cream/milky which made us sad. Maybe it was slightly intended on the spice level since we had salt and pepper so you could do it how you wanted but, it definitely just needed more time on the burner or flour to thicken up.

Kids french toast and bacon. Bacon was obviously fine. Bacon only has 3 options of either cooked, burnt, or trichinosis. The french toast was a single slice of bread cut into 4 strips and personally I felt it again lacked spice/flavor. It needed more cinnamon, salt, sugar, anything really. It tasted less of a Custard/egg wash and more of milk than anything just...

Husband was in the mood for late breakfast. We drove almost 15 miles to eat at PerKup. Walked in and saw a sign that said they no longer take bills over $20. All we had was a $50. A manager or maybe the owner was standing at the entry. We told him we only had a $50 and he asked us why we couldn't use a credit card. We do not use cards at restaurants because we have had our identity stolen. I'm certain we would have spent over $30 for breakfast. Ridiculous that with most restaurants struggling financially that they would turn away customers with cash.

Updated. The owner's comment is a blatant lie. Both my husband and I walked into the restaurant. We gave no indication we were looking to only make change for a $50. That is ridiculous. A man was standing inside the entry. After we read the sign, I asked him if he worked there and he said yes. I told him all we had for payment was a $50 bill. He asked why we couldn't use a credit card. I looked at my husband and said, I guess we will eat at Waveland if they do not want our money here. I looked back at the empoyee who just stared at me. So we left. I was hoping he would say they would make an exception but he did not. There was no miscommunication. It is their business decision if they do not accept any bill over a $20. I just think it is a...

If you are looking for a coffee shop, this is NOT a coffee shop. It's a breakfast cafe that serves coffee. I don't know why it came up in our search for a coffee shop. Regardless, the service was HORRIBLE, just extraordinarily rude. After we ordered a little food and coffees and asked if we could order off the lunch menu to go, we were told that we couldn't place an order from the lunch menu until 10:15. It was 9:25. We are from out of town visiting our daughter, and we could've stretched the visit for that long catching up. I'd planned to order another coffee and something small, but at 9:30 we were told that if we wanted to order from the lunch menu, we'd have to wait in the lobby. At 9:55, while we were still finishing our drinks, we were told that we needed to go wait in the lobby and she could get me a to-go cup for my coffee that I was still drinking. We were NOT camping. We'd intended to order more but were never asked. So needless to say, we didn't order anything from the lunch menu for our drive home. Lost sales for Perkup, and no return visit...