Zuzap

We've been to Zuzap Thai restaurant a few times now and have always had solid experiences.  It's located on University Ave. in Clive, but you can't quite see it from the street, it's set back behind some other shops in the plaza.

For lunch on the weekday, the restaurant was packed, but the service was still quick and efficient.  It was fun hearing the owner greet regulars already knowing their order and calling them by name.

We must have been in for dinner on our last visits because this was the first time I noticed their very neat "Lunch Sets".

$7.95 includes an egg roll, soup of the day and an entree.  For an extra charge, you can pick a soup off the menu and pick your appetizer instead of the egg roll and soup of the day and includes a drink.

I chose the corn cake and coconut soup along with Pad See Ew and my hubby got the Basil.  Everything was very good, except we realized that they used a lot of salt in everything we ordered.  My hubby said that while his sauce was every good, there could have been more sauce and I agreed with my dish as well.

I normally really enjoy the thai coconut soup.  It's creamy with chunks of white meat chicken and has a tangy flavor.  I still enjoyed it today even though it was obviously more salted than usual.

The portions were great for lunch and the lunch sets were a great value.

The restaurants is casual enough to bring the whole family, but cozy enough for a date-night.  Nice to have a good Thai restaurant on this side of town since the my other go-to Thai places on the West side are down the road a few miles in WDM (Cool Basil and King & I) .

I also left with a warm-fuzzy feeling after reading my fortune-------->

Della Dolce Bakery

Today's guest post is by my friend Christie who knows a good cookie when she tastes one!  Check out her experience at this brand new bakery and make plans to attend the Grand Opening for some samples!

I had the chance to be one of the first customers at Della Dolce Bakery on their opening day yesterday!

This is the most beautiful bakery I’ve ever been in.  No surface was left untouched when turning this space into a cozy bakery.

Stop in the morning for a cup of tea or coffee and a scone, cinnamon roll, caramel roll, quiche, or turnover.  By afternoon they have dessert favorites such as cookies, cupcakes, pies, and tarts.  I had one of the chocolate chip cookies and it was DELICIOUS.  Crunchy on the outside, soft and gooey on the inside.

Owner, Catherine, also makes wedding cakes and caters other beautiful desserts for events. 

Catherine is hosting her Grand Opening Ceremony on Saturday, November 2 from 5-8pm with the ribbon cutting at 6pm.  She will have light appetizers and samples sizes of menu items for everyone to try.

You can find Della Dolce Bakery at 13435, Suite 300 University Ave, Clive  IA 50325.  Phone: 515-330-2848.  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DellaDulceBakery

The Club Car

It's been a while since we visited The Club Car in Clive.  I saw that they revamped their gluten-free menu and I had to try it out.  I brought my gluten-free mom and anything-eating husband along too for lunch last week.

The restaurant is cozy and inviting and the staff was really friendly.  The gluten-free menu was really impressive.  They have everything on the gf menu from boursin stuffed mushrooms to spinach and artichoke dip and entrees from steak and shrimp scampi to macaroni and cheese.  Yum.  You can view the gluten-free menu here.

The regular menu is also nicely varied with a selections of pastas, salads, steaks, etc.  You can view the regular lunch and dinner menu here.

My mom got a nice steak salad.  The hubby ordered the Black and Bleu flat bread pizza which he enjoyed. And the highlight of the meal was my mac & cheese with bacon and peas.  This was quite heavy but comfort food at its finest.  Perfectly cooked gluten-free pasta and the flavor pops of the peas made this dish really good.

They also have 1/2 prices appetizers during happy hour at 3pm on Monday thru Friday, kids eat free Mondays and Tuesdays and a lunch club where they give you a punch card and after you've purchased 5 lunches you get one free.

The Club Car is a great lunch spot for a business lunch, but casual enough for families.  Go there for American favorites and cozy atmosphere.  We appreciate their attention to special diets and would highly recommend giving them a shot.

Granite City Brunch

There are a lot of great places for buffet brunch in Des Moines.  Some of my faves are The Machine Shed, Americana and Hy-vee Grille at the new Waukee and Urbandale locations. I also just can't keep myself away from the Sunday Brunch buffet at Granite City.  It is just so awesome.

I have dreams about the reggiano hash browns.  Seriously, dreams.  I'm a sucker for a cheesy-potato dish, but these take the cake.  I can't even explain the sophisticated, sharpness of this flavor, you must try them yourself.

Ok, enough about the potatoes, the rest of the buffet is good too.  They offer an omelet station, prime rib station, fruit, eggs, waffles, great quality sausage links and thick cut slices of bacon.  They also have a lunch dish available on the buffet as well like a pasta or rice dish.  An all around great buffet.

And don't forget about the impressive cinnamon rolls.  Always hot, fresh and addictive.

I don't always love buffets for brunch, but everything they serve is great on this one.  It is definitely one of the more pricey in town at about $16 per person. Kids are a reduced price, but definitely a trip for a special occasion.  It does get pretty busy when folks get out of church.  We waited for a bout 45 minutes on out latest visit.  But the earlier you arrive the better.

They offer an all-you-can-drink mimosa or bloody mary special during the brunch as well and you can of course order off of the regular menu, but why would you want to?!  Just kidding, their regular menu of sandwiches, pizza, pastas, etc. is very good and a great option for lunch or dinner.  I just love the buffet!!

Eat, Play, Love Des Moines Night @ 515 Brewery

We were SO excited to host our first free public event on Friday, July 26th at 515 Brewery in Clive.  Thanks to all of you who came and made it awesome!

It was a beautiful night and we had a fantastic turnout with upwards of 200 people that came out!  It was so busy we lost track!


We gave away lots of mail openers =)  We raffled off (in our free raffle) tons of t-shirts, food items from local restaurants, Tastefully Simple products, ICubs tickets and more.  Over 50 prizes!!

Local Yocals was there serving up his fantastic farm burgers made with all local ingredients along with Iowa sweet corn and Iowa fries.  After keeping him busy cooking for 3 hours, he sold out!

Tamales Industry was also there selling their famous delicious tamales, they too sold out after a few hours!  If you want more, you can visit their restaurant on 2nd Ave in Des Moines!

Rogue Sweets made chocolate chai cupcakes with 515's own Numb Nuts beer and caramel apple cupcakes from Sutliff Cider (also available at 515).  They were awesome!  Everyone enjoyed them!

Dishcrawl Des Moines brought their bacon photo booth to get everyone excited for the Bacon Battle event that was to he held the following Sunday. Fun!

We deemed the event a success and we hope you did too!  We hope you had a great time and are looking forward to the next event as much as we are!  Next time I will totally find a microphone so we don't have to find you individually in a crowd of 200!

We are open to suggestions to make our events even better! And if you own a local business and you'd like us to host an event (big or small), just shoot us an email @ EatplayloveDSM@aol.com and we'll see if we can set something up!

Our next event will be August 9th, 2013 at Sully's Irish Pub in West Des Moines.  Look for details to follow and hope to see you there!

Cozy Cafe

You may have noticed that the West End Diner @ The Valley West Inn is now a Cozy Cafe.  These cafes seems to be popping up in former restaurant locations all around the metro.  Cozy Cafe now has spots in Clive, Urbandale, Merle Hay in Des Moines, Valley West in West Des Moines and SE 14th street in Des Moines.

While they are starting to get a little "chain-ish", they still have some great qualities.  Generous portion-sizes, good service and a menu to please the whole family.

Thursdays offer free kids meals for lunch or dinner when an adult meal is purchased

Sunday evenings are 2 for 1 cavatelli dinners.

The expansive menu offers breakfast favorites like biscuits & gravy, pancakes, omelets and more.  I got the Cozy Mess on my last visit and overall I enjoyed it.  I got the half-size and as you can see, it's pretty big.  It boasted some local ingredients, and expected Graziano sausage when it was listed in another dish, but the sausage in the mess was reheated breakfast sausage chunks that I didn't like.  But the thick bacon pieces and ham chunks made up for it.

For lunch they have soups, salads, pizza, sandwiches, pasta and more.  They really do have a good selection and a good kids menu.

For dinner, they have blue plates specials too.   I've tried their Turkey Blue Plate Special and these meals are a good deal for under $10.  It was good, but not incredible.  I think that's the trade-off with having so many menu items.  You can't possible do all of them incredibly well.  But, I think Cozy Cafe does a good job of doing a lot of menu items pretty well and makes for a great restaurant to take the whole family because everyone is sure to find something that they like.

You are going to get a good meal at a good price here.  Try it out for your next family meal out and make sure to try a dessert.  They offer shakes, floats and ice cream sundaes along with fresh baked goods.  Yum.

Eat, Play, Love Des Moines! Night at 515 Brewing Company!

Hope you can make it!  Feel free to rsvp on Facebook and invite your friends!

Trostel's Dish

I have been a fan of Trostel's Dish since their opening, which I just realized was way longer ago than I thought.  I remember driving by the location on University Ave and being so exctied that a Tapas restaurant was opeing in Des Moines!  Man I must be getting old because that seemed like just yesterday, when in essence it must have been at least 6 years ago now.

Anyway, if you're like me, deciding on just one menu item can be tough, so that's why Trostel's Dish is awesome.  The average price per place is about $8 and 3 plates is usually enough to satisfy me and my husband for dinner, but it of course depends on your appetite.  You don't have to order all of your plates at once either, you can start with a few and order more if necessary.

On our last visit we had 3 dishes from three different regions.  The first was from their Mediterranean menu, the Arancini.  We had our American favorite, the Truffled Chicken Macaroni and Cheese and ended with a selection from the Latin menu, the Crispy Lamb Tacos.

The Arancini was described as creamy risotto balls with sun-dried tomatoes, basil and mozzarella with arrabbiatta dipping sauce.  These were heavy on the cheese and the soft risotto along with the tomato-based dipping sauce made them resemble a pizza-bite type creation.  Not a bad thing, they were very tasty but tasted more Italian rather than Mediterranean. Still very good, and we'd order them again.

The Truffled Chicken Mac & Cheese is our go-to menu item here.  It's described as braised chicken, elbow pasta, asiago and blue cheese finished with white truffle oil.  It is as amazing as it sounds.  The first time we ordered this dish we were smitten by the sharpness the cheese gave it and it has never had as much kick as that first time, but none-the-less, we still love it.  Look at those chunks of chicken. Yum.

Finally we had the Crispy Lamb tacos.  This dish would have been fantastic with a little more seasoning on the lamb and a sauce.  The description was slow roasted Onion Creek lamb in a crispy corn tortilla with onion-cilantro relish and jicama slaw.  I was hoping the relish would have more body to flavor the lamb but it fell a little short.  Adding the jicama to the taco really helped but a sweet/spicy salsa would have made this dish great.  I appreciated the quality of the lamb though.

They use local ingredients and change their menu seasonally so I didn't see it on the menu this visit, but if you ever see it on the menu again, order the Moroccan Spiced Chicken.  I still have dreams of this dish that we had once before. It was incredible.

They also have amazing house-made dessert and offer a gluten-free menu.  There is something for everyone here!

Ps. I got a kick out of the name of the wine flight that Josh ordered....Check it out on the receipt above: "You Bet Shiraz It's Good", I'm a sucker for cheesy names!

Tacopocalypse

UPDATE 8-18-2013 Tacopocalyse is opening a new permanent location in the East Village at 621 Des Moines Street. You can find them there now!

Hopefully by now, you've had the chance to try a delicacy by Chef Sam, but if not, here is the low-down. 

Let's start with Brunchpocalypse on Saturday and Sundays at their new location in the East Village at 621 Des Moines street.

Chef Sam uses local ingredients to make fantastic creations.  Korean chicken & waffles, breakfast nachos and tacos are just a few of the offerings.  Chef Sam's passion is Vegan fare so you are always sure to find something if that applies to you.  You can interchange brisket, pork, chorizo and whatever other special fillings he chooses that day into most of the dishes as well.

My meal of choice this Sunday was the breakfast nachos (top right photo).  A heaping portion of crispy fried tortilla chips with cheese, eggs, bacon chorizo and slaw.  At first glance I was worried that the slaw would overpower this dish, but it didn't. It was perfectly balanced with the chorizo and mild cheese sauce. Love.

We had our kid with us this day, and being a picky 5 year old, I had Sam put his nutella whipped cream on the side, so the picture doesn't do this waffle justice.  While the vanilla porter waffle was amazing by itself and my kid ate the whole thing in less than 5 minutes, I found myself spooning the nutella whipped cream (that he whipped together by hand that morning) into my mouth, it was that good.  For more exciting photos of their waffles and other offerings, check out their facebook page. 

Now that they are in their permanent location they are open every day for lunch and dinner during the week too.  Some the most amazing, creative tacos like Korean Chicken, Bacon Chorizo, Lemongrass pork, etc.  Sam started out working in a Korean restaurant when he was very young, so there is a lot of inspiration in there.  Everything is so good!  You just have to try it for yourself.

Free Gardening Seminars

Wether you are a pro gardener or planting tomatoes for the first time, The Woodsmith Store in Clive is offering free classes to help you learn something new.

The store is located at Hickman Road and 104th street in Clive.  All classes start at 5:45pm in May and June and you can check out the schedule here.

 If you're looking to start a new hobby or just think a seminar on one of these garden topics might help you, check it out.

They are also having a Kid's Event on May 11th, 2013 where you buy a plant and you'll receive and container for free that they'll help you pot.  Mother's day gift perhaps?