Raul's

I drive by Raul's Mexican Restaurant on 8th Street in WDM all the time and finally stopped in.  The sign out front for the lunch buffet sign caught my eye.  Tuesday thru Friday they offer an all-you-can-eat lunch buffet from 11-2 including salad, corn and flour tacos, enchiladas, pizza, rice and beans and more.  For $7.95 it didn't look like a bad deal.  But since it was my first visit I wanted to order something off the menu.

The decor was impressive and the restaurant was bigger than I'd expected from the outside.

I was greeted by a friendly server and presented with warm tortilla chips and salsa.  It wasn't my favorite salsa, but I was hungry and it was good with the warm chips.

The owner also stopped by to say hello and make sure my drink order was taken.  I definitely felt welcome.  The were a lot of "Regulars" that came in for the buffet since I heard a lot of statements like "good to see you again" and "back again!"  It was nice to see that the staff appreciated their customers.

I was excited to see that they offered a full gluten-free menu and they had kids meal specials on Tuesday and Wednesday nights where kids eat for $1.95.

I ordered the 1/2 order of chicken fajitas for $7.95.  The chicken was sauteed with plenty of fresh veggies and came with rice, salad, sour cream and gauc and tortillas.  Everything was very tasty.  I especially liked the fresh gauc.  Even though I like guac, I often skip it in restaurants because of the sketch factor.  but not here, I happily applied it to my tortillas and enjoyed.

I'd certainly return again to try some of their other menu items.  I was totally stuffed after my fajitas so I didn't get a chance to sample more, but I'll update you when I do!  I'll be back.

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.

Bang Bang

If you haven't visited BangBang Mongolian Grill on Mills Civic in West Des Moines across from Red Robin, in a while, you might notice some changes.  


If you haven't been to BangBang before, it's a lot like HuHot Mongolian Grill with some neat additions.  The main meal is a meat and veggie station where you gather everything you want in your dish, pick your sauces and bring them to the grill to be cooked up right in front of you.


In addition to the grill items. they have soups, salads, appetizers you can order, a kids menu for kids who'd rather not do the grill, a chips and queso station and a frozen yogurt bar.  The appetizers, kids menu, chips station and yogurt station are additional charges from the grill price.  The grill is around $12.99 on weekends and $10.99 on weekdays I believe.


They have $2 martinis on Monday nights and kids eat free on Tuesday night.  They also just began doing Sunday Brunch where in addition to everything they normally have they have an omelet station set up and buffet including breakfast items like egg casserole, biscuits and gravy, French toast, donuts and fruit.  

The chips and queso station also had flour tortilla available to make fajitas from your grill items if you wish.  This station is an additional $2.49 to partake in, but that gives the whole table access for that one price.  It is actually a great deal for us because our picky 6 year old makes his whole meal out of tortilla and cheese and chips and we do not buy him a separate meal from that.


If you have a big appetite, come to BangBang, you'll definitely get a bang for your buck since you can take as many trips to the grill as you like.  



The frozen yogurt station is also set up pretty nicely with at least 30 toppings available all included in the $3.49 (ish) price


The only downside I've experienced is that you can go through the whole process of picking out your items for you meal, picking out sauces and waiting for your meal to be cooked and then maybe not like what you picked.  The good part is that you can just go through the process until you find a combination you like.  The bad part is that you have to go through the process again until you find a combination you like.  Luckily they have lots of recipes posted above the sauce station so you can play it safe and follow those and you'll usually come up with something you enjoy the first time around.

Mi Patria

Sandwiched between a denture store and Michael's Craft store in the plaza behind Taco Bell in West Des Moines, is a seemingly small Ecuadorian restaurant named Mi Patria.  Once you walk inside though, you'll see that this is really a large space with ample seating for at least 25 parties.

The restaurant has a few photos and wall adornments, but pretty unassuming overall.  The smell of cleaning solution filled the air as I entered for lunch and sat at a booth to review the menu.
My server was friendly and I heard her happily giving menu suggestions to other diners.

We had been here once before and really enjoyed the Tortilla de Yucca appetizer.  They were yucca patties stuffed with beef and cheese and topped with a vegetable salad.  The tangy salad was a great mix with the savory yucca. On that trip we also ordered the Arroz con Pollo which was very filling but didn't have a lot of strong flavors shine through the rice.  We also had a marinated pulled pork dish that was very tasty.  I decided to try a few other dishes before I gave you my review and made anther visit.

During my lunch visit today, I tried the chicken stew with yellow rice and fried plantains.  The chicken was tender and the stew gravy with vegetables was a good combination.  They offered me a homemade hot sauce which I think would have added some nice flavor to the dish, but I tend not to love spicy items so I passed.  The sweet plantains were a really nice added flavor though.

Though I was pretty full from the large portion size of the entree, I was intrigued by the coconut battered and fried banana dessert with ice cream, so I went for it and it was amazing.  Warm and perfectly crisp outside shell with sweet banana filling and ice cream hit the spot.  I would order this again in a heartbeat.

Our waitress explained that everything they serve is made in-house.  She said that as we ate, the chef was preparing the dough for their popular empanadas to serve that evening.

This is truly some special cuisine that you don't find a lot of here in Des Moines.  The Ecuadorian flavors without added hot sauce are pretty mild and comfort-food-esque so don't assume you won't like it before giving it a shot.  I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Ps. They have a nice kids menu and a coupon on their website to print out and bring with you on your dinner visit (valid mon-thurs) for a free kids meal.  And it is reusable!   You can get it here.

Hy-vee Brunch (Urbandale/Waukee)

 While checking out the new and exciting Urbandle Hy-vee, we noticed that they serve an all-you-can-eat Sunday Brunch buffet on, well, Sundays.  They start at about 8:30am and end at 2:00pm.  During that time, for $14 you can pretty much eat anything you want from the Hy-vee Chinese, Italian, home style kitchen, specialty oatmeal bar, Omelet station and prime rib station. It does not include sushi or deli-sandwiches, but it does in include dessert and gelato.  This is a really great deal for only $14 per person if you come hungry.  And the best part is that kids 5 and under eat free from the buffet!

The have an optional bloody Mary bar, but soft drinks and coffee are included in the price.  They also offer some a la cart breakfast items if you'd prefer not to do the buffet.

The new restaurant is pretty nice with servers and cloth napkins, pretty innovative for a Hy-vee.  At 4:00pm they change into their evening restaurant with a regular menu and you can't eat food items purchased outside of the restaurant in the restaurant.  You can't do this during the Sunday Brunch either, but I think it's acceptable during breakfast and lunch on other days.  We haven't eaten there for dinner yet, but we thought the brunch was really neat, especially if you are a fan of the Chinese or Italian sections.

All-in-all I really like the new concepts the Urbandale Hy-vee has brought from the specialty cheeses to the expanded health food section and gourmet prepared food offerings like a sushi bar and gelato stand.  I was pretty impressed with the Sunday Brunch and thought the service was good.  I would recommend That you order your omelet right away though as it took a while to prepare, but it was worth the wait.  Great brunch experience with a good bang for your buck (especially if you have kids under 5!).  Check it out.

Update: The new Waukee Hy-vee also offers this awesome buffet!

Don't Fight it..Eat a Burrito

Fairly new to Downtown at 309 13th street (just) off of Locust street is the Ames-originated Fighting Burrito.  The concept is the same as Qdoba, Chipotle or Pancheros where you pick a burrito, bowl, salad or tacos and then pick your toppings.  They have a few pre-constructed ideas for you too if you'd rather not think that hard.

We started off with some chips and queso that were tasty and similar to other quesos you'd find at local joints.

We both ordered bowls and picked our own toppings.  White rice, no beans, chicken, grilled veggies, spicy corn salsa and lettuce for him.  Wild rice, black beans, beef, cheese, sour cream and Jalapeno peach salsa for me.  I have to note that the portion sizes were significantly smaller than than the other concept-similar restaurants.

Hubby said his was tasty and the spicy corn salsa was the highlight.  I really enjoyed the marinated shredded beef with the peach salsa combination.  It was unique and probably could have eaten 3 times the portion size.

So all-in-all, a great choice for a quick, downtown lunch with a lot of taste.  Order a large/extra topping if you have a big appetite.  The staff was friendly the restaurant was clean and family-friendly.  If you're a burrito-lover, check it out and see what you think!

Ps. Kids under 10 eat FREE all day on Sundays!

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.

Work your way over to Spaghetti Works

We took a few long overdue trips to Spaghetti Works on Court Ave last week. I just love their salad bar that comes with most meals (even kids meals). And they have just a great selection of pizza, pasta and tons of other menu items that include gluten-free pasta and gluten-free chicken fingers.

The kids just love it here too and my kid especially liked the pj & j pizza!  My kid likes it minus the j though.  The kids meals are great and include the main dish, salad bar and drink for about $5.  And the best part is that kids eat FREE on Mondays!   My friend and I had 3 kiddos along with us this particular Monday.  We got $5.99 lunch specials which included pasta and salad bar and they got kids meals...Our bills? $5.99 (plus tax and tip).  GREAT DEAL for 5 people!

The restaurant was not busy at all when we arrived at about 10 til 12 and stayed pretty calm throughout lunch.  Our kids are loud talkers and the waitresses didn't seem to mind, they even went out of their way to chat with them and check with them about how they liked their meals.

Tip: They have some shoe-string fried potatoes (you know the ones from a can that you used to love as a kid) at the salad bar that make a great snack to keep the kiddos at bay until their food arrives.  Unless of course you're the kind of parent that actually makes your kid eat salad....don't judge...They also have chocolate pudding on the salad bar to bribe your kids to eat their meal with...not that I've ever done that or anything.


Anyway, we went back for a second trip to try the gluten-free items. I tried the gluten-free pasta today and it was great!  The rice noodles in their original sauce was a perfect lunch.  The noodles were cooked just right and paired with the salad bar made a great meal.  The gf chicken fingers were awesome as well and are fabulous with the tomato sauce for dipping!  

We had two all-around great meals at Spaghetti Works!   Do you have a favorite dish we should try?