Your favorite Des Moines restaurant (Ankeny, Altoona: buy, live, restaurants)

[ElleTea]

What is your fave place to eat in Des Moines and why?

[capitalcityguy]

That’s pretty open-ended. My answers vary greatly if I’m considering breakfast vs. lunch during the workday vs. a special evening out where I’m planning on dropping some $$$ vs. the place I’d be sure to take out-of-town guests vs. the place I might take my folks when they visit vs. where we go if we were downtown for the evening vs. where we’d go if the weather was nice (so we could eat outside) vs.…

I’m not saying it isn’t a legit question, just hard to narrow down without any parameters. I think I can safely say I buy the most meals at Mickey D’s, but does that make it “my favorite”?

[ElleTea]

Originally Posted by capitalcityguy

That’s pretty open-ended. My answers vary greatly if I’m considering breakfast vs. lunch during the workday vs. a special evening out where I’m planning on dropping some $$$ vs. the place I’d be sure to take out-of-town guests vs. the place I might take my folks when they visit vs. where we go if we were downtown for the evening vs. where we’d go if the weather was nice (so we could eat outside) vs.…

I’m not saying it isn’t a legit question, just hard to narrow down without any parameters. I think I can safely say I buy the most meals at Mickey D’s, but does that make it “my favorite”?

When I think about my favorite, a couple places come to mind immediately.

[tollfree]

Monterrey (always preferred the original one) has better Mexican food than you'd find in a Texas border town in my opinion.

Usually these lists consist of which restaurants are the most "civic minded/just as fanatical about the community"...I remember ZombieBurger was voted one of the best restaurants in some local list (probably DmJuice) before it even opened. No surprises there.

[DMRyan]

I like some restaurants too but in keeping with the theme of this thread so far, I'm not going to share any at this time...

[capitalcityguy]

Originally Posted by ElleTea

When I think about my favorite, a couple places come to mind immediately.

Mine do too...that is, a couple places for each occasion/situation I previously listed (and also keeping with the theme of the thread so far, I'm not going to name names).

[duster1979]

Originally Posted by RonnieJonez

Monterrey (always preferred the original one) has better Mexican food than you'd find in a Texas border town in my opinion.

My wife and I used to meet at the one in Altoona for lunch pretty regularly. I don't know if I'd call it my "favorite" (definitely top 5), but other than the chain places within walking distance of Menards in Ankeny it was probably the place I ate most often while we lived up there.

I was in Des Moines for a meeting a couple of weeks ago and made it a point to eat at Bandanas in Ankeny. It seems a little lame because it's a chain place, but I've always liked the food and chain places seem a lot less lame when you don't live close to them. Same would go for Famous Daves and Texas Roadhouse.

But if I really had to pick a favorite that is truly unique to Des Moines I would probably go with El Bait Shop. Can't really say why, it's justthe onethatkeeps coming back to my mind.

[ElleTea]

Theme of the thread? I was just asking where everyone liked to eat. What's the theme?

Some of my faves:

A Dong (best eggrolls ever)
Thai Flavors
India Star
El Rodeo (not so much the food, but for the margaritas)

[capitalcityguy]

Off the top of my head:

J Benjamen's/Simons
Centro
Fong's Pizza
Jethro's BBQ
Irina's
F & O's
Royal Mile
Olympic Flame
Django
Mullet's


Chains:

Old Chicago
Tx Roadhouse
Okoboji Grill
Famous Dave's
IHOP
Granite City
Chipotle

[tollfree]

Casey's pizza. Even better than Fong's (eww)