Local chefs offer their finest flavors at affordable prices during Des Moines Restaurant Week. Here are eight spots to try.
After a summer’s worth of preparation, Des Moines area restaurant chefs are ready to offer their most inventive and beloved dishes to foodies throughout the city this August 15-24 as part of Des Moines Restaurant Week. The annual tradition celebrates Des Moines’ bounty of culinary prowess with a collection of exclusive dishes and special deals, like prix fixe menus starting at just $15 for lunch and $40 for dinner.
You’ll want to make reservations for the almost 40 participating restaurants, which span all cuisine types and locations in downtown Des Moines, East Village, and the suburbs surrounding the city, but your advance planning will pay off when you savor unique dishes expertly paired with signature drinks.
Not sure where to start on your culinary quest? Here are just a handful of restaurants offering unique selections and unbeatable prices throughout Des Moines and its surrounding areas. For a complete list of participating restaurants, visit DSMRestaurantWeek.com.
Downtown Des Moines
Bubba
Bubba combines the best in southern comfort cooking and hospitality with ingredients farmed locally in the Midwest. With a dining room decorated with wide-brimmed hats, antique portraits, and even a display of fancy bow ties, Bubba lays on the personality thick—and the same can be said for its dishes.
For restaurant week, guests will be treated to a three-course dinner for $45 or a two-course lunch for $22. No matter what time of day you dine, Bubba offers root beer BBQ ham balls or carrot and corn fritters before entrées like BBQ chicken and baked beans. Pair your meal with a featured cocktail like the green goddess, made with Hendrick’s gin, St. Germain elderflower liqueur, kiwi, and lime.
Django
Fans of continental cuisine love Django for its high-quality dishes paired with friendly service. This downtown, European-themed brasserie named for the Belgian-born jazz guitarist and composer Django Reinhardt even features an interactive chef station, where guests can witness culinary delights being whipped up in real time.
In honor of restaurant week, Django will serve a $70, four-course, “film to table” meal inspired by “The Godfather.” An appetizer named “Sleeps with the Fishes” sees caviar and cacio e pepe cream topped onto battered white fish, while “Clemenza’s Sunday Gravy Lasagna” features layers of pork and beef lasagna doused in a rich gravy. The aptly named dessert “Leave the Gun; Take the Cannoli” sees this Italian classic deconstructed with a modern flair.
Harbinger
Harbinger’s chef and owner Joe Tripp traveled throughout Vietnam, Thailand, and Japan to find the flavors that make his vegetable-forward, small plates so unique within Des Moines’ culinary landscape.
Harbinger will not disappoint diners with worldly taste buds with its $75, prix fixe menu for restaurant week: begin with locally grown heirloom cherry tomatoes paired with turmeric pickled onions and salted, ground cherries before diving into a bowl of sweetcorn ochazuke, a Japanese dish that Tripp has prepared with truffle and chanterelle mushrooms, egg yolk jam, and a corn silk dashi broth. Finish your meal your way, with Vietnamese coffee, East Asian yuzu fruit, or a dish of fresh Iowa summer melon.
East Village
Purveyor
Upon entering this uber-modern, European-inspired market, guests will be wowed by huge cases of high-quality ingredients produced locally, not to mention wines so delectable you’ll just have to take a seat in the bar area and savor a glass.
Set aside some time to spend at Purveyor this restaurant week, as the mission-oriented dining concept draws from its exclusive relationships with local vineyards and farms to create a menu with a sweet finish. Your meal begins with gazpacho shooters and roast garden peppers topped with zesty manchego before a salivating cut of Spanish-style pork tenderloin Santimbocca arrives at your table. Save room for the cornmeal cheesecake, decorated with the area’s juiciest summer berries—all paired with a wine flight, of course.
Alba
As if anyone needed an excuse to come back to Alba, the East Village staple that’s been serving contemporary American favorites in a rather unconventional dining room since 2008, the hometown haven just dropped a restaurant week menu that truly has options for everyone.
Kick off your three-course tour while sipping on a featured cocktail: Something Bitter sees coconut-washed Sazerac drenched in lime and pineapple, while Something Sour pairs lemon and egg whites with vodka and Cocchi Rosa, a sweet vermouth. After enjoying two courses of dishes like summer corn chowder, little gem salad with roasted beets, braised lamb shank, and New York Strip stroganoff, your belly might protest, but you won’t be able to resist choosing between the molten chocolate lava cake, cinnamon bread pudding, and more.
HoQ Restaurant
HoQ’s 100% made-in-Iowa breakfast wraps lure locals out to the Des Moines Farmer’s Market early on Saturday mornings, but there’s nothing like dining in at HoQ Restaurant, an East Village farm-to-table concept with a sister cocktail lounge. HoQ’s seasonal menu of local ingredients for restaurant week includes free-range chicken breast with grilled summer squash and potatoes in a rich broth, as well as wild-caught walleye in a beet risotto with kale and herbs, all sourced from farmers nearby.
Suburbs
Wasabi, West Des Moines
Fans of high-grade sushi and flavorful Asian cuisine served in visually stunning environments can rejoice this Des Moines Restaurant Week: three local Wasabi locations have prepared unique menus for the occasion.
While other locations offer filling meals, like Ankeny with its deluxe Bento boxes and Johnston with its choices of sesame beef, orange beef, and mango chicken, the West Des Moines Wasabi location has prepared something truly satiating: a three-course meal that tours through bold flavors like spicy and sweet green curry with coconut milk and savory, salty Korean bulgogi beef. To finish, a crispy, fried banana is topped with condensed milk, ending the meal with a mouthfeel you’ll exit the restaurant still raving about.
Aura Restaurant and Lounge
Those living on the west side of the Des Moines metropolitan area don’t have to travel far this restaurant week to savor unexpected flavor combinations that set the tongue ablaze. Aura Restaurant and Lounge, a locally owned New American dining concept that draws inspiration from the culinary traditions of Asia, South America, and Europe, has prepared a three-course meal for restaurant week, complete with wine or cocktail pairings for each dish.
For $50 per guest, Aura begins with an amuse-bouche of fried goat cheese served on stone fruit jam, paired with crisp Prosecco, sparkling with notes of pear and lemon peel. After a green goddess salad paired with a mineral-driven Argentinian white wine, sink your teeth into a panko-crusted chicken breast slathered in mozzarella and placed on a bed of linguini. Save room for dessert, which features the blackberry pie cocktail, made with vanilla vodka and fresh blackberry puree.
