Tumea & Sons - Des Moines, IA

Last Dined 7/18

Tumea & Sons is a Des Moines institution. Hidden away south of Downtown, this non-descript building is well worth the trek. The interior is not any more inspiring than the outside. Vinyl booths & 1970's elementary school floor tile. Thankfully, this is the kind of place that none of that matters.

The menu is your typical Italian restaurant fare. Pasta dishes, parmesan dishes, etc. etc. However typical the menu may be, they do it right.

We started with the calamari. This is the only thing that I've tried that I cannot recommend. The calamari was pressed into a stick and fried (it looked like a fried mozzarella stick). It was served up along side honey mustard, which did not really go with the dish (and we couldn't find our waitress to get marinara). Next we tried the salad with homemade dressings. Typical iceberg lettuce, dressing was tasty enough but nothing spectacular. Next we tried the vegetable soup, which was actually quite tasty for such a plain dish. Better than the salad I dare say. As far as main dishes go, we sampled veal parmesan with a side of pasta, lasagna with a side of alfredo sauce, and pastacina. All of the dishes exceeded expectations. Even the side of pasta. The pasta wasn't homemade or anything, but the marinara sauce was deliciously spicy and flavorful. The same marinara sauce was used in all 3 main dishes. The lasagna was ordered with a side of alfredo sauce & the was absolutely decadent & better than mom's (don't tell her I said so). The pastacina (pasta with sausage, beef, boiled eggs, baked with cheese on top) was also great, although not the best I've had. The veal parmesan was tender, not unusually so for veal, very flavorful, and the marinara really put it over the top.

Everything we sampled at this eatery was very solid. This restaurant out shines Baratta's and Gino's for sure. Definitely worth the out of the way trip. Beware, they don't take reservations for parties smaller than 6.

http://tumeaandsons.com

Proof - Downtown Des Moines

Last dined: 2/20/09

Proof is located at 13th & Locust, Des Moines, IA, former location of Beggar's Banquet. The restaurant itself is a sleek, modern, minimalist place. Concrete floors, Swedish looking furnishings & lighting, stunning view of the downtown skyline. It can be noisy due to the concrete floors, and the space is a little tight.

Proof is mainly a lunch spot. They do dinner on Fridays only & do a Prix-Fixe menu of 4 courses for $40. You can go for the whole menu, or you can pick & choose your courses. But be aware, they only have one selection from each course available, so make sure that you check out the menu for that week before you make your reservations.

This was my second visit to proof. The first time I attended the theme was Greek. I chose to have only 2 of the courses, the Moussaka which was delicious & a decent sized portion, if not totally filling; and the dessert.

On my last visit the theme of the evening was unclear. On the menu were phylo-wrapped brie with an apple & pine nut salad; house cured salmon with soba noodles; chicken roulade with quinoa & shitake mushroom vinaigrette; red velvet cake with beet ice cream. The appetizer of brie & apple salad was tasty but teeny tiny. There was maybe a one and a half inch square piece of phylo dough that had a bit of brie (not even a half inch tall) with a couple paper thin apple wedges & a few greens. I am not one for giant portions, but be aware, these are some of the smallest portions I've encountered in Des Moines. The main dish was smaller than most I've had at Trostel's Dish, supposedly small plates. The second course was delicious, but left me wanting more. The third dish was more flavorful than described by the menu or the waitress, but I am not fond of bell peppers, which were not mentioned in the description. The dessert was unbelievably disappointing, to everyone in my party of 5. It was like a medium sized bran muffin, topped with whipped shortening with a smidge of sugar added. The cake was not red, nor velvety & not a hint of cocoa powder. The beet ice cream didn't really taste like anything but cream, worse than Vanilla. And by the time it got to our table, there was about a tablespoon left unmelted. This was honestly the most disappointing dessert I have ever eaten. The rest of my party felt the same way. We followed our visit up with bacon wrapped tater tots and beer at the High Life Lounge.

Bottom line, the food here is good (with the exception of the red velvet cake), but small portions and over priced. I would try it again, but can't say that I can in good conscience recommend this without further study.

http://www.proofrestaurant.com/

Django - Now no cork fee, ever!

Last dined: 12/27/08
You may or may not have heard that Django now has no cork fee. Anytime. This is fantastic news for you fine dining/wine lovers looking to save a few dollars. Django was recently named best new restaurant, and I would say it is just Best Restaurant, flat out. The prices are very reasonable, the food is fantastic, not at all fussy, the setting is true to a real French brasserie. Now, you can even bring your own bottles of wine from home, no extra costs.

If you have not tried Django yet, I would urge you to try it. The Filet Rossini is one of the most amazing things I have tasted in Des Moines. It is a filet mignon topped with rich, creamy foie gras. Not a fan of foie gras? Try the decadent Macaroni & cheese, the delicious bouillabaisse, or even one of their burgers & fries (fried in duck fat of course).

http://www.djangodesmoines.com/

Torroco! Italian Grill - Urbandale, IA

Sorry for the lack of posts lately, you know how summers get. More cookouts, less restaurants, less time to write reviews... Here goes!

I had not heard good things about Torroco, but decided to try it out myself.

Upon pulling into the parking lot I noticed that they had a good sized patio, always a plus in my book. When the weather gets warm, I LOVE to dine al fresco. So we opted for a seat on the patio. We did walk thru the restaurant though & I loved the interior. The walls were a nice warm and spicy red. (note that I also have a red room in my house) Still, we opted to go outside.

At first glance the menu was great, not run of the mill Italian. We started with Arincita (which I knew as Arancini, but oh well) a risotto ball breaded & fried. I first discovered this treat in Italy 10 years ago & fell in love. After much laboring & consulting with the staff my dining partner ordered the pasta Bolognese (Niman Ranch Pork, slow cooked with tomato broth over penne), the waiter said this was melt in your mouth and so flavorful. I settled on Linguine Tutto Mare (linguine in a sherry cream sauce with shrimp, crab meat & oysters) also on the recommendation of the waiter.

The Arincita arrived and the breading on the risotto balls was far to heavy & greasy. Not bad enough for me to not eat them, but really disappointing. There was a small salad served along side and it was drenched with an extremely tart lemon vinaigrette. Definite thumbs down on the dressing.

Unfortunately our main dishes weren't any better. The Bolognese was flavorless, believe it or not. How is a slow cooked meat sauce flavorless? That must have taken some effort. My dish was very fishy tasting, and the sauce didn't seem to have much flavor at all.

My dining partner & I both determined this place wasn't even worth a second visit. Definitely very disappointing.

Visit their website: http://torroco.com/

Django

Last dined: 6/6/08

I visited Django again and have to say that I was not disappointed.

We started with onion rings, mussels, and a cheese plate. I would say the only of these three that was worth it were the mussels. The onion rings didn't taste like anything out of the ordinary to me. The cheese plate was good, but the cheese was sort of sparse. The mussels were fresh & delicious, just like last time, and a bargain at only $8. Definitely a better buy than the lobster & crab cakes and foie gras that I sampled last time.

This time I tried the Macaroni Gratin (with Gruyere & pancetta). It was very decadent and a bit oily.

Two people at our table had the chicken which was very good. I would not normally order roasted chicken at a restaurant, too boring for me. But this was a generous helping of chicken over pureed potatoes accompanied with veggies. Both were pleased with their selection.

One person ordered a burger topped with foie gras, which was good, but maybe not worth the extra $8 it cost over a regular burger. To me the extra flavor wasn't quite worth it.

One person ordered the salmon, which he said was good, but was not raving about.

Another ordered a "steak frite" which he thought was very good quality meat & well prepared.

I'm sure I will soon be a regular!

http://www.djangodesmoines.com/

Red Rossa Pizza

Last dined: 5/25/08

Red Rossa Napoli Pizza (located at 12695 University Ave in Clive, IA, behind ZMarik’s) is in a three way tie for my favorite Pizza in Des Moines (along with Frank’s & Pagliai’s). Red Rossa is the kind of pizza I grew to love when studying in Europe. The crust is thin & blistered by a wood oven and topped with things like fresh mozzarella, artichoke hearts & Kalamata olives (don’t worry, they have pepperoni). I have eaten at Red Rossa more times than I can count and this definitely falls into the “go-to” category of restaurants.

The interior of Red Rossa is un-intimidating. It is like an upscale fast food joint. Tile floors with red booths & chairs. You walk up to the counter to order & are given a number. You fetch your own drinks. There is gelato that is made by the staff with free tastes, so do save room for dessert. The prices aren’t intimidating either. A whole individual pizza (you’ll probably have 2 pieces left for lunch the next day) is under $10. They have wines by the glass & beers by the bottle, including Peroni, an Italian beer.

I have tried about every pizza on the menu & the only ones that I am not a fan of are the ones without sauce, but that is a matter of taste. They are all delicious. My most frequently ordered is the Capricciosa (Capree-cee-osa), topped with artichoke hearts, kalamata olives, mushrooms & Prosciutto. The Italian is also a favorite. But seriously you cannot go wrong here. You watch them create your pizza before your eyes & then pop it into a wood burning (800 degree) oven. It’s a thin but not really crispy crust with a light thin sauce. And to me, fresh mozzarella is far superior to the grated variety you find on most pizzas. I also hear raves about the salads, but let’s be honest, when faced with the delicious pizza and asked if I want to have a salad instead… A good compromise is their salad served like a sandwich inside a pizza crust. Mmmm.

One caveat. They do cater, and I used them to cater a dinner for about 30 people, a very important event. I didn’t think of the fact that they only have ONE wood oven. Which is fine for cooking 5 pizzas at a time, but for cooking quantities like that, the pizzas were room temperature by the time they got to us & we started eating. They still tasted good, but just weren’t hot.


Visit their website: http://www.redrossa.com/

Django

Visited 5/23/08 (first Friday open)

Django (located in the Hotel Ft. Des Moines at 210 10th Street in Des Moines, taking the place of Bistro 43) is a restaurant that claims to be All French – No Attitude. Do not let the fact that it is a French restaurant deter you. This is the type of French cooking you get at a home in France (I speak from experience). Despite the fancy sounding names of the dishes, I assure you that everyone should be able to find something inside their comfort zone (although well to the delicious side of your comfort zone). They do have onion rings & French fries after all.

The ambiance of the restaurant is very much a French brasserie. Dark woods, leathers & brass abound. It really transported me to France. The menu is also pretty authentic Brasserie fare. These are solid basic dishes, nothing over-thought or too experimental. These dishes have been gracing French tables for hundreds of years. The prices are not what one imagines when thinking of French food either. I found the prices to be very inline with the quality of the food & the portions. Even a bargain!

Let me start by saying, we visited Django in their first week open. Any restaurant will have issues during their first week as they work out the kinks. The kinks here were minimal. The only issue that we really encountered was with the Cassoulet. Cassoulet is a pretty simple dish that can be likened to French chili. It is a base of white beans with an assortment of meat (traditionally a good assortment) cooked for a long time. This version has sausage, bacon, and duck leg. The beans unfortunately were underdone. The meat was delicious, the seasoning was delicious, the beans, a bit on the crunchy side. When brought to the attention of the waiter, they graciously threw a free dessert our way. However in my opinion, when trying to build a reputation, and half of the dish is basically inedible (albeit the inexpensive portion of the dish), the dish really should have been comped.

We sampled the foie gras and lobster & crab cake appetizers. I am a big fan of foie gras, and I know it is not for everyone. If you are going to sample this for the first time, may I suggest you do so somewhere else. I have had better foie gras, and larger portions for this price than I did this evening (notably at Le Fou Frog in Kansas City and at a place called Ave in LA). It was ok, but I personally don’t like to spend $12 on a small portion of “OK”. The lobster & crab cakes were tasty, although standard restaurant fare from what I could tell. The next time I definitely plan to sample the frog legs.

For entreés we ordered the aforementioned Cassoulet, Moules Frites (sautéed mussels with a giant side of fresh fries) and the Bouillabaisse. The mussels & the fries were delicious, large portions of both. The mussels were served in a cast iron pot and you had a choice when ordering of 3 or 4 different sauces. I believe we tried one that involved white wine & cream & it was very tasty and very fresh. The Bouillabaisse also came in a cast iron pot. It was absolutely delicious, a big hit with everyone at the table. And as is tradition was a jumble of shrimp, fish, scallops, mussels & topped with a crusty baguette. Hearty fare.

Looking around at other tables I saw many other delicious looking dishes. I can’t wait to try the Tuna Niçoise and the Coquilles (scallops) St. Jacques.

Being a French restaurant there was a good selection of wines at average prices. We had a nice Cotes du Rhone, a light French red wine.

We sampled two desserts, a dark chocolate cake served with hazelnut ice cream and a custard with berries baked inside topped with vanilla. They were both good, but given the French penchant for dessert & pastries, I expected more. Hopefully they will be expanding their dessert menu to include many tarts.

Over all, very good for the first week out. I will definitely be going back & have high expectations for their future. This may just be my new go-to celebration restaurant.

See their menu: http://www.djangodesmoines.com/Django_Dinner.pdf
Visit their site: http://www.djangodesmoines.com/

Black Cat Cafe (Des Moines) - Revisited

Dined - 3/22/08

I returned to the Black Cat (on Ingersoll in Des Moines, near El Patio) one evening to meet a couple of friends in from out of town. I had already eaten dinner myself, but they went ahead & ordered a crepe to split because I explained they serve 2 large crepes per plate. They agreed one was enough & ordered one plate. When the plate arrived, it had only 1 crepe on it. Looks like they have scaled back. Unfortunately the price had not changed.

See original post: http://diningindesmoines.blogspot.com/2008/03/black-cat-cafe.html

Black Cat Cafe (Des Moines, IA)

Dined: 2/29/08

The Black Cat Cafe located at 3701 Ingersoll Avenue in Des Moines is the sort of place that you probably have to set out to visit. It looks very non-descript from the outside, and with some sort of tinting on the windows, it is difficult to tell if it is open or what waits for you inside. I was fortunate to find an empty space in the small lot in back. The interior was a pleasant surprise, but then I hadn't expected a lot. The walls and ceiling were dark with charming paper lanterns dangling from above. The furniture was more like a living room than a kitchen or a bar (which is a plus in my book). There is smoking at the ventilated bar, which was fine as long as there was only one person smoking, but at one point there were several people smoking there & the ventilation didn't make a difference for the near by tables (there is a room close to the front door that would have been great, but was already taken). A jazz trio started playing around 8 which only added to the ambiance (although it made conversations difficult).

There is a fair wine list. There were many beers on display, but they seemed to be out of several varieties. We settled on a bottle of Zinfandel for a bargain price of $20, which actually was pretty fair, although the wine was very warm, much warmer than I like. Of course I drank it anyway.

The menu consists mainly of crepes (sweet & savory - around $8 per plate), pastries & frozen pizzas. If you order a crepe, each order comes with 2 crepes of the same variety. I went with a friend & we ordered a savory & a sweet crepe to share which worked well. The garden & then the simple chocolate with a raspberry sauce. The garden had feta & vegetables and was satisfactory but didn't taste like expected. The quatro fromaggio & the seafood crepes both looked markedly better. The chocolate crepe was obviously made with Nutella instead of chocolate sauce which I don't remember being specified on the menu (as I am not a huge fan of Nutella). But it was very tasty & served with a scoop of ice cream.

We had wanted to order the chocolate banana crepe but they were out of bananas and I overheard her telling a few people later in the evening that they had actually ran out of crepe batter. Seems like a big faux pas if that is pretty much your whole menu. And crepe batter is pretty much flour, egg & sugar, so that would be hard to do. I mentioned before that they had run out of several kinds of beer as well.

If you order a sweet & a savory crepe, you should maybe specify that you would like your savory crepe before you get your dessert crepe as everyone in our party got their dessert crepe first. I was disappointed with the small variety of savory crepes. The glaring exemptions of ham and cheese, and ham cheese & mushroom crepes which are standard fare on European creperie menus.

The cafe was very busy, so the service was a bit slow, but the waitress made up for that by being extremely friendly.

Bottom line is that it is an interesting addition to the Des Moines restaurant/bar scene and crepes are a crowd pleaser. Hopefully they will get better organized & will not continue to have some of the issues that I encountered on my first visit. But there will definitely be return visits.

Visit their website where you can view their menu: http://www.blackcatcafebar.com/