Fongs Pizza Ankeny

Delicious food! Always packed, love the bar and the AMAZING beer selection. Service is hit or miss, but the food is consistent.

We got quite a few appetizers and pizzas and are kind of an indecisive crowd. Our server Chelsie was able to recommend awesome choices for us and keep up with our groups particular brand of sarcasm. Hard thing for most but she was great.

Even better than the original Fong’s Pizza in downtown Des Moines!

Fong’s rarely disappoints. I’ve been dining at the downtown location for a while but this was my first time to the Ankeny restaurant. Large dining room and long bar with at least 40 – 50 beers on tap.
Friday night at 7:30pm left us with a 50 minute wait but we snagged beers while we waited. Restaurant sends a text when your table is ready which is nice.
This location touts its beer selection as some of the best. I wouldn’t disagree but it would’ve been helpful to have ALL available beers on a list. They have their standard laminated beer list but there were at least a dozen special taps that were not provided on a list. The only way you would know to order one is if you happened to see it at the bar. When we were seated, we asked the waitress if they had an extended beer list and she stated that all the beer they served was on the laminated menu… which obviously wasn’t true. Its 2016, a simple MS Word doc wouldn’t be hard to type up especially when there were so many great special taps available.
We started with the eggrolls which never disappoint. Crispy, non-​greasy wrappers filled with delicious pork, chicken, ans cabbage. Good for sharing with a date. (4 per order).
Ordered two 10″ pizzas ($ 13.99 each) — hunan pork and crab rangoon. We can never not get the crab rangoon, its our favorite. I love the sweet chili sauce they drizzle on top — YUM! The hunan pork was divine. Slightly spicy but exactly like stir-​fry on top of a thin crust. I loved all the broccoli mixed with the pork.
If you’ve never been to Fong’s it’s definitely a must-​try while you’re in town. The downtown location serves up late night food after bar close and sells pizza by the slice. The Ankeny location is better for larger parties.

Fongs Pizza is an iconic eatery in Des Moines and will continue to be so for a long time. I always enjoyed their pizza, atmosphere, and style at their downtown location. With their Ankeny location, it is definitely less of a bar theme with limited crowded booths and more of a family orientated restaurant.
All the menu items are the same which is convenient for those already fans of Fongs. Their tikis are fun and taste great! I highly recommend getting them. Their pizza at this location I would have to say is a bit off when it comes to taste. The pizza would definitely be «average». Appetizers taste great!
Would I continue to bring those new to Iowa to Fongs to check out their unique style and theme? Absolutely. I would usually get their new specials so I would always experience a different taste here.

Went on a Tuesday, the Wait was an hour, but were told it was a long wait, we stayed anyways. pizza ordered was crab Rangoon and an app for empanadas. After 30 minutes were told that they were out of empanadas. Fongs then comp’d us onion rings and an additional comp off the pizza. All said we were here for 2.5 hours. Will come back, thanks Jen for taking care of us!

What a cool idea! Chinese + pizza?! Just a few of my favorite things! try to the crab Rangoon pizza! Delicious!

The new location is easy to get to and unlike the downtown location you did not have to worry about parking. Our favorite includes the Shroomin pizza and the crab Rangoon– pizza both are worth a try. They have happy hour combos for certain slices and drink, a slice menu, and a late night slice menu. Be cautious using to make sure you’re getting the right hours for the right location (lesson learned here!).

Asian pizza. Has to be one of the most unusual food combinations I’ve ever eaten. Great tasting.
We had crab Rangoon, which consisted of surimi, green onion, Asiago and mozzarella; topped with crisp wontons and sweet chili sauce. Yummy. Thai chicken: Tangy peanut sauce, chicken, mirepoix, Asiago and mozzarella; garnished with cilantro. Could have passed on that one. Too much peanut sauce. They have sandwiches and apps. My grandson had a child size plain cheese which was good. Have to say I’ve never eaten Chinese food with cheese before.
Service was fast and friendly. Very strange eating a pizza in a Asia restaurant. Tikis had Santa hats, red lanterns surrounded by Christmas lights, red and white Chinese plates. Even got fortune cookies for dessert.

Finally tried the new addition. Love that it seats many more. The service was fabulous, just like the original.
We were out for a date night, leaving our little guy with family and boy, did this place light our fire. We started off with the dragon egg appetizer. They were tasty and we learned that not only are they homemade (fresh, never frozen), they only make so many at a time and man, you can tell. Loved the crispy bacon.
I had the ever amazing crab rangoon pizza. My hubby went out on a limb and tried the loaded potato pizza. Unfortunately, it was disappointing. The description sounded amazing, but in reality it was not. He got the butter garlic and you could not taste that. Also, the potato was in large slices and didn’t taste seasoned. It may be better if diced up like the other ingredients. Overall, very dry. He didn’t want the leftovers. Due to the (college throwback) kamakazi shots and beer, we weren’t too upset :) he will just try other tasty options next time.

This was definitely a little surprise for me. We had a group of people from all over that met at the Hoyt-​Sherman Place for a Home Free Vocal Band concert (amazing, you should check them out) and after it was over we wanted to visit and we were hungry.
One of our group was familiar with the area and said we need to check out Fongs. We were game and off we went. They were pretty much closed but said since there were 10 of us they would stay open for us.
Never once did we feel like they were rushing us. Great service!
The food was amazing. My hubby and I had Sesame chicken pizza and crab Rangoon. Pizza was on a thin crust and yummy. I thought at first they brought me egg rolls but being so late I wasn’t going to complain. It was crab Rangoon in an egg roll wrapper. Very pleasant surprise and tasty.
Others ordered crab Rangoon pizza, teriyaki pizza and everyone was happy. We had a great time with our group and found a really good place to eat.
Hats off to the management and staff for being accommodating. If I could give half stars is give you a four and a half. I think a five should be wayyyyy over the top.
Check it out.

A great addition to Ankeny. There’s no shortage of unique concoctions when it comes to pizzas. I’ve liked every single one I’ve tried, especially the bacon popper and the fongolian beef.
The restaurant itself is extremely well put together. There’s a casual dining area as well as a fun and lively bar. They’re also known for their variety of tiki drinks, which aren’t really my thing. The tap wall with 80+ different beers, however, is. They rotate through a lot of local and reputable craft breweries as well as occasionally featuring some rare, hard to find brews.
In addition to the solid pizza, they’ve have several other delicious menu items. I highly recommend the raspberry cheesecake rolls and the dragon eggs. The place does get pretty busy but it’s well managed and staffed accordingly. In conclusion, this place rocks. Go there. Now.

Have been here a few times now and just like their downtown location, love the food! Tonight we had many wonderful things again. The pizza is still a standard and I tried their sausage sandwich. Wasn’t disappointed.
As long as they keep this up, we’ll keep coming back!

The empanadas were fantastic. Crab Rangoon pizza is good but the downtown location is better. Great location in Ankeny and staff. I will save the CR pizza for downtown and try something new next time.

Pretty great place to stop in ankeny. Went in at 2:00 and still had a ten minute wait. Good and décor are fun and worth the money.
Unfortunately friendliness of the staff was underwhelming. Everyone but our waitress made us feel subpar.
We ordered pizza rolls to start, AWESOME! Totally recommend!
To go with our cherry cokes we loved our crab Ragoon pizza and loaded baked potato pizza. The crust to tipping ratio is great and everything is prepared perfectly.
We will be back!

I am very happy that more and more restaurants are opening up in Ankeny. I have eaten at the Fong’s downtown and tried this out with my wifey and one of my kids yesterday. As always I give you a short review and long review option.
Short review:
1. Come early, even at 2pm it was busy
2. Expect slow service
3. Crab Rangoon pizza is overhyped, go for the Fongolian Beef
4. Don’t order the appetizers, we ordered the cheese sticks and empanadas and they were pedestrian at best
Long review
Service — We arrived at 2pm on a Saturday afternoon, and it was almost 100% capacity. We waited about 10 minutes for our server to even come and get us menus. I felt bad for our server as I think they gave him too many tables. The manager stopped by to help us and I think the server got in trouble for it. Maybe my imagination but I feel like the poor guy was overwhelmed. Certainly the time between him checking in on us through out the meal implied that.
Food — as mentioned above the appetizers are pedestrian. The cheesesticks are hunks of cheese wrapped in eggroll wrappers and deepfat fried. Decent but I can see how they would appeal to the less sober crowd. The empanadas were YUK. Dinty Moore like filling stuffed into premade dough and deep fat fried. The filling was stringy and sour… no one at our table liked it.
The pizza — definitely the saving grace. Order two larges and its enough for four grown adults. We ordered the much hyped crab rangoon and the fongolian beef. The crab rangoon pizza actually tasted like cheesecake. That’s what it was crunchy cheese cake. It was ok, not at all something to write home about. The fongolian beef was pretty good/​decent. It had a mongolian beef topping and cheese and ALOT of green onions. I mean a lot, you can floss with them afterwards. After picking off 50% of the green onion its a decent pizza. If I ever come back I will just order a traditional pepperoni because I think that their crust is a very good cracker thin pub style crust.
Total bill for two large pizzas, two appetizers, a lemonade, and a kids fanta… around $ 60. Honestly could have gotten better for the money somewhere else. As I write this am tempted to flip this down to a two star…
My recommendation… go if you want to drink as it looks like they have some great beers on tap. Also when you are a bit tipsy the fried element becomes more appealing and the lack of value becomes less of an issue. Go tipsy avoid if you are sober.

Maybe my Mom built this place up too much or maybe Minneapolis has spoiled me with its unique pizzas, but this place underwhelmed me. Big time.
We picked out 3 small pizzas to try and the crust was thin and bland and the toppings were scarce. Nothing was terrible, but nothing was «Wow!» Sad. :-(
The space did look cool and the tiki drinks looked tasty, but the place was so large it was pretty loud. I don’t know man, I think I’ll pass next time.

At this point in history Fong’s in downtown Des Moines has become an institution. Full Court Press, the people that own Fong’s (as well as High Life Lounge, El Bait Shop, Hessen House, etc) have never opened up a sequel restaurant or ventured into the ‘burbs…until now.
Fong’s Ankeny is nestled away in the new development along State St just north of DMACC. At first Jethro’s was the only game out here but now Fong’s has settled in for the long haul as well. First off, the atmosphere here is much different than it’s older brother in Des Moines. Where Des Moines Fong’s is more vintage and a tighter fit, Fong’s Ankeny is newer and spacious. They were able to at least keep some of the charm with the faux oriental décor and the tiki idols littered around the place. In back is a large bar with multiple TVs and high tops. Otherwise there is a large area of booths and tables for family eating. I’ve heard the owner in the past talk about how this location was going to have to be different because suburban culture is much different than downtown urban culture.
The menu is pretty much identical to the old location with a few additions. This menu is all about fusion. The crab ragoon pizza is a wonder to behold. It really is like eating a large portion of the famed appetizers. I really fell in love with the bacon and shrimp filled ragoon appetizer as well. In the past I have ordered the Thai peanut pizza and it’s also quite good.
One of the really bright spots here is the very large beer selection. Fong’s Ankeny has 80 beers on tap, which probably puts it behind only El Bait Shop as the most taps in the metro. They really make room for the local breweries as Confluence, Firetrucker, and New American are all prominent on their beer list. Another gem on the list was a Japanese craft brewery that I had never heard of before that had a beer or two in each of the different craft styles.
Service was adequate. Not mind blowing but no screw ups either so that’s a plus. Parking is kind of hit or miss because both Jethro’s and Fong’s clientele are fighting for the same spaces. We came during non-​rush hours but I would assume on a Friday or Saturday evening it could be hard finding a spot.
This is a wonderful addition to Ankeny and a home run for the owners of Full Court Press. Now if they would just open a suburban El Bait Shop…

Good, but not as good as the other Fong’s. The atmosphere is definitely different than the original, but it still had some flare to it. The Crab Rangoon pizza was still good, but wasn’t as good as I’ve had it. We also had the dragon eggs and they were perfect. :)
When I asked for a hot tea, my waitress was confused and didn’t even know that they served hot tea. But she found it for me eventually! She was sweet and they haven’t been open TOO long so it didn’t really bother me.
This place is worth going to, especially because it’s bigger than the original.

Love the expanded menu as I have just recently just experienced the original Fong’s downtown.
Love the interior and the atmosphere it is a much larger and open space. There is a ton of seating with both booths and tables! Much easier if you are meeting a group here to get a place to sit.
Service was a bit slow. Food came out a bit slow so if you are in for a quick lunch you may want to try elsewhere.
We ordered the egg roll pizza which was good, however I couldn’t taste much because it was drenched in their chili sauce. The cinnamon bites were really good! And the bacon shrimp crabrangoon were amazing!!!
Server was sweet but slightly over bearing. Checking on us a little too frequently and pushing extras/​desert/​sides a little too hard.
Drinks were a bit pricy and I didn’t see a few that they have downtown.
Overall a great location. Super clean, modern, and roomy with tons of seating and friendly staff. I am glad they are doing well on opening week and will add up just the few negatives to the place just opening.
Can’t wait to go back.