Rubaiyat

Their food is great and such a variety to choose from! Their drink list is endless, and changes seasonal! My brothers and I love to go in the fall and get pumpkin beer! The staff are very friendly and helpful!

I have been here several times and the service has been excellent no matter who waits on me.
From entrees to appetizers they have all been excellent. Would be one of my top choices to take a visitor.

Seldom do I get really excited about a meal, but Thursday’s dinner at Rubaiyat’s was exceptional. A mix of flavors, in a simple mahi salad, that creates a explosion on the palate. The tuna was cooked perfectly as requested. Great selection of wine and beer. All at ½ the cost of a Chicago or other metropolitan restaurant. Moreover, the owners take pride and make it personal.

A nice restaurant, nicely decorated. The wine list was four+ pages long. Service was very attentive with a friendly waitstaff. Wine and food arrived with nice timing. A very pleasant experience.
Best of all the food was interesting and tasted good.
I was surprised to fine a restaurant of this quality in Decorah.

We just celebrated at Rubiayat for my husband’s birthday. Owner’s Kim and Andy were great! The food was fantastic!

You won’t find better prepared food in all of northeast Iowa. You’ll also never want to order pork anywhere else, because once you try it here you’ll be nothing but disappointed elsewhere. Great apps, wonderful environment, huge beer selection, really the best place to eat a good meal in Decorah.

My wife and I recently moved to Decorah from Chicago and Rubaiyat immediately instituted itself as our favorite restaurant. The menu changes seasonally, and we always watch to make sure that we visit a couple times during each menu. Fresh, local food prepared by a chef who understands how to combine flavors to create cohesive meals. We’ve ordered pretty much everything — pork, steak, chicken, fish, duck, pasta — and leave impressed every time. If you are unsure what to get, go for the pork chop, you won’t be disappointed. Portions are good, especially considering the quality of the bread & soup or salad that come with every entrée.
The wait staff fosters a particularly friendly ambiance for an upscale restaurant — we celebrate special occasions at Rubaiyat, but we can also bring our one year old for a cozy dinner out. It is worth calling ahead, but you can usually walk in and sit immediately. The bar area is always hopping and they have great beers on tap and an extensive wine list. Rubaiyat is not open for lunch but does have the best Sunday brunch in town — varied standard menu, quiche of the day, bloody mary bar — at downright cheap prices. Don’t miss it!

If you are lucky enough to be in Decorah go to The Rubaiyat. The food, wine list, décor and service are all worthy of a visit

This place is amazing!!! Before you even get your food they bring you a soup or salad. Also a loaf of bread and the soup I got made the taste buds go to heaven! It was tomato basil. The bread was fantastic also! =)
Then when the main course came, it was just amazing. After the main course, our waitress brought out a desert tray and there are no words to describe how heavenly the desert tasted!

Can’t say enough good things about this place. I just wish I’d know about it *sooner* so I didn’t miss so many opportunities to eat their tasty, tasty brunch food. Love the waitstaff, love the inventive, local foods. Decorah is already one of my favorite places, thanks to Seed Savers & the Norwegian Heritage Museum. Now I have an excuse to come down more often! Woohoo!

I loved this place when I was in college, but now I anxiously wait for the chance to get back to Decorah so I can stop in!
The beer selection is always great — -Rubaiyat got me hooked on a ½ and ½ combo of Ace Pear Cider and Framboise Raspberry Lambic (both on tap usually) — I recommend trying it if you stop in. Or take a look at their martini menu.
I love seeing how the menu changes each season and how they cater to what’s fresh and local. I really have to tip my hat to the owners for the incredible business they’ve built… the place always looks amazing and the staff is so professional.
I recently hosted a birthday party here for a friend, and had the chefs at Rubaiyat whip up the cake. It was gorgeous and came out topped with fresh berries and sparklers! You can’t really beat that experience. The entire party enjoyed their food and everyone kept commenting on how amazing our waitress was! Made me a very proud hostess.
Along with a Mabe’s pizza, Rubaiyat is a staple for our trips to Decorah. Even if we’re just driving through we at least have to stop for a quick drink ;-) Keep up the fantastic work!

Oh come on people. $ 16 for a hamburger in Decorah, IA? $ 21 for a piece of flank steak? The place does have a lot of snob appeal. When we excused ourselves to our waitress because we didn’t find anything of interest on the menu, she even had the gall to tell us that we could always find something at Mabes pizza or Happy Joes. I’m sorry, but we won’t be back.

Service was attentive; wine was great! Bread was excellent. I had the bison special which was good but underseasoned. My dining partners all got the Pasta Rubaiyat. The seafood tasted fishy, just a little off. The dish was soupy and the sauce was separated. Disappointed in our meals after reading other rave reviews.

The Rubaiyat Restaurant, Decorah, IA
This restaurant has received many awards and honors, and it’s easy to see why. Comfortable ambience, excellent service, and imaginative dishes made with local meat, fish and produce.
We were there for Sunday brunch and found a large number of choices on the menu. Being a real man, I opted for the quiche of the day, which included locally grown corn, squash, edamame, and probably a lot more that I’ve forgotten. Jude chose an Eggs Benedict variation that substituted salmon for the usual Canadian bacon or ham.
Verdict One: The quiche was more than an inch thick, and it tasted wonderful. Unfortunately, because it was so thick, it must have had to cook for a long time, and that made the crust tough and dry. As a frittata it would have been great; as a quiche it was less than that.
Verdict Two: The Eggs Benedict were a marvel of complex and beautifully married flavors. Even though my egg-​poaching skills leave a lot to be desired, I’m tempted to try it at home. The rich in-​house Hollandaise was delightful with the salmon, a combination I had never thought of before, and with the perfectly poached eggs, it was Himmel auf den Teller, Heaven on the Plate.
Summation: five stars from Jude, and four from me.

Wonderful experience! Not rushed although the restaurant was quite busy. Hope, our server, is the best there is. She smiled the entire time. My meal was blackened brie, wedge salad, mahi mahi. My wife had the house salad and salmon. Pistachio cake and coffee round out the meal. This is a must visit. Andy, the chef and owner, was just named one of the Best Chefs of America. I will be back.

Nice small town, upscale dining.

I emailed ahead of time to see if they would be able to handle food allergies, and received a response very quickly. They even offered to prepare things that were not on the menu that would work. When we arrived, they verified our food needs when we checked in, and made sure the server was up to speed. The food was excellent. Lots of locally grown foods, all prepared fresh, and a very extensive wine list. Knowledgeable staff able to handle food allergies. A real treasure for the town. And we felt the prices were reasonable. Would have paid much more in a large city.

We dined here pre-​concert at nearby Luther and had a lovely experience. The pace was perfect but not by chance (we pretty much told our waiter to give us quite a bit more time which he dutifully respected and we greatly appreciated). The food was good. I can’t say outstanding because I’ve eaten at some fabulous places that outrank it, but it is perfectly acceptable. We had the daily soup of tomato, feta and artichoke hearts which was delectable and I’ll attempt to duplicate at home. The Caesar salad was indeed homemade but didn’t hold to «true» Caesar. Wasn’t bad, just wasn’t authentic. Meals were perfectly prepared and dessert was more than adequate. I had the pasta Rubiayat and it was nicely al dente. Needed a bit of salt but that was easily corrected. My husband had the quail special and enjoyed it. We also had the Kobe Beef spare ribs and a pheasant plate at our table. Everyone finished and was satisfied
I was surprised that despite announcing to our server that it was my Mom’s birthday, nothing was done. Usually you get at least a complimentary piece of cake. That was really my only disappointment. The prices are more than fair and in fact, I think that they’re too low! Dinner for 4 with 2 appetizers, 2 desserts, 4 entrees, 1 bottle of wine and a round of drinks for all was 200. I expected it to be higher.
I would happily bring guests back to Rubaiyat.

My wife and I have been to Rubaiyat twice now and have had excellent experiences both times. The bar area is nice and cozy with huge windows that are great for people watching. Great wine selection along with one of the most extensive beer lists you’ll find in any town this size. Price are very reasonable for entrees ($ 15 – 25) and that includes soup or salad. I’ve had the mahi mahi which was very good, but on my last trip, I got the beef tenderloin filet and it was excellent. A nice cut of meat that was cooked medium rare with caramelized onions, walnuts, mushrooms and blue cheese on top. The combo of the flavors and textures was perfect. Paired with some tasty garlic mashed potatoes and fresh steamed vegetables.
The service is good — nothing outstanding, but they have only been open for a few weeks now. The place does lose some points for dining room atmosphere. It’s a large room in an old downtown building with high tin ceilings — sounds great, right? The arrangement of the booths and tables in this large space just doesn’t seem to fit the historic atmosphere and it’s less intimate that I would have thought. They also went with commercial carpeting in the dining room rather than hardwood floors. Nothing is wrong with it, it just didn’t match the excellence of the food. I’ll definitely be back though!