HoQ

The concept for this space is amazing. Locally sourced food from responsible farmers. I couldn’t wait to try this place. We started with two drinks, an Old fashioned and the pomegranate whisky smash, no complaints about either of those.
The cheese plate (without prosciutto) for an appetizer. The plate came with three different hard or semi hard cheeses, toasted bread wedges and one jam. There wasn’t any diversity to the plate or change of texture and I thought it odd to serve hard cheeses with only bread, no spreadable cheese. The portions were generous and the three cheese on the plate were good!
I got the pork chop, that came with sweet potatoes, kale, cabbage, sub-​dried tomatoes and cucumbers that had been pickled. I was SO disappointed in the pork chop. Being an Iowa girl, I know what a good pork chop is, this came fried in a batter with the bone in and ruined the flavor, tenderness and juiciness for me. Also the other things on the plate individually were good but put together it was just a very confusing experience of a plate.
My partner got the steak at market price, the service explained it was a flank steak for $ 28.00. I was nervous because generally I only use flank steak to make carne asada tacos but I figured they knew how to slow cook it to make it tender. It came out really chewy and totally flavorless. This restaurant also doesn’t put salt and pepper on the tables so there isn’t a polite was to season anything.
Our server was very friendly and extremely knowledgeable. He checked in on us often but we were also his only table for most of the evening.
Our bill for two drinks, an app, and two main dishes was just shy of $ 100.00 before tip.
Super disappointed but determined to give it one more try before I give up. They change their menu constantly to keep up with the seasonal produce.

This place is great! What a good addition to downtown DSM. I had the salmon and it was done
Perfectly.

Got the seasonal cucumber mojito and it was okay at best. For $ 11 I was expecting spectacular and it fell far short. Won’t be going there for mojitos again anytime soon :/

I think the concept of a farm to table restaurant is awesome. And I wish I could do half stars cause I’d rate it a 3.5, but there were a few issues with the food which makes it a 3 star review instead of a 4 star review.
I’ll start off with service — our server was very attentive and kind. He did take away our bread before we were done, which was a tad weird, but he was nice so we just chuckled that off. Our food took close to an hour to get to us, which our server apologized for, and for which he later comped us a glass of wine.
For our appetizer, we ordered the rabbit and dumplings ($ 9). The dumplings were light and airy (cooked to perfection), but the rabbit and jus were lacking seasoning — i don’t even like salty foods and I thought it needed more salt. The rabbit was a tad difficult to eat neatly as well. There was no salt or pepper on the table to remedy this.
My dining partner ordered the grass fed steak, medium rare ($ 28). The steak was cooked perfectly and had a nice sear on the outside. It was served with spinach and root veggies in a sauce which tasted very good and was a really large sized portion.
I ordered the duck which was served over thinly sliced potatoes and spinach. The spinach was over salted (so much that I needed to constantly drink water to even try to eat it). The duck was cooked well and the potatoes tasted like potatoes. For $ 28, my portion seemed like half of my dining partners and wasn’t as good. If I were too come again, I’d order the steak or I would try their happy hour.
Service was good, food came out slow for our table even though the restaurant wasn’t even packed, steak was amazing, but the other dishes had some slight seasoning issues which is why I have to give a 3 star rating. If I was going off the steak and service alone, it would be 4 stars for sure though.

Yes! A Farm to Table Restaurant Des Moines!
The food is amazing and they have a Full bar!
You need to support this movement of local food here in Iowa and a great place– The Historic East Village of Des Moines!
Lovely place for a romantic date…
They have a Saturday happy hour that I will be hitting up for sure!
Delightful server– I was there to celebrate something and needed markers and paper– and she made it happen!

Its a little to fancy for me. I love farm to table concept but the two times Ive been here my food has just been edible and nothing really wows me. If you are into restaurants that you get confused reading the menu and don’t really know what you are ordering you will like this place. I guess Im just not educated enough to know what some of the words are. Im the type of person who likes to eat hamburgers and french fries but I still love to try new foods I just wasn’t very impressed here. The environment of the restaurant is very cool though and the service is great. I will probably come back here again to see if I can find something i like.