Louie’s Wine Dive

$ 120 for a dinner for two is not my idea of time well spent. I sent my dinner back twice due to it being under cooked. When I cut into my so called medium stake blood poured out of my steak all over my plate. The next time it came back the blood soaked plate returned with the steak. We both ordered the white cheddar potatoes. They were near raw. My wife ordered chicken and got two small drumsticks and thighs. I would expect better cuts of chicken for $ 16. It was our first time and will be our last. I don’t understand the eating experience. No salad or bread. The only up side was a seasonal beer from the Fire House Brewery in Ankeny.

We visited Louie’s in Waukee tonight for the 1^st time. We had heard great things about the food and drinks and wanted to give it a try. We made reservations and were seated within 5 minutes of arriving. Our table was next to the bar, which was crowded on a Friday night but not disturbing. It was difficult to hear our friends at the table however with the noise from the open kitchen and crowd at the bar.
We ordered calamari for an appetizer. This calamari cannot be compared to others in the metro area (thinking Malo!), it was small and the serving size was minimal. The flavor wasn’t bad and it came with a sweet/​hot clear sauce of some sort and another dip or sauce I did not try.
My husband ordered the Sinatra burger. He said it was good, cooked OK, but nothing special. It came with a choice side of quinioa or fries per the menu but the waiter did not give the choice and brought the fries (probably thought my husband wasn’t the quinoa type!). I ordered the Coconut Street Noodle and thought it was OK. It had an interesting lime and siracha flavor. It came with a piece of toasted bread.
Our friends had seen another table sharing a steak and told the waiter they wanted to order the steak to share along with an additional side of escalloped potatoes. He said «great» and took the order for a well done steak. What arrived was a plate with 2 small (meatball size/​golfball size) pieces of steak sitting in a sauce. The steaks were described as 4 oz each but were seriously like a small meatball! When cut into, each steak oozed of read juice and appeared seriously under cooked. My friends asked to have the steak cooked more and the waiter took it away gladly to have it cooked. After about 10 min. the waiter arrived with the steak. The steaks were also covered in a parmesan cheese. While the steaks came back cooked more, they found the taste to be unappealing and ended up just eating their side. The water and manager did take care of the bill and were very gracious about making things right. I will however, not be visiting again.

I love this place! I’ve been to 3 locations. Unique menu, gluten free options and creative craft cocktails. Atmosphere is causual yet you can dress up and not feel akward. I also appreciate the weekly pre fix. Sinatra burger is my fav and the street noodles but not a bad item.

So i have been to the one on university and last tuesday went to this one with my wifey. I have to say that this one is better than the other location on all fronts. service, food, ambiance. This location wins. It’s worth driving the extra 10 minutes to go this location, here is why:
Short review — Great service, come during happy hour (9 – 10 pm Monday — Thursday), DO ORDER the wings from the happy hour menu, SKIP the steak frites, YOU MUST ORDER their key lime pie… its amaze balls
Service — 5 Stars — You can really tell that the people like working here. They take pride in their food. The waitress was super pleasant and even told us about their awesome happy hour menu. I really like that she showed us what awesome deals there were on their happy hour menu even though we were ready to order entrees.
Food — 4 Stars (rounding up because of dessert) — as mentioned above we ordered from the happy hour menu, we ordered the wings, calamari, parmesan and parsley fries, and the steak frites. The wings were great, tender and crisp with a great ranch style dipping sauce. The calamari were good too although somewhat one note. The parmesan and parsley fries were more parsley than parm but the truffle dipping sauce was awesome. The steak frites was one note, but solid. I would rate everything savory on average a 3 but the glorious key lime pie came to the table and caused the rating to round UP! Creamy, sweet, and tangy with an amazing crust, it hit all the right notes.
Ambiance — 4 Stars — nice clean finish to this place. you can tell it’s new and you can tell its «manufacturing» the gastro pub look but its good, its clean and sharp. Check out the pictures.
We will be back, next time we will order some other entrees and provide an updated review.

I am guilty of loving this location way more then the one near downtown!
My friends and I came here after a bridal shower for a quick bite to eat and wine of course. I didn’t order wine but I did order the Cheese Flight, which was amazing! I can not wait to come back and have it again. Whatever jam they put on the board was so good. I ended up splitting the Chocolate Torte with a friend and immediately regretted my decision to share. Service wasn’t bad at all and our waitress was very attentive and let people have some samples of wine they weren’t sure of. I will be coming back here again to try what else they have to offer.

Decent atmosphere. Good wine selection. Food needs a little work.
I had crab cakes as an entrée, my husband had the shrimp Diablo. The crab cakes were fine. Shrimp Diablo has a really good and flavorful sauce, but pasta and shrimp both were a bit undercooked.
Hopefully it was just an off night. We’ve had excellent food at the other Louie’s location so we’ll be back to try again.

This was my first time to a Louie’s Wine Dive. I met my friend for a birthday brunch at 10AM. There was plenty of availability, which is always great. I like the décor. The upside down tiles make for an interesting ceiling, and I really like their plush black booths. I didn’t sit in them, but I want to.
I ordered the bottomless mimosas for $ 12 and the French toast for $ 9. The mimosas appeared to be heavy on the juice and not the bubbly so I started requesting mine with just a splash of juice. I wanted to try the grapefruit juice one but they ran out… At 10AM… On brunch Sunday. No biggie. It seemed to take forever between mimosa refills. Maybe I was drinking too fast? Maybe there was only one server?
The French toast was kind of puny. The menu boasts of cinnamon cream cheese which was definitely there but… Drowned out by the syrup. The syrup is heavy. I would suggest trying it without first. Full disclosure, I was not impressed. I could have drove .25 miles down the road to Hyvee and paid less for more.
One if my friends got the eggs Benedict which looked pretty amazing. Although I wasn’t totally thrilled with the French toast I would like to come back to give the dinner menu a try.

Attention ‘fine dining’ restaurants in the Des Moines metro: Louie’s has your number!
Service: spot on. Not pushy, good recommendations.
We had four dishes at my table, and we all sampled each other’s.
Fish and Chips: I typically drown mine in malt vinegar, not this time. The batter was light and tasty, the chips (fries) had Parmesan and seasoning on them. Very tasty. The side was a cole slaw with Brussels sprouts, different, yet very good. The champion of this dish was the house-​made tartar sauce. An explosion of flavor (dill amongst others) greeted me. Best fish and chips in the metro, blowing the competition away.
Pesto Chicken Flatbread: the basil and pesto were the major players in this dish. The cracker crust did nothing to temper the great flavors. Could have used some fresh, cold, mozzarella on top, but other than that, it was great.
Lobster Poutin: I should have gotten this. A phenomenal take on a traditional French Canadian dish. Super tasty, and very filling. Could be moved off the appetizer menu and onto the main menu.
Waukee Meltdown: a cod flatbread with refined flavors, each bite leaves you with different flavors. Fresh, yet homey, a great lunch meal.
Tres Leches: a great dessert with small cakes with vanilla, nutmeg, cinnamon, and coconut. Although the portion is small for four people, but a good finish to a great night.
If you’re a fan of the Greenbriar, it’s time to step up to flavor in a casual atmosphere at a great price with Louie’s in Waukee.

The food was good. The atmosphere was not. They shoved in to many tables for anyone to be comfortable. The wait staff was adequate. No complaints but she didn’t make it a better experience. I recommend going to dish before heading here. At least dish has live music. If you are going to spend this much money at least you feel better about it because you are comfortable and listening to great music.
I won’t be going back. I would also skip this and go to the draught house 3 doors down if I am nearby and hungry.