Bar Louie

I am not a fan of chains. There are too many great locally owned restaurants to support before sending money out of state. That being said my better half read about the BAVARIAN PRETZEL STICKS in a Juice (RIP) magazine article and wanted to try them. On a recent Saturday morning before a grocery trip to nearby Trader Joe’s we stopped in to Bar Louie. It cracks me up that Des Moines or West Des Moines folks always want UPSCALE. This is not upscale when you have patrons wearing sports dork attire (jersey tshirts, baseball hats indoors and basketball shorts). Anyways, on with the review…
We were seated in a high table near the restroom with a view of the nearby Jordan Creek Mall. Our waitress was a pro. Folksy enough but still with an edge of «don’t fawk with me». She took our drink order and forgot my coffee. I passed on the coffee when I reminded her since Trader Joe’s has that shit for free. We ordered the Bavarian Pretzel Sticks (per menu: Louie’s signature app with cinnamon butter, queso, honey mustard) $ 8.95. I ordered the Beef Brisket Sliders $ 11.75, she the Chicken Parm Sliders $ 10.25.
The pretzel sticks are the shit. Four large yeasty warm sticks with three dipping sauces. My ranking of the sauces: queso, cinnamon butter, honey mustard. The honey mustard had an acidity that got old after a few bites. The cinnamon butter reminded me of Texas Roadhouse. The queso was melty and savory. I recommend this appetizer.
Our sliders arrived not long after the pretzels. The presentation was nice (see photo). Large amount of well seasoned fries. My Beef Brisket Sliders were disappointing. (Sliced beef brisket, peach moonshine barbecue sauce, pickles,
topped with grilled pear slaw). They meat tasted like convenience store black pepper beef jerky that had been rehydrated. The sauce, pickles and slaw all got lost in the pepper flavor. The buttered buns where nice. My girlfriend’s chicken parm sliders were MUCH better than my entrée. She was nice enough to share one. They were like a food truck take on Italian. I would order these again.
CHANCE OF RETURN: ²⁄₁₀

Parking is ample in a private lot. Large outdoor seating area. Warmers available on cool nights. High top tables and some love seat types of seating available. enter the restaurant through double doors and welcome yourself to a large open and airy place. Bar is large and in the middle of the place. Tables of all sizes available. Seat yourself. Wait staff greeted us quickly and had out drinks to us fast. It was still happy hour which goes until 7 PM and she kindly offered to order us a couple of extra rounds before happy hour expired. Appetizers were cheap so we started with trio chips and dips and wings. Both delicious. Delivered quickly even though this place was jam packed. Ordered our food which I had the fish tacos and it was good. The drunken fish and chips were good and the brisket sliders were also very good. They forgot our loaded tots which the waitress gladly delivered without a word about it. Sat for several hours enjoying the company we had and paid the check and off we went. A great dining experience. Better than we anticipated based on the business. Would definitely recommend you try this place.

This location has the worst service I’ve ever experienced at a Bar Louie location. Out Waitress Megan seemed to be annoyed because we wanted to place an order. We didn’t get any plates with our appetizers and had to go to bar ourselves just to get a drink.
Megan even gave me the finger when I said I wasn’t going to have another drink because it just took to long. Definitely the worst attitude I’ve seen out of a server in a long time.
The food was OK, but this is the 2^nd time we have had questionable service and won’t be going back.

I absolutely Bar Louie. The drinks and food have always been high quality. I had the Chicago Stockyard tonight with the Strawberry Lemonade Sangria — first try menu items for me tonight. Both were both great as was our service. It was packed but I witnessed a lot of teamwork between the serving staff to ensure timely delivery of drinks and food. One of my favorite places in WDM

I don’t know what to say about this place. I like everything from the atmosphere, to the drinks, and the food. I never order their main entrees, only appetizers and I must say it’s so delicious. I can’t find a bar in Des Moines that I like as much as this place. It’s a great place for groups to get together.

I went here on a Tuesday night and the food was great, service excellent and the atmosphere was fun! I had the potstickers, crispy and delicious. I had one of the $ 5.00 special hamburgers. It was cooked to order, delicious and served with tater tots. Our server was great. The place was packed but we never had to wait for anything we needed. The bar has seating all around it and people were having a great time. Assorted high tops and pit groups made for a cozy and fun eating and drinking experience. I’ll be back!

I’m not sure how this place could improve at all. So I believe 5 stars is an accurate rating. I met a friend for lunch, we had drinks, fun and wonderful food. I had the watermelon margarita and was floored at how wonderful it was. We had the sliders, spinach/​artichoke/​mushroom pizza and the white bean soup. The soup was spicy but literally one of the best things I’ve ever eaten. But I love soup. The waitress too was amazing! Was it Alex? No… She let us talk and spend our afternoon together with little interruption and perfect opportunity to refill our drinks. She really knows what she is doing!!! This is much appreciated for a mom out for lunch with a girlfriend. Wow. Go!!!

Normally, I love this place. They have a great atmosphere year round. Even if you come alone, most people are friendly and will strike up a conversation. Great Happy Hour with amazing mixed drinks and a variety of beers all fairly priced. There really isnt much on menu here that isnt mouthwatering. tonight was my first real dissapointment. I ordered the Salmon Sliders with the tots. The tots were soggy and way over seasoned and the sliders only one of the three were even cooked and almost to the point of being raw which is great for sushi but not for a slider sandwich. Ultimately caused me to basically lose my appetite completely, additionally leaving me almost feeling nauseous. So tonight, not a great experience. I’ll be back but in the future I’ll avoid ordering these again.

The waitress would only ring in half our drinks, kept forgetting the rest, so we had to wait 15+ minutes between the time we ordered and the time we got our drinks. The food came out cold and looked like it had been sitting around for a long time.

The food is great for a late nite place but i have been there multiple times and the service was awful. I wanted to blame it on the girl working at the time because she worked each time i went. But after staying away a few months and got the same result i found myself disappointed. I understand working a late nite place does not produce alot of volumn so employees can lose motivation but i still am a great customer who is happy to spend money and tip well but getting treated as a burden while you talk with co workers makes me not want to return.

Large enough, parking also large and convenient. Waitstaff very attentive! Lots of ambient noise inside to add to the busy casual vibe. I would have eaten outdoors, but we were too large a group. Maybe next time. Happy hour is good, and our group ate, drank and talked for three hours, and we ended up with a bill of about $ 25 apiece, since we started during the cheap drinks and appetizers.
One guy swore by the Cajun chicken. We tried the flatbread and quesadillas as appetizers. M had a burger. I wasn’t impressed by the martini they concocted just for me, but I’d be willing to try again, if they’d stock some chocolate vodka. The others were very impressed with their drinks.

This is hands down my favorite bar that serves food. There are plenty of bars I enjoy that are fun places to drink, but this place offers amazing food as well. Their burgers are some of the best in town, their loaded tots are the best I have ever ate in my life, and their boneless chicken wings are so good that my picky azzz girlfriend said it was the only boneless wings she has ever liked. All of their appetizers are really good and they have daily happy hours and specials. Every time I have been there the service is excellent. If you are at all not 100% satisfied with your food they offer to pay or give free vouchers for next time. Atmosphere is classy and modern but very welcoming. Perfect for a date or a group gathering.
This is one of my favorite bars in town. I always leave with a smile and keep wanting to come back for more. And did I mention their loaded tots? Omg, cheesy and baconny goodness!

Overall, just ok. Here’s the dealio:
Service: Hit or miss. I had the best server ever here (seriously, best server I’ve ever met. He was friendly, attentive (but not too attentive), knowledgeable, and speedy) and I’ve also had some of the worst servers ever (took forever to get their attention, forever to get drinks… if we got them at all… and so long to get our food that it was cold).
Food/​drinks: Ok. I mean, they’re all good, but nothing special, per se. The happy hour specials are very good.
Ambiance: I do like the vibe here. Like the patio and big windows that can be opened. It’s also an overall chill crowd.
I wouldn’t go out of my way to visit Bar Louie, but I have a good time when I do.

I don’t even know if this deserves 2 stars… Food is mediocre at best. Overpriced for what you get. Service… Terrible. Slow and sat with an empty water the entire meal then for a long time after the meal was long gone, waiting for our waitress to get our bill. (This place wasn’t busy in the slightest while we were here) We had to go to her for water refills, additional ranch, our bill, then a to go box. Too many better places around here to waste time at this place. First and last time here for sure!

Came here yesterday for lunch with my friends and we decided to sit at the bar.
We had two people taking care of us the entire time, and, I must say, they were super attentive and very talkative with us. I ordered the veggie wrap and, I must say, I wasn’t expecting much, but, it was delicious!
Full of veggies and hummus and the balsamic vinegar in the wrap really pulled it all together. My friend had the avocado sliders that were a special on the menu and he thought they were so good that they should become a permanent staple on the menu. My other friend had the mussels and he thought that they were just okay, so, I don’t think he would order them again.
Oh, and the TOTS! The tots are delicious!
Would definitely come back here for the service, drinks and that veggie wrap!

Excellent shrimp lettuce wraps. Great atmosphere! Meatball appetizer is great too! Spicy and seems to me they make them i. House. I will order it again!

For the best Bar Louie experience, you want to keep the BAR part top of mind.
And it won’t be hard: very nice happy hour, solid mixology, decent appetizers, comfortable surroundings… I think this would be a nice place to hang out on a warm summer night sipping cocktails.
What it isn’t (as I write) is a great dinner spot. The better than average sounding menu only resulted in average plates. Not bad, but opportunity to improve. As a small example, I’ll offer up the avocado fires. A fine idea just not quite there. Lightly breaded strips of avocado came out of the fryer too mushy and tasting mostly of hot fry oil. A dedicate fryer in a lighter oil with a shorter fry time could make this «meh» dish amazing.
I’ll give them another go when the weather favors opening the floor-​to-​ceiling overhead doors and Bar Louie becomes a welcoming cocktail patio.

Stopped in over lunch on MLK day. Not very busy so my wife and I bellied up to the bar. Pretty big place overall. Some TVs spread out in different places but definitely not so many that you would confuse this place for a sports bar. One thing that looks cool is the walls of the restaurant are actually doors and when the weather gets nice they open them up. Unfortunately in January that wasn’t an option.
I know their specialty here is bar drinks but I can’t speak much for that because I’m not a big mixed drink guy. However I am a very big fan of craft beer and they do have a decent selection of beer on tap ranging from local, state, regional, and macro brands.
I ordered the Voodoo Chicken entrée which was a couple of blackened chicken breasts served over a spicy cream sauce with sausage, bell peppers and onions with rice. I was pleasantly surprised. It was a fairly nice sized portion and very flavorful. Really hit the spot. Outside of that though I thought the offerings on the menu were kind of meh but maybe that’s just a me thing.
Overall, a nice place. Tends to get really busy on the typical bar/​shopping nights as I’ve driven by during those times and the parking lot is overflowing. To me it’s less of a restaurant with a bar and more of a bar that serves food.

Really huge, restaraunt with indoor and outdoor seating! Huge full bar with lots of tv’s but does not really seem like a sports bar! We sat out side on a very comfortable couch, but only really had a foot stool for a table, perfect for drinks but got a little tight when we were having plates.
We were here just to check the place out get a drink and maybe an appatizer!
That’s what we did, Ashley enjoyed a huge Bloody Louie (Bloody Mary) It came with cheese, 2 kinds of cold meat, green olive, more cheese, lemon, lime, and a pickle! She dug it and the presentation! I got a 20 ounce Cropduster IPA.
Both were at Happy Hour prices so pretty legit on the cost! We also got Hummus appatizer which was pretty large and pretty delicious!
All in all good spot to grab something quick and get a brew near Jordan Creek Mall!

Oh Bar Louie, where to start? Food and drinks are always on point. I’ve been there 3 times and the food has never failed to deliver. It’s always delicious, full of flavor, and I am always happy with whatever app or entrée or dessert I get.
The drinks are always strong and the martini menu is awesome with some drinks you know well and some new ones.
But if there was anything to keep me from returning it would be service. It’s frustrating because I have been here when they are packed, busy, and not really busy and service is still lacking or not there at all. I think if they got that together this place would be great.