Blue Moon Dueling Piano Bar

If you are looking for a nice place to sit and enjoy your time this is not the place for you
Been to Blue Moon a few times and everytime unable to find a spot to sit or dealt with unpleasant hosts or hostesses. Having a cover charge of $ 5 seems pretty ridiculous when no one is playing or no entertainment at all. And even today when we asked before paying. The hostess was rude and said «sorry I’m in front of a wall and cant check» pretty ridiculous i might say.
Wished this was a fun place to go to but sadly they haven’t seemed to get there act together for the past several years.

Blue Moon is a unique venue in town with dueling piano bars. It’s cool to listen to at first but there are a lot of shortcomings with the place. First of all, it doesn’t feel as classy as I envisioned it to be. The pianists tend to bias with classical rock music. Although that’s cool, there should be more variety in genres. Drinks are average here and didn’t try the food. What has prevented me and a handful others from coming from now is that the pianists are not racially sensitive. I had an unfortunate situation where when my group and I moved up closer to the stage (we are all Asian) he played the stereotypical Asian tune because he thought it was funny. We got upset and he did not seem very apologetic when we confronted him. His excuse was that it just came to his mind and he couldn’t control himself. Definitely not coming here again!

These abysmal reviews make me sad. I’ve never been to a piano bar before and this place has a lovely atmosphere that seemed classy but neither obnoxious nor overwhelming. They seem to have an abundance of alcohol and many signature drinks. I went on a Saturday night for a bachelorette party and the place was pretty packed by about 8, when the dueling pianos started. However, I noticed many people leave throughout the evening so it wouldn’t be impossible to find a table if you came late. The waiters were great at keeping up and the food was delicious. The best part was of course the Dueling Pianos. The 2 that played were extremely talented and hilarious. The place was loud and enjoyable for hours. I had a blast!

IfI find this place incredibly unreasonable. We came here for my best friend’s Bachelorette party, her maid of honor is her 20 year old sister. She had called the West Des Moines police department a few weeks prior to make sure she was okay to go into the bars as she didn’t want to hold us back from going anywhere. They reassured her that legally she can be in the bars. She is not a drinker and was simply our DD who was here to support her sister as maid of honor. We showed up for our reservation at 7 pm and we’re told she can only be here until 8 pm according to their policy. Once we requested a manager he said if it were say. Thursday. he wouldn’t mind but because it is a Saturday, she wouldn’t be able to stay. I know every company has grey areas but to inform your customer is unacceptable as clearly this is a policy that is enforced when they feel like it. Needless to say, we left and they will never receive my business.
Please know that someone who doesn’t drink is normal, not someone trying to push the system. Attending a bar and not drinking is normal, there could be multiple reasons why she is not drinking. I guess as a paying customer I would appreciate a company to follow local law enforcement rather than what day of the week it is.

This place is probably a fair mediocrity combined with (subjectively) the worst service in Des Moines.
Food was okay quality with standard prongs, but our server and another member of staff we interacted with were dismal and disinterested in their job or day.
Find a better place to spend your weekend date.

I went here with a few friends for Trivia Night on a Tuesday (I love me some trivia!) and was completely disgusted with the venue.
The whole vibe of the bar screams «college cafeteria». We arrived a little before 8 and there was no where to sit (from the prior reviews, this appears to be a common problem). The venue is set up like a big event center (or cafeteria!) — big open area with concrete floor where the tables are positioned. There are 2 bars on either side, but only one is manned with a bartender. I saw, and I’m not exaggerating, one staff member the entire time I was there. We were sitting at the unmanned bar, where we had to bring our own chairs down from the upstairs overflow area. My husband had to go open a tab on the other side of the venue at the manned bar in order to get any drinks.
I didn’t see anyone eating, so I’m not sure if they even serve food? No menus or anything of that nature. Good luck trying to place an order with one exasperated waitress trying to serve the masses.
The whole crowd was very young. (ie, how are these people drinking beer, because they all look 17). I felt very out of place having not worn a dirty hoodie and ripped jeans.
I really hope that they either make some major changes or that another business comes in to take over. This is a great location with great potential, and it’s currently being wasted. If you’re in the area, I would suggest you go to one of the 5 other bars within walking distance.

Pretty standard as far as piano bars. My main grip is that I’ve been to this place 3 times and each time I’ve left within the hour because me and my friends cant find a seat. The place fills up very early, so I guess you have to get there by about 7 to find a seat. There isn’t really anywhere for the people without seats to stand, so if you are sitting at the bar, all the seatless people will all stand in front of you.
As someone mentioned below, they rarely play a whole song through, but I don’t care about that. If you watch how many people walk up to the piano players, they would never have enough time to play every song they receive, and its not like they are going to start issuing refunds for unplayed songs.
I haven’t tried the food, so can’t comment on that.
Each time I’ve been here there have been at least 3 bachelorette parties. I don’t know why other reviewers see this as a bad thing, since every other bar in the city of Des moines is a giant sausage fest full of wanna be tough guys. I’d take hanging out with a bunch of drunk chicks over a bunch of tough guys any day. The only downside is that inevitably a couple of drunk girls will request the latest hip hop song to be played… on a friggin piano.
Also people are complaining about the piano players hustling for tips, which they of course do. Have these people not been to a piano bar before? Yes, they will pit the Iowa State vs. Iowa fight songs for the biggest tip. Yes, they will pit a rap song verses a country song for the biggest tip. You don’t have to give them any money you know. Let some other drunk person give the piano players $ 100 to play the stupid college fight song of their choice.
I’ll probably come back to this bar again sometime, but I’m going to arrive friggin early.

Over priced, weak drinks. Food was just meh. Small portions. Maybe I’m bias, but I don’t like them trolling fire money just to play a song on the piano for less than 2 minutes. I wouldn’t go back.

Their website plugs an «environmentally friendly kitchen». Unfortunately, this means the food suffers, especially when you have standard bar fare on the menu. The fries are actually potato wedges and have zero flavor to them. Garlic powder, Lawry’s, or anything would have been helpful. Au jus did have some good flavor to it – notes of rosemary were present.
I went on trivia night and the service was abysmal. Our server threw the bartender under the bus. Whether or not it was his fault is irrelevant – drink service took far too long. Took at least 20 minutes to get the check as well. I’ll give props to the trivia company they use and the generosity of the prizes they offer.

Obnoxiously loud, terrible musicians, and screaming bachelorette parties… need I say more?

We were at Blue Moon for a birthday party and it was the one and only time I’ll go. The food was terrible, nothing was fully cooked (pizza or fries) they’re called seasoned fries and there was no seasoning as they were bland and it took forever to get. The drinks had NOTHING in them and I think we were drinking pop only. There were two people on our tab and it was $ 150 for terrible food and to not even leave buzzed.

The place was very low brow. They barely ever play a whole song and they’re usually making fun of the songs they sing. You feel like they’re hustling you for tips the whole time they’re playing/​doing their comedy routine. They successfully offended persons who are disabled or are homosexual while I was there. Come here for bad food, stiff drinks, and a comedy routine. Not for me.

The place to go if you enjoy mediocre food, loud and obnoxious patrons, vulgar entertainment, and poor acoustics. If your idea of fun is getting drunk and singing along with popular songs that have impromptu lyric changes and sex jokes by the musicians, you will like this place.

My friend and I tried out this place on a weeknight. Unfortunately, there was no dueling pianos just a trivia game going on that night. Still, we had a pretty good time with the trivia game. Decent crowd that night and pretty nice prizes if you wanted more food or drinks. I would have preferred a gift card or cash like other places. I had the fish and chips which was pretty decent. Crispy and not too greasy. 3 – 4 pieces made it rather filling with some steamed vegetables. My friend had a burger which he said was pretty good. Trivia started at around 7 and ended around 9:30. Would like to come back here when there is music.

I’ve been here a couple of times. The first was a date. It’s perfect when you are looking for something different to do. We also had our company Christmas party here. What a blast! The two servers really took care of us! There is probably some video floating around of us on stage with the entertainers. Go– you will have fun!

The food was okay. My sandwich was good, but the pizza lackluster. The service was terrible; twenty minutes just to get our drinks ordered! Also, I like my drinks a bit heavy on the booze but my boyfriend’s Long Island Iced Tea was nothing but gin. Very poorly mixed drink.
It was the last day of a Living Social deal so a ton of people were there, but I watched the manager sit on his butt the whole time instead of trying to help with ordering and other service. The service was so poor that we had to pass our menus to two other tables just so they could see one!
We went for a 6:15pm dinner and found out that the live music didn’t start until 8pm. Pretty late to start entertainment on a Tuesday night.
Would not go again.

I like Blue Moon ok — it’s better for a large group gathering than going out with a couple of people. It’s a pretty standard dueling piano bar. If you can get past the bachelorette parties, or the group of fortysomething women in non-​age-​appropriate clothing celebrating a divorce/​birthday, you’ll probably be able to make a good night of it.
You can’t really go too wrong with live music and booze. But it’s fairly bland, often over-​crowded, and the piano players have no shame in their money-​grubbing techniques («we’ll stop playing this Bieber song if you give us more money than the person who paid us to play it»), but that’s par for the course in a dueling piano bar. I get it.
I don’t really care for their specialty cocktails. Stick to something simple (beer). The food isn’t great, either — I’d grab something at Wellmans before heading over.

My wife and I have visited Blue Moon twice in the past couple of months. It is a great time for couples and groups of friends. The piano players are very talented given the wide range of songs they have to sing and play.
A dueling piano bar is not for everyone. It is crowded, the pianists are vulgar, it is very loud and the crowd participates in every song. It is like a crazy party. If you like 14 year old humor you will laugh like never before. If you don’t appreciate immature, dirty minded jokes, and poking fun and peoples expense then don’t go! I thought the food was great.
I would suggest getting there just before six to avoid the cover charge. Also, call several days ahead of time to get reservations.
Have fun!

I wish I could rate this differently for the show and the food but I can’t officially but I will say this.
Show — ****
Food — **
Which pretty much balances out to 3 stars. The food here is nothing to get excited about at all. Really, it’s more of an afterthought for this establishment. Just cheaply made dishes to pass along to the people waiting for the show to start. When the show begins (8pm Thurs-​Sat) is when the place really starts going. As people have said in other reviews, it can get raunchy and childish at times, but the point of the place is to get people liquored up so they sing along and pay money for tunes to get played. Trust me, it makes for a better environment when the place gets lubed up a little and the people go along with it. I have been to a couple of piano bars in other cities where the people just sit and watch, and it’s quite boring. It’s a place to go with a lot of friends or with the significant other but only a couple of times a year. The set lists do seem to become repetitive after a while.

The Dueling Piano Bar in Des Moines is a heterosexual group event heaven. Not a huge fan of drunken douchebags yelling out things regarding sex, sexual positions, and anatomical parts. I wish it were just limited to the people drinking, but it also includes the performers.
If you would like to see your friend made fun of, touch a piano players body, or generally just degraded, this is the bar for you… as long as you give enough of a tip to get them to take your request. The more money, the more they do. I prefer to think of it as piano bar prostitution.
I am not a huge fan. It’s a gimic, wrapped in a shiny new building, wrapped in a package with bows and crappy food. The food is terrible, the drinks are expensive, and there’s a bloody cover. If my wife and friends hadn’t dragged me here, I would NOT have gone. No need. I can humiliate myself or my friends for free. I have been to a few piano bars that were much better, but they were in CA and generally didn’t create their whole environment/​bar around the piano bar theme. I prefer their «one night a week» system. I would never go back to this bar. It was okay for the night, but it’s only good if you have a large party or want to get rid of a large portion of your bank account.