Des Moines area restaurant fans love to know what’s new, what’s hot, and what favorite chef just launched a second effort that should be tried.
With that, the Des Moines Register updates its hot list, a look at some of the newest restaurants that diners can’t get enough of. These restaurants often have reservations filled in advance and sometimes a wait for a table. Readers can also check out our 2025 Essential Restaurants guide for a look at highly recommended places to eat across the metro.
One offers brunch. Another has soul food. A third dabbles in a mix of French and Japanese cuisines, including sushi. One delves into jerk chicken and Caribbean and West African dishes. Several specialize in upscale comfort food. A bakery with Asian-inspired baked goods even has lunch and dinner options.
Here’s a look at seven of the hottest new restaurants in the Des Moines metro, an alphabetical list that will be updated monthly as new restaurants arrive, with newcomers removed as they reach six months old.
Is your favorite new restaurant missing from the list? Drop us a line at sstapleton@gannett.com and we’ll check it out.
Good Eatin’s
Southern and soul foods find a home near Merle Hay Mall. Good Eatin’s offers fried chicken or catfish, macaroni and cheese, collard greens, sweet potatoes, baked beans, spaghetti, potato salad, and fries in heaping portions inside the former Wasabi space. A basket of biscuits swimming in butter comes with every meal.
Location: 5418 Douglas Ave., Des Moines
Contact: 515-803-5141
Hours: Open Tuesday through Saturday from 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sunday from 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Masao
Find a contemporary mix of Japanese and French cuisines at Masao in the East Village. Nick Hanke of Waterfront Seafood fame took over the former Miyabi 9 space and added his own flair to the menu with Masao.
Hanke brought on Phil Shires, a James Beard Foundation semifinalist for Best Chef Midwest in 2014 for his work at Café di Scala (which later converted to Aposto in Sherman Hill), to work on the French side of the menu. Hanke, who trained under Mike Miyabi, works behind the sushi counter.
And the pair brings something completely original to Des Moines.
Expect a completely different menu from day to day, with fish dishes updated as fresh stock arrives, sometimes running out. Shires and Hanke continually evolve the menu, expanding the sushi selections and adding French-inspired dishes with Japanese ingredients. Must-orders include the lavender eggs; Kitsune, a roll that combines Hamachi with cucumber, avocado, spicy mayo, and ponzu; bluefin carpaccio; and okonomiyaki, a Japanese savory pancake.
Pro tip: Lunch kicks off on Oct. 1.
Location: 512 E. Grand Ave., Des Moines
Contact: 515-207-1570 or masao.restaurant
Hours: Open Tuesday through Friday from 5 to 9 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 5 to 10 p.m.
Reservations: exploretock.com/masao
Palms DSM
Amara and Dionne Sama opened Palms DSM with a mix of cuisines from Jamaica and West Africa. Amara hails from Liberia, while Dionne moved to Iowa from Chicago. The couple met while going to college at Iowa State University. The longtime food truck operators and vendors at the farmers market decided to open their brick-and-mortar location off Ingersoll Avenue near MLK Boulevard in June.
The restaurant specializes in jerk chicken, grilled outside, as well as three sauces for its wings — coconut curry, honey suya, and smoked jerk. Pair any dish with jollof rice, coconut candied yams, fried plantains, or mac and cheese.
Diners can order from a full bar that includes cocktails such as a rum punch and Palms sangria, a short list of wines by the bottle and glass, and beers, including Red Stripe. Mocktails featured include a Sama punch with fruit juices, ginger beer, and grenadine; the Hibiscus Paradise with ginger juice and mint; and Pine ‘N Ginga with pineapple and ginger juices.
The sit-down restaurant feels like a Caribbean retreat inside, with rattan chairs at tables and a banquette along the wall of western windows that fill the dining room with light. Customers can sit at the bar or choose the patio along the western side of the building.
Location: 1905 Ingersoll Ave., Des Moines
Contact: 515-214-1213, or eatpalms.com
Hours: Open Tuesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Revelry Room Bar + Kitchen
The new restaurant at the Renaissance Des Moines Savery Hotel offers comfort food dishes that can be shared, as well as cocktails. Revelry Room Bar + Kitchen is a nod to the Prohibition era, blending a classic tavern feel with modern touches and focusing on local ingredients and craft cocktails.
The menu features a build-your-own charcuterie board, bourbon bacon with five thick slices, a cheese fondue pot, burgers, a breaded pork tenderloin, a decadent grilled cheese, and a butter board.
A shining star on the menu is an ode to the martini, with customers selecting their spirit, how dry or dirty they want it, whether it’s shaken or stirred, and how it’s garnished. The classics, such as a Sidecar and Bijou, find representation on the menu, as well as novelty drinks.
Location: Renaissance Des Moines Savery Hotel, 401 Locust St., Des Moines
Contact: 515-244-2151 or revelryroomdsm.com
Reservations: opentable.com
Hours: Open Sunday through Thursday from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m., and Friday and Saturday from 3 p.m. to midnight.
Tribute Eatery & Bar
Tribute Eatery & Bar, a polished yet approachable restaurant, took over the former 30hop space at the District at Prairie Trail in Ankeny. The sister restaurant to 30hop, which moved about 200 feet away into a larger space, offers a menu full of classic favorites done right, a welcoming atmosphere, and a bar program that leans into craft cocktails and wine.
Try the Cubano and the Morty (shaved mortadella, burrata, arugula, tomato jam, and pistachio pesto on focaccia) or a lobster roll, steak frites, fish and chips with yuzu tartar sauce, roasted chicken with chimichurri, and seared scallops with corn puree and crispy prosciutto for lunch or dinner. There’s also a gnocchi with Korean short rib, a rich and hearty dish, and a wagyu meatball skillet.
The Ankeny location also offers Blueline Specials, nightly specials that include bone-in pork chops on Mondays, miso-glazed king salmon on Tuesdays, wagyu meatloaf on Wednesdays, creamy mushroom risotto on Thursdays, smoked ribeye on Fridays, shrimp and lobster bucatini on Saturdays, and prime rib on Sundays.
Location: 1615 S.W. Main St., Suite 105, Ankeny
Contact: 515-217-5995 or tributebar.com
Hours: Open Monday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Friday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Saturday from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m
Brunch: Served Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Happy hour: Monday through Friday from 3 to 6 p.m.
Tous les Jours
Tous les Jours bakery and café opened on July 4, north of Jordan Creek Town Center, with long lines of fans waiting to fill trays with almond croissants, milk breads, butter cookies, and macarons.
A menu of 300 items awaits customers who can pick and choose what they want to eat at the café in the dining room or on the side patio, or box to take home.
Cream-filled milk bread, sourdough bread, purple sweet potato loaves, and other dishes are wrapped in cellophane, as are sandwiches filled with egg salad or a chicken club. On the side, find plastic containers filled with butter cookies and chocolate chip cookies, while another area features jams from the company.
Tous les Jours is known for its cloud cake, a light and fluffy cake available in flavors such as vanilla, green tea, and strawberry. Additional flavors include Earl Grey tea, strawberry lychee, blueberry, peach, mango, and chocolate. Each can be customized for special occasions. Curls of chocolate or chunks of fresh fruit decorate the tops.
Location: 6880 E.P. True Parkway in West Des Moines.
Contact: tljus.com or instagram.com/tljiowa/#
Hours: Open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.
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Susan Stapleton is the entertainment editor and dining reporter at The Des Moines Register. Follow her on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, or drop her a line at sstapleton@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: 7 new restaurants in the Des Moines metro you should try right now
Reporting by Susan Stapleton, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
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