Either/Or, Des Moines IA

Great staff! Appreciate their attentiveness, insight, and conversation.

Food and drinks are excellent. Happened to stop on first night of a new menu and had no issues. They plan to rotate every 4 months.

Korean wings were delicious. The cheese balls are good but the dipping sauce made it great.

The EO burger was good and the fries were perfect.

Good drink selection.

Food is creative, accessible, and delicious. Space is warm and rich, funky and comfortable with elevated details. Servers and staff interactions are friendly and professional. The adaptive reuse of a long-vacant auto parts store into such a cool restaurant is remarkable and is a credit to the owners and their team. The outdoor spaces are above and beyond. Great addition to the west side!

The food was meh. I got the fried chicken sandwich and it had no flavor. But the space was huuuggee and pretty. It has a nice patio too. My husband got the burger, we got the wings as appetizer and we each got a drink. Came out to like $80! And it wasn’t even good. Don’t recommend.

We went here for our weekly lunch and it was a fun experience.

The ambiance is great and the place is decorated very nicely. The patio is nice and you have a park right outside their door. Parking wasn’t an issue but might be during peak times.

Service was great and attentive and the open kitchen vibe lets you watch what’s happening on their end.

As for the food, we had 2 appetizers. The tar tar and the wings. Both were good but the wings probably are my favorite. Great crisp and perfect saucing. The tar tar was flavorful and good. I’m not sure why they serve it, but it’s there.

My burger was great. My patties were juicy and flavorful but it also wasn’t anything I’d die for. The fries were very underwhelming. With most places now serving some sort of artisanal fry, these seemed like fast food fries. Presentation was simple and to the point.

I’d go here again but I do think their prices are slightly inflated when it comes to their food and menu.

Really beautiful space and nice patio and of course play area for kids. My 2 year old loved it. They need more tree cover from Grand, kinda takes away from atmosphere seeing busy street. The menu is limited and the food was not great. I actually only took a few bites out of my burger because it was so salty. Fries and corned beef also super salty. I want this place to succeed but they need to do better on the food! Also, we want plates!

The service was excellent and the park was really nice since we had younger kids with us. The food however wasn't great and felt really over priced for the quality.

Cocktails very taste. They were very busy, but the service was fantastic. Food all hot and delicious.

Delicious food and drinks! I loved the mushroom baguette and chicken sandwich and the fries were perfectly seasoned. Overall the menu and drink selection (and execution) were focused and so good. Mason our waiter was awesome and even turned down the music for us which was thoughtful.

Okay, we wanted to like this place because of how much we enjoy Lua. However, to be brutally honest… the prices are generally outrageous for the
quality of food + drinks served.

First of all, my dish tasted like Whole Foods salad bar quality and the amount of food in the dish was a joke.
The cocktails tasted fine, but small rocks glasses that are half full for a $12 price. Like, cmon man. I switched to beer after 2 tiny cocktails. The rest of my party did the same.

My friends had food and also said it tasted bland. The shrimp ceviche appetizer was good but there’s a napkin on the plate, which I’d recommend removing otherwise the toppling heap of ceviche will land on it and you’ll be scraping ceviche off a napkin like we were.

The server was very kind but forgot to add the chicken to one of our dishes. It also took awhile to get a drink for a person in our party. Not a huge deal at all, but it just adds to the experience…

Overall it was the first and last time we will eat at Either/Or unfortunately. Really had high hopes for this place.

I think I stand with most people where I’d pay good money for good food, but this just isn’t that. I’d honestly consider changing up the menu items, reconfiguring the portion sizes of food AND drink, and my gawd - if you’re just going to change one thing and one thing only - lower the dang prices! We’re in Des Moines, Iowa. Not Los Angeles.

I apologize for being so blunt. I know it’s hard out there for restaurants and I mean no harm. But sometimes these things need to be shared in order to make a correction. Wish Either/Or the best going forward and hope yall figure this out so nobody feels like me in the future.

Absolutely fantastic, I can't wait to go back. Extremely smart move with the heaters out on the patio- it was maybe 30 - 40 degrees when I went and I never even felt cold. I got one of their salads with salmon and it was one of the better things I have ever eaten.

Drinks were great too- I'd highly recommend all of the sours on their menu if you're a fan of sours. Some of the best I've ever had.

Definitely going to become a regular spot for me and my family.

The food was amazing, loved the shrimp ceviche. Every staff member that we interacted with was so attentive and had great recommendations. The vibe of the place is perfection, well done!

We walked in last night around 7pm-prime dinner time. The hosts said that the wait would be around an hour so we decided to forego the queue and head to the bar. Those of you who have been following my reviews know that I am a huge fan of bar seating anyway. Luckily for us, two people left just as we were walking up. So, we were able to be seated right away, and they were still warm The bartenders/servers; however, took about 20 minutes to address us after we had already gone through the menu and decided what we wanted. I kind of get it, you know, there's a huge turnover at the bar and you don't know who's serving who but if they could find a way to effectively communicate who's been taken care of to each other it'd go a lot smoother. There was also a lot of confusion about where food was to be delivered. I think putting guests under actual seat numbers or describing what area they're seated in front of (ex.dishwasher couple) would work. Also, maybe place tokens in front of guests and take them away after they've ordered. Or, I don't know, just talk to each other. I'm a 17-year veteran of the restaurant/bar industry and that's what worked for us.

Once we got a server, we ordered everything together anticipating a long wait. We each got a beer and a plethora of appetizers. The beers were fantastic! That goes without saying. The appetizers were hit or miss. The pork belly was phenomenal! Flavors were on-point, and it was crispy as described. The shrimp ceviche is not really a ceviche (it was creamy) but it was really tasty! I added a squeeze of lime to really bring the flavors out. The chips and salsa were okay. Not your run-of-the-mill salsa. Less chunky with more heat. The salsa verde with the zucchini fries were also okay. The zucchini fries were also sturdy and crispy, not rubbery at all. They just needed a little salt. The Korean BBQ wings were meh. The sauce tasted like it was covered in straight Gochujang. It was slightly bitter. I feel like Gochujang is better suited for dipping or incorporating into sauce recipes.

The inside of the restaurant is super beautiful. Whoever designed the place is brilliant. I love the retro look! There's tons of seating all over the place. Love the outdoor area! I would love to bring my dog here next time. There are plenty of heaters and garden lights for colder, darker nights.

Sorry for the long review. I think they've still got a few things to work out, but hopefully as time goes on they're not as slammed and can communicate with each other more efficiently.

Great tasting but limited food selection, mediocre service, cool atmosphere and location. But Centro pricing, without the service knowledge. If you don't have other options with kids, get the sandwich and a water, or you'll be paying 60 bucks a person like we did.

I went with friends and they had the arugula salad they couldn't stop talking about how wonderful it was and I had the EO Burger and it was awesome