Des Moines, United States
801 Chophouse
The kitchen works in the American steakhouse tradition, where sourcing and aging matter as much as technique.
← Back to cities
United States
Des Moines
Explore our curated restaurants, hotels, bars, and wineries in Des Moines.
Accolades in Des Moines
1
1
4
1
4
Des Moines has 4 awarded venues across two Wine Spectator levels in our guide: Best of Award of Excellence and Award of Excellence. Downtown and Downtown Des Moines carry the clearest concentration of serious rooms, while East Village adds a compact set of dining and drinking stops. A chef’s-table French tasting menu uses curated wine pairings, limited seatings, and a sommelier-led wine list. An urban winery south of downtown produces wines from locally grown Iowa grapes.
The guide includes a seafood restaurant with saltwater aquariums and jet-fresh seafood flown in daily from around the world, and a classic steakhouse serving only aged USDA Prime beef in a historic New York City-style interior. Bars lean into bottle depth, curation, cocktails, or beer. A Michelin Selected hotel in Downtown occupies a restored Beaux-Arts skyscraper, once Iowa’s tallest building.
Wine-led restaurants
These restaurants pair serious wine with formats that give the list a clear role, from seafood and steak to a chef-led tasting menu.
Splash Seafood Bar and Grill
Splash Seafood Bar and Grill in Downtown is an elegant seafood restaurant with a curated wine program and Wine Spectator Award of Excellence awards in 2026 and 2025. The list has 230 selections and 1,800 bottles, alongside a seafood menu built around saltwater aquariums and jet-fresh seafood flown in daily from around the world.
Café Madeleine
Café Madeleine in Downtown Des Moines offers a chef’s-table-style French tasting menu with curated pairings and a sommelier-led wine focus. It appears on Wine Enthusiast’s Best Wine Restaurants 2025 list for the Midwest, and the format uses limited seatings with a compact service rhythm.
801 Chophouse
801 Chophouse in downtown is a classic USDA Prime steakhouse with an exceptional wine program and Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence recognition from 2026. The room centres on aged USDA Prime beef and a historic New York City-style interior.
Bars and hotel stop
These picks cover the city’s more deliberate drinking rooms and one Michelin Selected hotel with a design-led stay.
Akebono 515
Akebono 515 in Downtown is a spirits-forward bar in Des Moines. Sushi rolls at this Downtown bar are creative. The Japanese cuisine is authentic. The setting of this Downtown bar is stylish.
The Cheese Shop
The Cheese Shop in the Roosevelt Cultural District is a curated stop with conventional wine and craft beer. Its focus on over 100 artisan and farmhouse cheeses gives it a specialist identity in an intimate 500 sq ft retail space.
Surety Hotel
Surety Hotel in Downtown is a Michelin Selected hotel for 2025 in a restored 1913 Beaux-Arts skyscraper. It turns a historic tower into a design-forward stay with modern luxury, and the skyscraper was once Iowa’s tallest building.
Planning FAQ
Which neighbourhoods have the strongest wine scene in Des Moines?
Downtown and Downtown Des Moines have the clearest concentration of serious dining and drinking rooms in Des Moines. Downtown holds Splash Seafood Bar and Grill, 801 Chophouse, and Akebono 515, while Downtown Des Moines holds Café Madeleine, the city’s clearest tasting-menu pick. East Village adds Clyde’s Fine Diner, which has a curated wine program.
How many Michelin-starred restaurants are in your Des Moines guide?
There are 0 Michelin-starred restaurants in our Des Moines guide, and the city has 0 Michelin stars in total. Surety Hotel in Downtown is Michelin Selected for 2025 and is housed in a restored 1913 Beaux-Arts skyscraper.
Where should I go for tasting menus in Des Moines?
Café Madeleine in Downtown Des Moines is the tasting-menu pick in the guide. It offers a chef’s-table-style French tasting menu with curated pairings, a sommelier-led wine focus, and limited seatings. The venue also appears on Wine Enthusiast’s Best Wine Restaurants 2025 list for the Midwest.
Which places have Wine Spectator awards?
Our guide lists Wine Spectator awards at Splash Seafood Bar and Grill in Downtown and 801 Chophouse in downtown. Splash holds Wine Spectator Award of Excellence awards for 2026 and 2025, and 801 Chophouse holds a Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence for 2026.
By Emmett Haley · Updated October 8, 2026 · Editorial standards
Des Moines
Restaurants
Selected entries from the current guide for Des Moines.
Des Moines, United States
Des Moines, United States
Café Madeleine
Café Madeleine gives Des Moines a wine-led dining address with national recognition from Wine Enthusiast’s Best Wine Restaurants 2025 list for the Midwest. The appeal is less about spectacle than sourcing, cellar judgment, and a compact service rhythm that suits diners who care where ingredients come from and how wine shapes the meal.
Des Moines, United States
Simon's
Simon's is a 2025 James Beard Award semifinalist for Outstanding Hospitality presented by American Airlines in Des Moines, IA.
Des Moines, United States
Splash Seafood Bar and Grill
Splash Seafood Bar and Grill sits at 303 Locust Street in the heart of Des Moines, bringing coastal cooking to a landlocked city with a wine list of 230 selections and 1,800-bottle inventory priced at the $$ tier. Chef Ryan Baber leads the kitchen while Wine Director Adam Pepe oversees a California-focused list with broad price accessibility. Dinner-only service makes it the city's cleaner choice for a serious seafood evening.
Des Moines, United States
Clyde's Fine Diner
Clyde's Fine Diner occupies Suite 111 at 111 E Grand Ave in downtown Des Moines, positioning itself in the tier of Iowa's more considered dining rooms. With a name that signals both polish and familiarity, it draws from a city increasingly willing to look beyond steakhouses and supper clubs. Specific menu details and pricing are best confirmed directly with the restaurant before visiting.
Des Moines
Hotels
Selected entries from the current guide for Des Moines.
Des Moines, United States
Surety Hotel
A Michelin Selected hotel occupying a converted mid-century office tower in downtown Des Moines, Surety Hotel translates historic architecture into a design-forward stay that sits apart from the chain properties dominating the city's accommodation tier. Its address on 6th Avenue places guests within walking distance of the East Village arts district and the Des Moines Art Center, making it a practical and considered base for the city.
Des Moines
Bars
Selected entries from the current guide for Des Moines.
Des Moines, United States
Akebono 515
A spirits-forward bar in Des Moines' downtown core, Akebono 515 operates at 215 10th St with a program built around bottle depth and deliberate curation rather than volume. The address places it in the broader West Loop corridor where the city's more considered drinking venues have clustered. For those tracking the Midwest's quietly maturing cocktail scene, it belongs on the shortlist.
Des Moines, United States
Captain Roy's
Captain Roy's at 1900 Saylor Rd sits in Des Moines' north side, where the city's bar scene operates at a remove from the downtown cluster. The address alone signals a destination-drinking ethos rather than foot-traffic convenience, placing it in a tier of bars that earn visits on reputation rather than location. For the spirits-focused drinker, that trade-off is often worth making.
Des Moines, United States
Centro
Centro occupies a ground-floor address on Locust Street in downtown Des Moines, where the room's design does much of the talking. The space sits comfortably in the city's growing bracket of places that take atmosphere as seriously as what arrives at the table. For visitors mapping the downtown dining corridor, it belongs on the shortlist alongside the neighbourhood's stronger cocktail rooms.
Des Moines, United States
F&O's / Felix and Oscars
F&O's / Felix and Oscars sits on Merle Hay Road in Des Moines, Iowa, occupying a stretch of the city where neighborhood bars do the quiet work of community anchoring. The bar pairs a broad drinks program with food that earns the pairing rather than merely accompanying it — a format that places it in a distinct tier among Des Moines drinking establishments.
Des Moines, United States
Fong's Pizza
Fong's Pizza on East Court Avenue has made a name in Des Moines by pairing American pizza formats with Chinese-American flavor combinations — a concept that sits comfortably in the city's Court Avenue entertainment district. The address at 317 E Court Ave places it within walking distance of several of the city's established bars and restaurants, making it a practical anchor for an evening out in downtown Des Moines.
Des Moines, United States
Jasper Winery
Jasper Winery sits on George Flagg Parkway on the southwest edge of Des Moines, making it one of Iowa's more accessible urban winery addresses. The property draws a crowd that ranges from casual weekend visitors to wine-curious locals looking beyond the state's craft beer circuit. It occupies a niche that few Midwest cities have developed with any seriousness: estate-adjacent winemaking within city limits.
Des Moines, United States
Parlor
Parlor sits on Urbandale Avenue in Des Moines, occupying a stretch of the city where neighborhood-scale hospitality has gradually displaced the chain-dining default. The format here centers on the ritual of the meal itself — pacing, setting, and deliberate sequence — placing it within a growing tier of mid-city destinations that treat the act of dining as the point, not the backdrop.
Des Moines, United States
The Cheese Shop
On the western edge of Des Moines, The Cheese Shop at 833 42nd Street occupies a specific niche in a city whose specialty food scene has grown considerably over the past decade. Positioned away from the downtown restaurant corridor, it draws a neighborhood-rooted clientele looking for something more focused than a general grocery or wine bar hybrid.
Des Moines, United States
xBk Live
xBk Live at 1159 24th Street anchors the west side of Des Moines as the city's most serious live music and late-night venue, drawing a crowd that spans genres and generations. The bar program runs alongside a calendar of national and local acts, making it a reference point for anyone tracking where Des Moines nightlife has landed in the past decade.
Des Moines
Wineries
Selected entries from the current guide for Des Moines.
No venues found.
Continue exploring
