Des Moines Food Guide: Where to Eat Downtown and in the East Village

Des Moines has quietly become one of the better eating cities in the Midwest — enough chef-driven rooms to fill a weekend, and enough unpretentious classics that you never have to eat expensively twice in a row. Sorted by when you'll be hungry.

Breakfast and coffee

Start in the East Village: espresso, pastries and a table you can sit at for an hour. On Saturdays from May to October, skip it entirely and eat your way through the Downtown Farmers' Market instead — breakfast burritos, Dutch letters and fresh doughnuts, all before 9am.

The Iowa thing you have to order

A breaded pork tenderloin sandwich, served on a bun roughly a third of its size. It is a state institution, it costs about twelve dollars, and every Iowan you meet will have a strong opinion about where to get one.

Dinner in the East Village

This is the highest-density block of good restaurants in the state — modern American, Italian, wood-fired, and a solid cocktail list on nearly every corner. Walk it once before you commit; half the fun is picking on the fly.

Court Avenue for a late one

Bars, pizza and late kitchens in a compact grid downtown. Loud and young on Saturdays; genuinely pleasant on a weeknight patio.

Worth the short drive

• Valley Junction, West Des Moines — old-town storefronts, a Thursday summer market and good casual food.
• Ingersoll Avenue — neighborhood restaurants and dive bars a few minutes west of downtown.
• Highland Park and the north side — the cheapest genuinely great tacos in the metro.