Address:
Fuddruckers
6378 Mills Civic Pkwy
West Des Moines, IA 50266
(515) 225-1122
The Dish:
Kids Chicken Bites(Chloe)
1/3 Bacon Cheddar Combo (Tress)
1/2 Mushroom Swiss Combo(Me)
Large Onion Rings (Shared)
2 Soda’s
$23.18 (Tax and tip included)
Grade: 1 Fork
Tress had been to a Fuddruckers in the past, I never really knew much about them. Other than they existed somewhere outside of Iowa. I am unsure when the West Des Moines Fuddruckers was built, but we had passed it enough times to finally say, ok let’s give it a whirl.
Ambiance: The first thing that stuck me as odd was the fact that you ordered fast food style. Meaning you walk to a counter, place your order and wait. I guess I was expecting for the proclaimed “World’s Greatest Hamburgers” to have less of a fast food feel. I was happy though that the place was very clean and had various light themed sections of the dining room. I would have to say that the place felt like a restaurant that would have a sitting area in a mall or an airport. Not necessarily a bad thing but, somewhat not what I was expecting.
Menu/Price: Menu is a bit confusing at first, but once you figure out that they are pretty flexible with your order it is not so bad. They had a nice selection of speciality burgers as well as sides and even salads. The downside is the price is on the upper end of the scale, but not over the top. For dinner we spent basically $9 a person which really is not a bad deal for dinner. If these prices are static for both lunch and dinner, I would probably not eat there for lunch. On Tuesday’s kids eat free, this worked to our benefit!
Meal: World’s Greatest Hamburgers, that’s a stretch. Are they better than most, yes. The fries that came with both of our combo’s we’re really great. Tress’s burger was far better than mine. Even after a trip to the “burger bar” to get some extra goodies to put on my mushroom and swiss, I still felt my burger was missing something. Again not bad but just not a home run. Seeing as Chloe did not eat her chicken bites, I went for the rest of those. They were very good, especially with the honey mustard sauce that was available at the “burger bar.” Both of us were a bit hunger still after finishing our burgers which were a bit smaller than the pictures indicated, so I went to get some onion rings. These like the fries, were outstanding. Sadly it seems that they do fried foods really good, maybe I should have tried something besides a mushroom and swiss.
Service: Lady at the counter was actually a manager, and as friendly as anyone could be. She also checked on us a few times while we were eating, to make sure things were ok and offered drink refills. Another girl went out of her way to get us a highchair, so I was pleased with that. Really hard to judge service when you really are not served table side.
Overall: Well I gave it 1 Fork because I guess I was expecting to get full on a hamburger that was out of this world. I would like to say that the ordering like a fast food restaurant did not influence my rating but sadly it did because I visited their website first. Based on their website you would have figured the place to be more like an Applebee’s or Cheddar’s. The reality of it was it was more like a Zaxby’s or Chick-fil-A. We’ll go again, I’ll just get something different.