Another burger joint that has enjoyed a nearly perennial status as a finalist for the Iowa Beef Industry Council's "Best Burger in Iowa" over the past few years is the Ankeny Diner located in Ankeny just north of Des Moines. After a morning meeting in Des Moines and just before I drove back home, I decided to head up the short trip to Ankeny to try the burger at the Ankeny Diner.
The Ankeny Diner is the restaurant that is part of the Ramada Inn in Ankeny just off of Interstate 35 at the corner of E. 1st St. and SE Delaware Ave. (see map) Menadue Development, a commercial property management and investment company headed by Ankeny physician/lawyer Dr. Mark Menadue, owns the property that houses both the hotel and restaurant. Menadue Development bought the hotel 30 years ago, but updated the restaurant into the present day Ankeny Diner in 2003.
The restaurant has a muted-50's style decor with art deco accents. The spacious dining room was well-lit and made to look even bigger and brighter with mirrors along the walls above the booths.
I was escorted to a table in the dining room and given a menu to look over. They have a full bar with a limited beer selection at the Ankeny Diner and I thought a cold beer would taste pretty good with my lunch on what was a hot summer day.
There is also a soda fountain at Ankeny Diner that offers milkshakes, malts, root beer floats, and ice cream treats. There was a lot of mirrors and neon in the soda fountain area giving the small area a well-lit illusion that it was larger than it was.
Looking through the menu, it's definitely a full menu at the Ankeny Diner. They serve breakfast all day starting at 6 a.m. (closing at 9 p.m. Sunday thru Thursday, 11:00 p.m. Friday and Saturday nights). In addition to their burgers they have typical diner foods - sandwiches, salads, soups and a number of appetizers. They also offer a couple three pasta dishes, as well as a ribeye or a sirloin steak platter. And like any diner worth their weight, the Ankeny Diner serves up a hot roast beef or a hot turkey blue plate special complete with skin-on mashed potatoes and gravy. (I'll have to remember that if I'm passing by Ankeny in the colder months around lunch time.)
But I was there to try the burger. They have about a dozen featured burgers on the menu at the Ankeny Diner and I ended up getting the bacon/Swiss cheese burger. I asked my server if they could put some mushrooms on the burger. She said it was no problem. A side of crinkle cut fries came on the side. I knew I wouldn't eat many - if any - of the fries.
The burger was big and juicy. It was on a spongy toasted bun, but the cheese was sort of just laid on top of the bacon and mushrooms rather than allowed to melt on top of the patty. Nonetheless, I took a bite of the burger.
And it was good. Not outstanding, but it was good. The mushrooms were canned with a sort of bland taste, but the bacon had a positive flavor on the burger. The Swiss cheese, however, was also sort of bland. I really wished they would have allowed the cheese to melt onto the patty to mix in all the flavors. Melted cheese always tastes better, anyhow. As I said, the burger was juicy and it was definitely a multi-napkin burger.
I did end up trying some of the crinkle cut fries and I thought they were undercooked. They were sort of cool like they had been sitting for awhile, but they were sort of mushy like they had been taken out of the fryer too soon. That's all right - I wasn't really going to eat them anyway.
I've tried a number of burger joints across Iowa that have either won or have been finalists for the Best Burger in Iowa contest sponsored by the Iowa Beef Industry Council. Being that the Ankeny Diner had been named a finalist a number of times, I guess I was expecting more out of the burger I had during my visit. While the beef patty was juicy and flavorful, the mushrooms they used on it were sort of "meh", and the Swiss cheese wasn't allowed to melt into the patty before the mushrooms and bacon were put on top. Sometimes I wonder what the judges who go around to these places to see who may have the best burger in Iowa are really thinking. I've had some bad burgers in places that were declared winners, and had some great burgers in places that didn't win. I'd have to put the burger at the Ankeny Diner as somewhere in between. It wasn't the best, but it certainly wasn't the worst of the places I've tried.
I have been chasing those same annual burger lists around the state for several years as well. I really haven't been impressed with what I found at most of the winners and this place is really mediocre.
Posted by: Rex Coble | November 21, 2017 at 11:53 AM