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I have been to many brunches throughout my life but never one quite as extensive as Americana’s.

Americana is a high-end restaurant in downtown Des Moines. It is known for its contemporary American-style menu that has a large variety of food, as well as for their weekend buffet-style brunch. It is so popular that they highly recommend making a reservation, which I am glad I did.

When we arrived at 10:15 on Saturday morning, the place was packed. I was honestly worried if they even had a table for us. As we were being led away from the host stand, I could hear the lady behind us being told it was going to be 45 minutes to an hour wait. We were escorted up the stairs and to a little table that overlooked the balcony to the rest of the restaurant.

Photo by Tony Anderson

Our server greeted us almost immediately, asked if we had been there before and which brunch we would like to do: $20 for unlimited brunch for two hours or $30 for unlimited brunch plus bottomless mimosas and bloody mary’s. We chose the cheaper option, and our server showed us around the restaurant.

We passed by the mimosa and bloody mary station, which was very impressive, into a room that held the mashed potatoes, soups, fruits and desserts. Beyond that was the kitchen that was opened up and set in a buffet style.

I was so hungry by this point that we decided to get in line in the kitchen with all the main dishes. My first plate consisted of small portions of smoked brisket hash, mac and cheese, cheesy hashbrowns, a cinnamon doughnut hole with caramel sauce and a french toast stick.

The smoked brisket hash was the best thing on my plate. The doughnut hole and hashbrowns were just okay. The french toast stick was really not that great. It was doughy and not very crispy on the outside. I was really unimpressed with the mac and cheese. It was not very cheesy and didn’t have a lot of flavor to it. At least all of the food was hot.

My second plate consisted of white cheddar mashed potatoes, grapes, watermelon and tomato soup. I liked the white cheddar mashed potatoes. They weren’t amazing by any means, but they were good.

I will say their fruit spread looked beautiful, however I wish I enjoyed fruit more. The watermelon looked really sad, dry and not as vibrant as it should’ve been. A staff member put more out later when I went back for seconds, and that watermelon looked much better

The tomato soup was surprisingly good. It was more spicy than I am used to, which was a nice change from a basic tomato soup. It was also thicker, like a bisque rather than the stuff out of a can. I put some croutons from the salad bar in it to add more texture.

My third plate involved a trip to the grilled cheese station. This was my favorite part of the meal. You could customize your grilled cheese to whatever you’d like, and they made it right in front of you. I chose the No. 4, “the big cheesy.” It had mozzarella, cheddar, provolone and bacon.

I can honestly say that was my favorite grilled cheese ever. I would go back just for endless grilled cheeses. From where we sat, we could look straight down and watch the man make the grilled cheeses; it was really entertaining.

The last plate I had was desserts. I had high expectations for desserts because I am a huge fan of sweets. Sadly, it was a letdown. They had a couple different desserts such as brownies, three different types of cookies, a pumpkin bar and a cheesecake dish. That sounds like a lot but looking at it, there wasn’t a ton of variety. 

The brownie I had was all right, but there was nothing special about it. It actually reminded me of a lunchroom brownie and not the good ones.

I was also in the dessert/mashed potato/fruit area for about five minutes waiting for clean plates to be brought out. I understand how restaurants work and wasn’t bothered by it, but other people around me were. One lady finally pulled a staff member aside and was kind of rude about it. She acted like the plates had been out for an hour, when in reality I saw a man take the last one about a minute earlier.

Although I didn’t have any of the bottomless alcohol, I did look at the spread many times as I passed. It was a cool setup with everything you could imagine. For mimosas, they had all different types of juices and fruit you could put in your drink. They had a huge orange juice dispenser that I never saw it close to empty no matter how many people had mimosas in their hands.

The bloody mary bar had anything and everything. What I thought was the most interesting is that they had Flaming Hot Cheetos. Now, I have never had a bloody mary, but I would sure have fun putting a ton of extra stuff in the glass. Above the drinks area, they had signs that had pre-made drink ideas on them so you would have an idea of what to.

Would I go back to Americana for brunch? Absolutely. I wouldn’t go multiple times or anything crazy, but I would go back for a special occasion or a brunch outing with my friends. It was a good environment, good service and good food.