Amazing fun place!! One of the owner's Dannie is amazing and provides an excellent hospitality experience! The thin crust pizza has zero flop and great flavor profiles. A fun Des Moines must! read more

Ordered carry out at 6pm on Saturday, grubhub stated 31 mins. I arrived at 6:30, but waited another hour for my food. Dine in was empty. Bartender was friendly and apologetic. This was my first time at mad meatball and will be my last. read more

Mad Meatball is an interesting spot! There is lots of seating and tons of TVs, so it would be a great way to watch sports. The waitresses and bartenders seem really nice. The food is a little bland. I tried the tater tots and buffalo chicken pizza. They were ok. The crust was really good on the pizza, I may just need to try a different flavor! read more

Mad Meatball Pizzeria & Pub - Tots - Italian Near Me - Des Moines, Iowa

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If you are in for ordinary pizza this is it! Nothing exciting, nothing special. Had the meatza pizza and the cheesesteak. Cheesesteak was way too salty and generally devoid of taste. Pizza was comparable to Di Giorno's. Actually, more taste in Di Giorno's pizza. Beer was cold. Cost was good. Service was good. Enjoyed the guy at the bar yelling the F bomb every chance he could. I'll leave it up to you. It's okay, but easily forgettable. Could do a LOT better. Don't get the Philly unless your cow needs a salt lick! read more

Jordan was great! He asked questions to be sure we got what we wanted (in case we had ordered it wrong) & made sure everything was to our satisfaction. Thank you! Also - the pizza was yummy!Italian Beef SandwichThin read more

TL;DR: If you're there drinking and get hungry, order some super cheesy stuff to take the edge off. Or if you want to grab a pizza on the way home, go for it. But don't make a special visit just for the food. Ordered takeout. Really appreciated that everything was hot when we got it. Pizza - thin crust, crispy, tasted good. Tons of meat. Couldn't taste the sauce really because of all the meat, no opinion there. Penne with chicken and Alfredo - the pasta was not overcooked, and the chicken wasn't tough or stringy. Overall flavor was good. The whole dish was covered with a bunch of gloppy mozzarella, which is not my personal preference but I suppose this is where the "pub" sensibility comes in. Caesar salad - the dressing was terrible. It had this weird flavor that all bottled dressings have, but times 50. I had to squeeze an entire lemon and use a bunch of black pepper to mask it, and even then it was borderline inedible. My husband took one bite and said "This salad is really bad" and didn't eat any more of it. Cheesy bread with marinara - the bread had no flavor, at least not to my palate. It just tasted like bread with cheese on it. The marinara was too sweet for me personally. The bread stick that came with the pasta was very good though. All in all just "meh" for me. Wouldn't order again. The salad and the cheesy bread both got tossed, but I saved the pasta to doctor up for leftovers. read more

Stopped by on a Wednesday around dinner time. Was very excited to try the food. There were two waitresses running the whole room, which had realistically about 10-15 customers in it, across 3-4 tables. My girlfriend and I walked in, sat down at a table near the bar. We then waited at that table for 15 minutes, without being acknowledged once. One waitress kept going back and forth between the bar and one particular table, while the other essentially just stood behind the bar. Not sure if we were supposed to order from the bar or not, but the fact that none of the employees said a single word to us when the place was practically empty was not good in my eyes. In plain sight, we stood up and walked out, still not having been acknowledged. I work in the food service industry, a simple "hey I'll be right with you" goes a long way and isn't difficult. Was very unimpressed by these ladies and may not end up getting to try the food, unfortunately. Des Moines has too many good places with good service for me to waste my time with experiences like this. read more

Didn't have any food here but the drinks were great! Came in a pretty big group and we were all taken care of and the bartenders were attentive! If you come at the right time, you might just catch the two doggos walking around! read more

Staying at the Holiday inn across the street? Looking for something close. Walked over and walked in. No host stand so I walked up to the bar and asked for a menu. Sat at the bar while I was looking over the menu. Once the witch is finally came back I asked how good one of the noodle dishes was. I was in the mood for some meatballs and it sounded just right. I went ahead and ordered this spicy Italian and added a side salad for two dollars extra. Food took about 15 minutes to prepare and bring out to me so that I could walk back over to my hotel room. The ambience of the bar is your typical college sports bar. Large you bar in the sinner with high top and low top tables around it. They do have outdoor patio seating and I bet it is nice when the weather is not so humid and muggy. From the looks of it, it might be a pretty cool hang out as they did have cornhole, but it wasn't set up and against the wall. Return to my hotel room and open my side salad, which was very large in portion. Salad was Romain lettuce with cheese, tomatoes and croutons. I got the ranch dressing on the side. The spicy mad Italian has penne, pasta, marinara sauce, a couple meatballs covered in cheese and pepperoni. My first bite I wasn't expecting it to be that spicy, but it was just the right level. I always add red peppers to my pasta to give it a little extra cake and this had just the right amount I didn't need to add any extra. it was a very large portion a feed about 2 to 3 people. While I was eating through my salad, I did notice a few brown spots on the lettuce and multiple wilted leaves. I did pick them out and ate the rest of the salad. But the chef should really make sure when packaging food up to not put wilted lettuce in the salad. read more

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This is a review of Resario Entertainment, the Karaoke group that was running the Thursday night karaoke for Mad Meatball: With plenty of other nighty choices for karaoke in the Des Moines area, any establishment that uses these two hosts or their show, should look elsewhere. They were completely inattentive, rude, and simply focused on their own friend group. read more

Great place! Great food! The service was awesome & so we're the drinks. Would definitely recommend.

First time at Mad Meatball. Safe to say with our experience we will not be going back anytime soon. ($16?) Graziano tots had the consistency of corned beef hash. Not one single tator tot was one uniform tator tot. ($15) My sliced beef sandwich with "au jus" was.... Odd. No seasoning. Pickled veggies. The bread was sopping wet in what appeared to be olive oil... The whole bun jusy fell apart. The Au Jus, pictured in the plastic cup appeared to be olive oil with seasoning as well? The service was not great... the place was dead at prime dining time (less than 5 others) and i couldn't find the waitress to even complain until it was time to settle up. No refills. No "how's everything?" They did comp me for the weird sandwich. I didn't bother to complain about the tots, because the husband will eat just about anything. Not pictured were the meatballs... which were a weird texture, greasy and not worth the 12 bucks for a handful of balls smaller than a golfball. I did enjoy the parmesan house dressing on my salad. Our guts were not happy afterwards. Hard Pass for now. 2 stars because the establishment appeared clean. read more

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This place is the best kept secret in DSM! Thursday night all you can eat wings. They are delicious. Their best food in my opinion is there large variety of pizzas. (not pictured) We get the same server every time. Nailea is a rockstar! She can handle 10 tables at once and never misses a beat. A very underrated aspect of this restaurant is their chairs. They are beyond comfortable, I could take a nap in them. When you want to sit at a sports bar all day and watch game's, comfortability is crucial and I would put their chairs up with 85 bar as best in the DSM metro. We will be back again soon. read more

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Service was average, menu was confusing, food was awful. My friends comments were "at least it was better than hospital food" and "just barely edible". Please work on your meatballs. read more

Food and service were good. Place was empty at noon on a Saturday. Bartender was efficient. read more

Great food, great service... enough tvs to watch your favorite games... would recommend to stop in and eat some good food.

We were so excited to try this new location, as it is right next door to my apartment. We went on a weekday around 4:00pm. Parking is difficult, as only the spots by the building are for commercial, the rest are all filled by those living at the apartments above. We head inside and were unsure if we seat ourselves or wait to be seated. Both employees behind the bar just stared at us and didn't say a word. Not even a hello. We sat ourselves. We were impressed with the variety of seating choices, and the chairs were super, super comfy. We placed our orders. For the appetizers, the mozzarella sticks were really good and the garlic cheese bread was pretty good, too. The sauce that came with both were better than most places. Once the other food came though, right off the bat we noticed someone's pizza was wrong. We had ordered the 5 meat pizza and were served one with only one meat and 3 different kinds of peppers. We brought it to our servers attention, and they stood there and fought with us, insisting it was the right one. We even brought up the menu on our phone and they insisted that the pizza in front of us, with only one meat, is the 5 meat pizza. We finally just dropped it and agreed to eat it. The baked Mac and cheese looked amazing, but it was only some shredded cheese on top and plain pasta under. There was no flavor at all. As we were about done eating, our server comes back up and decided that we WERE right about the pizza being wrong and tried to make it up by saying they already started to cook the correct pizza for us to take home. The person who's pizza it was in my group doesn't really do leftovers but felt obligated to take it. However, this meant we had to sit around waiting for it for a while. Once we got our check, we noticed that the appetizers got rang in at full price. They have it advertised online, on Facebook, and the menus you get at the table that from 2-6 all apps are $5. Since our server was busy with a bigger group, we flag down the other employee there and they said, oh we won't start doing that until next week. We pointed out they have it advertised and they said they would not honor it and walked away from our table. We were absolutely shocked. Once our server was free they did end up honoring it for us. As we were walking out, there was another employee, who kind of gave the vibe that they were in charge. I locked eyes as we were walking out and they just stared at us. Someone in my group said to have a good day and they just gave a, "you too". Overall, this was sadly one of the worst restaurant experiences I have had in a while. While I love the location, and the inside has a nice vibe to it, that does not make up for the horrible service and way we were treated. Especially days after reopening. read more

Mad Meatball Pizzeria & Pub - Garlic cheese bread appetizer. - Italian Near Me - Des Moines, Iowa

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Awful!!! Took over 1 1/2 hours to get 1 pizza and a pretzel. Pizza and pretzel were cold. Do not eat here.

We ordered their special with lots of meat. Great taste with a very thin crust. Staff is extremely friendly and wanted to make sure our needs were met. DM folks need to make the trek to this place. It as good and in many cases better than other pizza places in the Des Moines metroplex. Well worth your time and money. read more

Oh my gosh - the pizza was SO good! When they say spicy sauce, it was deliciously spicy! Will definitely come back when we are in Des Moines. read more

Food. Good. Service. Bad. As several other reviews said, walked in. Not sure to seat ourselves. Not busy. Several staff standing around on phone or eating some food. Put order in. Watched cheese sticks sit in counter until we asked someone other than our waitress to get them. Did that spur the waitress to get on it? Nah. Never saw her again until she finally got close enough to flag down for drinks. Seems like they have their regulars at the bar but behind that didn't check in much. And not busy. But food is pretty good if you can get their attention :) read more

I ordered the mad meatza large pizza for to go order. Best tasting pizza ever and ended up having leftovers. Toppings very generous and real big pieces of bacon and meatballs along with Grazianos sausage. read more

Mad Meatball Pizzeria & Pub - Mad meatza - Italian Near Me - Des Moines, Iowa

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The food here was very good, and i was really impressed with the pasta. The pepperjack bites were a little small but super tasty. The outside seating area was really nice and it in a great location downtown. read more

Mad Meatball Pizzeria & Pub - Cheesy bread and pepperjack bites - Italian Near Me - Des Moines, Iowa

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We love Mad meatball! Andy and staff are the best! If you want a chill place to hang out with great people and great pizza then come here. The sweet chili chicken is my fav. My son loves the chicken wings and meatball pizza. Great place to watch the game and have a couple drinks. read more

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This place rocks! Had just about everything on the menu and it never disappoints. From their meatball appetizer to their wings (their hottest dry rub ) and their pizza plenty of TVs to watch games and their drink specials. They also have daily specials on food. Don't miss out on their AYCE wings!! read more

Stopped in at Mad Meatball before going to see Ned Ledoux (Chris Ledoux's son) at Wooly's yesterday. It's kind of a dive but in a good way. :) it was my first time there. Lot and street parking. High tops, low tables, and booths. An outdoor patio area with live music. The parking lot was packed, but there were empty tables. We seated ourselves and were greeted shortly after. We placed our drink order and Charles asked for an order of the twisted chicken bites (southwestern egg rolls). We both ordered the cheesesteak and added mushrooms. He had a side of fries (crinkle cut). I went with the onion rings. There were two dips that came with the egg rolls. One was kind of more on the standard BBQesque side and one was kind of vinegar based...maybe roughly a Carolina style sauce. The onion rings were medium thickness and beer battered. Strangely enough the rings and the vinegar based sauce made for a good combination. The cheesesteak was good, but more one of the Midwest interpretation we see here in Iowa. It was a good steak and cheese sandwich. Service was good. Food was burn the roof of your mouth hot. Everything tasted solid and I thought prices were pretty reasonable. Since I picked up the tickets... He paid for dinner and I didn't get to see the final bill. I think the sandwich and side was $10. I'd actually like to stop in again and try their meatball sub. I mean with a name like Mad Meatball I kind of missed an obvious menu choice tonight... Truman's Pizza is literally on the other side of their parking lot. Talk about a competitive location strategy... Another place that's on my to try list. read more

Mad Meatball Pizzeria & Pub - Southwestern egg rolls (twisted chicken bites). - Italian Near Me - Des Moines, Iowa

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Came here on a Saturday night and really loved it! Atmosphere was a modern, clean bar. High top stools were so comfy. It was a bit loud for me but maybe I am just too old :) the bathrooms were really clean too. They had a great happy hour from 3-6. Half price beer and wine and deals on some apps too. The star of the meal was the pizza a really good crispy, cracker like thin crust but they did not skimp On the toppings and it was delicious. I will be back. The service was kind of slow but I could tell they were short staffed so I don't want to hold it against them. read more

Second to none pizza. Consistently amazing every time. Great downtown location! Very friendly fun atmosphere. Whether you are just visiting Des Moines or you live here mad meatball is the place to go to see friends or meet new ones. read more

My niece ordered this and we ate it at her home. Absolutely delicious! Best pizza I've had in a long time!!

Gluten free crust is *chefs kiss* I ordered essentially a meat lovers with some veggies. Very good!

The moment that you walk into Mad Meatball Pizzeria and Pub you know that you are in a dive bar. The only question left is what caliber of dive bar? The answer for me today was a pretty damn good one. The dark and intimate atmosphere puts you at ease right away. While eclectically designed with junkyard leftovers it still has a subtle charm to it. It truly felt like a place that I could get lost for a little while. have a couple beers and get some good food. We happened to have a Groupon for a large pizza and two beers. (I recommend the deal for $18) My wife and I split a Meatza Pizza; it was delicious. The crust was thin and crispy, the sauce was tasty but understated, and the meat toppings of sausage, pepperoni, Cappicola and bacon made for a fantastic combination. The glassware was clean and my Confluence IPA was nice and cold and a perfect complement. Our server was pleasant and helpful and brought me a sample of another beer I was interested in without a moment's hesitation. The pizza was on the table in about 20 minutes hot and fresh. This was a great first stop at Mad Meatball for us, and we will definitely be back! read more

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The meatballs tasted like they opened a bag of frozen ones from the local Hy-Vee and dumped Prego on them and sprinkled a little mozzarella on top. The waitress was interrupted with another server's question and she left in the middle of taking our order to solve an issue. The place was clean but just not very welcoming. read more

Great pizza, apps, and food! Perfect place to watch the big game! Best of all, great staff!

This used to be my place for pizza, beer, and a game, but after this Saturday I don't know if I will ever be back. It took me a month to write this review because I wanted to visit other restaurants and see what practices they used. I already knew what I observed was wrong and made me sick to my stomach. I came on a Saturday to watch the Hawkeyes play. We grabbed a seat at the bar. Ordered some beer and a couple appetizers. That's when things got really bad. We could see directly into the kitchen and what I observed was absolutely the most disgusting behavior I have ever witnessed at a restaurant. Worse the owner was present and after speaking directly to him defended his employees actions. I observed the employees use their bare hands to eat off customers plates and never wash their hands. I watched an employee come to work drop off a box at the counter and never wash his hands and begin making food. I watched an employee cutting chicken that was precooked eat and lick his hand and continued preparing the food never ever washing his hands. We tried to take pictures and video of what was happening, but the employees could see what we were trying to do and would turn their backs. After sneaking some food off plates they would turn their backs to eat, never ever washing their hands. Licking their fingers. I watched an employee smoke a cigarette outside and walk back in, never wash his hands, and prepare food. There were so many instances including cell phone usage where the employees never washed there hands I lost count and realized this is normal employee behavior at this restaurant. I spoke with the owner, what I never expected was the excuses. After speaking to a manager at a similar restaurant the owner felt the employees might need terminated due to the seriousness of making people ill. Yes the owner did comp my bill, but I don't care about that. Comping my check doesn't prevent illness, serious illness could cause death. I don't want you to comp my bill I want you to take the seriousness of your employees lack of hygiene and correct it. What I care about is your employees using food safety as a top priority. I don't want to be sick because of your restaurant. The owner stated the employees need to sample the food to make sure it's hot before going to the customer like calamari. Here is what other businesses state: This can be done with a thermometer (yes they make very small insertable thermometers), should be done prior to plating the food, and if the employee needs to sample the food, should use a clean utensil to sample, and then send to the dish washer. Never off a plate. The owner stated that the employees don't wear gloves because they handle hot food and it could melt causing injuries. Here is what other owners state: employees always wash hands and wear gloves. If an employee is handling something hot, the employee will slip a hot glove over the gloves or remove the gloves and wear hot gloves. Under no circumstances should an employee put a bare unclean hand on a customers plate. It doesn't matter if the food will be cooked and germs could be killed as the owner stated, it's nasty disgusting behavior. It has nothing to do with an open kitchen that people can see. I went to the Angry Goldfish after this and sat at the bar and I can tell you I could see the kitchen and wait staff. What I observed the waitresses doing made a statement about the Angry Goldfish. Every time the wait staff came to get a plate they used hand sanitizer to clean hands and I witnessed employees regularly washing hands and using gloves. Never seen anyone eating off a customers plate. I will say this you are very luckily that the pictures and video didn't turn out. You had better hope no one ever catches your employees engaging in this disgusting behavior and the fact you were present in the restaurant and were allowing this disgusting behavior doesn't speak very highly of you. You should never ever defend this kind of behavior or make rediculous excuses like it's calamari they need to taste it or don't worry they are going to cook it. You should hold yourself and your employees accountable for their actions and the repercussions if they were to make a large group of people sick from unsanitary behavior. There is no excuse and this disgusting behavior should be stopped and if employees are hungry they should be given a break and a meal. Afterwards they should wash their hands. Very shameful behavior from a restaurant I loved coming to visit. If you wouldn't have downplayed their behavior or if it was just one employee maybe I could understand, but three employees in the kitchen? That's just bad management. read more

The service was horrible and they were not even busy. The bartenders looked at us multiple times and didn't even greet us. But they had time to go to the kitchen and eat food in front of the servers window. The food was just ok. read more

Mad Meatball may be lacking in atmosphere but it slings some tasty pizza and beers. I loved that it offered individual sized pies so that each person in our group can do their own thing. As for me, I enjoyed the taco. Not the best I've ever had but still satisfying. read more

Service was good; but it's not the same Mad Meatball as the old location. We used to LOVE to eat here before sporting events downtown. My son's pizza had ZERO taste. Our combination was brought out before his "because they burnt his" but ours was burnt as well. Also; both the mens and women's bathroom were not clean. Will not bother coming back; so bummed. read more

Good service and good food. Music playing and games going on the tv. Make sure to try meatball pizza and also the meat lovers style.

A female member of the kitchen staff came out of the kitchen and started a fight with our group over a dropped glass! It's was completely uncalled for and ridiculous. She actually had to be restrained by the bartender! Needless to say we left about 2 hours before we intended to and didn't get to watch the game we wanted to see. That being said the food was great. The bartender and our waitress were awesome. As a collective group we didn't enjoy being attacked by the cook after dropping over a grand in this establishment. read more

I stopped here back in August, the last time I was in town. Food was good, service was deplorable. Staff was slow and rude. Took us over 45 mins just to get the check. Had to aske for it 3 times and they weren't busy at all. Back in town and thought I'd give it another try. I really liked their thin crust pizza and they're right across the street from my hotel. Waitress was fast ,friendly and efficient! Food was great! Well done. read more