The USA TODAY Restaurants of the Year 2024 list, released today, features 47 restaurants from fine-dining establishments to counter-service seafood shacks.
USA TODAY Network food journalists across the country pooled their expertise and local dining experiences to select the restaurants, which includes the places they know, love and recommend.
In Des Moines, vegetable-forward Harbinger with its Asian cooking techniques from chef and owner Joe Tripp earned a spot on the list, as did The Webster, the restaurant Sam and Riene Gelman own in Iowa City that specializes in elevated cuisine. But there are so many other eateries worth celebrating. Here are six places from the Des Moines metro, in alphabetical order, that we wish had made the Restaurants of the Year list.
Hungry for more? We also came up with five other restaurants in Iowa City that should have been considered.
Alba
The original restaurant from chef and 2011 James Beard Foundation Best Chef Midwest semifinalist Jason Simon concentrates on farm-to-table dishes for dinner from its perch in the East Village. The farmhouse burger is one of the best in the city, but try the New York strip stroganoff or one of four steaks, a section of the menu Simon leaned into during the pandemic, for a special night out. The restaurant has one of the few chef’s tables in the city. In the warmer months, sit on the small patio that lines Des Moines Street. Happy hour from 4 to 6 p.m. in the bar area brings $6 appetizers and $8 burgers.