high life lounge

truthfully, it’s almost inexcusable that it’s taken me this long to write about the high life lounge, considering that my first trip there came long before i had ever thought of dan vs. food. actually, this was my first act upon moving to iowa from idaho back in 2011. as i made the trek from pocatello to davenport, i knew that i wanted to hit as many top restaurants along the route as possible, which eventually led me to interstate 80, des moines and the high life lounge in iowa’s capital city. but despite getting my first introduction to the high life lounge three years ago, it wasn’t one of the main places on my list to write about when i started this blog. it wasn’t because the high life lounge had disappointed me in any way. actually, i loved everything about it. the reason for the delay is also the best thing to have ever happened to me: amy. by the time i was ready to write about the high life lounge, amy had already made her move to join me in iowa and realized that she loved be

awesome fried chicken lunch.

very good home cooked style dinners and an amazing beer selection. don't miss the fried chicken!! fun atmosphere and cool patio. colorful staff is entertaining!

don’t you wish sometimes that you could go back in time? like 1965 maybe?  enter the high life lounge downtown des moines. the bar features shag carpet (see picture, no joke), wood paneling and a formica bar top.  once you’ve taken all this in you automatically know this place is legit. if the decor doesn’t set you back in time the beer choices will.  the selection is limited to beers that were in production before 1970.  this includes: high life, pbr, coors banquet, old milwaukee, hamm’s, old style, busch light, budweiser.  what’s that you say  you want a bud light  no thank you.  on this day i enjoyed a hamm’s and an old style. as seen on tv , we had to start with the tater tots and jalapenos wrapped in thick bacon then fried and topped with cheddar/jack cheese.  the saying ‘pictures don’t lie’ doesn’t even begin to tell the story of these balls of heaven.  if the tater tot, and cheese, and bacon weren’t enough the jalapeno took these to another level. just look at this thing.  it’s

i have to admit, i was rather disappointed. the bacon-wrapped tots are awesome. my wife and i both ordered the broasted chicken. i got two thighs and she got a thigh and a breast. i got fries and mac and cheese as my sides. the fries were boring crinkle fries and the mac and cheese needed salt and pepper. the thighs were very juicy and tasty and the batter was excellent. my wife's chicken breast, however, was dry. i mean atacama desert dry. she couldn't finish it and asked me to eat it. i know white meat isn't as juicy as dark meat, but this was difficult to swallow without the aid of a drink to wash it down. very surprising for broasted chicken. combine that with mediocre service and you have an unimpressive experience.

this unique bar has some of the best decor i have seen. when you walk in, you feel like you have entered the 1970's with the old style ads on the wall and carpet on the floor. the tots by far is the thing to get.

fun and unique. great bar with awesome food and beer. however the staff can be rude (pretentious hipsters)

this might be the best chicken i've ever had.

the high life lounge is a fun and funky place to have a drink, and their food is certainly well-above average.

bacon wrapped tater tots!. a cheap place to get your greasy grub on! i tried the broasted chicken and found it to be nothing spectacularly different from good fried chicken but the bacon wrapped tater tots were great! the bacon is thrown in the fryer with the tots so no soggy bacon here! to top it all off is a spicy jalapeno kick with gooey cheddar cheese. how can you go wrong with something so sinfully delicious?

so cheap!. i can't believe this restaurant gets away with charging so little for a burger and fries! i was shocked. and the burgers are delicious. go here for a rockin' atmosphere, fun times, and cheap, delicious eats.

it's kitchy and serviceable. yeah, service can be so-so, but it's a bar. frankly, the high life lounge fits its name. it lives across the tracks from the hipster scene downtown -- a divey, retro-70s bar where they don't serve beers newer than 1979. no one can fault a bar that serves broasted chicken, the pressure-cooked, juicy, chicken wonder.

the chicken-corn-chowder is darn good --- bacon-y, thick, creamy, and full of chicken and corn. i should have ordered my own bowl, but i had to enviously watch my spouse crush saltine after saltine into each spoonful of its rich, smokey goodness.

but really, you're here for the plain-jane old cheeseburger basket, which is a bargain at $3.75. trade up from your soft, lukewarm, industrial-tasting dirty-water wonder of a mcdonalds hamburger.

the high life lounge serves up what a mcdonald's burger should be: a crisp griddled-bun, griddled meat patty, barely sauteed onion, pickles, and cheese. why eat limp, thin, non-descript fries? get tater tots. there isn't any surprise to tater tots, but they are sure are good after you pour ranch and salt all over them.

high life lounge will leave you full and cheerful as long as you love greasy spoons and you're willing to contemplate the fact that the waitress may sometimes forget about you and leave you beerless! no! but for cheap eats, this is a keeper.

service is a joke, waitresses and bartenders are basically worthless - even by 'drive-bar' standards. bartenders will just stare into space while you stand there waving a $20 and shouting for thier attention. waitresses are even worse. they'll spend all their time talking with each other and not doing much else. started a tab at the bar and then moved to a table after things opened up. we go to leave and she gives me only my bill from the table and refuses to combine the totals or to walk the extra three feet to the bar register to close out my bar tab. they also left a paying party of seven standing while a single individual held five tables of four seats each for almost two hours -- and last week we were told that customers are not allowed to reserve tables.

good cheap food and cheap beer on 'crappy beer night' but the staff are worthless.

omg really?. am i really the first person to *gasp* say they aren't a fan of the high life lounge? i feel dirty!

ok, so, if i were going to be a food snob (which apparently i am because i have taste buds) this would not be on my list of places to go to eat. is it a fun place to go to hang with friends when food (taste, presentation etc) is not the primary concern... sure.

nuff said.

my favorite bar outside of cincy. i love this place. cool old school beer signs and nice atmosphere. best dive bar in des moines. they even have high life on tap not to many places can make that claim and for you high class folks they have guiness and new castle on tap. the wings looked good too and if you are daring they have pickled eggs to try.