I have relatively low expectations of the Old Chicago in Ankeny, based upon my several dining experiences there. Alas, even my low expectations were not met last night when my wife and several friends met there for pizza and drinks. I've come to expect that the "hosts" at the front door will ignore you in favor of continuing their personal conversations, so no surprise there! It was the service, or lack thereof, that reached a new low. Once we were seated and received our initial drink orders, our server abandoned us. One can usually get your server's attention as she passes through the room, but this lady was no where in sight. For the next 15 or 20 minutes, we re-ordered our drinks at the bar. We were finally served. Upon receiving our checks, both parties noticed we had been charged for drinks that we had already paid for at the bar. Sad but true.

I just love reading reviews on stuff like this. It cracks me up everytime. The only people that write the reviews are the same people that you could never make happy ever. They expect their food to come out on a gold plate, and oh yeah do you think I could get that for free. Some people expect a lot out of an ordinary place. I could see if you were paying $50 a plate, but your NOT!

I wasn't expecting to be blown away, since it is a chain. I ordered the chicken fettucine alfredo. I could have made better at home. The alfredo sauce tasted like it came out of a jar from the grocery store in the pasta sauce section. The sauce was disgusting, and it looked crusty like it had been sitting under the heat lamps forever before it was served. Do not get the pasta here.

Good food, our server was nice and made the experience go by smoothly. The pepperoni rolls were hot,fresh, and delivered In a reasonable time. Our meat me pizza is something all meat/pizza lovers should try. Overall I would recommend the store to anyone looking for great food and an easygoing environment

Group of 8 visited the Merle Hay Restaurant. After living in Chicago for several years, I was expecting a good old Chicago style pizza. Were we disappointed! We ordered the large thin crust Classic. The toppings began about an inch and a half away from the crust and were very sparse. I don\'t think there was any sauce on the pizza at all. It had no taste. Another couple in our group ordered the deep dish and thought it was good. Another in our party ordered the steak and said it was delicious. While the service was adequate, I believe our waitress was new. When asked a couple of questions, she just answered \"I don\'t know\" and didn\'t seem interested in finding the answers. All in all, there are alot of pizza places in the Des Moines area to compete against. This one is not rated high on our list.

Wow! I thought I was the only one dissapointed here. My wife and I stopped by on a Sunday, Unaware of the buffet. If you don't like a bunch of people hovering around a short supplied buffet, DON'T GO. We went mainly for the Italian Nachos. When I informed our server of the miniscule amount of sausage and peppers on it, The reply was that 'some people order it with extra meat'. When I asked how much they charged for that, I was told that there was no extra charge. What? Charge me around nine bucks and see how much you can get away with? I too wondered about the army of servers standing around talking. I saw three people at the host station as well. This place blows. At least they have a Buffalo Wild Wings coming to Ankeny to challenge OC for worst chain restaraunt in town!

The Old Chicago restaurant in Ankeny has one major problem. Service sucks!!!! Ok... so the one at Merle Hay does too. It'll usually be a 10-15 minute wait before you can get a beer on your table. Once it arrives you may as well order your next beer because it'll take another 10 minutes before the next beer arrives. The wait staff needs serious training on multitasking. For as many employees are in there standing around you'd think service would be phenomenal. A few words to the wait staff, it's called work... not social hour. Do your job!!! As a traveler and a 5+ time world beer tour member I have made close to 200 visits to OC's all over the country. Unfortunately for the Iowa locations I rarely make appearances because 4 beers and dinner takes 2 hours. WTF!? Another beef I have is the Des Moines area OC's are some of the only OC restaurants I've been to that aren't members of the American Homebrewers Association Pub Discount program. On a good note, OC has the best calzones around.

I learned a lesson at the Ankeny Old Chicago tonight. My wife and I each ordered a glass of the "house" chardonnay, thinking it would be the most reasonably priced chardonnay on the menu. When the bill came, we learned we had enjoyed a Kendall Jackson chardonnay at $7.95 per glass. Good wine, but probably not the house pour. Certainly nothing we needed with our calzone (good) and penne pasta (not good). When we asked our sever what the house chardonnay was, she said, "this is what the bartender poured." Nice try. No tip for her. Maybe she will become a little bit more of a customer advocate, rather than a shill for the bottom line of Old Chicago.

Hard write something new about the food served a chain restaurant, so I won't. What I will say is thank you for providing an eating establishment / bar in Ankeny that is large, open, and clean! We are not big bar goers, but it is great to finally have a place to get any beer you can think of, and food that is as good as you should expect at a bar. However, I would personally love to see Ankeny get a Granite City, which I think would kill here.