Johnny’s Hall of Fame Bar & Grill

Went here before Jason Aldean’s concert on a Thursday night. It was packed like always. We couldn’t find anywhere to sit but we needed a quick bite to eat. We usually come here to drink but it isn’t my favorite bar. Servers we get are usually friendly. I tried the sweet chili & cream cheese chicken pizza & it was great! Not sure about the other food they offer though. I wouldn’t usually come here for the food but we needed somewhere that was close & quick to eat.

Maybe the worst bar I have ever been to. Bartenders screaming at customers at 1:30 to «get the f— out.» After asking a manager why the hostility toward customers, was told «Why didn’t you get the f— out?» Sad that a security guard had to apologize and say he didn’t understand why people are treated that way. Kudos to him for actually following customers outside to apologize for a second time and say he asked the manager why this is their approach.

This bar sucks. It CLEARLY states on every platform that it closes at 2. The bar tenders RUDELY kick you out at 1:40. The bitch bartender stole my half full drink our of my hands … Like what? Start kicking people out at 1:58. Who cares if you are there Til 2:15. They treat their customers like crap come 1:40 just so they can leave early. Another reason why I will never go back or recommend this bar to anyone. If you close at 1:40, change it on google.

I used to love this place but… I came in for dinner after visiting from out of town and the service sucked! Keep in mind we had a rather large group, however we had slow bar service and it wasn’t completely because of our server… that was the bartenders fault. He didn’t seem like he cared and all the wait staff were backed up because of him. Our food also took forever and was very ‘plain jane’ when it came out. Got ZERO extras on my sandwich. No tomatoes, lettuce, etc… needless to say, I will be back but at night and ONLY for drinks

Johnnys can be a fun place to go sometimes, when it is super packed good luck getting a drink. The chicken strips are always good here, great honey mustard. Tried the cheese bread here recently not too bad. There is usually free popcorn, but not always. Can be a fun place to watch any Cyclone game. The staff here is friendly. Liked the old Johnnys a little bit better, but the patio is a great place to people watch.

Meh. Your average bar. Here on a Sunday celebrating a birthday, ordered a rum and ginger and the bartender asked me to list some dark rums off for her because she didn’t know of any… Ended up getting captain Morgan. That’s fine since its your average small town bar… However drink was very weak. Not too satisfied but didn’t have very high expectations either.

The chicken wrap is very good, the lolo tuna is not bad, and the personal pizzas are very good sized. Cate is an amazing bartender come see her.

Promptly seated at the bar during lunch. The décor is very run down. The wall looked like it was from an abandoned building. The table’s laminate top was coming off, exposing the particle board underneath… can’t imagine how that could be kept clean. Food was okay and the service from the bartender was pretty good, but my sandwich came with tomatoes after I ordered it without them. The kettle chips seemed to be homemade and warm.

I was staying at the Renaissance Hotel and I asked the lady at the front desk if she could assist me with finding a nice sports bar with good food. She recommended this place. The waitress recommended the Hoiberg Burger. It came with a fried egg and peanut butter… yes peanut butter. I was like really! She was like,“it’s great”. So I ordered it. It was the worse burger I ever had. My stomach is still doing flips. The beef had zero flavor, the egg did not have any flavor, and the peanut butter was so thick. It was hard to swallow and dry as a bone. I asked for mayo for lubrication. Nothing could save this burger. I will not go back and that’s a promise!!! How can you f up a burger… That way that’s how!!!

This place was absolute trash!
The service was beyond horrible as it took the Philippine waitress 10 minutes to even acknowledge me. Mind you it was not even busy! I was just about to order and she walked right passed me again!
Needless to say I left, I’m glad
I did because the menu looked beyond sad and full off fat!
It’s a shame Unilocal requires you to give 1 star in order to write a review. Not worthy of a star…

Great Sunday afternoon watching the Broncos win. The waitress was awesome. Always checking on us. I had the Hoiberg Fried Egg Burger (with the peanut butter). Yum. But it was more like a burger and a spoon of PB on the side. For the record, I’m a college frat boy in a past life; I can eat chef boyardi outta da can.
Anyways, this place was good. Local brews (Farmer John, Hannah) on tap and football on the telly… all was good. Apps were good — artichoke/​spinach dip & pita chips and grub was good. Will come again. Thank you and good night.

Johnny’s Hall of Fame, has been a Des Moines sports bar staple for years. They have updated to décor in the past few years, and it’s a lot cleaner then it used to be. Instead of old umpire photos from Sec Tayler field they now have signed jerseys and about 40 massive Tv’s for your sports viewing pleasure.
Right now they might be the only place downtown that has NFL Ticket where you can watch any NFL game on Sunday! This is a major plus!
Also it’s happy hour all day so domestic beers are 2.50, not to shabby. The menu is full of typical bar food, and the 3 people I ate with all were super into the Melt, Burger, and Reuben they ordered. I had a taco salad sans meat and it was great, but I could have used a few more veggies on it since I asked to substitute veggie for the meat. But I did not leave hungry after my Vikings defeated the Eagles. Why you make ask, well they have a self serve pop corn machine which they flip the light on at 2pm and tell you to help your self. So we did, My bill was pretty cheap 2 meals and 7 beers for under 40 bucks not to shabby.
Our waitress was great as well and did not care that we were sitting there for 4 hours watching a game, we tipped well! I would recommend this place if you a sports fan and want to be in a sporty environment to watch a game. Go Vikings!

We had a horrible experience. We sat at the bar with the plan to have a few drinks prior to getting some food. But the bartender used this more as a hangout place to converse with friends than to work. He didn’t make good drinks. For some reason the bouncer was trying to get involved in everyone’s business and the fact that they had a bouncer at 2pm in the afternoon kind of tells you the place it is. There are so many better places to visit I would not bother with Johnny’s. My prediction is due to the staff that they have there, this place will be closed… they are ruining it for the owners livelihood.

Went for lunch in between meetings. After reading the reviews I was a bit nervous, but it wasn’t overly loud as some had said, the food was good, the server was pleasant and our order came out quickly.

I’ve been here a few times, but never ordered the food. The best part about this place is the location. You can easily bar hop around and it has nice big booths and outdoor seating. What really irked us the most recent time we were in is that we couldn’t open tabs. Every. single. time. we made a purchase the waitress brought out the slips to sign and a copy. It just made a mess and was annoying. We had a table, we were planning on sticking around… Anyway, at least they accept credit unlike Mickey’s across the street. I’ll be back just because its a natural stop when on Court Ave, but I wouldn’t recommend it as a destination.

I stopped in here for dinner on a Thursday evening with a couple friends/​collegues. Upon entering the smell of stale beer should have made us turn around and walk out but we were hungry so we sat down in a booth. We tried to have conversation, but found it practically impossible due to the extreme noise level. The area by the front door also seems to be a hangout for the local homeless or something.
I had the steak salad. They should rename it the gristle salad. It was served with some limp and cold garlic toast. Very dissapointed in my food.
The service… well that was even worse. Our server was either in a bad mood or clinically depressed. Extremely un-​attentive and seemed to have problems figuring out how to get our bills correct.
Don’t bother. There are much better options in the Court Avenue area.

I kinda like the bar, but was turned off by the bartender brow-​beating people for tips. She even refused to serve one poor woman, saying she was a bad tipper. Not a very good way to earn repeat business.

Waited over 90 mins for our food. The place was relatively empty over the late lunch hour (a few large groups were leaving when we arrived) and ordered our food. After about 40 mins our table had noticed other patrons receiving their food, when we asked our waitress about it she retorted with a snarky comment then checked on it, she never put in the order. The food finally came out after another half hour of waiting.
The food itself was decent.
When we were ready to leave we received our bills. The most frustrating part of the experience was that we had received absolutely ZERO discount to make amends for the exponentially long lunch service and being completely forgotten.
I urge you to not go here, for anything. You can find similar quality food across the street or down the road and better quality drinks and far cheaper drinks in those same areas.
Rated: ⁰⁄₅
I DO NOT recommend this place. Ever.

Came here for lunch with two kids in tow and had a great meal. Place wasn’t very busy and definitely had that «bar in the daytime» smell and feel, but our server was very attentive and all of our food was really great. My wife had the Asian chicken salad and she was a big fan. I had the Frisco burger and really liked it a lot.
We were shocked at how cheap this place is. We were visiting from Chicago where most things cost more, but even compared to chain restaurants in the DM area, this place is a bargain. You’d easily pay $ 2 – 3 more per item at a similar place in Chicago, or at some cookie cutter chain place near Jordan Creek. Would definitely return here.

Interesting to see the recent glut of five-​star reviews by new Unilocalers who have never written any other reviews… just saying… I would take those with a grain of salt. It seems a little suspicious, so I thought I’d throw my two cents in.
Johnny’s is an average bar with below-​average service. The remodel is actually pretty nice, but it’s always way too loud to hear your friends talk, which I would think is part of the point to a bar with casual food and booth seating. I get the sense that the crowd at Johnny’s has just come across the street from Liar’s Club, which might be a draw if you’re a 21 year-​old guy, but for anyone who is looking for an actual sports bar atmosphere (and decent food), I just don’t think it’s worth a visit.