One of those places that has a little bit of everything and can appeal to all members of your party. Ample seating with choices either in the main dining area for larger parties, booths for small groups, a nook in the back good for a study group with seating along the window for the individual cafe visitor, and outdoor seating thats the perfect place to sit and people watch. The coffee was pretty standard fare, but for the amount of drinks, food, ice cream, and more that theyre churning out here every second I was impressed by the quality (better than Starbucks, but youre not quite getting the attention you would from a smaller cafe). My coffee cake muffin was moist, heated up, and also above the chain standard. If youre looking for a place to get work done, meet up with friends or family, or work on a group project Id say this is a great spot as long as you dont mind some noise and activity, especially on a weekend.

Absolutely delicious cheesecake! Melts in my mouth. Not too sweet and creamy smooth. Also got a pour over cold brew, not too bold and perfect with the cheesecake. The staff is soooo friendly and welcoming. We will be visiting again when in town!

Smokey Row is two pronged. The abundance of options may be overwhelming, but each option is fantastic in its own right. There truly is something for everyone.The brick walls, comfortable seating and fast wifi make this an elite Des Moines cafe. Highly recommended!

First time experience and will definitely return! Had a fantastic root beer float, panini sandwich, chips and took 3 different types of muffins home for later enjoyment! The cream cheese one was phenomenal! My daughter tried the pot pie and said it was very good. All my other 3 guests had coffee products and loved them. The atmosphere was great as was the service! Always wanted to go here and so glad we finally chose it for a get together!!!

Fave place for coffees and baked goods. Cream cheese muffins are AMAZING here!

I plan all my client and business meetings in Des Moines here! Love the atmosphere, theres a few more secluded spaces, an outdoor patio and the Snickers Latte is the bomb!!

Great coffee! I reccomend the almond milk hot fudge mocha!

Horrible, expensive breakfast sandwich. Cold with a pre-made egg patty. Not worth any price. Very disappointing.

Spiced Chai is great and the atmosphere is definitely made for people to work

I had the Sweet Georgia Brown & the Green Smoothie. They add natural honey to the green smoothie both drinks were delicious.

This is always on my must stop list when Im in town. I didnt get to hang out this time, but I did make it through to grab some coffee. Everywhere I go Im always searching for a coffee shop thats as perfect as this one!

They were out of the items we wanted so settled for the breakfast bake which was mediocre at best. There coffee was good. Unlikely to return, will look for a new coffee shop next time I travel through Desoines

First time visiting, I had a job interview here and the coffee was excellent. The ambiance was nice both inside and outside.

Great service and the crew is always ready to meet your needs. Friendly, polite and professional.

Amazing Coffee and friendly staff!! Plus, their cheesburger soup is fantastic - I was pleasantly surprised

I live in the Sherman hills area so I live close by about two blocks Ive had their grilled cheese sandwiches really good grilled cheese and I have good coffee I like the places really relaxing and the servers are really nice

The staff are extremely warm, friendly and helpful. The peppermint mocha was to die for and the chocolate/chocolate chip muffin was the best!!!

The coffee is delicious but the website is difficult to use. Please improve your website for out of state order experience and I will give 5 stars.

Finally made it. I am satisfied with this place. Food was great, coffee was good and it was busy but I still had a spot to sit. Cool atmosphere. Ill be back for sure.

Perfect place for homework and casual meetings, great food and coffee. Atmosphere is outstanding.

I have always liked Smokey Row much better than other coffee places, but, the last couple if times the lattes werent as good as they used to be. There wasnt enough flavor. I got a Snickers Bar Latte and it tasted like a plain latte with no flavor. Last time I ordered a Turtle Mocha and same thing.

Overall excellent. atmosphere is best part. location rocks. service and product are both very good. only recent complaint: they have puddles and streaks of grease on their stairs that theyre ignoring. its like anything outside doesnt matter? Still 5 stars, just venting :)

Smoky row is one of the coolest coffee shops Ive ever been in..the ambiance is awesome...had a new server that didnt quite understand our order, but got it...love this place

Always a must-stop for me when I come to Des Moines. Big fan of the iced drinks - cant go wrong with any of the iced latte flavors! Today was a beautiful day to sit outside and they had a piano set up outside to entertain customers.

Great place there were a lot of customers but didnt have to wait more than three minutes

I know its only supposed to be ice cream and milk in a milkshake. But why is it so good?! I love their milkshakes and malts. Im sure everyone goes for the coffee but for me milkshake or malt every single time.

Live piano playing was a nice touch and the butterfinger lattes were delicious

Smokey Row has always been one of my favorite places to study. I love their atmosphere and they have a great menu selection. There staff is always super friendly as well.

The drinks are pretty good. I like this place because the atmosphere is classic old diner mixed with coffee shop. Pastries are good too.

Really nice place! They have a lot of space. Different kinds of tables and different areas. Good for all kind and sizes of groups. Almost all the tables have electric outlets to plug your laptops or phones. That’s really nice and helpful.The place has a really good distribution of spaces that make the place perfect for work or have meetings. The coffee is good and have a good variety of drinks and food.

Has good shakes and coffee but definitely a college study stop so if you wanting more of a family place to grab coffee, shakes or ice cream go elsewhere. Have a two year old and a newborn and got dirty looks from the college students on their laptops, staff was great but horrible customers. Java Joe expects their customers respect one another where smokeys doesnt really care. Caters more towards laptop carrying people than a family meeting other family.

Smokey Row is one of my favorite places. They are consistent across their locations. Good coffee and fun atmosphere.

My wife and I are long time consumers. We will no longer be going. We usually order the Smokey Row Shake, but the last 3 times weve ordered these its been purely liquid. I dont know if this is something new where they melt the ice cream, but it tastes horrible and no one wants an ice cream treat to be liquid. Will probably not return, unless we hear that they know how to make proper ice cream treats again.

Centrally located, great food, and some of the best coffee in town. Also just a nice place to sit and chat. Never had a bad experience here.

Great meeting space. Indoor and outdoor seating options

Ive been going to Smokey Row for over 10 years, and have always loved the atmosphere, staff, and variety of options for food and drink. However would like to leave some constructive feedback -Often the coffee is lukewarm, especially when ordering through drivethru. Several times there have been tons of excess grounds of coffee at the bottom of the drink, so perhaps just assessing the fresh brewed coffee situation. If you want a hot, plain cup of coffee to go, I might recommend elsewhere. If you want atmosphere, this is a great spot.

This is my favorite coffee shop. The coffee has so much flavor and the atmosphere is super chill. Great date spot or place to study.

Perfect neighborhood coffee shop with breakfast and lunch. Easy to access from downtown and 235.

Great place to grab a coffee and get some work done on a laptop. The food is hot trash. The eggs were clearly just frozen fake egg discs. Kind of nasty. The biscuits are also gross. Soggy and clearly defrosted. But overall the vibe and environment of the establishment is redeeming, and the coffee is passable.

Love the environment. Their beverages and ice cream are great, but the food doesn’t floor me. Whether or not you’ll have WiFi is a toss up. I wish they’d address this since it makes me wary to plan study sessions there!

Friendly and very fast service despite being busy. Great atmosphere.

They fixed my daughters desire for a west coast Italian Creamosa... only place in Des Moines we could get them to make it

Banana split was awesome as well as the milkshakes and cookies. Will go back to try other stuff.

Smokey Row closes at 9:00 so I ordered pickup at 8:40 (Im a 5 minute drive away). The man that took my order said, Well we close at 9:00 so how far of a drive do you have? While I understand they closed at 9:00, I think it is extremely rude to make someone feel bad for ordering takeout for 2 items 20 minutes before you close. I get there and waited about 10 minutes for my 2 tornados. Then this young woman handed gave me the wrong order so she had to make a new one. She was very crabby... by this time it was 8:53. After another 5 minutes, she handed me the new tornado without a smile. I thanked her and she shut the drive-through window without saying anything. Im so disappointed! We usually have good customer service but this time was unbelievable. That is also a reason why I am rating 2 starts instead of 1.

Whenever I am in the Des Moines area I have to stop here! There latte with chocolate and orange peel is amazing, a must try! The staff is very friendly and knowledgeable!

Its so comfortable and welcoming and convineit for little group meetings like I had today. And its so nice for the college students. Maybe Ill be going there alot for college studying in the future.

I love it here, I met up with a friend for coffee and we sat outside and listened to a couple people play on the piano outside😊

I got to admit, on a very busy Iowa Caucus morning, with NPR even doing Morning edition live from the coffee shop, the coffee shop pumped drinks out fast and with a smile, hundreds of people were rolling through the doors with an always epic line... The staff kept the food and drinks coming out and everyone in the joint was in a good mood..

This may be the best coffee shop I’ve been you! Will be back every Des Moines trip!

Smokey Row always has great vibes, and a great spot to meet clients!

I have heard nothing but good about this place. Today my daughter and I came through and ordered 2 cold drinks and 1 hot. They gave my daughter the wrong drinks. We were asked to pull over while they fixed them. No problem! In the mean time I ordered a caramel latte and there was zero flavoring put in my drink. We sat out in our parking place a good 10 minutes! I finally called inside and our drinks came out the door. I explained my drink was also made incorrectly but didnt have time to sit another 10 minutes while they fixed it! I believe in second chances so I will go back at some point but must say I wasnt impressed today.

Good locally owned place for coffee. Definitely worth the little extra time it takes to get there, that area of town definitely needed some good coffee! I like how they partner with Mollys Cupcakes and The Oasis for some quick eats too. People are friendly and environment is cozy. There is a nice play corner for kiddos and they have kid-friendly drinks also. I got the hot Mocha with white chocolate and Ive gotten the milk chocolate - both were tasty :)

Great place to get work done. The coffee and teas are excellent. The chicken salad was filling and delicious. The atmosphere at times can be a little disruptive with occasional local children bouncing basketballs inside however I tuned it out before it passed. Overall this is a great place to get work done and the staff are super friendly.

Great coffee, breakfast item needs more attention.

Coffee is good, and atmosphere is nice. However, I come here to work/study and I have the hardest time connecting to their wifi recently... especially when seated at the small tables along the north side windows which seem to be available most often. I only get a good connection when seated by the back door. I wonder if they need a stronger wifi signal!

Continuing to impress- everyday.When I lived in my hometown, I had two favorite spots for breakfast. Cabin coffee, where I got the best scones, and Lake Coffee and Ice Cream... They served the best spiced chais. Im the type of consumer that likes to get the same order, Everytime. Ive tried many purchased replacements(coffees, scones, breakfast sandwiches, every spiced chai I could get my hands on) from local grocery chains, but all of them tasted nothing like the chai I had back home.I recently moved near the Sherman Hill area. I had my first business meeting at Smokey Row and was excited to see they were offering spiced chais. I quickly made my purchase, and was EXTREMELY happy to find out they use the exact same powder as the (now closed permanently) coffee shop back home.Today Ive tried their blueberry scones, only to find they are quite similar to my favorite scones at Cabin Coffee, if not better.Weird side note, I have an easily upset tummy and their rise and shine sandwich doesnt bother me at all!

Coffee was good. Honey latte too sweet. Sandwiches were great!

Still better than Starbucks

Absolutely love this place and have been super please with everything I have ever purchased!

Great place to study or have a work meeting.

Iced coffee was delicious, and it took no time for them to get it ready

Bike friendly!!! Stopped on our bike ride this morning to get some coffee and didnt realize it was closed inside. Quickly the drive thru lady got our attention and told us she can help us & place our order through the drive thru. (Note: a *popular chain coffee shop* recently has not been very cycle friendly and refused drive thru orders) We placed our order and moved over so the cars behind us could get through...shortly after, another barista comes from around the building delivering us our coffees. Both employees were extremely friendly!!! And the coffee was AMAZING! I got the iced caramel latte and it had small ball ice cubes in it...so delicious. Some of the best coffee Ive had in a while! I will definitely bike 18miles again just to get coffee there!! Highly recommend this place and I cant wait to go back!!

Fast friendly service! Thank you

Busy, full of life, sounds, activity. Can study, talk, plan, play games, have meetings, etc while enjoying a hot tea, or cold drink, or cheeseburger soup in a bread bowl. Community piano near the outdoor seating, too.

Great place to get a coffee of your choice and visit with friends.

Perfect, chill, slightly Americana/urban café vibe! Plenty of seating. Low, calm music. I enjoyed my latté. I will DEFINITELY come back. #shoplocal!!

Feeling the tug of Fall as you wax nostalgic for hay rack rides, the warm glow of a bonfire, and the sounds from a high school football game in the distance?Smokey Row has a seasonal coffee drink just for you! Stop by and enjoy their Campfire Mocha served either iced or hot. Youll feel like youre biting into an incredible smore around the bonfire! Dont miss it!

Great atmosphere... I love supporting local coffee shops especially when they server great coffee in a relaxing setting.

Absolutely loved my Dutch mocha latte! Finally a drink I can get completely dairy free! The staff are always very friendly and the new location in Waukee is so inviting with the fireplace.

Always great! Friendly and super fast coffee!! Big drive thru line and I got thru in 3 min!

Excellent, trendy coffeehouse popular with college students and the same behind the counter. The Dutch Letter pastries are amazingly good, a must try!!!

Best cold brew coffee Ive ever had

Very good service with good prices.

Ice cream is really good and good portions.Cheesecake was $5 for a small slice and really wasnt good. There was barely any graham cracker crust and the cheesecake outside was hard like it had been sitting out for too long.

Love this place. Dont live the coffee but the food they serve is decent. Clean establishment t with character.

The coffee is always good, the food is fine, ambiance good, but the service consistently is either rude or ambivalent to a positive customer experience. I keep going back hoping the service will improve, but it never does. Its a shame tha the employees dont seem to care at all about taking care of customers, because this place could be amazing versus just the only place Drake University students go to.

Fast service and great drinks. Love that this location has a drive-thru.

Neat little coffee shop. I work near by, and the location is convenient for me. Parking is horrible though. Opt for drive through.

I feel like Smokey Row Coffee has become a Des Moines stable. Great coffee and an even better atmosphere. The one drawback is that they do such a good job that it’s generally very busy. Still worth the wait if you have the time. Lots of seating to sit and work and enjoy yourself if you have time.

Had the Bear Creek Caramel shake and it was great. We also had the Chocolate Peanut Butter shake and it was delicious.

Great ice cream Frappuccinos

Great decor, the fireplace is lovely on a Sunday am enjoying a caramel macchiato that is smooth, not too sweet and has a roster marshmallow finish. The breakfast items are always good. The service is great. Always warm, friendly and helpful.

Good coffee an ice cream.

Nice products. Slowwwwww drive thru service

Quick, friendly service with staff who knew what they were doing. Only 4 star because the tables werent all cleared/ sanitized.

They knew what I wanted when I ordered it. Thats a win in my book!

Try their Mug and A Muffin deal!Smokey Row is the bees knees and a favorite spot for local residents and those stopping off the highway for a quick pickup.Delicious coffee and breakfast and warm, friendly staff. The shop inside is cozy and buzzing with activity and warm light. Great spot to set up shop with WiFi and a laptop or catch up with an old friend. The patio seating is nice and on the opposite side of the building, which offers a nice sound barrier from traffic (not entirely eliminates noise pollution, though). The city wide Des Moines B-cycle has a rack for bike returns right outside the building.My only complaint is the drive thru. Not only is the location right outside of the highway, making it hard to hear from the outdated speaker system, but the line waiting outside does not seem to be a top priority like it is in most other drive up coffee joints... Getting just one cup takes forever. Definitely dont be running late to work if you plan on stopping for a cup of joe on your way in.

Great to hang and relax in a great environment

Pricey & BUSY but good coffee and friendly service.

Always a great place for coffee and food

Always good service and the coffee has never disappointed. The atmosphere/Decor is great too!

This place is always crowded and noisy, and with COVID it is now worse. Also, the table are never cleaned, and most ppl refuse to clean their own tables off, even so, th staff there doesnt clean th tables after each visitor, so what is the difference, NONE that is what! Hi $$$ for what? Free wifi? Not worth it! I would rather meet at West End Architectural, they have a nice coffee shop and it is quite, and clean!!

That pie was amazing!

I give this place three stars because, the people i.e. hipsters were scary they seemed to be more wealthy and more educated then Starbucks hipsters. Other than tat my overall experience was great; although, I do feel like these hipsters wouldnt want to die in a shoot out with the IRS.

Best little coffee shop in the area! Great ambiance and selection.

Very good place for coffee or espresso drinks. I especially like the breakfast sandwiches too.

I dont want this to reflect badly on the staff, because the staff here are wonderful. The environment is great, and the coffee is good.But cmon Smokey Row owners.. lets get a better wifi system going. I hate to give this place a bad review because Ive been a loyal patron here since Ive moved to Iowa 4 years ago. But its gotten so bad lately, and I dont know how I would be able to grab the attention of those that may be able to change this other than to leave them a negative review here.A quick internet search shows that there are equipment out there that increase wifi coverage. There are resources online where you can learn about cafe internet traffic management. Internet providers have specific options specifically for cafe businesses. The internet connection here desperately needs improvement, and I believe it to be a reasonable business investment to have good internet.. at a cafe... next to a college campus where students and professors congregate to escape their usual study/ office space.Lately Ive been thinking why I would even bother to come here only to stare at my devices wifi options for hours, and then begrudingly going back home because the wifi is too choppy. And I feel like a lot of customers feel the same.

Icecream espresso lil secret cotton candy is the hest

Love the red eye. Nice selection for lunch too

Best raspberry chai tea