The High Life Lounge: User Reviews
The High Life Lounge
200 S.W. Second St. - Des Moines515-280-1965
Never have I experienced such rudeness as I have from this place. Glad it's okay your staff is rude to clientele and they have time on St. Patty's day no less to line up shots for themselves while people are lining up everywhere. The customers were great the staff not so much. Worst service I ever experienced that day and everywhere else I went I got the best service you could imagine or shall I say deserve.... I won't be returning to this place ever and I know10 more people that won't be either..
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I would never return to this bar based on the service that my friends and I received on St Pats. The bartender was SO rude, and disrecpetful to my group including my mother who just needed an Iced Tea. She slammed our drinks down and simpy would not serve the rest of my group. I saw her with another customer who told her " you do not need to be treating people like this!" I will never return based on this service!
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Good cheap food and cheap beer on 'crappy beer night' but the staff are worthless.
By averagezak, April 21, 2011
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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.
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A new sandwich has graced the pages of the High Life Menu, and it's amazing. It begins with an unassuming burger bun, followed by a hamburger bun, piece of texas toast, graziano patty, bar-b-que sauce, mayonaise, carmalized onions, jalpenos, and finally the top of the burger bun. To top off this brilliance on the toothpick that holds it all together is a frosted donut. Perfection
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The High Life Lounge is a truly unique spot and a great place to bring out of town visitors. The throwback, retro feel is really fun and its a great place to meet up with friends. The menu resembles your hot lunch from grade school-but its amazingly good! I highly recommend the tater tots. Another totally awesome part about the High Life are the Tanger Bombs. Yes, just what you may be thinking, its similar to the much loved Jager Bomb but instead of the red bull, the bar uses Tang. You either love it or hate it-I happen to love it.
The High Life is attached to another one of my favorite bars, El Bait Shop. Its wonderful because you can bring your drinks between bars and truly enjoy the best of both worlds.
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I recently visited what I had hoped would be a regular hangout in my new neighborhood. I arrived with two friends, ordered our Old Mil's, started a tab. It was nice enough, we sat on the patio. Unfortunately the weather was the only good thing about the patio. The waitress walked by our table twice without asking if we needed anything. She did finally collect the leftover CC slip. About 10 minutes later, waitress does her job and asks if we need anything. We kept it simple, Old Mil's again. She returns fairly quickly. All is right in the world. HER That'll be $. ME I have a tab. HER SIGH "You'll need to go in and get your own beers from now on. It's really hard to do my job when it's moderately busy.” Okay, only the first sentence is an exact quote. Rather than go Bateman on the professionally overtaxed lady, those were our last beers for the night, at that establishment anyway. I won't let one bad waitress forever color my opinion of this place, but I’ll have other “first choices”.
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Always in search of that rare gem, we wandered in off the street. What a discovery! I love the food in this restaurant and love the atmosphere even more! The service is good especially when you consider the price. The appetizers are not what you would expect... not all of them anyway. The food choices are pretty basic and the drinks are all from the 70's or earlier! If you're looking for good burgers, appetizers you can't get anywhere else, and a place LOADED with atmosphere, this is the place to be.
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I really like the concept at High Life Lounge, make a bar look just like some old guys basement from the 70's. Works for me, and really, how can you go wrong with wood panel walls and puke green shag carpet? I don't think you can. Anyway, the drinks here are reasonably priced mostly due to the fact that the beers on tap are older less popular beers like High Life, PBR, and Old Style. This is also the home of the tangermeister, a drink(shot) made with orange tang and jagermeister. Even for a jager hater like myself I can drink these down. The food is what really shines. They have such old school favorites on the menu like tator tots, fried egg sandwiches, and fried spam sandwiches. It sounds gross but it really isn't that bad. The only drawback to HLL is the size. It isn't the biggest bar in the world and on weekends or nights the I-Cubs are playing this place will get packed in a hurry, and when it does the service goes downhill really quick, mostly because everybody is crowding the bar. Overall though, I would check it out for those who haven't had the pleasure of hitting this place up.
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Review Summary
The following scores represent the average rating submitted by 14 users:
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