Home > Des Moines Restaurants > Editorial Review > Editorial Juice Review: Hooters

Some diners say food service doesn't get much better than having a hot waitress deliver a platter of hot wings in a tiny orange and white uniform. Others say it's sleazy, that it objectifies women. We were more interested in eating some greasy bar food.

THE GOOD

The restaurant isn't the type of place for a quiet, intimate dining experience. It's quite the opposite Â-- a fun place to throw a little crude excitement into your day. When you enter, at least a few waitresses will holler out to tell you to seat yourself. The girls wear orange bun-huggers, tiny tanks, white tennies, scrunch socks and panty hose.

Hooters has a good variety of lunch specials. For about $7, I got a plate full of ten wings. I ordered them hot and "naked," Hooters' classy way of saying unbreaded. The spiciness was perfect, but even though the restaurant is known for its wings, I wouldn't say they stand out from wings at any other spot in town.

My dining partner ordered a bacon cheeseburger, which he said tasted like a standard bar burger.

THE BAD

As much as it might be nice to have an attractive waitress, having at least seven different women stop at our table to make sure we were happy got annoying, especially when each insisted on signing her name on a Post-it note on the corner of our table. We asked our primary waitress about it and she explained that it was a way for diners to get to know several Hooters girls over the course of a visit. We could have done without the confusion.

And the pantyhose/scrunch socks combo? It's time to update that look.

We also got a little creeped out when we saw older men dining solo while ogling waitresses half their age.

BOTTOM LINE

If you like sports, beer, wings and women who show off their goods, you'll be right at home.