Latin Little Italy

A taste of Italy in Iowa

Mrs. Red: "Greetings fellow hungry-kins! Pocket Red Heads returns with another culinary delight to share with you, our avid readers. Not too long ago, I put the word out that we were on the hunt for the hidden and exotic restaurants within our conglomerate of little cities that make up the Greater Des Moines Area, and we were not disappointed with the results. With list in hand, we have been scheming our plans to visit and today we bring you the first what will be many adventures. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you: Tursi's Latin King."

Mr. Red: "When Mrs. Red first said, "The Latin Kings" I thought to myself - 'I don't want Mexican food.' Oddly enough, this restaurant does in fact serve Italian food. I'm not sure where they got Italian out of Latin, though."

Mrs. Red: "You do realize that the Latin language originated in the country of Italy, right?"

Mr. Red: "No it didn't! It came from the country of Latin!"

Mrs. Red: "Where they service Mexican food, apparently."

Mr. Red: "Yeah!"

Mrs. Red: "While Mr. Red searches for 'Latin' on a world map, I'll give you a little history about this place because when we decided to give it a try I knew next to nothing about it. I feel that if I impart this acquired knowledge on you, it may prepare you for what you will be experiencing when you go. As the advertisements suggest, Tursi's Latin King opened originally in 1947 as simply, 'The Latin King.' It's name was changed when the current owners, Bob and Amy Tursi, purchased the restaurant in 1983. Their parents and the original owners were all from the village of Terravecchia, Italy which is where the core foundation of this restaurant's cuisine hails from."

Mr. Red: "Were you near there when you visited Italy?"

Mrs. Red: "Unfortunately, no. When I was in Italy with my family, we visited the resort village of Lignano Sabbiadoro. I'm sure you're familiar with the general shape of Italy being a boot. Terravecchia is located way out on the 'arch' while Lignano would be at the back of the 'knee' in terms of geographical location. However, while I was there I had the opportunity to try some real authentic Italian food which unfortunately ruined any restaurants for me here in Iowa that claimed to serve Italian. My standards going in were very high."

What We Ordered:

Mrs. Red: Chicken Spiedini

Mr. Red: Pasta Trio

Our Take:

Mr. Red: "The name of my meal is a little deceptive. It wasn't just three kinds of pasta: Lasagna, Ravioli, and Fettuccine. It also came with a good sized meatball and a link of Italian sausage."

Mr. Red: "I'll go ahead and start with the Italian sausage link. I wasn't all that impressed with it. I thought it was a little on the bland side. Now, it wasn't bad, but due to my acid reflux the pain of eating it all wasn't going to be worth the reward of its tastiness. The meatball however can be summed up in a single word: delicious! I will definitely admit that it was slightly over seasoned and you wind up tasting more of the herbs that went into it than the meat, but overall it was really tasty."

Mrs. Red: "Better than anything I've ever made. I tried to snag a taste of everything Mr. Red ordered so I could give my own opinion, but we went to war and fork battled, and unfortunately to the victor went the spoils."

Mr. Red: "Now I am a HUGE fettuccine alfredo fan. Anytime we go to any other Italian restaurant I always end up getting chicken alfredo and it's usually pretty good. Here I didn't order it with the chicken or anything, it just came as a little side in my meal. I took one bite of it and was instantly transported to the Iowa State Fair."

Mrs. Red: "Wait...what?"

                             Mr. Red: "Yeah, it was just that one bite was just so...overwhelmingly...full of the taste of...butter. All I could think of was the butter cow. Gag. I like butter just as much as the next person but it was like biting into a stick of butter. This, by far, was the most disappointing part of my entire meal."

Mrs. Red: "Bummer, and that was the entire reason you ordered that meal. But it wasn't a total loss!"

Mr. Red: "Onto another surprise. I will fully admit I have never really liked lasagna. However, my meal came with it so I of course gave it a try. It was delicious! I actually really liked the meat sauce because it's more sauce than it is full of meat. It really seemed to bring the flavors all together. The greatest part of my meal, and any meal we've ever blogged about to date, would have to be the ravioli. The pasta used in this was baked and it came out almost like a breading. I think I liked this so much, because it really reminded me of one of my favorite things to eat: pot stickers. Except opposed to the bread being soft and soggy it was crunchy and scrum-diddily-umptious."

Mrs. Red: "It was also filled with sausage and not cheese which was refreshing. In my mind, the ratio of meat to pasta was perfect, and a favorite of mine as well. I highly suggest giving their ravioli a shot if you give this place a try."

Mrs. Red: "Enter, Chicken Spiedini. No idea what that is? Me neither. I really had a hard time figuring out what I wanted when we opened up the menus and began to peruse. Couple that with the fact that I spent most of our downtime staring at the MASSIVE WINE MENU this place has that when it came time to order I had no idea what I wanted. So, I asked for a suggestion and this is what I got. This is what they are calling the house special and I can definitely see why. Basically, these were pieces of chicken breast that were marinated, breaded, and broiled to lovely perfection on skewers. Now it came two different ways: Alfredo or Amogio (which was basically some garlic and Italian seasonings with some good old olive oil.) As you can see from the picture above, I got a little of both."

Mr. Red: "The chicken was really moist. Personally, I preferred the alfredo side despite how disappointed I was with the alfredo that I ordered."

Mrs. Red: "I guess I must like buttery alfredo because I thought it was fantastic. I think it's probably one of the best I've ever had. The two sauces mixed together were great, which is what happened by the time I made it through all the wonderful pieces of chicken and into the pasta itself. I must say, the fettuccine noodles were smaller than I'm used to, and by smaller I mean thinner. I actually preferred it over the wide flat noodles you typically see for this kind of pasta. This has easily become my favorite meal at an Italian restaurant, period."

Mr. Red: "Although we didn't get a picture of it, we also splurged and ordered dessert. Mmmmmm."

Mrs. Red: "What he means to say is that we ordered Canoles."

Mr. Red: "Hands down the BEST Canole I've ever had."

Mrs. Red: "There were so many flavor aspects in these that Mr. Red and I were sitting down and trying to figure out all the amazing things they packed into what they called their 'house filling. Holy cow. Mmmmm doesn't even cover how amazing these things were. They say you can judge how great a restaurant is by their canoles which is why we ordered them despite the fact that they aren't a favorite of either of ours. Well, we're believers now."

Waiter/Waitress:

          Mr. Red: "A+...+++...plus. We were seated within seconds of walking into the door and our waitress visited us within a minute or two. We would have had our drinks right then and there, but SOMEBODY had to take forever staring at the wine menu."

Mrs. Red: "If only I weren't so cheap. I have a very sweet spot for Italian wine. I digress. Our waitress was good enough that I am going to call her by name: Shelly. Phenomenal. She was everything we needed as new visitors to the Latin King, and she knew the menu items well enough that she could offer suggestions based on our likes and dislikes -"

                                                             Mr. Red: "-and prove I was right about all the ingredients in the Canoles. It's ok though honey, someone had to be less right."

Mrs. Red: "Very funny. If you ever go into this place and get Shelly, you won't be disappointed. She was on top of her game when it came to our drinks and offering up suggestions for our dining experience. 5 stars, 10 out of 10, blue ribbon! I can't stress enough how wonderful our service was.

Observations:

                               Mr. Red: "Semi-good. I only have one complaint and that was that the floor needed to be vacuumed. Other than that everything was clean, even my wife."

Mrs. Red: "You are always complaining about carpets! If only you cared enough to keep ours at home cleaner. I really liked the decor and shape of the room we were seated in. It had multiple levels which made everything feel very open. This is definitely a great date night spot with its oil lamp on the table and dim lighting for a more intimate setting - so heads up guys!"

Mr. Red: "Despite being a bit on the pricey side, I absolutely agree this is a good place for a date."

Overall:

Mrs. Red: "Great success! Thank you, Bobert for suggesting it! I think you will really like this place if you enjoy Italian food. We sure did. I don't think you'll be disappointed in the least. It scored very high for us on all accounts. We. Will. Be. Back."

Mr. Red: "Fo shizzle!"

Review:

On a scale of 1-10

Food: 8

Service: 10
Cleanliness: 7
Atmosphere: 9

Until next time! Happy Eating!

-Pocket Red Heads