Crouse Cafe

Grouse Cafe is located in Indianola across from the police department. Now I live in DesMoines, but I promise you, it’s worth the drive. I believe it’s been around since the 40’s and they continue to serve people with hospitality, & their food. They also serve a buffet on certain days at certain times, & it is fabulous. You won’t find instant mashed potatoes here. Every thing is delicious, with a home cooked flare. I believe it’s better than the Machine Shed. They have a white gravy that tastes just like my Mothers. The onion rights are to die for & their fried chicken is something special. The portions are big, and they treat you like family. There is some times a wait, but they shuffle a lot of people through there relatively fast. Definitely worth the wait. You will be glad you went there.

We had eaten here a couple years ago and talked about coming back because the food was so good. This occasion was a different story. It was a Saturday afternoon and we arrived around 1 p.m. Not busy at all. We were seated upon arrival. The waitress was very friendly and got our drinks right away. I ordered the hot turkey sandwich (which I had on our first visit) and my hubby ordered the chicken fried steak. My turkey was a pinkish yellow color, I think instant mashed potatoes and the gravy…it was not good. It was brown and looked like it had been sitting in the pan because there was kind of scummy pieces in it like from when you let gravy cool down and it gets set on top. Overall mine was a big disappointment. My hubby’s chicken fried steak…another disappointment. He said the steak wasn’t too bad but the potatoes and gravy were awful. Usually when he orders this it comes with a white pepper gravy. This gravy was yellow, had absolutely no flavor and no pepper. Total bomb! I don’t know if it has changed owners or what happened but we will not be going back. And the restrooms were no clean and in desperate need of a good overhaul.

We stopped for lunch on our way to the state fair. The restaurant was clean and the service was efficient. We ordered the hot roast beef sandwich. The mashed potatoes were decent, but the roast beef was very tough. We could hardly cut it. The items other people ordered looked like they might be good, but I definitely don’t recommend the roast beef.