Restaurants in Marshalltown

Metromix ranked Claxon’s Smokehouse and Grill as one of the five best barbecue spots in Des Moines—but that’s just the start. More than a decade's worth of accolades trail behind the restaurant like drops of warm barbecue sauce, leading all the way back to 2002, when a perfectly cooked pork loin nabbed the eatery first place at the World Pork Expo. Today, grill maestros Adam, Andy, and Ronald helm the kitchen, hand-rubbing turkey, chicken, and baby-back ribs in their signature black gold rub before slow-smoking each succulent cut over hickory, oak, and smoldering cook books. Claxon's open dining room, complete with a mammoth stacked-stone fireplace, surrounds guests as they tear into ham, sausage, and tender brisket. Modern lights hang above the full bar, casting plates of pan-seared shrimp and fried pub pickles in a tobasco-colored glow, while umbrellas shield diners from the sun and rain on the outdoor patio.

The kitchen bustled behind teenage Enosh Kelley as he stood over the sink, dutifully scrubbing pots and pans while dreaming of becoming a chef. From those humble origins, recounted in his Metromix profile, Enosh has grown into an internationally renowned culinary artist lauded by reporters from the Wall Street Journal and nominated as best Midwest chef by the James Beard Foundation. Pulling from his training at the Culinary Institute of America, Enosh folds local ingredients into a French-inspired menu, favoring classics such as hand-cut pomme frites, duck orange, and gâteau marjolaine.

Nestled in the heart of the historic Ingersoll Avenue district, Enosh's restaurant—Bistro Montage—is a fitting canvas for his fine French creations. Plates pair with glasses from a distilled wine list on white-clothed tables decorated with freshly cut flowers. Nearby, framed artwork speckles the brick-red walls, and long, flowing curtains dangle from the windows to keep the lighting dim and intimate while providing a convenient hiding place for guests on disappointing blind dates.

Throughout the year, shipments of live crawfish arrive at Fat Tuesday's doorstep. Newspapers spread across tables, customers pull up their sleeves, and baskets of boiled crawfish and corn arrive from the kitchen before the crack of snapping shells resounds through the restaurant.

In between their regular crawfish boils, the kitchen crew members whip up what they refer to as a "small but mighty" daily menu of Cajun specialties. Cooks layer poboys with fried alligator, oysters, and catfish, and pots of seafood gumbo and crawfish étouffée simmer on stovetops. Plates pair with Cajun craft beers beneath glimmering purple, yellow, and green streamers throughout the New Orleans–themed dining room. Testing their patrons’ stomach capacities, the chefs challenge them to the occasional poboy-eating contest. The contestants must polish off a 2-foot-long poboy within 40 minutes while simultaneously whistling the sous chef's favorite blues song.