The Iowa Stater - Ames

What a tremendous disappointment. I did research the night before and was actually excited about a made to order omelet station I read about. I woke up with a little excitement. But the day took a steep nosedive when we got there. The staff was fine, though it is a buffet and so not much interaction was had with them, but they were nice. The food was absolute gutter trash garbage. The eggs were cold, the potatoes were undercooked (hard in the middle) and soggy (I'm not sure how you get that combination, possibly under heated fryer grease) the meat was room temperature. All the components came out of a bag somewhere, nothing fresh nothing cooked by anyone with skills beyond that of a fast food employee. All that said, I have had the exact same breakfast buffet at a Holliday Inn for free! And I mean exactly the same, same waffle mix and skillets, same bag-o-eggs, same frozen sausage patty , all of it is identical to what they give away at better hotels. And the kicker..... the prices were way up from what I had read online. This disgusting breakfast set us back more than I would have paid at a really good diner. Oh, and I almost forgot, no omelet station. There was a sign that said I could order one for an up charge of ANOTHER $2 dollars over the $16.00 I was already paying. I may have said some expletives under my breath when I read that.

Nice staff. Worst service I can remember. Could not keep an order straight. Never got a salad that was ordered. Couldn't relay a drink order without mixing it up. Food was ok. One review said you're in a college town so don't expect too much. My experience in college towns has been good service by students who want to make a little money. I don't think Iowa has stupid students, but the brightest students are not working here. The reviews are accurate even after all the years.

An absolute joke for breakfast. They're going to charge you $16 for a continental breakfast you can get free at your local Best Western, they also ran out of **** mix after our table ordered just 2 of them, halting the only thing of value The Iowa Stater had to offer. Keep driving, go wait at Provisions, a place actually worth your time.

No idea if the food is good or not. After waiting over an hour and a half for our food, we cancelled our order and left

The quality of the food is consistent with the quality of the rest of the hotel. It is below average and it does not appear that the establishment really cares about being anywhere near above average. If not connected to a hotel, I'm not sure how this place would survive. Extremely unsatisfying. For a location that is so close to ISU campus and the stadium, I expected much better quality.