Zombie Burger Des Moines Plan 12 Space Loin

Zombie Burger has been the most successful new restaurant of the past few years in Des Moines. They have generated all kinds of traditional and social media attention from their initial opening and Zombie Walk to selling over 100,000 burgers in their first four months of operation. It was rumored that Formaro wanted zombie food ingredients, like brains or raw flesh on the menu during the developmental stages of the restaurant. Back in December, BreadGuy let out THIS TWEET to his legions of followers, and I had to go check it out when the new menu was rolled out.

Location: 300 E Grand Ave. in East Village Des Moines. Its the corner of the new e300 Building

Directions: Its at the corner of E. 4th St and Grand Ave., its harder to find a parking place than it is to find Zombie Burger.

Online at: Website with flash menu is HERE.

Plan 12 From Outer Space

The Plan 12 From Space Tenderloin: The name comes from the 12 oz of loin meat used and an old movie. The interior meat had little orange dots of seasoning which I assume would be the bacon salt made in-house. It tastes significantly different to how most other tenderloins are seasoned. I have never understood the choice of bun, the sesame seed on this tenderloin just wasn't as good as some of the flour or cornmeal dusted buns found at small town places. The seven slices of pickles just added more mass to the giant sandwich. Each table does have a Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce bottle, or you can take some spicy mustard from a fixins bar if you think the loin needs some spice. Overall 8.3 out of ten.

Price: $9,99 a la carte.

Served with sliced pickles

Also on the menu: Over twenty burgers with toppings like fried chili or a bun made of fried mac 'n cheese. The burgers are smashed into some kind of specially made griddle to cook both sides at the same time. They cannot be ordered rare or medium rare, only cooked all the way through. Hot dogs in top-loading buns, milkshakes with alcohol mixed in, chili-cheese fries or poutine, and Formaro never forgets to include vegetarian options. The staff keep at work regularly making seasonal specialty burgers, shakes, and cocktails. These change frequently and don't always last long.


The Zombie Burger is #1 on the menu, and its pretty basic with just American Cheese, Lettuce, Tomato, Onion, and the Zombie Sauce is under the patty so you can't see it:

#1 Zombie Burger

The Dead Moines, listed as #6 on the menu, this is the double patty size. This was topped with smoked gouda, prosciutto, ham, and truffle mayo. The menu doesn't specify if this is made with the high-end famous prosciutto from Norwalk, Iowa. The burger toppings are similar to the Tartine Burger sold at Tartine in Clive, check out my picture of that burger HERE.

Dead Moines

The Undead Guy BBQ Burger was the most expensive item on the menu the day I ordered it. Its ingredients include special BBQ Sauce, cheddar cheese, bacon and "pulled BBQ bacon", which tasted sweet and was tucked just underneath the bun. I just wish there was a little more of the pulled bacon, it felt like a richer and tender pulled pork shoulder.

Undead Guy BBQ Burger

The Walking Ched was one of the signature burgers at the opening, and the menu board now reads "new and improved", and omits the slice of lettuce from its description. The ingredients include a breaded macaroni & cheese bun, raw and caramelized onions, more macaroni & cheese, bacon, and mayo. At some point they changed the bacon or sauce, but I only ate this thing once so I wouldn't know.

The Walking Ched

The Walking Ched barely functions as a sandwich, the ingredients just can't be kept on top of each other and lifted up into your mouth. Eating this requires a knife and fork to pull open the mac & cheese bun and mash it together with pieces of the burger. The end result is like a crunchy hamburger mac with bacon and onions. I have seen plenty of people order it, so it seems to be working.

Thankskilling

I stopped in one week and ordered  a special Thankskilling burger with bun made of stuffing, deep fried mashed potato croquette, turkey confit topped with onion strings and gravy. The layer of turkey is barely visible beneath the gravy and onion rings. The fried mashed potato works great and pulls apart easily. The stuffing bun basically disintegrated when I tried to lift it up and put it on top of the burger. This Thanksgiving themed burger was $11.99 for a triple patty size.

Hamittyville Horror

A special promotion burger for the Baconfest weekend was titled Hamittyville Horror. This one was described as having fried bacon, slab bacon, white cheddar, and garlic mayo. There was a dab of bacon jam on the bottom bun that added some sweetness, but the cheese and garlic mayo mixture dominated the sandwich. It just seemed strange that this one to me came with only two pieces of bacon.

We Don't Need Another Gyro

This March saw a new special burger, We Don't Need Another Gyro, with house made gyro meat, feta American cheese, tzatziki Sauce, with lettuce tomato and red onion. The gyro meat didn't feel quite as juicy as my imagination of a perfect spinning cone of meat with juices dripping down and cut meat dropping into the greasy juiciness before being wrapped in pita. Having gyro meat on top of three burger patties wasn't the match made in heaven I thought it would be. The sauce and cheese was nice. This sandwich bears a similarity to the giant hamburger burger or gyro meat on focaccia sandwiches served at local Bosnian hole in the wall restaurants around Des Moines.

Zahm Bi

Another limited time special, the Zahm Bi, based on the Banh Mi sandwich available at local Vietnamese lunch spots. This burger was topped with sliced carrots and cucumber, cilantro and a sweet chili barbecue sauce. I really don't understand the cheese on this triple burger, but that is the way it came. The chili sauce mixed with the cheese as it dripped down, and this was a juicy burger. The coolness and the crunch of the salad toppings was nice, but wasn't a match for the overpowering cheeseburger flavor.

Dead and Breakfast

One month in 2013 George Formaro goes crazy about biscuits, and adds a new biscuit item at each of his restaurants. At Zombie burger, this means the very temporary Dead and Breakfast. Made with Formaro's special biscuit as a bun, breakfast sausage patty, sausage gravy, a fried egg, American cheese, on top of three burger patties. This worked better than a lot of the other burger specials, and its not too different from what people get at the breakfast buffets around town, just with better burgers. The sausage gravy was especially rich with much chunky sausage inside. Picture taken after breaking egg open.

Crab Ranghoul

Another short term special with an Asian-inspired flavor was the Crab Ranghoul, topped with crab rangoon filling, fried wanton strips, and a sweet and spicy chili sauce. The sweet sauce mostly dripped to the bottom to make the lower bun moist and sticky. The wanton were the right thickness and were perfectly crunchy after picking up some of the sauce. Bits of unidentifiable seafood meat formed large chunks within the crab rangoon style filling. This only held together as a sandwich for a couple of bites before the pressure of the top bun pushed nearly all the filling and wanton strips past the sides of the burger. It was very tasty with a for and knife.

Project Nemesis

I know George Formaro never forgets to have options for the vegetarians, so I tried Project Nemesis, #26 on the menu. Its described as "un-burger sandwich" and is made from a breaded Portobello with American cheese, lettuce, onion, tomato, and a cheese sauce on the side. This just didn't feel as big and impressive as some of the larger burgers, but for $6.29 its not bad. I opted not to pour on the cheese sauce. There are other vegetarian choices included a veggie patty burger and vegetarian poutine.

Hand Cut Fries

The House Cut Fries were $1.79 extra to fill up the basket beside the burger. The special cheese sauce was a dollar extra. I had heard stories about the fries being "off" when the place first opened. But they were just fine during my visit.

Zombie Nachos

The Zombie Nachos: The only menu item with Adobe Shredded Pork, and I can't pass up Pork Nachos anywhere. These didn't have melted cheese sauce, and the tortilla chips felt like they had been made a day before. The pork was seasoned well and soft, but the salsa was extra tasty. A good portion size for $8.49:

Loaded Fry Basket

The Loaded Fry Basket had a melted cheese sauce to go with the grated cheddar and sour cream. The bacon bits added a salty crunchiness, but overall this was just another cheese fries app.

Chili Cheese Dog

The Chili Cheese Dog seemed to overwhelm the top-loading bun from the South Union Bakery. The fork was necessary to pull apart the bread covered in chili. The fried hot dog had some good tough skin formed on the outside, the chili didn't strike me as anything special.

Service: One section is fast casual with a counter and waiting for you number to be read aloud when food is ready. The other area is table service with a full bar. I hear the service slows down when it gets busy.

Ambiance: This is a new restaurant in a newly constructed building. Walls are decorated with Zombie scenes and artwork inspired by Zombie movies. Its just another new restaurant with themed decorations, not some kind of literal apocalypse role playing inside. Its the size of the crowds that scare more visitors away than any of the horror themed decorations and menu items.

The space has had some small updates and details added over the months since opening. This includes more Zombie art and some neon signs that weren't there before.

A special note about the prices: The basic hamburger is $3.49, cheeseburger is $3.99, and fries are $1.99. The whole sales pitch is to get people inside and get them to splurge on other stuff. The gigantic and over-the-top menu items hit some price points that are at the top range of what you can pay for anything in Des Moines. My guess is that a person from a big city probably wouldn't notice.

Final Thoughts: The Plan 12 From Outer Space Tenderloin takes its name from an infamous B Movie but the sandwich is a blockbuster in size and quality. I'm not sure if the fashionable crowd of the East Village will be buying enough of this thing to keep it on the menu. During my visit another patron was staring at the sandwich like they had never seen a pork tenderloin sandwich before. There isn't another place in this neighborhood selling a good tenderloin right now.