Quite Possibly the Best $21 You'll Spend at a Restaurant in Des Moines. And It Feeds Two.

Take my "Green Olive" challenge.

Yes. The headline is exuberant, but if there’s a better way to feed two people for $21, I’d love to hear about it about it! More on this challenge, below.

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Review of The Green Olive

1960 Grand Ave., West Des Moines; (515) 223-7392.

This is the platter to beat! It’s called “The Works,” and it handily served two. And, there’s more than meets the eye here. Underneath the skewers are two stuffed grape leaves and two falafel.

I’d heard great things about The Green Olive, a Middle Eastern restaurant that opened in 2023 on Fleur Drive. I kept meaning to head there, but then, a new outpost recently opened in West Des Moines. And since “new” is “news,” I couldn’t resist giving this one a visit.

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It’s been quite the journey. In the 1990s, Silvestre and Veronica Duran left Mexico for California, where Silvestre found his culinar…