Pickles Pub, Kamrar, Iowa – July 2022

For most of the Iowa tour, we stayed at a centrally located Airbnb. Many of the out-and-back excursions were less than a two hour drive. Our general plan was to start driving to the destination, find coffee along the way then do the activities of the day, eat supper, then return for the night. This worked well except when the destination’s dining was limited or we finished too early to eat supper. On those occasions, we would go back home, clean-up and head to Pickles Pub located in Kamrar, IA.

The restaurant came highly recommended but we were warned it was sort of in the middle of nowhere. Now I’m sure the folks from Kamrar don’t feel that they’re in nowhere but to be honest, you have to be driving to Kamrar to get to Kamrar. The town’s population is less than 200 and other than some local small business there doesn’t look like there’s a lot going on after 5:00pm. That is except for Pickles Pub!

It was a Tuesday around 6:00 pm and the place was packed but there were a few tables available. Looking around I saw a number of large tables with families and other groups. On a Tuesday! That told me quite a bit right away. Lots of families mean affordable food. Busy means good food. And I was right.

What we thought would be a bar-food menu was much more. We ordered salads and the house specialty, fried pickles. Mary had the tenderloin and I had a hamburger and fries. Even though it was really busy, the service was excellent and the food arrived on time and hot. Great experience all around.

Our schedule would allow us return to Pickles two more times on our tour. We did order a pizza on a return trip and while it took a little longer to come out (as it should) it was well worth it.

We can highly recommend that you look this place up if you are in the area. It’s about 15 minutes south of Webster City, 10 minutes west of I-35. The prices are reasonable, the food good and the service was on point. Worth the drive!