Apres Wine Bar & Bistro

Great atmosphere. Great wine. Great food.

Altogether, this was the perfect place to meet up with some friends for some food and drink. The space was fairly empty until 6/6:15pm, but then it filled up rather quickly.

The food was delicious! Not one of us was disappointed in what we got. My Apres burger was tasty with crispy slim fries and my friend's salmon special was not only beautiful, but flavorful. Other members of my party enjoyed scallops, poutine, and crab cakes, all cooked to perfection.

Though it seemed that the wait service took longer than most places would, I chalked it up to the fact that this is a wine bar first and foremost. I certainly don't expect large food service teams from a place that specializes in tasty, well-selected wines. That being said, I didn't mind the few delays we had - I was there enjoying time with friends.

I had the pleasure of finding Apres Wine Bar on Yelp during a recent trip to Iowa City. We were craving an end of day glass of wine and charcuterie board and the outdoor patio at Apres was the calling our name. The plush lawn furniture and three walls that surround the patio give it a private feel. With the cooler months on the horizon, you can rest assured that the interior of the business is as attractive as the outside.

The charcuterie board featured Marcona almonds, honey, three cheeses and fresh fruit. Their cocktail menu seemed as impressive as their wine list - perfect option for those who are less into wine. Next time we'll have to give the tapas a whirl.

This is one nice place on top of Iowa city. Great location in the new development, has a very new vibe going on. The inside and outside of the restaurant was very nice, this would be a "date night" place as most would say.

The food is served tapas or sharing style. The fondue was A1, great cheese mix accompanied with the dipping sides. One of the few places you can get fondue in Iowa city as well. The creamed kale was delicious, nice way to get your veggies in. The mini burgers are also a winner, comes in two with a Korean style and a traditional style. The final entree we got was the chicken and waffles, this was good but I wish it was 1. Bigger 2. The chicken was served bone in. Other than that it was a nice dish.

We did try the s'mores for dessert, they have some great chocolate and delicious marshmallows. It's done table side so you control your how messy you will get.

Overall this was a great place and look forward coming back.

Visit 1: Order the burger (great bun too), scallops, and farro dishes. Good cocktails. Sit outside. Jacque is a great server! The guy working the bar Sunday night the 9.24th could have made more of an effort because the Old Fashion he made was amazing and I wanted another after the kitchen closed.

Visit 2 - the very next night: We went two nights in a row because the food was so good and we had a great server - even though the bartender provided bad service. Unfortunately, night 2 was horrific service by a different server, bartender, and manager on that night. We had to beg to order our food - 40 minutes after arrival they took our order. It took 30 minutes - and many times checking at the bar for our drinks - to get a drink for the five people at our table. We would have liked a second drink, but five minutes after closing were notified "the kitchen and bar are closed". What? We were only half way through our meals. They were not busy, no reason for the service. No manager to find to speak to before we left. It's too bad - we just wanted to give them our money and enjoy their food and patio.

If I were writing this review for cocktails and ambience, Apres would get a 5/5. No hesitation. If I were writing it for the pacing and service, I'd give them a 2/5. All in all, I'm really just left...confused. I'll start with the high notes: though small, Apres is chic and cozy and feels like the perfect place to enjoy a cocktail on the patio during the warmer months. I ordered a lillet cocktail and was first told they couldn't make it because they didn't have raspberries (which seem like a pretty easy thing to get/have on regular rotation, but maybe that's just me?) -- they surprised me by finding some (??) and bringing out the most delicious cocktail ever. Seriously. I just want to go back and order it forever. The whole group loved their wine, beer, and cocktail choices all around.

On the lower note, we have...everything else. It seemed like two girls were running the whole entire show, from making cocktails to seating guests to taking orders. What that meant is that nobody really checked in on us and dinner was *painfully* slow. We actually thought our waitress forgot about my dad's second cocktail, since half an hour went by after he ordered it, but instead she brought it out after she brought the check. So we had to sit there while he did his best to essentially chug a whiskey-based drink after what already had morphed into an unexpectedly long meal. My husband got the burger special and said it was standard. His fries were the favorite part. My mom and I ordered the fondue, which was served with tempura fried veggies. I still have not grasped that combination. When I got the fondue, I found that the tempura veggies tasted gross dipped in fondue. I just ate them plain and dipped the bread in the fondue. That in turn created some difficulties. For starters, the bread was hard. I've never had toasted bread served with fondue before, and I don't think it works. This is especially the case when the bread is so hard that I was incapable of breaking off a chunk. Red flag for me. Then there was the fondue itself. My mom and I literally asked one another whether they forgot to add the cheese to it. It was served in a normal sized fondue pot, with approximately 1/8" of fondue at the bottom. It tasted mostly like wine and cream, which I didn't hate, but it was not fondue like I'd ever had it. There was no stringy-ness, and the only reason there was enough of it to last me the meal was because I ate the tempura sans toppings and half of the bread was too hard to chew without needing dental work. I feel like the meal just left me totally confused. I didn't hate it, and I REALLY loved my cocktail, and the ambience was great, and if it weren't for similar reviews expressing disappointment with the food, I'd chock it up to an off night. As it stands, I would absolutely come back for a cocktail on an evening when I was not in any sort of rush, but that's about it.

Great tapas. Tried their bugolgi tacos and they were incredible. The tacos were bursting with complex flavors.

The restaurant is intimate, chic and hip. I have enjoyed gathering here with friends numerous times and each time I have had a great experience. This place has some great quality food and drinks.

This is a super cute spot in the Peninsula. I could see it being a great place for a date. The menu is very creative and the many of the dishes definitely have an Asian fusion flair. The tuna ceviche was the best dish we tried. The ponzu and jalapeño flavors were fresh and bright, perfect for this summer night. The steak tacos were well-seasoned but a little over cooked. The mussel curry was a little too sweet and lacking in spice for me; it felt like it wanted to be curry but was pared down to accommodate a more American/midwestern palate, which I can understand. Additionally the menu online is not updated to reflect their revolving seasonal menu. Overall, Apres had great ambiance and a really fun menu. I would definitely come back to try the other dishes they have to offer!

So yummy! We came here on a Sunday morning and we had the whole place to ourselves. The bottomless mimosas and bloody marys are worth it alone. I ordered the lobster Benny and it was sooo good! I wish it came with a side but I picked off my husbands food. I liked his pancake and I'm not normally a pancake person. Nommm

What an amazing experience. On a much needed date night, we decided to stop here for a full meal and drinks! Since I'm pregnant, they made me my own special mocktail while my wife stuck with the awesome drink selection advertised.

Our waitress was kind and had great recommendations. The table had to be cleaned again once we sat down because it was sticky, but they were really quick about it!

We had the fondue which was awesome, most of the tempura veggies were sweet potato (I'm a big fan, my wife is not) It also had some mushrooms, red bell pepper, and lots of bread. The light under the fondue pot didn't stay lit so we ate it fast!

They ended up having ramen on the menu but it's only serves Sunday's, my wife was very very bummed about that! It would have been nice for it to be told to us when given our menus or listed somewhere next to the item. So she ended up getting the steak with potato cakes and the egg and I got the burger with pineapple and bacon. She wasn't a fan of the horseradish sauce served with the steak and was glad it came in the side! My burger was awesome, but the bacon was hard to eat on the burger because it was pretty fatty and kept getting pulled out every-time I took a bite.

We shared the toffee cake which came with a scoop of ice cream on top and my God it was decadent.

We loved it here and will be making a trip back soon to try more of the menu.

Very torn on my review of this place. As much as I wanted to love Apres, my friend and I decided it would probably be about a 3.5 if Yelp allowed half numbers.

I didn't even know this place existed! It's in a pretty residential area, but there was a lot of street parking. I really enjoy the aesthetic of Apres. The decor was very nice and it had a laid-back but still very trendy atmosphere. There is indoor and outdoor seating; we sat inside. It reminded me of some of the restaurants my friends and I go to in some of the 'trendier' parts of Chicago -- definitely different than the downtown scene in Iowa City.

We were there with a pretty large group and were able to get a table right away (6pm on a weekday), but it took a long time to get our orders in and for the food to arrive (over an hour) despite how not busy it was. I think there were only 2 servers for the whole restaurant. Even with smaller groups, it seemed the food moves pretty slowly from the kitchen so keep that in mind if you plan on ordering something to eat.

A friend and I split the poutine and the calamari which was one of the specials that day. The calamari was perfect! Fried and very light.I only wish they served it with some lemon and a different dipping sauce (it comes with sweet chili sauce like the kind you eat with eggrolls.) The poutine, unfortunately, was a huge disappointment. The fries were cold and soggy and reminded me a lot of stale fries from McD's. They were also covered with a liter of brown gravy that essentially tasted like the kind of gravy powder that comes in an envelope that you add water to, There weren't very many cheese curds for the amount of fries and the duck was just eh as well. Some of our group ordered the crab tacos which are supposed to be their top seller. Everyone who ordered them said they were good, but at $14 for 3 tacos they also felt the dish was a bit overpriced.

The night we went was half off for wine and $6 sangrias. There are some really good drink deals, but I think for me the location would make it hard to take advantage of these. Some of the cocktails sounded really good and I definitely would want to try them!

Overall, I think I would give Apres another shot, but it still wouldn't be my top choice to drink and eat in Iowa City;