Rube's Steak House is Billed as 'The Original Grill Your Own' Restaurant

in Waukee isn’t just about juicy steaks. The restaurant is also about friends, family and socializing around a grill while cooking mouth-watering steaks.

General Manager Dustin Kupka has put 12 years into the business and still sounds enthusiastic when he talks about Rube’s dining experience.

“We don’t have everything on the menu like some restaurants do, but what we do, we do well,” he said. “The menu has stayed basically the same since the first Rube’s opened in Montour back in the ‘70s.”

Owners Matt and Michelle Anderson who live in Montour area, purchased the original Rube’s and then later opened the restaurant in Waukee.

While other “grill-your-own-steak” restaurants have come and gone since the original Rube’s opened, business has stayed steady, Kupka said. He said Rube’s was one of the first of those types of restaurants when it opened in Montour.

"The first thing customers do when they walk in the front door is go right to the steak cooler. We also have chicken, shrimp and fish for people who might not want a steak,” he said.

There also is an array of vegetables from portabella mushrooms, peppers and onions to asparagus. Appetizers run the gamut from fried green beans to homemade onion rings and shrimp cocktail.

Diners pick out the exact steak they want to cook, choosing from a variety of steaks as small as the 8-ounce bacon-wrapped beef filet and as large as a 54-ounce top sirloin called the “belly buster.” Steaks in between include a 12-ounce New York strip steak and a 12-ounce ribeye.

A cut called the cowboy cut ribeye still has the bone attached, which adds even more flavor, Kupka explained.

He estimates the restaurant goes through 600-800 steaks a week, depending on the time of year. The holiday season is one of the busiest for Rube’s.

This is the third year in a row Tami and Brad Smith of West Des Moines have brought their daughters, Lauren, Elli, Shelby and Morgan, to Rube’s as part of their pre-Christmas festivities. They even get to open presents afterward because they are so busy on Christmas Day.

“It’s always the Sunday before Christmas,” Tami said. “We like to get here early so we have plenty of room around the grill. It can get pretty busy in here and sometimes it’s hard to find room.”

Elli likes the outing. “This is fun to be able to make our own food know where it comes from,” she said.

The sisters ordered two 16-ounce filets and had them split so that two could share them. Their father does the grilling of the steak and a side of lobster tail, while the sisters butter and grill the Texas toast.

“This is just a good family place, especially when we can just take our time and not have to hurry,” Tami said, adding that the food is always very good.

The restaurant has a leg up on the competition when it comes to how the steaks are cut and the quality because the owners also have their own processing plant and meat company. They have a locker where they cut and age the steaks. The majority of cattle processed come from Iowa.

The cooking takes place around a very large grill, where customers have an array of spices at their disposal. “This really adds to the experience. It is like grilling outside with friends, only this is inside and you don’t have to clean up,” Kupka said.

“You would be surprised how many people from all over the United States and Iowa mingle and talk around the grill,” he said. “In most restaurants, you come in and sit down, order and eat, never leaving the table. Here you are up and going.”

In addition to eating in, patrons can take home fresh steaks and the restaurant does parties in a room that has its own grill pit.

Kupka praises the wait-staff and other employees. “We couldn’t do what we do without them,” he said.

Name: Rube's Steakhouse

Location: 3309 Ute Ave., Waukee (Just south of I-80 off Exit 117)

Hours: 5-9:30  p.m. Mondays through Thursdays: 5-10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; 5-8:30 p.m. Sundays 

Phone: (515) 987-8237

Website: www.RubesSteaks.com