I Finally Tried One of the ‘Best Burger in Iowa’ Winners [PHOTOS]

If you're looking for a truly delicious burger, you might want to take a little road trip!

Over the weekend, I traveled over to Marshalltown, Iowa for the first time. Some of my teammates at the gym were competing in a Jiu Jitsu event at Midnight Ballroom, so we decided to make the drive on Saturday night.

When I first heard that the competition was being held in Marshalltown, a little alarm in my brain went off. Isn't there a restaurant there that's supposed to be really good? After a quick Google search, I remembered the name of the restaurant in question: The Flying Elbow.

Back in 2022, the Flying Elbow, located at 229 N 13th Street, won the title of 'Iowa's Best Burger' for the Tombstone. It's a burger topped with Havarti cheese, guacamole, bacon, sour cream, Death Valley Hot Sauce, tomato, and shredded lettuce. But, one of the interesting things about the Tombstone and other items on the 'Attitude Menu' is that you don't HAVE to choose a burger. You can order anything on the 'Attitude Menu' as a burger, hot dog, crispy chicken sandwich, grilled cheese, or loaded fry. How cool is that?!

Another cool aspect of the Flying Elbow's menu is that they offer vegetarian and vegan options. One of my friends that I visited the restaurant with is a vegetarian, so she was really excited to see that there were impossible burgers and vegan hot dogs available. She ended up ordering 'the Jabroni' impossible burger, which is topped with cheddar cheese, pineapple sweet corn relish, Cheddar Ruffles, sweet corn mayo, the People's BBQ Sauce, and green onion. Her boyfriend went with one of the loaded hot dogs (non-vegetarian), and it looked messy and delicious. They chose cheese curds and Vader Tots as their sides.

Since the Flying Elbow won Iowa's Best Burger, I knew that I needed to try one of their signature burgers. I went with 'George the Animal' (the Tombstone sounded a little too spicy for me), which consists of a Dijon-mustard seared beef patty, American cheese, 1001 island sauce, spring mix lettuce, caramelized onion, dill pickles, and Roma tomatoes. It was SO good. Definitely deserving of an award! I went with mac & cheese as my side, mainly because it was topped with Cheetos dust. YUM.

Everything we had at the Flying Elbow was amazing, and I will definitely be back if I find myself in Marshalltown again. If you need more proof that the food is delicious, the restaurant has a 4.8-star rating on Google with over 500 reviews!

The Flying Elbow is open Monday through Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Friday & Saturday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. You can check out the official menu HERE.