Quietly hanging in Indianola’s square is a vaguely lit yellowsign proclaiming Winn’s Pizza and Steakhouse. At first glance,Winn’s does little for the eye, but after a short venture in, manywill find it is a diamond in the rough. I would best put to wordsmy Winn’s experience by comparing it to dinner at grandma’s.

I first noticed while entering that the restaurant looked muchlike a small, congenial caf����. Three nice young men welcomedme in while they stuffed several pizzas into a flaming oven. Wewere invited to seat ourselves, which I gladly did, and began toperuse the menu.

Winn’s menu is a formidable one. Pizzas, steaks, gyros and manymore items make for a very filling menu. The lunch prices are veryreasonable, even for a college student, but the dinner menu isslightly more pricey.

I ordered a small hamburger and sausage pizza for $7.90. But inthe end, it only cost $6.90 because Simpson students receive adollar off at Winn’s with proper scholastic identification, whichis definitely a plus. Had I known this at the beginning of mydining experience, I may have gone for a more pricey drink than thewater I blandly ordered.

Basically, everything is quaint and pleasantly aromatic. Thesurroundings are strikingly similar to those one might find atgrandma’s. Nearly everything in the room is good-looking, yetartificial. Each table possesses a delightful fake green flower andplush, dark green chairs. The walls, which I foolishly mistook forbeing real brick and wood, were actually plastic.

But most homey of all the Winn details are the decorations.Across one wall is a giant painting of hot air balloons flying overa vast body of water. On the other side are pictures I swear theystole from my granny. One picture depicted Huck Finn and Tom Sawyerriding down the river with a cute little puppy dog, the other twowere along the lines of sunsets and boats around sunsets. The mostdashing of decorations was the hollowed out turtle shell convertedinto a clock. I was quite proud of Winn’s interior decorator.

After leaving a vapid, euphoric state from the grandma memories,my food arrived. The wait was a bit longer than what I would’veliked, but the environment made up for it with its comfort. Mywaitress for the evening was a kind young lady who was veryfriendly. Her and the other employees did a fine job of keeping awelcoming environment.

Right before I tried the food, the owner’s wife, who had beenmaking her rounds, welcomed me to the restaurant and engaged a nicebit of small talk. She was very kind and had she been older andoffered me candy, I would’ve called her grandma.

It appeared that she knew most of her customers. I’m not sureWinn’s often attracts the younger customers overly often, giventhat most eating at Winn’s during my stay were of the more”experienced” type. But, Winn’s is not an older person’s restaurantby any means.

The pizza was very large and quite delicious. It arrived muchlarger than I thought it would’ve been. The cheese ran thick as aDostoevski novel and contained a great amount of hamburger hidingbeneath the lactose cover. On the surface sat a number of thicksausage chunks. The crust was excellent, it glowed buttery goodnessand satisfied with its thin crunch.

I had heard good things about the egg rolls and inevitably endedup ordering a couple. These too were very good. As the grandma-likewoman told me, they were hand rolled and that certainly was a goodthing. The egg rolls were small and dark, but very tasty.

Overall, I would give Winn’s a thumbs-up. The service was nice,the surroundings were cozy, prices were reasonable and the food wasexcellent. I kind of wished grandma’s candy dish would’ve been bythe door for the way out.

Nevertheless, I grabbed a mint.