Who Serves the Best Tenderloin in Iowa? Cast Your 2025 Vote Today

It’s time to give credit to your favourite Iowa spot for their breaded pork tenderloin! As of now, anyone can enter the Iowa Pork Producers Association’s 2025 Iowa’s Best Breaded Pork Tenderloin Contest.

How to Put Forward an Iowa Restaurant

Since 2003, the Iowa Pork Producers have made it their goal to find the best Iowa tenderloin every year. They can’t do that without nominations, though! You can choose your favourite local restaurant HERE from April 17th to June 1st. That link is the only way to suggest a dinner spot. Nominations sent by email or social media don’t count.

Here are some rules from the Iowa Pork Producers that you should follow before you send in your pick:

• “The tenderloins that are nominated must come from a restaurant that is open regularly all year long.” Businesses like food trucks, concession shops, seasonal spots, and catering services are not allowed.
• It’s not okay to make pork fritters. “Breaded pork tenderloins can be either bread crumb style or battered and fried.”
• Each person can only make ONE vote per year.

On the page for nominations, there is a drop-down menu with restaurants that have already been mentioned. If you don’t see your restaurant on the list, you can write it in yourself.

When will the winner be picked for 2025?

When the time for nominations is over, the Top 40 will be made up of the five restaurants with the most nominations from each of the eight areas. Then, IPPA members and allies from all over the state are asked to go to the restaurants and rate the tenderloins. This process will continue until only FIVE restaurants remain. From the 2024 contest, these are the top five:

• Dunlap Dairy Cow Sweet
• Stafford’s Ruby’s Pub and Grill
• Brody Bar, Brody
• The Pig Who Can’t See, Monticello
• The Market at the Tap in Monticello

Every winner for 2025 will be announced in October, which is National Pork Month.

What awards have Iowa restaurants won in the past?

Below is a list of all the restaurants that have won Iowa’s Best Tenderloin Contest and are still open for business:

• 2003: Danell’s Place, Hamlin
• 2005: Dairy Sweet, Dunlap (now run by new people)
• 2007: Larsen’s Pub, Elk Horn
• 2009 – Prairie City’s Goldie’s Ice Cream Shoppe
• 2011 – Grandma’s Kitchen, Walcott
• 2012 – Breitbach’s Country Dining, Balltown
• 2014: The Lucky Pig Pub & Grill in Ogden
• 2015 – The Belmond Drive-In in Belmond
• 2017 – Webster City’s Grid Iron Grill & Sports Bar
• This year: Three C’s Diner, Corning
• 2019 – The Pub at the Pinicon, New Hampton
• 2020 – PrairieMoon on Main, Prairieburg
• 2022: Lid’s Bar & Grill in Waukon
• In 2023, Cliff’s Place in Manning
• The year 2024: Dairy Sweet, Dunlap

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