Pink Poodle

The Pink Poodle… wow! I was thrown back in time. The décor, wait staff and amazing service is something quit unusual these days. So it was my first time at PP. Visiting from indianapolis. I have to say the endless bowl of Beef soup was home cooked goodness. The giant loaf of white bread was a nice compliment. Then came a real nice simple salad. When they brought the regular cut prime rib my mouth dropped. Huge and perfectly cooked. So tender you could cut it with your fork. The baked potato was super tasty and cooked perfectly as well.

The prime rib is definitely good, it melts in your mouth and You don’t leave hungry. The staff was nice and courteous. It is quit pricey.

Service was slooowww. I’m not sure that I can accurately convey just how slow it was without you thinking that I’m full of it. Some concessions can be made for our waitress (a sweet great-​grandma type) but it was clearly also the fault of the bar and kitchen staff. You will do a lot of waiting. For everything.
They start you off with 2 loaves of soft fresh bread… absolutely delightful. Then comes soup. I ordered the French Onion which was highly disappointing due to the utter lack of crusty French bread and melted cheese. It was a bowl of broth and undercooked onions. I stole a few bites of my husband’s Ham and Bean soup and that was excellent though. Next comes salad, which is a plate of lettuce, one cucumber slice, and one cherry tomato. The little tray of dressings sitting right on the table is nice and the Bleu Cheese was quite good.
The steak. I was foolish and did not order the raved about Prime Rib. I ordered the NY Strip. It was a generous cut for the price, nicely seared, and cooked to perfection. Unfortunately, it also somehow managed to be the blandest (never thought I’d use that adjective to describe steak) cut of meat I think I’ve ever had. I thought about taking it home to use with my favorite steak sauce but my husband shared his au jus instead. Again, I stole a couple of bites of his Prime Rib and that was really good (as pretty much everyone says). Even better with the creamy horseradish! The fries are good and the hash browns are just ok — really not much to go into there.
Finally, the House wine that accompanied my meal is a steal for $ 3.50 a glass and not bad at all price point considered.

The food here is delicious and tastes like it is all made from scratch. I had the regular cut of prime rib. This just may truly be the «Best of Omaha»…it’s some of the best I have tasted and the regular portion is huge. This also came with soup and salad. The soup also seemed to be homemade. I had chicken noodle and it looked like something my mom makes. The salad was simple but fresh and cool. You have your choice of 5 dressings with huge croutons, plus you get a mini loaf of warm bread. I have been coming to this place since I was a kid and it always delivers.

Pink Poodle is an interesting, quirky place. It is about 10 minutes away from Council Bluffs, and feels very much like you are in the middle of nowhere. The inside of the restaurant looks more like a multi purpose room then an eatery. (No booths, and tables with chairs you might see in a church or conference center) Considering almost all meals come with soup, salad and a fresh baked loaf of bread for the table, the prices are very reasonable. I had the fired chicken and my friend had the broiled chicken. Both tasted good, and came with the option of fries, hash browns, baked potato or green beans. We both did fries, which were solid. The soup was a very tasty ham and bean. Our salads were mostly iceberg lettuce, but they bring out six different dressings to use, and a bowl of croutons. Overall, I would say it is worth going to once for the experience. It is like eating in a time warp/​multi-​purpose room with solid food at a good value.

Had dinner here tonight with my daughter and grandkids the service sucked took a half hour to get a refill for a water glasses the salads were warm moldy leftover lettuce, the prime rib was very good, waitress that had a tattoo on the back of her neck she didn’t come over only to bring the food I’ve been here before and the service was great 10 years ago but tonight the service sucked and they will be lucky to stay open for another year. Their website said all major credit cards accepted and they would not accept my Discover card .I did give a small tip because I thought maybe the waitress had a bad day she has no personality she don’t need to be working there I won’t go back again I’ll tell all my coworkers not to go to this place it’s just really bad night we should have went to Texas Roadhouse instead

Décor is lacking and some what creepy BUT the prime rib makes up for it! A prime rib meal comes with soup and salad plus a side. The house Italian is sweet but very good. The soup selection was bean & ham. It was savory. The waitress brought warm bread to the table. We ate it quickly. Once our prime rib arrived, we requested more bread to sop the au jus. The prime rib was cooked perfect and was very tender. We have ate there 3 times and it was excellent every time.

Surprising, but fabulous prime rib. Waitress was a 60 year employee. Very nice. No décor or atmosphere but really great prime rib. May go back for the porterhouse. Highly recommend. It lives up to its well deserved reputation

I agree with all about the Prime Rib being very good, but during our visit that is the only thing that was any good. The service was very poor. A liver dinner was so over cooked it had to be redone and that persons meal was ruined, since they could not eat their meal with the rest of us.
In my opinion there are too many other restaurants far better than this place. I will not be going back for another dinner here.

We had a spontaneous trip today to Iowa and before heading back to Kansas we decided to go someplace we could have a good Iowa steak. Pink Poodle went beyond our expectations! We both had the prime rib cooked perfectly. It literally melted in our mouth! But before that, Sarah brought us homemade fresh bread! It was delicious! Next we chose the Ham and Bean soup. It was so outstanding we had to take some home! I’ll hide it in our fridge so I can take it to work on Monday! The owner came by to check how we were enjoying our meal and was appreciative to have our business! Sarah was an excellent and competent waitress and fun to chat with. We will definitely go back for mouth watering prime rib if we are ever back in Iowa!!! Guy Fieri needs to visit Pink Poodle!!!

Great prime rib; mediocre everything else.
I had the green beans as a side, and they were worse than the canned green beans I eat at home — and I actually like canned green beans. It was either green beans or fries; they didn’t offer any other sides. The salad was nothing special, though the creamy Italian dressing wasn’t too bad. They didn’t have much in the way of beer selection, either, and my friends who got the Manhattan said it was nothing like a traditional Manhattan should be mixed. To top it all off, the place is too well-​lit to really have any ambiance.
But, oh, the prime rib. It was right up there with some of the best I’ve ever had. They had three cuts — the regular cut (12 ounces at $ 23.95), the cut-​and-​a-​half (18 ounces at $ 36.50), and the Diamond Jim cut (24 ounces at $ 47.50). I had the cut-​and-​a-​half, and by my estimate, it was a little bigger than 18 ounces — probably closer to 20 or 21. It was perfect. Swimming in au jus, perfectly done, perfectly flavored.
I wish the whole experience of the Pink Poodle was as good as the prime rib; if so, it would certainly be a five-​star experience. As it is, if you love prime rib, it’s worth a visit.

Read the reviews and needed a place close to the ski resort. We went zip lining and didn’t want to travel to far afterwards. We walked right in and sat.
Not super busy for a Saturday night. We were a little slow to order but thought things would speed up. The time between the soup and salad was a little lengthy. Both were nothing special but good. Not sure dressings were even made in house. When the meal came the waitress disappeared. We pulled condiments off other tables and waited long for water refills. The prime rib was as promised… fantastic. So what you are getting for your money food wise is worth it. The service needs servicing to come up in standards I think. We had a table of 7 but the way they served the dinner it want that hard to deal with. The menu said they add gratuity for a table of 8 our bill came and it was already added. That didn’t help our feelings towards the waitress, and then we sat forever trying to pay and leave. So again… Good food. Service and atmosphere needs help. And the bathrooms need desperate attention/​update.

Horrible atmosphere with mediocre service. However, the prime rib is amazing! Huge portions and always cooked to perfection. Be sure and try it if you are in the area.

Horrible Father’s Day meal. Had the ribeye, which is really pricey, but worth it if it’s good. This wasn’t. Asked for Med Rare, got way past Med, almost well. Also, this meat wasn’t seasoned at all. Just a tasteless, tough piece of meat. Server was so busy working her table of 12 across the room, she had no time to attend to us. Had to get our own refills and ordered out own drinks. When the bill finally came, (they had put our waitress on a table of 9 when the other large table left, so, again, we had no service), I told her the steak was horrible, she said she would mention it to the cook. Since that was the first time we had seen her in almost a half hour and everyone else was finished, I guess that was her answer. The owner seemed to be more concerned getting the credit cards run than to see if her restaurant was blowing up in her face. I have been eating here for over 30 years and was horribly disappointed with the experience and probably won’t be going back.

The food is good. It use to be great. We have eaten here for 20 years and it use to be better.
The service has went south big time…
Went for a second time. They aren’t going to survive… Not the quality that it use to be.

Absolutely fantastic steaks and prime rib for the price. The Pink Poodle has served my husband THE finest slab of prime rib I have ever seen him receive in any restaurant. It was food magazine-​perfect. For those who don’t care for prime rib, my personal favorite is the strip steak. Dinners come with both salad AND soup… my personal favorite is their bean soup, I think it is only served Saturdays. Trust me, you WILL leave this place stuffed.

For about $ 21 you can get bread (your choice of white or wheat), soup (i had onion), salad (it’s iceberg, but sometimes iceberg can be completely appropriate), a starch side (i had a baked potato but hash browns and fries were also an option), and a monster cut of prime rib. If that isn’t a deal, I don’t know what is. I’ll clarify by saying I’ve had better prime rib before but I most certainly paid much more than $ 21. In fact I didn’t even pay, my friends did because it was my birthday: D
A nice option that is also available is that you can choose from creamy horseradish or raw horseradish. I got both and mixed them together. It was glorious. The salad also came with the option of 5 different dressings. The italian was delighful and pretty heavy on the oregano… which is something I like but if you don’t care for it, then maybe you might want to avoid it. The dorothy lynch… which is like a french/​russian was my favorite by far.
We also got the breaded cauliflower/​mushroom appetizer and the fried ravioli. Both are deep fried (welcome to the Midwest?) but neither were oily, which was pleasant. The cauliflower was a revelation. The ravioli, I would compare to deep fried mozzarella.
The service was also ridiculously awesome.
The only criticism I have is that the soup was probably only a little hotter than lukewarm. Forgivable in my mind.
A few things to note. We called to make a res and asked about corkage for our own bottle of wine. It’s not allowed. There are also glass cases of dolls that may or may not dine on your soul as you eat. Creepy is an understatement… especially when you had to drive through the Iowa countryside where there are no street lamps and where Slipknot may or may not be lurking in the darkness.

Awful name, EXCELLENT steaks.
Everyone else’s review is spot on, the décor is far from the trendy, yuppy stuff you find in Omaha, and the fact than more than one person used the word «Deliverance» to describe the place should cue you in a bit.
That said, the service is excellent every time I’ve been and everyone who works there couldn’t be nicer.
The food? I can only comment on one dish as it is all I’ve ever gotten here. The prime rib is the best I’ve ever had from a restaurant.

It was essentially everything I’d imagined and hoped for. Super friendly service, small town atmosphere, way too much food, cheap prices.
Saturday was my first trip to this long-​standing institution and while I typically shy away from ‘traditional’ steak house type restaurants this one has had such good reviews and local acclaim — even on our side of the river — I couldn’t pass it up.
We started by ordering random drinks off the extensive menu based solely on their names. What arrived was a surprise to both us and our server, but he was a good sport about it all. I had the Snuggler, which ended up being an alcoholic hot chocolate of sorts. Other drinks ordered at the table included the Pink Grin, Yellow Bird, Harvey Wallbanger and Scarlet O’Hara.
For some reason we ordered appetizers and dug into fried cauliflower and cheese cubes before the meal, which started with warm loaves of bread with butter, side salads for all, and soup served table-​side (french onion or ham/​bean). Then… the prime ribs arrived (because we all ordered it). It was delicious and I ate way more than I should have. The fries were just the kind I like as well.
Then, we ordered some after-​dinner drinks in the same fashion. Mine was the Pink Poodle, which had ice cream and who cares what else. Others were the Rusty Nail, Stinger, Fluffy Monkey and Drambuie. The best part about the drinks, which were all delicious, is that these crazy specialty drinks were only $ 3.75/each!
Unfortunately rumor has it that the Poodle might be shutting down due to the flooding issues and decreased traffic flow they’ve experienced this year. So get there while you still can!

7pm on a Wednesday we headed to the Pink Poodle with some other west-​coasters for a mid-​west experience. They’ve got a terrific website jam packed with historical facts and the intrigue of a doll collection was too much to pass up.
Our waitress was the kind you see in old horror movies. In fact someone remarked my plate looked like a scene from Deliverance. The menu was pretty much what you expect from a roadside diner… iceberg salads, minestrone soup, steaks, burgers. I tried to Prime Rib and it was amazing. The meat was cooked perfectly, with each bite I was pleasantly surprised as the buttery tasting meat melted in my mouth. My cohorts ordered the steak sandwich, they were also pleased.
For $ 20 I got a small dinner salad, some bread and butter, a bowl of soup, french fries and a piece of prime rib that covered a large dinner plate (had to be at least 3 portions).
There is a large doll collection and a decoy collection but they weren’t as creepy as I had hoped. The Pink Poodle has a hunter-​family type atmosphere and I can’t wait to drag my wife there.