Petrow’s Restaurant

Good food for a great price especially on Friday/​Saturday nights. Get there early because it’s gone quick!

I’m all about supporting local/​small/​individual business, so I was down for Petrows when a friend suggested it. I ordered the roast beef and… ew. Not to my liking. Dipped it in the gravy and all and… nope. The menu said roast beef but I didn’t realize it would be sliced roast beef like on a sandwich. Asked for a steak as I was in Omaha for a professional exam and had to have an Omaha steak! I told the waitress I didn’t like the roast beef and asked for the smallest cut of steak they had done medium. She brought me a nice grilled steak and it was soooo delicious. My meal also came with soup, and I chose seafood chowder. It. Was. Fantastic. My wife had some of it and she’s the pickiest eater on earth and loved it so much I let her finish.
Oh, and get some of the cinnamon ice cream for dessert!!! Holy cow!!!

First visit to Petro’s and it was ok. I had the grilled chicken salad with ranch. It was decent, however nothing to rave over. The lettuce was iceberg, and wish there was more of a lettuce selection. The prices are not bad and will go back to try another selection.

I went to Petro’s last night with a large wedding party. I had never been here before. I have to say I was VERY impressed with how efficiently they handled a large party. The interior is very much like an old school diner. I didn’t expect them to have such a diverse and excellent menu. A couple of downsides for me, the «german cabbage» soup I ordered tasted suspiciously like clam chowder. And the «medium» prime rib that I ordered was very rare. But it was still good, regardless. The onion ring appetizers were delish. Overall a very positive experience and they handled a large group with professionalism and speed.

Yesterday, this diner was a a place to go for good food, plentiful portions at a reasonable price… you would leave there full and satisfied… even the ice cream was affordable.
Today, after a remodel, Petrows is attempting to be something they are not… an upscale restaurant. The food is adequate, not great with smaller portions. The price is no longer… for families unless you take a loan out… With all the renovations, it’s still a diner. If you desire great food and long for that family diner prices… head east down Center to around 35… you won’t be disappointed. I believe if the founding fathers of Pettow’s were here today, they would be disappointed. So if you desire ambiance at high prices go here… if you want a family atmosphere with great prices and food head East on Center.

Good food, as long as you stick with what they’re good at… sandwiches, fried things, and ice cream.
I’m not from Omaha, but I came here with a large group of out-​of-​towners and a few locals that recommended Petrow’s to us. They said it was basically just American comfort food, with a diner feel, and that was a spot on description. With that being said, I would order the food that falls under «diner» specialties and avoid anything else… Everyone that got their pork chop sandwich (a little dry, but still tasty), french fries, onion rings, steak sandwich, etc. loved their food. My aunt, unfortunately, ordered the $ 10 steak special and (surprise!) hated it. Stick to what they do best! Highlights for me were anything fried (especially the onion rings).
Service was very good, and the restaurant seemed clean. The bathrooms were newly renovated, and they have an outdoor patio as well.
This restaurant isn’t doing anything new, but if you’re looking for a local place serving up what you would expect from a diner, then Petrow’s is definitely a good choice.

A local family friend who lives in Omaha highly recommended this place for lunch for our family. We are from TX and CA and we have no idea what is good to eat here. We were very happy with the food, especially the delicious onion rings and fried mushrooms. I ordered the philly steak and my cousins ordered the pork tenderloin sandwich, which I can attest were really good. My parents ordered the steak, and they weren’t as pleased (too tough), but I still think this is a great restaurant. I would definitely come back to Petrow’s if I’m in Omaha again.

I’ve been going here for years and overall I think it’s a pretty good place to eat if you stick with sandwiches and malts. I ordered the spaghetti and meatballs and it was not good plus it was served cold. I took most of it home thinking I could heat it up but this did not help. The pork tenderloin sandwich is always good but the hamburgers have gone downhill.

It place was good like 7 years ago. The service now is slow, milk shakes are runny, and food is pure vendor not in house.

First time here. Staff were super friendly and knowledgeable on the menu. I got the pork tenderloin sandwich and it was one of the best I’ve ever had. They were busy with the lunch rush but we’re seated and served in about 10 minutes. Can’t wait to come back again!

Had a delicious lunch and ended it with homemade ice cream. We will be back.

This place was recommended to me by a local as a good place to eat, but while the service was great, I was not impressed by much else.
Service: ⁵⁄₅ — I was greeted promptly by a manager, and waited on by Carter, who had a great table side presence, knew the menu, and took great care of me.
Menu: ³⁄₅ — For an «Omaha Tradition», I was expecting some unique things on the menu, but found it to be surprisingly plain. Burgers, salads, chili, club sandwiches, fish and roast beef… nothing was wrong, but nothing jumped off the menu saying «look at me! I’m special or unique!»
Food: ³⁄₅ — I ordered the meatloaf with mashed potatos, gravy, and green beans. It came with a side salad (bleu cheese dressing) and a dinner roll. The dressing was thin with nary a chunk of cheese in it. The dinner roll seemed to me like it was pre-​packaged and warned up rather than made on site. My main entrée was just what you would expect to see for comfort food. The meatloaf was juicy and flavorful and appeared to be homemade. The mashed potatoes, on the other hand were either hand whipped extremely smooth or were pre-​packaged. It was hard to tell behind the gravy which was quite salty, and also seemed, to me, to be pre-​packaged. It just seemed a bit too thick and gooey to be homemade. The green beans were of the southern variety and were just fine.
Atmosphere: ⁴⁄₅ — it appears that they are renovating the main entry, but the main dining area had some neat historical photos and such all over the place. I quite liked it.
All in all, I didn’t find much wrong with Petrow’s…but I didn’t find much to impress me, either. The food, to me, was nothing to write home about, nor something I would go out of my way to eat. It struck me as the type of food you would get from a good cafeteria.
Also, if you are traveling on business, note that they don’t accept American Express. I had to use my personal card to pay for my meal.

Dinner at Petrow’s last night was great. Beer in icy mugs and a great French Dip! My husband had the Hot Roast Beef and loved every bite! We split the delicious sour cream chocolate cake and did not leave a crumb on the plate!
The best part of the evening meal was my observation of how a waiter graciously and kindly assisted an elderly man to his table. The waiter was kind and not hurried as it took several adjustedments to seat this lone diner. I was soooo impressed I went to my car for cash to tip this waiter, who was not my waiter. I told the waiter and the manager how impressed I was to see such thoughtfulness.
I will go back because of the good food and kind people who work there.

We ate here for the first time last night. The service was great and food and malt was delicious! Would highly recommend this place to people in the area!

Had to go here with a friend, because he had heard it was Warren Buffet’s fav. I warned him but we did go.
I had the chocolate shake which was very good, but my friend left his turkey sandwich left uneaten.
Unfortunately, even the food these guys cater is awful. They cater to the Med center, where Ive eaten their veggie sandwich is horrendous: it has raw (yes, raw, tough, chewy!) veggies thrown between two slices of white bread with a slice of cheese (thank god for that cheese slice). Without being melodramatic, it the worst veggie sandwich I ever eaten. (I threw most of it away).
.again.

Cleanliness3
Service4
Food Quality3
Likelihood3
1 – 5 (5 Best!)3.2
Lunch for two. I understand this is an Omaha favorite, I feel that with each new visit the food looses more and more flavor. It’s almost tasteless. It’s hot and fresh, the place is clean, and the service is incredible! I just want more flavorful.
At our table we had a pork tenderloin sandwich and potroast. They both were good, and both without flavor.

What a let down! Poor service. Greasy cold food. I’ll just keep it simple. For $ 40.00, it was a total rip off!
Our waiter was on a completely different planet than the rest of us! When he was in tune with us, he was very polite. Just not waiter material though. We would have been better off eating at Sonic or some other greasy fast food place!
Oh and the onion rings… they need to make sure they aren’t serving you SKINS! Gees… over half of our order was skins! And the onion rings we did have were cold and loaded with grease! And it was served with something that looked like a small cup of milk! What was that!!!
But to top it all off, everything lacked anything that closely resembled a flavor other than grease! No seasoning on anything. It was all bland and tasteless.
They defiantly need someone new that actually knows how to cook and season food running the kitchen! The ones in there now need to go back to roofing!
Petrow’s was once good, but that has long since left this place! If I actually could give minus stars, I would on this experience!

I was really excited to try this place because it is local, and I have heard so much about it from friends. The service and atmosphere was okay, but I was a little disappointed in the food.
I ordered a french dip sandwich. Sadly, the sandwich had no cheese and the au jus cup was small and didn’t keep it hot. The au jus got cold within 5 minutes. I only could eat half the sandwich. I almost always take the food I don’t finish home because I do not like to be wasteful; however, I left half of my untouched sandwich behind. It wasn’t worth taking because I knew I wouldn’t eat it. I think that an Arby’s french dip sandwich is better than the one I had at Petrow’s.
Also, I had heard that Petrow’s is a great place to get ice cream. The ice cream flavors were not featured on our table menus, nor could we find it at the front where they serve the ice cream. We just decided to leave because we had already paid and had blue bunny ice cream in our freezer at home. I personally would never crave nor suggest going back. I would go though if a friend asked me to go with them.

After recommendations from several friends and considering we live within walking distance of Petrow’s, we finally decided to make the jaunt there last Saturday for breakfast. The breakfast menu is actually rather small, which I don’t mind — sometimes breakfast menus can get a little overwhelming with too many options, so I like that it was kept pretty simple. I ordered the corned beef hash, and my husband got the Big-​O Breakfast Casserole. We also ordered coffee, which I expect to be decently bad at a diner like this, but it was particularly watery and flavorless here.
Our food came out fairly quickly and our waitress was very friendly. However, a few minutes into the meal, we realized that my husband had received the wrong dish — that day’s special instead of what he’d ordered. We alerted our waitress, and she offered to replace it, which we didn’t see necessary because he’d already eaten some, but still kind of a bummer.
My corned beef hash was actually very good, and the potatoes in both of our dishes were yummy too. Not quite fries but not quite hash browns. I usually have a hard time finishing big diner breakfasts at places like these, but I cleaned my plate here… and then realized that something was missing. The toast, muffin, or pancakes that were supposed to come with both meals. I felt a little dumb for not realizing it sooner, and since we were already done eating at this point, I didn’t say anything, but still a bummer, and since it pretty much comes with every meal, probably shouldn’t have been forgotten.
Overall, a so-​so experience for our first visit here. I’ll be back, but probably will stick with ordering something at the ice cream counter that everyone raves about. There are way better breakfast options out there.

Ordered Onion Rings as an appetizer while we waited on the last of our party to get there. I would have liked more rings in the order. Also, they’re breaded and not battered. I definitely prefer battered onion rings over breaded onion rings. Overall, they were decent.
I ordered the Pork Tenderloin sandwich. It had to best the most flavorless pork tenderloin I ever ate. Just completely bland. That’s a real bummer as I hadn’t had a pork tenderloin sandwich in forever and was seriously craving one. The French fries that came with it were just average. I had asked for the fries «well done» because I like crunchy fries, but they came out normal. General consensus from everyone in our party was that it was «okay.»
Service was friendly and attentive.
I really wanted to love this place because it’s one of those Omaha establishments that’s been around forever. However, the food just didn’t live up to the hype. They don’t do anything awful, but they also don’t seem to excel at anything either.
I did try a shake and it was old-​fashioned and awesome. So, this is a great place to come grab some ice cream and sit at the counter. I would not, however, eat lunch or dinner here.
Restaurant was clean and well-​maintained. Great condition considering the age of the place.
Parking can get tight at peak meal times.