Bennigan's Clear Lake — Restaurant in Clear Lake

Our visit to Bennigan's was a bit of a mess. We entered the restaurant and noticed there were signs about pizza delivery. I actually thought pizza sounded great, but since the signs all talked about delivery I thought I'd ask if that was something you could get while dining in. There were also signs all over stating "wait to be seated," so we stood in the entry way (alone, not another person in sight) for a good five minutes before someone came to seat us.

Eventually we got our table and I asked the hostess about pizza, and she said she wasn't sure (like she'd never heard they even served pizza) and she'd ask the kitchen. We met our waitress, who was very nice, and received our single-piece-of-paper menus.

Now, I'm aware that COVID has affected many businesses, and that was definitely the case here. I really try to cut businesses (especially restaurants) some slack because these people are just trying their best, but we should have trusted our instincts and decided to try for another place to eat.

The hostess returned to tell us that a party was coming in and they were going to get all the pizzas, so our table couldn't have any (which by the way, I never saw a party of more than 3 arrive). I thought this sounded strange, but decided from the very limited menu to try the chicken tenders and fries, along with both of my kids. My husband chose not to order.

We didn't wait a crazy amount of time for our food, but when it arrived I wasn't impressed. The chicken was really dried out and overcooked and the fries were overcooked and looked (and felt) and felt like they'd been sitting under a warmer for who knows how long. I nibbled on a few bites of chicken and ate the fries reluctantly. My daughter's version seemed somewhat better cooked but my son's looked about like mine.

Overall poor experience. We would definitely pass on this place...

Okay I'd say they have potential. They are walking distance from a truck stop which could be great for the truck drivers parked next door. However. The price to portion is over rated. They spend more on decor than they do quality food. I had the Danny boy chicken with whiskey glaze and another had the Danny boy chicken. The chicken breast are by far the smallest chicken breast's you will ever see. I'd probably say it is a breast sliced in half and bottom side used for other purposes. So in essence it is more like 1 chicken breast not 2 as menu says. However that being said one was sent out severely under cooked so had to be sent back. They did fix it. If you order this go ahead and get the glaze added or it's not worth eating. The mashed potatoes are good they need more salt and garlic but edible. Over all I'd say if you want a drink and a quiet meal even if you have to have it remade it isn't a bad place. Next time I am here I will order something else and review again. I will say there is absolutely nothing Irish about bennigans it's more just a better quality dennys with a good bar. They are extremely slow in the kitchen so make sure you have an hour to spare. I could personally cook every current order in the place in the time it takes them to fix one meal. My brother probably would already be cussing the line cook out and throwing his pans if he was the exec here. Lucky for bennigans he's a chef in oklahoma and not in iowa.

Over all I would not go out of my way to eat here but if you're a trucker next door it's a good bite to eat for you. As a traveling photographer I would never meet a client here. Although if they had a bit better food and quicker cooks I would not mind shooting here as I like the lighting. Maybe they'll be better next time I stop through. The 2 stars are for how slow the...

The girlfriend and I were looking for somewhere to eat and I had seen think place a few times but never tried it. Trying to go eat at a new place for our date night, we decided to give it a try. Never again. Our waited, Derek was ok. The table he sat us at was dirty. The whole establishment was dirty. There was a blonde female with no name tag talking about her "tatas" pretty loud to another coworker. She wasn't even close to us but we heard the while conversation. A group of 5 shows up while we're there and they're seated at a booth for 4 and pull up a chair for the 5th person. Don't know whyvthey would seat then there when in the other side of the restaurant there were bigger tables and others were taken there. It took us a good while to figure out what we wanted to eat because the menu was very limited and not very Irish. I went with the fish and chips while the girlfriend went for the most, non-Irish plate, Cajun chicken and shrimp fettuccine. Her dish had a good aroma but was bland, it had no flavor. My fries were stale and the fish batter was way over done. I tried to eat mine but I just couldn't. We returned both because they were disappointments. I over heard a group of women talking about the Cajun dish and I had to talk them out of it. Leaving only having paid for drinks and an appetizer, which was some broccoli bites that was great, we head to the bathrooms on our way out. The soap they provide is that nasty smelling industrial kind that smells old. It doesn't go away and just makes you want to gag. She didn't even urinate because she said that all of the seats had pee and one even had a straw in it just floating. It was a bad experience and we'll never go again. Should've known not go in by how empty...