Palace Restaurant & Saloon — Restaurant in Dayton

I have eaten at The Palace many times over the past 30 years or so, having lived and worked in Virginia City off and on throughout my life. It's pretty much what one might expect of a standard diner in a tourist town, with a fairly predictable offering of various burgers, sandwiches, salads, etc. The food is good as diner food goes, and the portions are realistic, not too small but not crazy huge either like some places offer nowadays, where you end up leaving stuffed, or taking food home with you and shoving it in the fridge where it will likely sit and get old and eventually be thrown out.

They also have a full service bar, although I can't speak to that because I have never gone in just for drinks. But it's handy when it's crowded as you can sometimes find a seat at the bar when there are no tables available, and either eat your food there or just grab a drink and wait for a spot to open up.

The wait staff is good, at least the crew they have currently, being mostly experienced, competent and friendly, with the exception of the young man who was acting as host when I was there last and who forgot to write us in so that we didn't get served for quite awhile. He eventually pulled one of the waitresses aside and told her of his mistake and she immediately came over and took our order. My GF used to wait tables and is unusually patient with such things, and though I was mildly annoyed sitting there watching the waitresses pass us by and wishing I had a cold beer in my hand, in the end it really wasn't a big deal. And once our order was in, our drinks and food came out in short order. My GF had a Jack and Coke and appreciated that the bartender wasn't stingy with the Jack if you know what I mean.

I'm vegetarian, and though my GF eats meat, she's good about sharing non-meat based meals with me if it makes sense to do so, which it did on this particular occasion. We shared a Hawaiian style veggie burger that had pineapple and cheese on it, and we added avocado, and it was really good! It came with fries, and we added a side of onion rings, which were also really nicely done.

So all in all, and in spite of the snafu at the beginning, it was a good experience and we ended up having a really nice time.

The prices are a bit high but not unreasonable nor unexpected given that it's a tourist spot. In years past they gave locals a discount, but for unknown reasons they discontinued...

Upon the recommendation of a local guide, we decided to eat lunch at the Palace Saloon. It was on the weekend and there was a wait so we sat at the bar. Waited 15 minutes and no one took our drink order or food order. The waitstaff only cared about the local alcoholics who they knew, so we left.

Unfortunately, there are not a lot of eating choices in Virginia City unless you want burgers or BBQ, so we decided to go back to the Palace and wait for a table.

Waitress was snippy and acted like she had 100 better things to do than wait on us. She did take our order and we ordered 2 appetizers. They came out with our meal. No apologies.

I ordered a spicy entree and asked the waitress twice for more water. But since I wasn't drinking a $10 beverage, the water refill came 15 minutes later.

I gave the waitress my entree and one of the appetizers back that we didn't touch and told her my entree was cold and we shouldn't have to pay for an appetizer that was delivered with our meal. No apologies, she just took them from me and never came back to our table. She had another waitress drop off our bill.

If you want mediocre food at a high price, waitstaff with bad attitudes, poor service and very bad management, The Palace is the place for you. Otherwise, you are MUCH BETTER off with a...

We stopped in for lunch. The wait was over an hour after saying it would be only 30-40 minutes, but they gave us an electronic beeper and we had time to browse the shops. We came back to check our status and a table was still not ready, so several of us went to the bar to order a beer. Rachel was tending bar and she was great. I wanted a light beer, nothing too heavy. She gave me a sample of the Palace brand and it was perfect. Very refreshing, light on the hops, and easy going down. We were seated at a booth for six and lo and behold, Rachel ended up being our server. One of her favorite songs came on, and before we ordered, we were entertained with her singing to us. She did a great job as a singer and as our server. Everyone at the table ordered something different. Our table of 6 ordered a turkey sandwich, a couple different variations of Reuben's, a California Club, and the hubs and I had their fish n chips special. Everything was tasty n fresh. Portions were large and served with fries. Several to go boxes were needed and everyone was quite satisfied with their lunch. Prices are reasonable, too. We would make the drive from Reno to...