Pals Brewing Company — Restaurant in Nebraska

Pals is great. End of story.

For those looking for more details, this is the 3rd or 4th time we have been there to eat and it's always outstanding. Today we got there mid afternoon and we're able to find a seat outside pretty quickly despite what appeared to be a crowd waiting for a wedding reception to start. Can't blame them for stopping off for a couple beers before the reception at such a great space.

We started with a Pineapple Express for my wife and a diet coke for myself since I had to work. We've both enjoyed the Pineapple Express here before, but she remembered it being more like an IPA in the past, whereas she said this one more closely resembled a wheat beer. She was still fine with it.

We also ordered the pretzels as an appetizer. They came out quickly and were piping hot. Like for 10 minutes after we ordered them, so you know they were fresh. They were accompanied by a container of cheese and one of grainy mustard. I didn't look close enough at the menu, but the cheese was very loose and lightly flavored, so I'm not certain if they market it as beer cheese or not. Either way, it was good, the flavor was just lighter than I expected. I'm sure it would have been awesome if I was having a beer with it. The grainy mustard was excellent and I'd recommend double dipping in the mustard then cheese to get all the flavors. The pretzels themselves are the real star here, being crisp on the outside but surprisingly light and airy on the inside. I've never had a pretzel in this style though, which had segments that reminded me of the old pigs in a blanket they would serve us at school that would wrapped in dough like a mummy. That's weird nostalgia but I can't describe them any better way. They were covered in butter and then kissed with the perfect amount of fat sprinkles of pretzel salt. Seriously, get these.

We also split the special pizza or the day, a Mediterranean chicken pizza. Pals dough is closer to thin crust than a hand-tossed pizza, but still provides a nice chew (not the shatter-when-you-bite of a Pizza Hut thing crust.) The pizza came with kalamata olives, tomatoes, onions and chicken. My wife skipped the chicken, and I felt it was an unnecessary addition to this pizza. It would be just excellent completely vegetarian like my wife ordered. The chicken was flakey and not dried out, and still very delicious. My favorite part were the kalamata olives, providing a salty surprise to each bite. The large will provide two nice meals for two people if you get an appetizer. I hadn't eaten all day so I planned to eat half the pizza when I remembered it being thin crust, but thanks to the pretzel, could only get down a few pieces. I'm very much looking forward to this as cold pizza.

The atmosphere is always great here and the servers are always friendly and rarely let you glass of whatever sit empty for long.

We're excited to come back, especially as it cools off to enjoy...

To preface, Pals did have good food. But unless you’re willing to be there for 2-3 hours, don’t go. We were seated (a group of 4) at a table in front of the bar. We waited for nearly 45 minutes before anyone acknowledged us, let alone took our drink order. We waited another 20 minutes for our drinks. We ordered our appetizers and meal while we ordered our drinks in hopes of being able to shave off some time. We were not in a hurry but we suspected we would wait even longer, and our server was clearly young and possibly new. While ordering our drinks, we also asked for water. When our drinks were delivered, we received no water. Eventually we discovered that they had water stations place about the restaurant and obtained our own waters. Nothing was ever said about water being anywhere for self service, and we didn’t see our server again until food began to arrive. Keep in mind that it’s mid July in Nebraska, it’s hot!! We received one of our appetizers right after our drinks, but no plates, napkins, or utensils. I approached the bar to ask for these items and waited approximately 5 minutes before I began to call out “ma’am” to the several female servers behind the bar. I was ignored by 3 of them. I finally walked around to the bar walkway to ask for plates, etc. The server I got the attention of gave me napkins and plastic wrapped forks and told me to reach into a cupboard out on the patio for paper plates. At this time I asked the server is this was a self serve restaurant, to which she told me no but what else did I need. I explained the long wait initially and the lack of dining dishes to enjoy our appetizer, eventually asking why she couldn’t give me the plates that were on the stand right behind her. She informed me that glasses and breakable items couldn’t go out on the patio. I told her that we weren’t on the patio and pointed to where we were sitting. I was asked again where we were sitting and I pointed to our table in front of the bar. Eventually she gave me the plates near her and said she would check on our other appetizer. As I walked back to my table, a bartender (one that I was originally trying to get her attention) asked me where I was sitting and pointed to my table again, in front of the bar. Eventually our 2nd appetizer came out, but we still didn’t see our server again. At some point after my complaint, we began to notice nearly every server stopping by our table to check on us, see how our meal was, and to encourage us to drink more. It was almost obnoxious, like they were trying to make up for the crappy service at the beginning. My husband went back again for lunch the next day and had much the same service. This is likely the norm for this establishment, which is sad because they really did have good...

I'll start by saying I would love this to be a 5 star review. We discovered Pals while traveling from Denver to view the eclipse. The food was amazing. The beer was great! The staff and atmosphere both amazing and catastrophically horrible. The servers were attentive and congenial with two notable exceptions: a mostly off duty waitress and THE OWNER.

My 6 year old son was playing Cornhole while waiting for dinner. Getting the bags out of the hole he was either laying or squatting on the surface. The owner rudely told him to get off, that it wasn't allowed. "Throw them in but stay off!" He wasn't jumping or rough housing on them and didn't understand clearly but tried to comply. He addressed my child directly, not seeking a parent out, and reprimanded him loudly and rudely.

My son went to play again while the rest of us were finishing eating and the off duty server started taking bags out of the hole and he wasn't happy. I walked over and explained he'd been playing there before and she said that they'd been playing before their meal and that we could get more bags for the next Cornhole board over from the bucket across the yard. She made it clear she was staking a claim, unwilling to bend to a customer, even a child, while sporting an ordering device in her back pocket. We walked across and got him set up on the next game surface over.

Then we approach time to leave and the owner walks over to where he's playing and starts chatting with another customer that he knows and they take the bags from the hole and start playing around him as if he isn't there!!

When the next passing server asks if we're still doing ok, I explain the situation and she gets ready to do battle until I identify the person in question and she says she can't say anything because...