Penny's Diner — Restaurant in North Platte

My husband and I were traveling with our 2 young children and our parents and seen this restaurant online and it looked so good that we were so excited to go there and eat. It gave off old timey, family friendly and great food vibes online and that’s what we were looking forward to.

But upon arriving.. that is not anything that we experienced. We showed up 3 adults and 2 kids.. around 6:30 pm. We were seated and then the table next to us was told to pass us their menu when they were finished, because they only had that one. No big deal we thought. Still gonna give it a chance. 30+ minutes went by before the waitress even came and took our order.. then another 10 minutes to even receive the drinks.

30 more minutes go by and we finally received the fried pickles we ordered, which looked like a regular sized order. But was told she burnt our mozzarella sticks and that would be a few minutes. 10 more minutes went by and we finally received the mozzarella sticks, which only came with 5 but was supposed to come with 6.

20 more minutes went by and our food started to come.. we asked for a hamburger for our youngest with no cheese, it came with cheese.. the waitresses response was, “oh that’s no big deal, I’ll just go scrape that off..” hmm.

Then my moms plate came and she got the chicken fried steak meal with potatoes and a side salad; the gravy was dripping off the plate and getting all over everything.. the salad tasted bad and was wilty - she only ate the chicken fried steak.

My meal came and I ordered the ranch breakfast, it was supposed to come with a pancake that never came.. when I brought this up to the waitress she said, “well the meal doesn’t really come with a pancake, it costs a $1 more.” First off, the menu says it comes with toast or a pancake.. says nothing about an extra charge.. second, that’s what I ordered, so why would you think it’s okay that I didn’t receive it??

Then my husbands came.. he got the Philly meal & asked for mushrooms to be added. Meal came with no mushrooms, burnt so bad he couldn’t even take a bite from it because it was so hard and his fries were so burnt they just crunched and fell apart.. didn’t even eat his meal.

Go to pay and I told the waitress our concerns and she says, “well I didn’t charge you for the 5 drinks because you waited so long and gave you a double order of fried pickles”.. ma’am, the kids drinks come with their meal and that was a regular sized order of fried pickles. Said she would remove my husbands meal, as he didn’t eat it because it was burnt.

Bill went from $104 down to $92. But wasn’t even worth $30. Service was terrible, food wasn’t good, wait was ridiculous and there’s no accountability.

I have waitressed for many years and there’s no reason that the service should be so awful.

Also.. the cook went to the bathroom mid making our meal and there’s no paper towels or anything in the men’s bathroom.. not sure how he washed his hands.

If I could give 0...

I ordered ahead and paid online for take out. When I got there and told her that I was there to pick up my order, she didn't have it and seemed annoyed that I was asking for it. She walked over to the printer and took a ticket off of it and said it would be "a few more minutes." Apparently they weren't checking for takeout orders and it wasn't started. Stuff happens and I wasn't bugged about that, but you would think in that situation my order would be prioritized. Nope, she hung it up last in line and I stood there waiting while they cooked for everyone that had ordered up to a half hour later than I did.

Finally I saw them working on my Reuben, but then when it was done she got to the green chile cheese fries and yelled over to me "we don't have any green chili. Do you still want fries?" Well, yes. I already paid for fries. I told her red chili will do instead and again she seemed annoyed.

In a nutshell, I planned ahead and gave over a 20% tip in advance for takeout only to get rude and snippy service and got something other than what I paid for. To top it off, what should have been a quick in and out stop took almost a half hour. I was on a cross country road trip and trying to make time, so the multiple middle fingers from the staff got under my skin all the more. I definitely will never stop here again.

Two stars because the chili fries were really good, but the reuben...

We stopped in for lunch today, and unfortunately, it was a pretty disgusting experience. Penny’s Diner has an open kitchen where you can see everything being prepared and what we saw was a serious food safety concern.

Not a single staff member wore gloves. The cook handled raw sausage, bacon, and hamburger patties with her bare hands, then went straight to touching other ingredients without washing once. She repeatedly wiped her hands on her pants (which were already visibly dirty) and, at one point, pushed down the trash in the can with her bare hands… then went right back to preparing food like nothing happened. 🤢

On top of that, we noticed obvious food smudge marks on the fridge handles, food compartments, and prep surfaces clear signs that her unwashed hands had been touching everything. Other staff were also grabbing things like bread with bare, unwashed hands.

This isn’t just gross it’s a clear violation of health codes. Proper handwashing and glove use are basic food safety standards, especially after handling raw meat or touching trash. What we witnessed today showed a complete disregard for cleanliness and public health.

I rarely leave bad reviews, but this situation really needs to be addressed before someone ends up getting...