Big Fred's Pizza Garden & Lounge — Restaurant in Omaha

Disgusting. Unprofessional. Will not go back.

Had to wait for a table as they had to wait for a table to be cleared, no big deal. Then were sat at a table which still had trash on it... really? When I brought this up to the hostess, Maria, who I heard her tell another table who had issues, calls herself a manager (I hope that's not true), rolled her eyes and said that she would grab wipe it down and then walked to the bar and talked with I assume the owners from the descriptions that I have heard from the waitresses here, and all 3 looked back at our table and laughed. Great Service so far. One waitress, Katie, WHO WASN'T EVEN OUR WAITRESS, actually cared and apologized and wiped our table down for us after I mentioned something to her, so at least some one cares.

The floor was filthy as I saw a blonde haired busboy just wipe down other tables and leave all the trash on the floor and not attempt in any way to pick up anything. Which is nothing compared to what I happened to catch in the kitchen. As I walked to the bathroom, I happened to glance over and see PANS, not 1 but at least 3 pans of uncovered and cooked meat just sitting on the floor. being contaminated by every person who walked by. Who is their right mind, thinks that it is fine to prepare food in this way? I did not eat anything and told my table and we were very careful not to order anything containing ground beef, for obvious reasons, but were very cautious in eating the food anyone. Our drinks came and my margarita had specks of what looked like fur on the rim along with the salt. As a bartender, I can tell you that it was part of the sponge that you dip the rim of the glass on to make the salt stick to the rim, and that sponge has not been rinsed out or cleaned in a while. That is something that needs to be done on a daily basis, every other day at the longest between.

The food did taste good, I will say that.

Throughout the meal, I constantly overheard two waitresses overweight waitresses, who have no right to talk about people in the manner that they did, complaining. They tried to hide behind a 5ft brick wall and thought that it was soundproof, apparently, and proceeded to complain about EVERY table in the restaurant. and, not in a positive way. Do they think that their customers can not hear these things? The best part was, after their terrible service, complained even more about getting lousy tips... I wonder why?

The most amazing and completely unprofessional part was the complete lack of respect. Along with complaining about the customers, not only did these 2 but almost every single waitress trashed the management in this place. "they don't care, why should I?" and " they have no idea how to run a restaurant" was said on multiple occasions. This must be a great place to work. I even overheard a waitress completely pass the buck, when a table ask about a certain item on the menu, say "because this place has been on its last leg since Fred died." Who says and does things like this?! There is very little professionalism at this establishment.

I would not tell anyone to eat here ever again, and tells others...

Not even close as good as it used to be. (4 years ago) 3 Stars

Tonight Wednesday, April 27, 2022 I would give -stars if able.

Four years ago was the last time I dined here and left the former review. My sister wanted to go back and give them another chance, so I agreed. I worked here for Fred and Rose as a bus boy back in 1976. This place was a staple for our family for decades and loved their food. Tonight my fiance and I arrived at 5 pm and asked for a table for eight. No problem, seated us right away as the place was not busy, with many open tables. The manager asked if we needed drinks. I ordered a beer, my fiance just wanted water. Our waitress brought our drinks promptly. I ordered Onion Rings while we waited for the rest of our party. Onion Rings arrived 15 minutes later, Luke warm. That was the last I saw our waitress for the next 45 minutes. The rest of our party came and still no waitress. I flagged her down and asked if she could come to our table, and was told rudely she would be right there. She arrives and I stated that I have needed another drink for the past 30 minutes. If looks could kill, I would be dead. She responded, well let's get you another drink! She then took our food and drink order at the same time and left. 10 minutes later she returned with our drinks and I thanked her. We then waited nearly an hour for three pizza's and a Hamburger. Just when we were about to give up and walk out, the manager and the cook (not our waitress) brought our food to the table. I ordered a large Hamburger pizza Romano only and it was luke warm at best. My finances burger was hot but her fries were cold. She told the manager her fries were cold and he rolled his eyes and said something under his breath, then walked away. My son who ordered two pizza's for his pregnant wife and 1.5 year old daughter, stated that they brought the wrong pizza as this is not what he ordered and the small pizza for his wife was to be very light on cheese as his wife didn't like cheese. The waitress then returned and argued with my son, that he ordered what was brought to him. By this point, i was done and asked the waitress to bring the check please. Another 20 minutes later she came with the check, I paid and was out of there. No apologies, no thank you, just evil glares from the waitress and sad excuse of a manager. A couple of positive things however, my sisters double crust pizza was piping hot and the kind cook who helped bring out the food, had remade my daughter-in-laws pizza with very little cheese. He was friendly, polite and a great employee. After the experience Tonight, I will never return to Big Fred's which is very sad. I knew Fred and Rose extremely well throughout the years and they would have never ever done this kind of business! Too many other outstanding pizza businesses in this town, to have too endure this...

To the people who say the pizza is good and the service is bad you all have it twisted. We drove from Lincoln to Omaha on a Friday night for happy hour and a pizza. We got a large with hamburger, pepperoni, and Canadian bacon, a dozen buffalo boneless wings, and cheesy garlic bread. The wings were a 10/10 but it can't save the pizza, it just can't. The waitress was amazing, couldn't ask for better service. Now onto the pizza. First off, how much did big fred have to pay to get chef boyardee cookin in the kitchen? Our pizza had no pepperoni, the crust was as flat as the pan it came on, tasteless, and obviously frozen. It was never turned in the oven so half was undercooked while the other half was overcooked but definitely not burnt. Hard to mess up Canadian bacon, that was fine but the sauce and hamburger gave me ptsd flashbacks of when I was broke, eating top ramen and cans of chef boyardee ravioli. Imagine taking a terrible crust and dumping a blended up can of the chefs famous ravioli, slapping some decent Canadian bacon over it, and then covering it with string cheese. The cheese wasn't even bad honestly. We tried to scrape off the mincemeat but most of it infused with it. We lifted up the cheese skirt and scraped off the "hamburger" to form meat Everest on the pizza pan. There was so much per slice that Everest was completed in 3 slices, all corner slices, not even the stuffed middle slices which we couldn't eat. Our amazing waitress comped most of the meal and asked if we wanted a box for the 3/4ths of the pizza left.(we declined) Worst pizza we have ever had in our lives and I personally have demolished burnt red baron and supermarket pizza. Would go back for the wings, the service, to get drunk, play joust and possibly meet the chef boyardee himseif. 0 stars for the pizza, 5 for the wings and service, so 2 stars because it's a pizza place ffs. Our night was made though, pizza so bad its shocking in an amazing way, smiles on our faces as we pull up to burger king to order strawberry shakes to get the taste out of our mouths, the andies mints couldnt even mask it, although they were good. Andies got his mint game on point. Overall I don't mind the chef but he should really just stick to the ravioli and let fred make...