Jams Midtown — Restaurant in Omaha

My wife and I have been to Jams 3 times before, with the food always being excellent. On Aug 8, 2014, we decided to go there again, but this time had to bring our 8 month old, for lack of a babysitter. We went at 5pm to beat the rush since we had a child. The hostess greeted us with a frown and I don't think she smiled the entire time we were there. She looked at us as if to ask (via body language) why are you bringing that baby in here?

She seated us. We then had a male waiter who was "cold" toward us. We got the impression that we were not wanted, perhaps because of having a child with us. Our little-one behaved well for the most part. He fussed a few times and we calmed him right away, even taking him outside once, so as not to disturb others.

My wife got the meatloaf and I a hamburger. We had had these dishes before and they, in the past were delicious. Tonight however, neither was as good as they had been in the past. The hamburger was okay and my wife could not eat the meatloaf because it was very greasy. Nothing like in the past.

My wife, being the nice person that she is, did not complain, she just chose not to eat all the food. She set her plate aside when she was done. She should have asked for a different dish or a refund, but did not. The waiter seemed surprised and almost offended that she did not want her leftovers boxed up.

I found the hostess and other waitresses looking at our table with scowls on their faces. I observed the hostess as she watched several "handicapped" patrons struggle to get through the front door and she never lifted a finger to help. One older gentleman had a prosthetic leg and a cane and had difficulty with balance and navigating through the door. The hostess just watched and then showed him to his table without ever making eye contact with the gentleman, or speaking to him for that matter.

Perhaps Jams is not used to having children in their restaurant. I could agree this would be bothersome if we had a constantly misbehaving or crying child, but we did not.

We frequently go to Lazlos restaurant with our 5yr, 3yr and 8 month old together as a family. The food there is of similar quality/price and we always feel welcome there as a family.

This is the first time we have ever brought a child to Jams and it will be the last time we go to Jams. Children usually go to restaurants their parents went to. Although it may be far off, Jams will have lost some future...

I have going here for years and it just keeps getting worse. I have had long bouts of not going here because of food quality and contamination issues. The last time I ordered a salad from them that my wife and I world order all the time. This time, someone put walnuts in it. They're not suppose to be in this salad normally or according to the menu, AND MY WIFE IS ALLERGIC TO THEM. Brought it back and explained it. The manager at the time felt horrible and took care of it best he could. My wife had a bad night with having to take allergy medicine, and we decided not to go back for quite some time. About a year after that experience, we thought about giving them another shot. I went back, ordered the ravioli for my wife (she liked that) and I ordered the steak cobb salad and got the food to go. Waitress was ok, but she seemed very stressed, no smile and generally seemed like she didn't want to be there. Not a big deal, got my food to go. When I got home, my wife food was fine (thankfully), but my steak on my salad was awful. Tasted like a freezer burnt steak that had been in the freezer for a year or so. I drove back to return the salad, and decided to go ahead and order a salad without meat. Steak cobb salad price was $25 and the salad a order to replace it was $16. Once the salad was done, he handed it to me and said "there you go have a good day." I looked at him and asked, "that's it?" He seemed confused so I went ahead and explained that the salad I returned was $9 more than that salad I just received as a replacement. I told I would appreciate the difference back and he agreed and proceeded to get a manager to approve this. This took some time, but they did give me the $9 difference back. I didn't get much of an apology and barley got any eye contact from the manager. She just gave me the $9 and turned around to look back at the computer. Seemed very rude, and if they genuinely cared about the food quality here, I would've had them not only apologize, but investigate. I assume this isn't the only time this has happened either as their steaks are usually not good, but every now and then are tolerable. Prices are too high, quality is low, and staff is too stressed to be polite. They obviously focus mostly on atmosphere which is nice, but the food quality and taste is definitely not worth it at...

I want to like Jams, but I have to be honest; their food is awful. The Midtown location has always been their worst location, but with Legacy closed, I and companions decided to try it again. Big mistake.

The seasonal soup, pumpkin, is sad. Canned pumpkin dressed up a little, with some cranberries, walnuts, and pumpkin seeds thrown on top. Nobody ever told the chef that pumpkin doesn’t have to be sweet, and it’s not exactly novel to turn pumpkin bisque into a soup version of pumpkin pie. What could have been an opportunity to explore pumpkin’s savoury profile just falls flat.

After forgetting to ask for bread my last few visits to Jams, I finally remembered. It was tasteless and absolutely valueless.

Their food in general has too much cilantro in too many things (hey, some people actually can’t eat cilantro!), and after deciding on our main course, we were all disappointed. They’re all too busy, feature a ridiculous mound of tasteless tomatoes (for the prices, I expect tomatoes that taste like tomatoes, and far less of them), enormous mountains of instant mashed potatoes, and other filler food that adds nothing to the experience or the value. The tiny ramekins their sides are served in are just absurd given the price.

It didn’t help that our service was terrible (forgotten flatware, checking back far too frequently, and offering to-go boxes ten minutes after the food was served), but I can’t say I blame our server for not being enthusiastic about working there. I wouldn’t be, either. Probably they have to turn over tables quickly to get tipped well.

Again, I want to like Jams, but they keep preventing me from liking them. Get it together or just close, for crying out loud. I won’t be back to the Midtown location regardless (it’s kind of icky), but earlier Jams had so much promise and it’s depressing to see it...