Shirley's Diner — Restaurant in Omaha

First off I'd like to make it crystal clear that I enjoy taking my family to Shirley's Diner. The food is comforting and the service is spectacular. However, a recent anomaly has prompted me to provide the community with some advice to help make their next meal, here, less frustrating.

Saturday, my family was in the mood to get take-out lunch for home, so we opened the Shirley's Diner website. The website advertised an Android app, Toast Takeout, that would help us place an online order, so we downloaded that and tried it out.

The app asked for my phone number to register the new account, and supposedly sent some activation code for identity verification, but I never received that code. Tried it one more time, and nothing. The reason for this could be anything, but the fact is, it didn't work. I will not be using Toast Takeout in the future.

We then navigated through the usual "online order" part of their website and successfully place our order. Overall a good experience. The website charged my card at 13:34, and said that the order would be ready by 13:49. Fifteen minutes--sure, okay.

I arrived at the restaurant exactly on time and checked in. A server said the food wasn't ready yet. Sure, okay it was a Saturday, so I understand things get busy. I sat down to wait--no problem.

A few minutes pass and another customer walks in, checks in for an online order, and their order is ready, so she grabs it and leaves. I didn't know when her order was placed, but it seemed promising that she was able to just walk in, grab it, and go. I continued to wait.

Several more minutes passed, and a server asked another waiting customer if they had been served yet. This mother and daughter, who had been waiting since before I arrived, said they had placed an online order and were waiting there for over 30 minutes. The server checked quickly, and said that the food wasn't ready yet.

It was already about 14:10, so based on this woman's experience I was imagining that I would need to wait at least another 30 minutes to feed my family since I had arrived after her. This was not part of the plan, so I stood up and asked a server to cancel my order.

The order was cancelled without issue. The staff was extremely helpful and understanding. We ended up having Burger Kings, next door. I was disappointed that the website provided a poor time estimate, and would have preferred to wait at home instead of waiting at the restaurant.

Another interesting moment transpired during this exchange. A gentleman entered the restaurant, checked in, and sat down next to me. I was facing away so at first I didn't notice many details about him. While waiting for my order to be cancelled, a manager walked by and asked the man to wear a mask--didn't catch the manager's name. Interestingly, the manager knew this gentleman, as he referring to him as "Don". I speculated that Don must be a regular.

I turned and noticed that "Don" was not wearing a mask--this is during the Covid days when masks are required in public places. Don glanced at the manager and ignored him, flashing me an indignant smirk as I was paying attention to the exchange. I looked back at the manager, hoping that he would repeat the request, but the matter was immediately dropped. It was never brought up again--apparently Don is special. Perhaps regulars get treated differently.

So my advice to the community, here, is to observe two things that might help your next visit: one, if it is a Saturday near lunch-time, expect your online orders to take longer than the website anticipates. Secondly, don't mess with Don, because he is special and the mask rules do not apply to him. Oh, and lastly--don't expect the Toast app to work, but good luck if you do want to give it a try.

Thank you for taking the time to read this review. I hope it helps you plan your next visit. Again, I definitely recommend eating here: the food and the service are a unique treasure within the...

We came to have dinner here tonight and thought we might have found a great local diner…until I went to pay for our food. The waitress was nice and friendly and the food was good but I had asked about my charges for my service dogs beef patty as they charged us for a whole meal yet we only had a single patty given to us for our dog. It was $7! No sides or bread was even given. After asking to speak to the manger just to confirm the charge I was further profiled based on how I was dressed I’m sure. John said yes that was the price so I thought to myself ok fine I’ll tip accordingly. I go to pay and I guess they don’t have tap pay so needed the physical card from out the car. I also had my father who is a 100% disabled navy Vietnam vet waiting outside to get into the handicap van and I had our service dog in hand that needed to get into the car. I told John I’d be right back as I was going to put Nala our dog in the car along with my father and grab the card I needed to pay with out the car. I walked outside and was very rudely followed by John as if we wasn’t going to pay or was stealing something and we wasn’t! I turned around and said sir you didn’t need to follow me to my car and write down our tag number! He said he was just “making sure and needed our tags” I told him I was coming. The whole time we was eating John and another guy was rudely staring at us and seemingly to talk about myself and father based on either how we looked or was dressed. We don’t know but definitely didnt appreciate it! After I came back in and paid for our food I asked for the owners contact information and was rudely told to call the number on the receipt. I guess someone named Ben is who’s in charge or owns this restaurant. I have never been so disappointed and disrespected because of how I was dressed (bum clothes due to working and cleaning and not having time to change before going to omaha to see my father) I still had on plenty of things that could have made the average person see we are not poor or homeless people and have nice things. We have never not paid for a meal and would never would do that. We didn’t leave a tip at all due to John’s profiling which sucked for the girl because she would have had a nice tip as she did do a good job and all. I’d really like to know who is in charge because this John shouldn’t being representing the business unless this is how you treat your guests, especially for the first time. We was looking for a local spot to be our new go to food spot when we come visit my father from out of town. So a future “regular” would have been made since the food was very good. But now we don’t know if we will ever return due to the actual service, and that’s what matters most to us in...

LOVED IT!! I am staying in Omaha for two weeks due to work. It’s always difficult on the weekends to find a place and go out for breakfast or lunch. The easy thing is fast food, but it gets old and it’s not great. I looked online and took a chance on a place nearby, called Shirley’s Diner. The venue looked good, and the prices were awesome. I got there and it’s a cute little place and it was buzzing, but not overly packed when I arrived. I told them I needed a table for one and they split up a four top and found a seat for me that was perfect. I didn’t feel too crunched up against other tables or anything. The server I had was Abbie. Her energy is infectious and perfect for a Sunday morning brunch. She’s quick, efficient, great at her job, and so good at participating in the small talk, but keeping things moving. I ordered hot tea with water on the side, the hash brown breakfast with my eggs over medium and gravy on the side with a biscuit added on. My total was just over $19. There is so much food. It was a large order of hashbrowns that I could not easily fit into both hands if I tried. Two eggs, cooked perfectly, four slices of bacon, the cream gravy, and the biscuit I added. I couldn’t even eat a third of it and I regretted that I did not have a way to bring it back to the hotel and warm it up effectively. I hated leaving any of it on the table, but it was nothing short of amazing. Both tables on either side of me ordered the breakfast burrito. That was my second choice and it looked awesome! I’m glad I didn’t get it because it was so big. It would’ve been three meals for me lol! Both tables expressed how amazing it was and I think the options for the meat that you can get are chicken or steak.

I can’t recommend this place enough. I will likely go back. They didn’t care if I hung out and read my book a little bit. The only reason I left and didn’t hang around for another cup of tea was because of the line forming at the door.

Check this place out, bring an empty stomach, an extra cash to tip your server. I gladly left a $15 tip on top of a $20 total. I would...