You Win Some and You Lose Some!

So… We were in Omaha visiting our son, his wife and our grandsons and it was time for dinner.  David and Amy took us to a great looking semi-upscale restaurant that they hadn’t been to before. 

As the title of this blog indicates…you win some and you lose some!

This is Lazlo’s Brewery and Grill in Omaha Nebraska.  The exterior was interesting and promising but perhaps we should have heeded the storm clouds.  They were a harbinger of what was to come…

Note: My photos for this blog are mostly blurry...which is fitting given our overall dining experience.

The interior of Lazlo’s Brewery and Grill was a nice mix of warm wood and color offset by an industrial style ceiling and doors.  

Our first problem was encountered when we were waiting for a table for the 6 of us.  The hostess had failed to give Amy one of their vibrating units to let us know when our table was ready.  Fortunately, one of the staffers who were seating patrons found us and took us to our table.

 

One positive finding was unanimous…the drinks at Lazlo’s were very good!  David II and I liked the beer, the boys were happy plus Amy and Laurie enjoyed their mixed drinks.

Despite the fact that this photo is blurry, I liked David III’s successful effort to photo bomb this portrait I took of his parents!

Service was slow.  Our waiter was nice enough but he wasn’t very efficient.  As a matter of fact, I watched the staff and management from my vantage point near the grill and they seemed disorganized and perhaps a bit unhappy.  This wasn’t an effective team designed to provide great service to Lazlo’s customers… 

This appetizer was another positive in our experience at Lazlo’s.  This is Lazlo's Original Lahvosh – sweet cracker bread topped with melted Havarti cheese, baked with any three toppings of one’s choice: tomatoes, green peppers, mushrooms, bacon bits, turkey, ham, grilled chicken, artichoke hearts, or jalapeños.  It was very good!

Note: The dark portion in the photo is just a shadow…

Amy ordered the Fresh Salmon entrée.  She’d requested butter sauce for the salmon…but our waiter forgot to bring it.  The salmon was a bit dry.  The green beans were a little too undercooked. They should be a firm but not almost raw. 

Both David II and Amy had Lazlo’s Beer Soup.  Neither of them liked it.  I tasted the soup and I felt that it had a strong and strange flavor. 

  

This is a terrible photo…but it is appropriate too.  Emmett Lee (10 years old) had this cheeseburger.  It’s one of the few foods he eats, but he didn’t really like it, giving it a score of 3 out of 10! 

Laurie and I both had Caesar Salads with our entrees.  Caesar would have been unhappy too!  These salads had no flavor at all…bland to the extreme…

For our entrees, we went with the Voodoo Chicken, boneless breasts blackened with Cajun spices then topped with a three-cheese sauce.  The chicken seemed to have been pre-frozen and it was saved only by the cheese sauce.  Our opinion of the coleslaw may be a matter of taste.  It seemed to have fennel mixed in with the cabbage and we didn’t like it.

The best news about this dinner on the town was that our son and his wife paid for it!  We were all disappointed with our dining experience to include the food and service.  There are no plans for our family to make a return visit to Lazlo’s…  However, I would welcome second opinions.  Maybe we just had an inefficient waiter, ordered the wrong items from the menu or the restaurant was having a bad night.  

If you would like to try Lazlo’s Brewery and Grill, they have 3 locations, 1 in Lincoln and 2 in Omaha.  They must be doing something right as the first restaurant opened in 1991.  The Lazlo’s we visited is located at 2425 South 192^nd Street in Omaha Nebraska.  Phone: 402-289-5840.  The company’s website is at http://www.lazlosbreweryandgrill.com/about.html.

Just click on any of the blurry photos if you’d like to enlarge them and critique my photographic abilities!

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave