The Black Crow

Passed through Beatrice during my road trip and after reading the reviews I decided to stop in. Great ambiance and wonderful staff.
Food: A basket of warm bread was brought out with herbed olive oil. It was good. Mark ordered the Fresh Salmon and I ordered the Louisiana Seafood Bake. Both came with the house salad. I requested the house vinaigrette and he requested his with the Dorothy lunch dressing. Both salads were fresh and both dressings tasted great.
Fresh Salmon: Came on a bed of mashed potatoes and with asparagus. I tried some and it was delicious! The salmon was was cooked to perfection and fell easily apart as I cut it. It was light, juicy, and the maple glaze added a touch of sweetness to die for. The mashed potatoes and salmon married together beautifully.
Louisiana Seafood Bake: My absolute favorite. It came in a baked dish of scallops, shrimp, peppers, tomatoes, and onions under a puffed pastry. I don’t know what was in the sauce but I wanted to lick my plate clean. The scallops and shrimp melted in my mouth. It really was heaven in my mouth! And the pastry was baked how I like it– crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. The flavors just marinated perfectly together. The dish looked small but it definitely filled me up, and after driving a few hours on the road I definitely worked up a big appetite.
Dessert: I ordered the cheesecake. It was creamy and light. The caramel sauce was rich in flavor. A perfect end to a perfect meal!
Our waiter: The waiter described the daily specials and their ingredients like the back of his hand. He was attentive and definitely made our already great experience a more enjoyable one!
I highly recommend this place and will definitely come back!

I personally believe this is the best place for lunch in Beatrice. The Stromboli is amazing! I have never had a bad experience here and would recommend it to everyone!

Recently, I found myself helping a friend out on a photo shoot near Beatrice, Nebraska. The models were cows, tractors, golf greens, and fields of beans and corn. Not the most glamorous shoot and not the most glamorous area.
I had never been to Beatrice before and found it to be charming and nice — a larger small town. We saw current political graffiti painted on a downtown roof that reminded me of the cold war era 80’s in the larger cities. There was a small permanent popcorn stand on one of the sidewalks that someone could probably make some money with if installed in Benson or The Old Market. When we pulled into town for lunch we saw a few places that looked like standard bar and grill fare and then were pulled in by a nice hanging sign that said The Black Crow.
We walked in and were surprised by the long room filled with dark oak booths and a few larger tables at the back. Every seat was filled and we were offered a seat at the massive oak bar while we waited. Our wait was very short, after which we were put in a booth that had a sheet of paper over the table, complete with nice china and silverware. It was all pretty fancy for lunch in a small town. Hell, it was pretty fancy for lunch in Omaha. Thankfully the lunch prices did not reflect our surroundings.
We had menus brought to us and ordered sodas. The lunch menu was vast and had wraps, sandwiches, pizzas and entrées listed. Our friendly waitress read off the list of specials for the day, along with their ingredients, like a pro. It seems that they have different and unique wraps, quiches and stromboli daily.
I went with a pepperoni and salami stromboli and my friend went with a Philly cheese steak. I also ordered their mushroom soup. A bowl of hot bread was brought out along with a carafe of olive oil to dip the bread in. My mushroom soup soon followed and the first spoonful found me tasting what was possibly the best mushroom soup I have ever had. I had my friend try it and he immediately ordered a bowl for himself. It was a dark and rich broth that kept its appeal until the very end. I dipped my bread in both the soup and olive oil separately.
Our entrées came and my friend’s Philly was large, full of beef and loaded with cheese. He said it was very good, but would have been better with fresh mushrooms. My stromboli was loaded with melted mozzarella cheese, pepperoni and salami, and the bread that surrounded it was light, flaky and buttery. It was excellent.
The Black Crow has everything going for it, and with a full bar and craft beer selection, I would even pull up here for just a couple of drinks in the evening. The service was excellent, the atmosphere was fantastic, and the food was reasonably priced and very good. It’s one of those rare places that I wouldn’t hesitate driving a couple of hours (round trip) for a meal, and I will as their dinner menu looks even better.

Atmosphere was nice. Nasty food. Salad and dressing was warm. Sandwich very greasy. (I had to dab it with napkin). Water tasted like rust. Three in my party got sick after their meal.

Probably 4.5 stars, but, finding this in the town of Beatrice bumps it up to 5. I read a few of the reviews on Unilocal and TripAdvisor before trying this place. Dont’ get to Beatrice very often, but, it was between this and the Mexican joint. I gotta say, I’m happy I tried Black Crow.
Most of the negative reviews I read had to do with it being higher priced… Well, let me say, if this was in Lincoln or Omaha, most dishes would be $ 5 to $ 10 higher pretty easily. Most dinner dishes are just under the $ 20 range although a couple were closer to $ 15 and there were some closer to $ 25. Can’t recall what the Pizza’s cost.
I had the Shrimp Rissotto dish along with the House Salad. The house vinigarette dressing was awesome. Shrimp Rissotto dish was very solid. Good-​sized portion and seasoned quite well. Who would think you could get Rissotto in Beatrice, NE? Not me for sure.
I’d be interested to come back at lunch as I heard they serve Gyro’s. I would have to think a gyro at this quality of place would be amazing.

I was impressed to find this dining option in such a tiny town. The décor was tasteful, kind of interesting with the dead crows, but nice. Low lighting, could even be considered a little intimate. I loved that the tablecloth was a big piece of paper to color on. For some people, that might not be as appealing. Before we understood it, we looked at each other like uhh where’s the nice white tablecloth. This is until we discovered the crayon basket. Life changing.
Maybe we came on a bad day or at a bad time because I heard this was a great place. I ordered the salad nicoise, my friend had the stir fry special. When our bread basket came, it was pretty dry. My friend was not happy with her meal. She said the broccoli was raw and the «stir fry» sauce was basically brown gravy. I did enjoy my salad– smoked salmon, olives, eggs, potatoes, onions, broccoli and dressing– but how hard is that to mess up?
I think the menu options are pretty impressive for the community and if I would try this place again.

Another surprisingly awesome place in an otherwise unspectacular Nebraska town. The food was delicious, the prices were good, the ambiance was nice and the staff were a riot.
I had the lamb and beef gyro with a caesar salad. Both were great, although the gyro did taste a bit different. Not odd, just different than most other gyros I’ve had. But it was still delicious and filling, and only cost like $ 7.50.
I had a Golden Ale from Colorado, which was pretty refreshing. They’ve got a few «local» beers from Lincoln, and then your average beers and liquors.
The building is this old place that clearly had a lot of history to it. They have those green copper ceiling tiles I’ve seen a lot in other places in Nebraska.