Piccolo Pete’s

I know Piccolo Pete’s is closing. I know it’s an institution in town. I think this is an example of a restaurant that had a good run, but simply lost it’s drive for good food. We went in last week at dinner time. Immediately, we were told they were out of the prime rib, which was disappointing, but understandable. My wife, father-​in-​law, and I all ordered the ribeye steak, and all ordered it medium-​rare (the way God intended steak to be make). Once the steaks came out, they were all cooked to different levels of doneness. My father-in-law’s came out the closest to medium-​rare. Mine was mostly rare, and my wife’s was between medium and medium-​well. That’s inexcusable in a steakhouse, I don’t care where you are at. Invest in a $ 10 meat thermometer, and know when to pull the steak off the grill.
The sides were also just as bad as the steaks. Like I said, I know they don’t care since they are closing, but seriously, the quality was not good. The green beans were canned. The pasta was overcooked. The sauce on the pasta wasn’t bad, but I would be surprised if they made it themselves.
It’s a shame to see such an institution go down like this.

Piccolo Petes has been a staple Italian steakhouse in Omaha for generations. They are closing in 2 weeks. When we heard this news we planned a friday night with a group of friends! Everyone else in town had the same idea we had and there was a 1 – 2 hour wait. luckily we found a spot to wait comfortably at the bar. It has been many a years since I have been to Piccolo Petes and after our dinner I remember why.
Canned green beans soggy and no flavor.
frozen/​freezer burned ravioli
boxed mashed potatoes with out of a can brown sauce
the prime rib is why you go and is great. But seriously its prime rib its not hard and cafeterias can do a great prime rib.
Nostalgia aside Piccolo’s did not change with the times of food quality and freshness being something people realized is ok to ask for. The game was not stepped up and improved and its sad. Would love to see it revamped and relaunched. Instead of closing

Cleanliness 4
Service 5
Food Quality 3
Likelihood 3
1 – 5 (5 Best!) 3.8
Dinner for 18 please. We gathered as a group to remember a restaurant soon to close (12÷31÷15) It IS an end of an era for local steakhouses that didn’t keep up with the times. I remember eating here for the first time around 20 some years ago. Not a lot has changed. There is still a wall mounted ash tray in the mens restroom.
The service was incredible. She didn’t miss a beat with us all. She took VERY good care of us. The food was good. I would not say that it was pipping hot, or super fresh, but it was tasty. The sauce (which is VERY important to me) seemed watered down, a bit thin, and not as bold with flavor as I bragged about and recalled.
Although it is sad to see a landmark close, I share that if you don’t keep current then you become irrelevant.
I note that I think the dinner prices were a bit high, in terms of cost. I don’t remember them being this high. Two dinners and two iced teas was $ 50. I don’t mind paying good money for good food and service. This was on the high side for me.

I was excited to try this place out but was so disappointed. I ordered my filet mignon medium well, and what I got was well over done. It was super charred, dry, and tough to chew. It was nowhere near medium well or even had a bit of pink! The hash browns were pretty good, and the pasta was kinda bland. And I love salad dressing, but our salad was drenched with dressing. I may as well have drank salad dressing by itself.

I wanted to go to this place one last time before they closed for good. I’m glad I did. Had steak and hashbrowns. Both were excellent. My only complaint was the service. Our waitress seemed overwhelmed, was kind of rude, slow, and never took one dish off our table. When the main courses came she didn’t take the salad plates or bread plates away. By the end our table was piled high with dishes. If I was rating on food alone I would have given 5 stars.

Was disappointed. Ribeye was so-​so and the lasagna was sub-​par. The chicken noodle soup was good. Bread was from a bag-​looked and tasted store bought. Not sure what the big hype is about this restaurant.

Saturday night. Place reminds me of a small-​town Midwest steak house (with a lot more seating). This is not an «urban» restaurant, but that’s part of the nostalgic charm. I had veal parmigiana with hash browns ala Buffet. It was ok. Not good and not bad, but pretty much what I expected. Hash browns and onion rings (appetizer) were the best part. Waitress was harried, but competent.
If I hadn’t read the reviews and the history it would have been two stars, but I knew what to expect. Just not my kind of place, but a LOT of happy people were there.

One of the last of the Italian steakhouses in Omaha and I’m not surprised. After announcing they were closing at the end of the year, we went on a Thursday night after not having gone there in several years. We arrived a few minutes before 5 and by 5 pm there were probably 25 people waiting to be served. The atmosphere is exactly as it’s always been, fairly tacky, but you can’t deduct points for that. I had the filet ordered rare, $ 24 I think, and it arrived medium well and frankly lacked flavor. Partner had prime rib and it was mediocre as well. The salad dressing is amazing. The spaghetti sauce is wonderful. The shrimp cocktail had no flavor whatsoever. Cocktails were great. All in all, $ 100 for a meal for two which was worth considerably less.
It’s quite possible that in the early days Piccolos seemed like a good dining experience. Now Omaha has so many great restaurants that they just can’t compete. The quality of the meat just didn’t match even what we can get from Wolner’s on Friday evening as take-​out, let alone any other good steakhouse. Sadly, I think this place will and probably should go the way of the dinosaur. Sometimes going out of business is simply a natural order for a business offering patrons a sub-​par dining experience.

Good!
Surprised at how much food comes with the meal –spaghetti, salad, hash browns & plain white bread. The steak was good (not great/​outstanding) because it lacked flavor. SO DISAPPOINTED that Outback has more flavor!
The atmosphere pushed my «3» to a «4-​.» Good service. Really cool place –from the walls to the chandelier –even though I didn’t get to see Warren B.

The bread is just rotella’s wrapped in napkins, the salad is just lettuce with a pepperoncini and dressing, the beans are from a can, yeah the specials are just the regular prices minus a buck, the are very little frills, and the décor is stuck in the 70’s, the parking sucks, but I still like Piccolo’s. Went there for my father-​in-​laws birthday on the Saturday the article about their closing came out. What a zoo. Luckily we had a reservation and got in after about a 15 minute wait. The place was packed. I guess announcing you are closing brings every one out. Great marketing scheme. Most of my wife’s family got the prime rib. I got the veal parmesan, mmmm baby cow. The service was good considering how packed it was. My wife’s prime rib was cold and tough so they brought her a new slice, no problem. Everyone wants to compare places like this to their modern counterparts, but I don’t know if you can or should do that. I will hopefully get a chance to get back to Piccolo’s at least a couple more times before they close for good.

Took the family there on a Sunday night. Disappointing for the price. Far better restaurants for the money.
1. Kids meal were pricey for what you got. My 5 year old ordered spaghetti, it was a very small bowl of spaghetti. Came with soup and/​or salad. Most five year olds do not want soup or salad, I tried substituting for green beans, the answer was no.
2. Had a four piece chicken special. Price was good but chicken had little flavor and over cooked. Plain lettuce salad? Come on, you can do better then that. Asked for crispy hash browns, they came out with burnt black areas.
3. Waitress was not friendly and service was slow.
4. Bread basket was white bread wrapped in paper napkins.
5. I did like the green beans.

Went for lunch. It was simple but flavorful with good service. The overall value was great. I was in great company too so that made it all the more memorable.

They need a new approach to bread, salad, and veggies. Good steak and hash browns. Friendly service. y wife liked her chicken. A little disappointing.

This makes me so sad to write this. Piccolo’s was hands down my favorite restaurant in town. If I could go anywhere my choice was always Piccolo’s. I have so many memories of going there with my grandparents, on special dates, really just anytime I wanted a good steak.
So when I took my dad there Saturday for father’s day I was so disappointed. I loved going there and everything was just simple and basic yet delicious. The night started out with a waitress who was very rude. We got water but no straws. When we asked for straws she only gave us 2! 2 straws for a table of 4. OK I can overlook that I mean she was soo busy with three tables only and one included ours. I digress. Next comes our salad and soup. I have been craving a Piccolo’s salad for awhile. No frill just iceberg lettuce and delicious ranch. Much to my suprise they changed the salad. I know it’s the thing to do now, but I don’t really care to eat weeds in my salad. Next the soup, I couldn’t even eat it. Neither could my dad and he can eat just about anything. OK our dinner comes. A beautiful fillet that is 6 oz. (See typically I will always get the large filet, but I seen their prices went up and I was not about to pay $ 6 more for only 2 little ounces.) Well our waitress must have been so rattled from standing there talking to her brother who was one of her three tables that she dropped my mom’s mosraccioli on the floor. My little brother was covered in sauce. My mom had sauce on her and the waitress goes oh I don’t think it got ya. I even found sauce on me when I got home and I was the furthest from it. Typically something like that happens you get a free dinner, or a discount, or ice cream, something. Nope we got nada. I don’t know if they got new wait staff because I didn’t see one waitress I recognized, but if they are anything like the one we had you need to reconsider a stricter training program. I don’t want to just sit here and put don’t Piccolo’s or the waitress, so let me tell you this, our filets and hash browns were delicious!!! This really knocked the wind out of my sails, I walked out of there so disappointed.
I will probably go back again but it won’t be for months and months. There is no way to give half stars otherwise I would give it 2 ½ stars. But I will leave it at 3 for all the great meals I’ve had there in the past.

I wouldn’t recommend unless you hate fresh ingredients and love canned food.
A few weeks back, I did a bus tour of omaha classic steakhouses (cascio’s steakhouse, johnny’s café, piccolo pete’s, and gorats). At Piccolo Pete’s, the owner’s son, Anthony (the one with the food truck currently) was so passionate and energetic. And the sample of prime rib and tater tots were good, so we decided to go back for a full meal.
Terrible.
Bread: Looked like a smaller version of those $ 1 white sandwich bread. Cold. Wrapped in wrinkled paper towel. Nobody touched it.
Salad: Chopped up iceberg lettuce with one banana pepper swimming in thousand island dressing.
Cream of chicken soup: Straight out of a can (need to say more?)
Baked potato: They don’t bother chopping up fresh chives or anything. A potato and store bought sour cream mixture.
Side of vegetable: Canned green beans. Where is the appreciation for fresh vegetables at this restaurant?
T-​bone steak: I ordered medium rare. Tenderloin side was perfectly done but strip side was way over done. I don’t think I’ve ever had such fatty t-​bone steak before.
Oh, on top of that, the wait staff was rude too.
We ordered drinks and the waitress that looked to be in her early 20’s asks for our IDs — which is okay because I look younger even though I was born in 70’s. What’s not okay is that she made us all say our ages out loud. Didn’t anybody tell you that it is rude to ask a lady for her age? In front of other people who doesn’t know my age? It was my turn, and I said «I’d rather not say, and you have my ID.» Well, in the end she forced me to say it anyway. I said my age hesitantly and she says «are you not sure about that?»
Probably should have left then.

I hate to give this place a bad review, but it was notably bad.
I’ll start with the good. The prime rib was delicious and cooked as ordered, however, it quickly became cold. This could be remedied by stacking the plate on another hot plate.
Now, the bad:
1. Our server took drink orders, then disappeared. Never got bread. We had to flag him down after a while to place food orders. When we asked for bread, he brought a basket of cold sandwich bread. No, thanks.
2. Salads came out. Plain iceberg lettuce with a hot pepper. That’s the best they could do?
3. Our entrees took 30 minutes to come out. The wait was so long that we actually became hungry again. Had to ask server twice where the food was. Meanwhile, water ran out. Note: This is a Sunday night at 5:30pm and the place is half empty.
4. Veal parm was good enough, but $ 18? It came with a side of «vegetables» which was actually a bowl of canned green beans sitting in a pool of water. Also came with a bowl of spaghetti, but it really was an afterthought.
I would suggest this place pay more attention to details. Certainly they can do better than iceberg lettuce «salads,» canned green beans and sandwich bread. They really cut corners, and while the prime rib was mighty tasty, the overall experience dulled it down so much that I won’t return. Perhaps the money they’re spending on bland pasta (that everyone is too full to eat anyway) could be spent on better bread and salad, and higher quality sides. Quality over quantity, all the way!

Uhhhhh no, just don’t.
We were extremely surprised at the exterior of the building as we pulled up since it had been recommended to us. The neon sign announcing their specialties couldn’t have looked more shady if it was a strip club.
This place is so 70’s from the décor on the walls, to the music, to the disco ball hanging in the dining room.
They serve wonder bread as an appetizer and Gizzards appear all over their menu as a delicacy. The food is not worth the low prices. I ordered chicken Parmesan which came with bean soup and mashed potatoes… What? Yea, just find somewhere else to eat.

Generally just referred to as «Piccolo’s,» this is one of Omaha’s original old Italian Steakhouses. There used to be a lot more of them, but many have closed. It’s been around since the 1920s in this same location. The neighborhood around it has drastically changed for the worse over the last 90 years (which is why your first reaction when visiting the place is, «There’s a steakhouse HERE?!»). It’s filled with mostly the over-​60 crowd enjoying dinner at a place they’ve been dining at since they were young adults. I imagine many a senior citizen dining in here had their first date here 50 years ago. If you’re into the restaurant history of a city then you have to dine at Piccolo Pete’s at least once.
On this most recent visit we stopped in for dinner on a Saturday in November.
They had a list of specials at the entrance to the dining room. Of the four specials, three were discounted $ 1 from the regular menu price (nothing to get too excited about) and one was actually the same price as listed in the menu. They had a ½ pound Prime Rib for $ 18.95 or on the menu you could get an 8oz Prime Rib for $ 18,95. Are they just not aware that ½ pound and 8 ounces are the same thing or were they hoping the customers wouldn’t notice? I asked our waitress what was special about that special and she acknowledged that there was no savings.
The place wasn’t very full at all. We dined from 6:30 PM to 7:30 PM on a Saturday evening and the restaurant was never more than 60% full. I can remember waiting 30 minutes for a table on a Saturday night back in the mid-​1990s.
Service was just okay. Our waitress seemed generally unhappy. She was cordial with us and relatively attentive, but you could tell she just didn’t want to be there and her demeanor made you a little scared to ask for anything. It was a Nebraska Cornhusker game day so the wait staff was allowed to wear Nebraska shirts instead of their typical outfit. However, at this price point they really shouldn’t be dressing down. Especially for dinner service. Save it for lunch.
Bread service is sliced bread. You will see MANY a restaurant reviewer complaining about this. Now, I will say that their sliced bread is made by a local Italian bakery (Rotella’s) and is, in fact, called Steakhouse bread. However, people don’t expect sliced sandwich bread in a restaurant where they’re paying $ 20 for an entrée. Piccolo’s really needs to do something about this. It’s a frequent and constant complaint and they could easily remedy it by switching to rolls.
Same is true for their salad. You get iceberg lettuce and a single pepperoncini pepper and NOTHING else. What upscale steakhouse serves a lettuce-​only salad? I don’t care if the dressing is made in-​house and is tasty. Iceberg lettuce is low-​rent for a place like this and the lack of any other leafy green or vegetable in the salad is both unimaginative, lazy, and cheap. Again, this is a frequent point of complaint from reviewers that they could easily remedy by kicking their salads up a notch.
I ordered the 12oz Prime Rib. I received what had to be a 16oz-​18oz Prime Rib. It was cooked how I ordered it (Medium Rare). I’ve certainly had more tender Prime Rib which makes me think this isn’t USDA PRIME beef, but Select beef being called «Prime Rib.» Unfortunately, this sort of thing has become very common in restaurants serving «prime» rib. The beef had a good flavor, but I would have liked a bit more sear to the outer bark. I ordered it with a baked potato. Baked Potato was held too long in the kitchen. I presume they bake them all en masse earlier in the day and then hold them in a warmer drawer. That is fine, but mine had been in that drawer a bit too long and was tough in places.
You used to receive complimentary iced tea, coffee, or water with every meal. No more. Now you just get the water. Likewise, I seem to recall white tablecloths at dinner, but now it’s standard oilcloth tablecloths. More examples of them cheapening everything except their prices.
Overall, it was just an okay dining experience. It’s not the kind of dining experience I expect when with drink, tip, and tax I am dropping $ 25+/person on dinner. Lunch is cheaper, so I would come here for the lunch pricing which is a bit more in line with the service and quality.
Piccolo Pete’s has been sliding downhill for 20 years and if they don’t do something to modernize their menu, justify their pricing, and get a new generation of diners to fall in love with them then they’re going to be out of business. They can only milk the senior citizen nostalgia crowd for so many years. It’s as if they’ve been doing something a certain way and for 70 years it worked well, so they’re too stubborn to realize that the restaurant scene and people’s expectations have drastically changed over the last couple of decades.
Yes, Warren Buffet has been known to dine here, but that doesn’t automatically make the food or service great.

Having lived in Omaha for approx. 25 years, I had never heard of this place until my in-​laws invited us here to eat. Piccolo Pete’s is one of those «hallmark» Omaha restaurants that have been around forever. I imagine people go here because of the nostalgia, but I can’t imagine it’s because of the prices/​food. Ok onward to my review…
I love trying new places, so my first inclination was to go online and review their menu to see what they offered. My jaw dropped with how expensive they were for the types of reviews that some were giving. Their kids menu started at $ 9 and went up to $ 11…for kid portions? Steak entrees were between $ 20-​$ 30 (for 8 oz portions…) My in-​laws said «they give you a lot of food» so I made up my mind that they charged so much because there would be enough for leftovers. WRONG!
We had a table of 11 people including 3 kids. My first impression upon walking in was 60s/​70s décor, lots of gold/​brass, no windows, and much outdated furniture. I personally don’t get the lure of places that don’t update and still have that dark, «vintage» look.
At the table, we could see they had bread and butter. Bread was literally sliced bread you buy at the store. Not the warm, out of the oven bread you get at places like Outback or anywhere else. Cold, sliced bread that costs .99/​cent a loaf. I couldn’t even get my kids to eat it.
We only waited for 2 minutes before our server approached our table. SUPER nice gal who was quick to get us waters and quick to take our order. I will admit that the service here was one of the better that we have experienced. She was attentive, knowledgeable and personable.
I ended up ordering the 12 oz ribeye along with my husband. It came with a soup, salad, steak, potato side, and pasta side. In my mind, I was envisioning this huge plate of food that I was going to dominate and still have leftovers. Soup was average, salad was iceberg lettuce with too much dressing, steak was well-​seasoned but a little tough, baked potato was dry and unseasoned (note it came was a packet of sour cream and chives), and the pasta was literally like 10 spaghetti noodles and some sauce. For me, it was like maybe 2 bites of worth of pasta (for the price, I envisioned a heaping side of it considering how CHEAP pasta and sauce is). They gave us some green beans as a side too (like 15 pieces) and it literally tasted like canned green beans that were microwaved and a dash of salt was thrown over. I honestly would compare the food to school cafeteria food.
Our daughters got a bowl of mostaccioli and one large meatball to share… for $ 10 bucks! I could have made the exact same thing at home for $.98 cents. They would have been much happier with a bowl of Olive Garden or even Fazolis (and it would have been half the price!) Needless to say, it was pretty much a ripoff.
So in summary:
4 stars for SERVICE
2 stars for FOOD
5 stars for BATHROOM (pleasantly clean and well lit, but there was a wobbly changing table that is an accident waiting to happen for some unsuspecting child)
0 stars for VALUE
Approx. 2 stars rounded UP.
I honestly don’t know how this place is surviving. It’s overpriced, with lower quality food, and not really inviting décor. Crazy enough, this place was full… my mind is blown. To the max.

We stopped at Piccolo’s last week so I could show my family where my grandparents took me when I was young. We all loved it. Great old school atmosphere. $ 12.95 for the 10oz lunch ribeye which included Rotella’s bread, salad, spaghetti, and a side. Service was great as well. These are the types of restaurants younger people need to visit to keep open. Forget the chains. These long time unique local spots are great to visit. We also joked about seeing Warren Buffett since this is one of his favorite restaurants and I was told he was eating towards the back in another room. I didn’t check it out so he could have his privacy. Overall great experience!