Steakhouse Lincoln NE to Kearney NE

[Laura Pether]

My husband is driving Superior WI to Colorado and will be overnighting in either Lincoln or Kearney Nebraska. Any really good steak houses off I-80?

[KC-Jane]

I've done Misty's a few times and had fine steaks there.

Link: http://www.lincoln.org/cvb/dining/mis...

[Ann Vuletich]

In Kearney, lots of people like Grandpa's Steakhouse. It's right off I-80 but it's on the other side of the freeway from the town of Kearney so if you're coming from Lincoln, you turn left and cross the freeway.

[GeorgeWyche]

Traveling I-80 through Nebraska we randomly found Kearney's Grandpa's Steak House about 8pm on a Friday this summer (2009). We were not up for a high price place, but we are not chain eaters. So it came to be that we did not order real steaks.

Pretention radiated from much of the place, but we are not from Nebraska so maybe other explanations are possible. Things important to some are not to others. I'm tolerant, if critical. As mentioned on Y e l p where I have looked since, their review nailed it. The right attitude is: new investors attempting to shore up a venerated reputation.

The dining rooms are large. There were hints that the salad bar was to be valued. We were seated at a round table with a cloth table covering, cloth napkins, and solid silverware. The college age waiter was newish, not instilled with "the way", but seemed to think the institution's reputation absolved him of a lack of moxie. He brought some heated bread in a basket covered with cloth, but also a mixture of cracker packages, margerine pots.

The dinner menu was about $5 higher than I had expected (not yet knowing of the reputation), so with 2 diners, tip and tax it was not going to match our goal. We didn't order steak, so what can we say? We did not opt for the salad bar, but the waiter said that my wife's ham slice came with it. I ordered chicken fried steak with brown gravy (which came in a gravy boat) in order to challenge the mainstay. The huge (fake) wooden beam across the full length of the ceiling was okay until you actually looked at it. It was fake. It prompted me to look around at the other obvious "redone" bits. The salad bar didn't have dressings, so the waiter rattled off the available list ending with www.dorothylynch.com/history/index.cfm Dorothy Lynch. "Say what?" The waiter thought we didn't hear and repeated it. "What's that?" He came back with "You are not from Nebraska are you?" My wife chose a vinagrette. She wanted her hunger to go away.. not out for adventure.

The food wasn't shameful, it just felt like a poorly produced play that we are expected to forgive since it is such a well respected play. So it was a mixture of things I consider an appreciated expense along with gratuitous cheapness. Since I couldn't come up with an explanation, I attribute to a my foreigness and their incomplete transformation.

[MaryJane]

I second Misty's in Lincoln. Lincoln is the bigger city of the two you mentioned - chances are better that you would have a great steak there. Also consider "Chances R" in York - pretty old style decor & great food, but 5 miles or so into town. But, why not stop in Omaha just off I-80 for dinner & than continue on to Lincoln? Omaha is known for it's steaks. I travel a lot, but have never had a steak as good as in Omaha's Anthony's (just off I-80), also Gorat's (farther from I-80) & I've heard good things about The Drover (not far from I-80, but have not been there in a while).

Hope this helps!