We are from out of town but we travel to Kearney once a year. We’ve eaten at Cunningham’s in the past and we’ve had good experiences, but this year was horrible. We arrived and seated ourselves, as the sign in the front direct us to do so, and we saw multiple staff members notice that we had come in and that we were sitting there, but no one acknowledged us or came over to take our drink order. After about twenty minutes, a staff person approached the people at an adjacent table to check on them, but then hurried away. We asked the people behind us what they had done to be waited on, and they yelled for the manager, who evidently they knew by name. He approached the table and apologized, but instead of taking our drink orders and getting things started, he gave us the “I will send someone over line.” We could see several staff people multiple times that night standing around together in the middle of the room. When someone finally did come over she wasn’t very friendly. I ordered a gourmet burger that had multiple toppings and was supposed to be smothered. It was $17 before tax, but based on the menu description and the toppings it was supposed to have, I figured that the price was justifiable. It was way overcooked to the point of tasting burnt, and dry. They had asked us about cook temperature and I had requested medium well. It was also supposed to be smothered with bbq sauce, and it had none. I elected to pay a 15 percent tip when we left because I thought my experience was poor. Our waitress slammed down my leftover container and walked off like she was angry. Very disappointing, uncomfortable experience.
Bret L Osburn
The food was great. The service was great. We'll go back there
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Mark Fusco
Wings and service…AMAZING!!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Thomas
Been a long time since I've been here, but the environment hasn't changed that much, if at all.New servers, kind of the same menu but with some items removed. No more Reuben sliders anymore, which is sad. They still have the Reuben pizza full time though.Our server was very kind and pretty attentive. We came at a somewhat odd time so the place was noisy for a bit, but died off rather quickly.I just chose random food myself, and went with the double bypass cheeseburger. It's two big chunks of meat basically on a bun. The meat seemed to be a little heavy on black pepper, but I personally like pepper myself. Might be a turn off for others though. Added bacon and pepperjack and got a side of onion straws.Other than the extra amount of pepper (and to my knowledge I actually don't remember seeing pepperjack on the burger), it was a decent meal.The price for the food was pretty high, so this will probably be a "once in a while" place still for quite a long time.Parking here is still usually a pain as well, by the way.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 4
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Journal Bites, Baked Potato
Philep Willey
Some of the best pizza I've ever had. The drunk chicken pizza is spectacular. Their wings and sauce selection is superb. Great atmosphere in a historic building. Highly recommend!Update: revisited after several years and ordered the drunk chicken, pepperoni, and two large wings for our group. The service was superb! However, the drunk chicken has lost its "pizzaz" as we all thought it was very dry and didn't have a lot of flavor. Also, we ordered large pizzas, but seemed much smaller then what we expected. All 4 flavors of wings lacked enough sauce and bland. We ordered more sauce on the side and that helped. Homemade ranch was delicious, as was the burger that my friend ordered.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 3
Service: 5
Brenda Anderson
Food is outstanding, love CUNNINGHAMS ON THE LAKE! I do have to say, it is extremely loud in there. We find it hard to even carry on conversations. Which is why our group doesn't frequent here very often.I really like their pizza, not on the list below, but my favorite!
Always the best food, friendly servers and great atmosphere!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Maureen Wallace
Feet sticks to the floor, rude bartender upstairs and downstairs ..instead the bartenders serving drinks, they making tick tok videos. SMH. Just poor service, kitchen close way too early.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 1
Service: 1
Brandon Karlin
It’s disheartening how we were treated. I’ve always had a great experience with Cunningham’s and enjoyed the food. I wanted a good burger and wanted to share this with my family. When you get in there’s a please seat yourself sign. We have a handicapped child who struggles with high top chairs so we were looking for a table. One of the gals was kind and said we could pull some tables together. We had a party of 8. We pulled three 4-top tables together to fit us all. Management approached us and told us we couldn’t do that and needed to cram 8 of us into two 4-tops.The way he talked to us was enough for me to not want them to have my business. Tabs are normally around $200 when I take my family out and I tip generously having worked the service industry. I’ve got kids and I get it, they are messy. I always tip more because I truly appreciate the service wait staff provides.If your tables are reserved, please mark them instead of telling us we can’t use them and have to cram 8 people into what is realistically now a six top. There’s no need to act like we are a major inconvenience. Especially when your restaurant is dead. There’s plenty of other good options, and likely won’t be back.
Atmosphere: 1
Service: 1
Greg Statler
I had an incredible burger. I asked for it medium and it was. 9/10 restaurants the burger would be overcooked.My buddy had the strip that was great too.
The drinks were good, we didn’t try any food but I’m guessing that was a good thing. The service from the bar staff was terrible. We sat with empty drinks for the last 30 minutes while 2 of the 3 bartenders just leaned against the back of the bar talking and our bartender (server) was nowhere to be found. Doubt we will be
Atmosphere: 3
Service: 1
Christian Chambers
Ate here 2 years ago. Best damn pork belly bites I ever had. My wife had to hide them from me when I left to the restroom. And the Juicy Lucy..........O.M.G.I had cheese stuck all in my mustache and I didn't care. My taste buds were in a coma after this. They were just hit so hard with out of this world flavor. 10 out of 10 for me. Next time I'm in Nebraska beat believe I'm coming back to see my boy Cunningham.
Jared Zwiener
Great tvs and they put my game on. Great food. They only lost stars in service because the waitress stood around on her phone for a long time before checking on us.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 3
Craig Theimer
Nice place to stop in. This is the downtown restaurant. They also have a Cunningham restaurant closer to rt I80. We've been to both, and they each have good food. I like the atmosphere at this one because it's an older building with history. My wife had many carnivores options, and she chose one of their burgers. My plant based option was the Hummus plate with no added oil. It came with carrots, peppers, celery, and pita. It came with drizzled oil, but I was able to drain it off and scrape a layer off the Hummus. I also ordered a plain baked potato. It was plenty of food for me. They have good choices for beer and wine, but we went with coke and iced tea. Either location in Kearney will not let you down. Highly recommend.Vegetarian options: It would be nice to see more plant-based options available. I was very satisfied with my choices. Our previous visit, I ordered a cheeseless pizza. This was also good.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Logan
Stopped in for a work lunch. Very friendly server and prompt service. Burgers were a solid choice.I'm pretty sure the chef takes humor in knowing the people who order the spicy chicken quesadilla will be in pain for a while. I watched three grown people do the "hot/spicy" dance when eating them.Overall, will be back.
We are from out of town but we travel to Kearney once a year. We’ve eaten at Cunningham’s in the past and we’ve had good experiences, but this year was horrible. We arrived and seated ourselves, as the sign in the front direct us to do so, and we saw multiple staff members notice that we had come in and that we were sitting there, but no one acknowledged us or came over to take our drink order. After about twenty minutes, a staff person approached the people at an adjacent table to check on them, but then hurried away. We asked the people behind us what they had done to be waited on, and they yelled for the manager, who evidently they knew by name. He approached the table and apologized, but instead of taking our drink orders and getting things started, he gave us the “I will send someone over line.” We could see several staff people multiple times that night standing around together in the middle of the room. When someone finally did come over she wasn’t very friendly. I ordered a gourmet burger that had multiple toppings and was supposed to be smothered. It was $17 before tax, but based on the menu description and the toppings it was supposed to have, I figured that the price was justifiable. It was way overcooked to the point of tasting burnt, and dry. They had asked us about cook temperature and I had requested medium well. It was also supposed to be smothered with bbq sauce, and it had none. I elected to pay a 15 percent tip when we left because I thought my experience was poor. Our waitress slammed down my leftover container and walked off like she was angry. Very disappointing, uncomfortable experience.
The food was great. The service was great. We'll go back there
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Wings and service…AMAZING!!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Been a long time since I've been here, but the environment hasn't changed that much, if at all.New servers, kind of the same menu but with some items removed. No more Reuben sliders anymore, which is sad. They still have the Reuben pizza full time though.Our server was very kind and pretty attentive. We came at a somewhat odd time so the place was noisy for a bit, but died off rather quickly.I just chose random food myself, and went with the double bypass cheeseburger. It's two big chunks of meat basically on a bun. The meat seemed to be a little heavy on black pepper, but I personally like pepper myself. Might be a turn off for others though. Added bacon and pepperjack and got a side of onion straws.Other than the extra amount of pepper (and to my knowledge I actually don't remember seeing pepperjack on the burger), it was a decent meal.The price for the food was pretty high, so this will probably be a "once in a while" place still for quite a long time.Parking here is still usually a pain as well, by the way.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 4
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Journal Bites, Baked Potato
Some of the best pizza I've ever had. The drunk chicken pizza is spectacular. Their wings and sauce selection is superb. Great atmosphere in a historic building. Highly recommend!Update: revisited after several years and ordered the drunk chicken, pepperoni, and two large wings for our group. The service was superb! However, the drunk chicken has lost its "pizzaz" as we all thought it was very dry and didn't have a lot of flavor. Also, we ordered large pizzas, but seemed much smaller then what we expected. All 4 flavors of wings lacked enough sauce and bland. We ordered more sauce on the side and that helped. Homemade ranch was delicious, as was the burger that my friend ordered.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 3
Service: 5
Food is outstanding, love CUNNINGHAMS ON THE LAKE! I do have to say, it is extremely loud in there. We find it hard to even carry on conversations. Which is why our group doesn't frequent here very often.I really like their pizza, not on the list below, but my favorite!
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Journal Bites, Cheeseburger, Chicken Quesadilla
Always the best food, friendly servers and great atmosphere!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Feet sticks to the floor, rude bartender upstairs and downstairs ..instead the bartenders serving drinks, they making tick tok videos. SMH. Just poor service, kitchen close way too early.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 1
Service: 1
It’s disheartening how we were treated. I’ve always had a great experience with Cunningham’s and enjoyed the food. I wanted a good burger and wanted to share this with my family. When you get in there’s a please seat yourself sign. We have a handicapped child who struggles with high top chairs so we were looking for a table. One of the gals was kind and said we could pull some tables together. We had a party of 8. We pulled three 4-top tables together to fit us all. Management approached us and told us we couldn’t do that and needed to cram 8 of us into two 4-tops.The way he talked to us was enough for me to not want them to have my business. Tabs are normally around $200 when I take my family out and I tip generously having worked the service industry. I’ve got kids and I get it, they are messy. I always tip more because I truly appreciate the service wait staff provides.If your tables are reserved, please mark them instead of telling us we can’t use them and have to cram 8 people into what is realistically now a six top. There’s no need to act like we are a major inconvenience. Especially when your restaurant is dead. There’s plenty of other good options, and likely won’t be back.
Atmosphere: 1
Service: 1
I had an incredible burger. I asked for it medium and it was. 9/10 restaurants the burger would be overcooked.My buddy had the strip that was great too.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Restaurantji Recommends
The drinks were good, we didn’t try any food but I’m guessing that was a good thing. The service from the bar staff was terrible. We sat with empty drinks for the last 30 minutes while 2 of the 3 bartenders just leaned against the back of the bar talking and our bartender (server) was nowhere to be found. Doubt we will be
Atmosphere: 3
Service: 1
Ate here 2 years ago. Best damn pork belly bites I ever had. My wife had to hide them from me when I left to the restroom. And the Juicy Lucy..........O.M.G.I had cheese stuck all in my mustache and I didn't care. My taste buds were in a coma after this. They were just hit so hard with out of this world flavor. 10 out of 10 for me. Next time I'm in Nebraska beat believe I'm coming back to see my boy Cunningham.
Great tvs and they put my game on. Great food. They only lost stars in service because the waitress stood around on her phone for a long time before checking on us.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 3
Nice place to stop in. This is the downtown restaurant. They also have a Cunningham restaurant closer to rt I80. We've been to both, and they each have good food. I like the atmosphere at this one because it's an older building with history. My wife had many carnivores options, and she chose one of their burgers. My plant based option was the Hummus plate with no added oil. It came with carrots, peppers, celery, and pita. It came with drizzled oil, but I was able to drain it off and scrape a layer off the Hummus. I also ordered a plain baked potato. It was plenty of food for me. They have good choices for beer and wine, but we went with coke and iced tea. Either location in Kearney will not let you down. Highly recommend.Vegetarian options: It would be nice to see more plant-based options available. I was very satisfied with my choices. Our previous visit, I ordered a cheeseless pizza. This was also good.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Stopped in for a work lunch. Very friendly server and prompt service. Burgers were a solid choice.I'm pretty sure the chef takes humor in knowing the people who order the spicy chicken quesadilla will be in pain for a while. I watched three grown people do the "hot/spicy" dance when eating them.Overall, will be back.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5