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Review: At Hacienda Real, home cooked Mexican and Tex-Mex hits the spot
Sometimes when I’m deciding whether or not to review a place, I turn to Google, simply to learn a little bit more. When I googled “Hacienda Real,” the Lincoln-based, locally owned chain of Mexican restaurants that opened its third location in Omaha in August, this line popped up inside the box devoted to recent Google…
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Review: At Winchester Bar & Grill, your small town dive bar burger dreams come true in Omaha
I’d heard a lot about Winchester Bar & Grill — in particular, about the burgers at Winchester — long before I ever set foot in the dive bar dining room a few weeks back. I kind of love it when rumors turn out to be true. Winchester made me feel like I was in some…
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Review: At Dynamite, some dishes are on fire, while others lack spark
Dynamite Woodfire Grill, the restaurant inside the new Farnam Hotel at 12th and Farnam streets, presents diners with an interesting proposition: Would you rather dine with us, or at The Boiler Room? With us, or at V. Mertz? For its price point — our dinners, after tip, stretched to $300 one night and topped $160…
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Review: At the tiny Khao Niao, Thai and Vietnamese classics are made with care
Whenever a friend says something along the lines of “have you tried the Thai place on 155th and Ruggles?” a little light flips on in my head. After two recent visits to that west Omaha hole-in-the-wall — which turns out to be called Khao Niao Thai-Lao Restaurant — I’m glad I have such friends. This…
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Review: At Saffron, well-executed Indian classics are great, and there’s more to come
Saffron Urban Indian Kitchen is trying to figure out a way to stand out in Omaha. Our city already has a lot of good neighborhood Indian spots (Kinaara is one I like) and a couple of higher-end choices (Jaipur is one I like, too.) When you first arrive at Saffron, and take in the upscale,…
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Review: The Dundee Dell is back for a new generation of locals
One of the toughest things a restaurant owner can take on is the reinvention of a classic. The Dundee Dell, which is nearing a century of history in midtown Omaha, is certainly that kind of an icon. So I was excited to see a successful revamp of this neighborhood spot, at 5007 Underwood Ave., when…
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Review: At Gather in Omaha, “something for everyone” turns out to be a rare success
Gather is the type of new Old Market restaurant that long-time Omaha diners haven’t seen in several years. The Old Market arguably hasn’t welcomed a good new restaurant since 2013, several years before the infamous M’s Pub fire. Gather, located in a rebuilt space also destroyed in that fire, is working to change that —…
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Review: West Omaha’s popular Crumbl Cookies are worth the hype
Sometimes a restaurant opening creates such an intense amount of buzz, it becomes unavoidable. In those rare cases, I simply have to check out whatever it is people are finding so irresistible. That’s what happened after I started hearing murmurs about a cookie place called Crumbl, which opened nine weeks ago in West Omaha. As…
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Review: At Koji, small skewers of meat are pushing Omaha’s dining scene forward
Omaha’s food scene, and Omahans, have had a tough two years. We’ve lost restaurants. We’ve done our damndest to keep our local chefs and favorite spots in business. We’ve ordered a hell of a lot of takeout. Which is one reason it felt like such a gift when Koji, chef David Utterback’s adventurous new spot…
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Burger Review: Is this Omaha’s fanciest hamburger? I think so.
I’ve eaten a lot of fancy hamburgers in my day (I did a whole Food Prowl back in the day on the topic of gourmet burgers, which you can read at this link and this link.) Way back in 2013, our team named the Grey Plume’s gourmet burger as our favorite, and I remember at…