There’s a thing that happens to restaurants that have been around, doing what they do, for decades. While some remain at the top of my mind — and on my list of regular spots — others fade into the background, overwhelmed by the new. 

I can’t remember, for example, the last time I visited Sakura Bana, the small sushi spot off 78th and Dodge streets, before I went in December to start working on this review. There’s one reason I went back, and that’s its new owner, David Utterback. 

I was curious: What was Utterback, who runs award-winning Yoshitomo in Benson and buzz-worthy Koji in Countryside Village, going to do with the restaurant, which has been open in Omaha since 1986? 

Quite a lot, as it turns out. Most noticeably, the biggest changes Utterback made are inside the two pages where you pencil in your sushi order. 

Utterback, the first-ever Nebraska chef to be named a finalist for a prestigious James Beard award, took over the restaurant in June from its long-time owner, Tony Asanuma. Asanuma had been running it since it opened as Sushi Ichiban, which operated for years at 84th and Dodge in a former International House of Pancakes. Asanuma changed the restaurant’s name to Sakura Bana when he moved it to its current location in 2007. 

Under either name it’s an Omaha tradition, a casual, moderately priced family style sushi joint. It is the first place I ever had sushi. It also happens to be the first place Utterback ever had sushi. 

“It’s the most formative sushi that I ever experienced,” he said. “It’s the sushi that everyone (in Omaha) learned how to eat sushi on.” 

Utterback told me after my two visits that he’s been going to the restaurant since he was 10 years old, to celebrate birthdays, Mother’s Day with his late mom and other special occasions. Now, he takes his own children there. During those visits, and as he got better at sushi himself, he said he’d often think about what he might change were he to take over the restaurant. At the beginning of the year, it came true. Asanuma told Utterback he was ready to retire, and Utterback took over the restaurant this summer. 

Since then, he’s slimmed down the menu substantially, he said, but hasn’t changed a single one of the remaining recipes. The restaurant had not adjusted its prices since before the pandemic, and Utterback said he had to make adjustments. 

There’s still a selection of bento boxes — a Sakura Bana staple — along with noodles, pork and chicken katsu and a long list of both small plates and sushi. 

But I want to start with the sushi, because I knew right away that Dave had worked his magic on the nigiri list. He told me he’d made small but significant changes: higher quality rice and fish and a new rice cooker. That’s evident in just one bite of the medium fatty tuna, the salmon, the yellowtail. All three are delicious; I am sure the remainder are, too. 

There’s some fun-to-eat appetizers, like the okonomiyaki, a savory pancake cooked on a flat griddle then topped with bacon, cabbage, bonito flakes, Japanese mayonnaise, tonkatsu sauce and nori. It’s stacked with flavor and texture, crisp at the edges and wildly cool to both look at and eat. I also liked the plate of sweet, sour and tangy oshinko, or Japanese pickles. Made with celery, daikon radish, eggplant and cucumber, each pickle has a different flavor profile. 

Fried pork gyoza had a crisp-tender finish and a ginger-forward, meaty filling, good enough that my dining partner and I quarreled over who got the fifth one on the shared plate. And a plate of zingy shishito peppers came charred black with a sweet glaze and a heavy hit of citrus, served in a still-sizzling cast iron skillet. 

The sushi rolls had mixed levels of success. We sampled five, the best being the negitoro, a classic roll made simply with scallion and fatty tuna; the white zombie, made with super white tuna, spicy tuna and avocado; and the familiar Omaha crunch, an Utterback staple made with spicy crab and cilantro with a crispy panko finish and a drizzle of eel sauce. 

At his other restaurants, Utterback makes wonderful beef-centric sushi, but the Nebraska roll at Sakura Bana wasn’t executed at the same level. Thinly sliced beef tasted dry inside the tempura fried crust, and the flavors of scallion were lost among the crust and spicy sauce. The Osaka, the other torched roll we tried, had the same issues with dryness and muddled flavor. Crab and shrimp hid under a thick layer of bonito, mayo and tonkatsu sauce.

Better was the udon noodle bowl, its broth rich with umami and salt. Its thick tender noodles came tangled among fish cakes, soft cooked eggs and tempura fried extra large shrimp, served on the side to preserve their crispness. 

I have seen many recipes online for chicken or pork katsu, a panko breaded and fried staple of Japanese food, but I have rarely seen it on a menu in Omaha. Sakura Bana’s comes in several varieties, and I tried it with a mild, sweet curry, studded with peas and carrots, and two large scoops of tender rice. It’s another dish that’s fun to eat, satisfying in its mixed textures and savory crunch.

Service at Sakura Bana is friendly, but it lags. We waited on refills of water several times, and during our second visit, our entrees came out about five minutes apart. When we ordered sushi, I wished the staff would have identified the rolls instead of letting us figure them out on our own. 

Utterback said his intention with Sakura Bana is to turn it into the kind of Japanese restaurants he experiences on his regular trips to Japan, a concept he said doesn’t exist anywhere in Omaha. 

“There are restaurants that serve Japanese foods,” he said, “but I want to bring the Japanese food that Japanese people eat to Omaha.” 

I have not been to Japan. But if there is one person I trust to bring those flavors to Omaha, who has done it with Yakitori and exceptional, original sushi already, it is Utterback. 

Change isn’t always easy, especially at a longtime restaurant that fits many diners like an old shoe. I hope Omaha diners and Sakura Bana regulars give Utterback the chance to do it.

The Flatwater Free Press is Nebraska’s first independent, nonprofit newsroom focused on investigations and feature stories that matter.

Last week, I shared my first of two year-end food lists: a look back at the best restaurants I think have opened in the Omaha metro in the past five years.

This week’s list is more personal. These are simply my Omaha favorites, the tried-and-true places I return to again and again. They’re the places that make some of my favorite drinks and dishes in town: My favorite Manhattan, my favorite ribeye, my favorite burger and my favorite pizza among them. They offer singular service and creativity and are run by some of the city’s best chefs. These are the places where I am most comfortable. These are the restaurants where I’m personally most reminded that Omaha is a great city in which to live – and to eat.

The Boiler Room

The Boiler Room, for me, has become a place where I both feel at home and where I can still be culinarily challenged, a difficult balance to strike, to say the least. The dining room still feels special and individual to Omaha, and I think it remains one of the city’s most engaging spaces. I still think about a dish we ate when I reviewed it last year, a vegan Yorkshire pudding with tender pastry and a meat-free but hearty, delicious filling. I think about the kitchen’s seafood and fish, always excellent, or its house-made charcuterie or, more recently, its desserts, which are better than ever. It’s both formal and friendly, chic and cozy, and if you haven’t visited lately, you ought to.

1110 Jones St., 402-916-9274
https://www.boilerroomomaha.com

Block 16

Every morning when I open Facebook and do my daily scroll, I’m again surprised, and often delighted, by the new creation Block 16 has in store for us that day. 

This past week alone, Block 16’s specials included a mashup of a McRib and a patty melt. And a short rib French dip. And a “Nebraska bowl,” which includes both Angus beef tenderloin and fried chicken on top of veggies, tater tots and mashed potatoes. And a lobster shrimp croissant. And sausage and peppers. Hungry yet? I am. I always am. (Though I can’t lie: more often than not, I simply order the Block burger, truly one of the top three hamburgers in Omaha.) 

When you patronize Block 16, you’re sure to encounter the city’s friendliest staff, and its kindest, big-hearted owners, Paul and Jessica Urban. What’s not to love?

1611 Farnam St., 402-342-1220
https://block16omaha.com/

Yoshitomo & Ota

Chef David Utterback has single handedly ruined me on sushi. Do I still order it periodically at other places? Yes. Do I wish, nearly each time I do so, that I was at Yoshitomo instead? Also yes. Dave has taught me — and Omaha — a whole lot about quality fish, time, care and talent, all of which he takes very seriously and all of which shows why a seat at Ota, his chef’s sushi counter, has become one of the hottest seats in the city. I have had the pleasure of sitting in one of those chairs twice, and I can’t wait for the third time. 

In the regular dining room, I can rattle off my Yoshitomo favorites instantly without glancing at the menu: Hama toast, aburi wagyu, smoked hotate, kani miso, foienagi, chutoro, madai, aji. Honorable mention: Khaleesi roll. Now that’s a memorable experience.

6011 Maple St., 402-916-5872
https://www.yoshitomo.com/

The Drover

Perhaps part of the reason I love The Drover is because it is one of the strongest food memories I have of my late father. Like he did, I order the filet, medium rare. Like he did, I load my iceberg lettuce salad with croutons and a heavy pour of thick Thousand Island dressing. Like he did, I love the dim, Western-themed interior and the stiff drinks and the crispy onion rings, dunked in ketchup. 

But honestly I think I would love The Drover even without those powerful memories from my childhood, because it stands the test of time in a way few restaurants do, even in Omaha, land of the longtime steakhouse. 

Even after a fire and being closed for many months and then reopening, The Drover is still packed most nights. I appreciate its longevity. Its commitment to heritage and history. Most often now, you’ll find us at the bar, over a cocktail, sharing a steak and a burger (the burger, by the way, is great.) Just like my dad would have imagined.  

2121 S. 73rd St., 402-391-7440
https://droversteakhouse.com/

Dante

You probably noted that most of my favorites are east of 72nd. Dante is one of the restaurants that I am willing to drive a half-hour from our downtown Omaha home to experience on a fairly regular basis. It’s for the pizza, yes, of course. Papa’s sausage is worth trying many, many times.

But Dante is also one of the few restaurants where you can find locally made, Incontro-cured meats on the menu. Its farm greens salad remains one of my favorite bowls of green in Omaha, and I’ve written many times about how much I love the butterscotch budino. Its house-made pasta dishes remain some of the best anywhere in the city. I think what keeps Dante top of mind and on my list is its admirable dedication to serving local food and supporting local farmers. That’s become increasingly difficult and expensive, and yet at Dante it makes all the difference as those products, handled with care, shine throughout the restaurant’s menu. 

16901 Wright Plaza, 402-932-3078
https://www.danteomaha.com

Five more that I loved in 2024: 

Le Bouillon, 1017 Howard St., 402-502-6816, lebouillonomaha.com
The Mill on Leavenworth, 3105 Leavenworth St., 402-252-5588, millcoffee.com
Coneflower Creamery, two locations, coneflowercreamery.com
Avoli Osteria, 5013 Underwood Ave., 402-933-7400, avoliosteria.com
Kinaara, 120 Regency Pkwy., 402-895-3463, kinaaraomaha.com

It’s that time of year again: annual food lists are back. Honestly, I always enjoy digging around my own archive, remembering what I enjoyed (and sometimes what I didn’t) and realizing which restaurants, in my real life, I have visited again and again. Favorites change. 

This year, I’m trying something new: taking a look back at the last five years – just before the beginning of COVID times – to find the five best restaurants that have opened in Omaha since Jan. 1, 2020. The resulting list, I think, is a good indication of where Omaha is headed in post-pandemic dining. Lots of new. Lots of good. More chef-driven food in west Omaha. At least two “firsts.” We have plenty to look forward to, even as we take a look back.

Dumpling Empire (2024)

I have been waxing poetic about the soup dumplings at Dumpling Empire since my glowing review earlier this fall. As far as I know, Dumpling Empire is the first spot in Omaha to serve soup dumplings. And it really is that good — good enough that I have recommended it to many friends and strangers and good enough to be on this list. If you have not yet been, the tri-color soup buns are a great place to begin. Served in a steam basket with green, white and orange wrappers, each one comes filled with a pork meatball and a small amount of steaming hot broth rich with umami and flavors of pork, ginger, garlic and soy. And though, for me, the dumplings are the star of the show, there’s more to love, including the hand-pulled chili oil noodles, with tender handmade noodles twirled among crisp-tender bok choi and chili peppers. Never eaten a soup dumpling? Read my full review; I’ll tell you how.

5413 S. 72nd St., Ralston, 531-867-3929
dumplingempireralston.kwickmenu.com/

Dolomiti Pizzeria & Enoteca (2023)

Almost right after it opened in May 2023, Dolomiti pushed its way into any legit conversation about the best pizza in this city. Dolomiti’s chef, Roberto Garcia, is the primary reason. He’s made a menu, under the guidance of co-owner Tim Maides, that features pizzas with unusual topping combinations. He’s cooking pizzas that star a crust that’s craggy and crisp, with dark bubbles and burnt bits, its finish airy and chewy, its flavor deep. He’s also making an absolutely killer mortadella sandwich, as my Flatwater review notes. The homemade Italian lunch meat, gets paired with a spread of verdant house-made pesto and a bit of homemade ricotta, all of it sandwiched inside a pillowy, folded half circle of housemade bread.  On the side is a bright, acidic arugula salad, complete with lacto-fermented farro, that proves to be far more than an afterthought.  

That thoughtfulness runs through Dolomiti, and it’s what put it on this list.  

1105 N. 13th St., inside Millwork Commons, 531-375-5111
www.pizzadolomiti.com/

Salted Edge (2023)

For a few weeks in 2023, the Salted Edge bread board absolutely owned my social media accounts. Every time I opened Facebook, there it was. I actively avoided reading more about it online, or looking it up on the restaurant’s menu, because I wanted a clear head when I first encountered it. And here’s what my first and subsequent bread board encounters taught me:  It is indeed quite good. The house-made sweet and savory breads get paired with compound butters to match each flavor profile. It’s simple in its inventiveness and changes all the time. 

And it’s only one of the top-notch dishes coming out of chef Joel Hassanali’s kitchen. The menu is long and broad, and a handful of menu items  stand out, particularly those inspired by Hassanali’s background — he is from Trinidad, and grew up in the Caribbean where his parents ran a restaurant. 

One example: Locally raised Plum Creek chicken is listed on the menu as “chef spiced,” and that’s because Hassanali uses his own spice blend, which starts with palm sugar and includes a dozen more ingredients, including cumin and curry. Another: The Vadouvan roasted cauliflower (now just listed as “roasted cauliflower” on the menu) is rich and warmly-spiced. And there’s more to like, including a colossal shrimp cocktail and an excellent burger. As Omaha grows up and out, the western edge of the city can and should expect more chef-driven spots like this one to take root. 

110 S. 243rd St., Waterloo, NE, 402-625-3343
www.salted-edge.com/

Koji (2022)

When Koji opened in the spring of 2022 I wrote that it felt like a gift. Chef and owner David Utterback had already leveled up our city’s game once with Yoshitomo, his now nationally renowned Benson sushi spot. He did it again in 2022, introducing a whole new food category to Omaha: yakitori. Koji has become one of our favorite spots in the past two years – especially when we’re lucky enough to snag a coveted spot at the sushi bar. Book a reservation early at Koji, or prepare to eat early or late. The wildly popular restaurant’s yakitori program — yakitori translates from Japanese as “grilled bird” — focuses on chicken and stars chicken thigh, wing and breast done as meatballs and with curry. There are also more obscure cuts, like chicken heart, skin, oysters and belly. As the program has grown, and the restaurant has become more popular, the specialty cuts list has gotten bigger. 

Pro tip: If they’re available, don’t skip the chicken oysters, which have become my favorite, along with belly. The sushi menu, a sister of the menu at Yoshitomo, has also grown, as Utterback and chef Dylan Espinoza have added more small and medium-sized share plates and hand rolls. Two years on, Koji still feels like a gift, one that keeps on giving.  

8718 Pacific St., In Countryside Village, 531-721-2626
Izakayakoji.com

Committee Chophouse (2020)

When I sat down for dinner at the Committee Chophouse in the spring of 2021, it was the first time I had sat down to dine inside a restaurant for more than a year. Dining out, I wrote, felt “like an old friend I had deeply missed.” Glad that friend is back in our lives in full force, as this list illustrates. I still love the Committee’s singular blend of new school meets old school, and they’ve  refined it in the past four years. Since that review came out, I’ve celebrated New Year’s there twice, and will ring in 2025 there, too. That’s because it feels special and fun. The service is fantastic, friendly and not too formal. 

Since that review, the kitchen has beefed up (pun intended) the focus on the old-school, with a fantastic beef Wellington, served wrapped in puffed pastry with layers of prosciutto and duxelles, a paste of minced mushrooms, onions, herbs and black pepper sautéed in butter. It is rich. It is decadent. It is just what it should be. The beautifully executed baked Alaska is worth ordering, too, so save room. The Committee is the kind of place that has settled firmly into Omaha’s dining lexicon, just as we have settled firmly into its cozy dining room, lit with a warm glow. See you on New Year’s Eve, old friend.  

302 S. 36th St., inside the Cottonwood Hotel, 402-810-9500
www.thecommitteechophouse.com/

Five honorable mentions:

Lately, I’ve been writing about and talking a lot about soup dumplings, with their recent arrival in Omaha. This week, I’m taking a look at another ancient Chinese dish (like, two millennia ancient) that’s making a splash in west Omaha. 

Hot Pot 88, which opened in October off 132nd and West Center, isn’t the first restaurant in Omaha to serve the dish, which features a pot of simmering broth and a variety of meat, seafood and vegetables that the diner herself cooks in the hot broth. 

But, to my count, it’s only the second hot pot restaurant in Omaha – China Garden is the other – and definitely the first that boasts an all-you-can-eat style menu.

After two recent visits to Hot Pot 88, one for lunch and a second for dinner, I appreciated its varied selection of both spicy and savory broths and its wide expanse of vegetables, meat, seafood, sauces and other add-ons any time of the day. When you get right down to it, hot pot is a lot of fun to eat. This new Omaha version of it is no exception. 

Hot pot has been a staple of Chinese cuisine for nearly 2,000 years longer than the United States has been a country. Royal diners ate theirs out of bronze pots, and later, around 200 to 280 A.D., a copper pot became the new vessel of choice. There are both Northern and Southern Chinese styles of hot pot; in the north, the dish is simpler and focused more on the meat. In the South, the dish is spicier, and more focused on dipping sauces and seafood, vegetables and mushrooms. 

At Hot Pot 88, you can find and try all of the above in pretty much whatever combination you wish. Inside, the restaurant is brightly lit and has a bit of an industrial vibe, with a variety of tables and booths, each one set up for several people to have the hot pot experience. 

Most hot pot I have had before has been with a large shared pot of broth, sometimes divided in half to include two flavors, but at Hot Pot 88, each diner orders their own broth pot, appetizer and drink, all of which is included in the all you can eat price: $19.99 for lunch and $33.99 for dinner, excluding alcohol.

During the dinner hour, manager Melanie Chen told me, the price is higher because it also includes a variety of sushi appetizers, grilled fish, short ribs and pork bao buns, along with additional seafood selections on the buffet. There’s also the option to order crab legs by the pound.

I sampled three of the broth lineups: savory bone broth made with ginger and onion, spicy Sichuan style and coconut chicken, which is closer to a Thai-style broth. There are several other choices, including two vegan options. I most enjoyed the bone, with its hints of warm spice and clean, neutral flavor. If you like spice, the spicy broth, with floating Sichuan peppercorns, is the one you should try. 

The all-you-can-eat price also includes one appetizer per diner, which can include steamed or fried dumplings, spring rolls or egg rolls, crab rangoon, sesame balls, meat skewers or chicken wings and fried calamari, among other choices. For me, the appetizers were fine – I probably most enjoyed the sesame balls – but ultimately forgettable. 

I recommend saving room for the main event. My two dining partners agreed.

You start the main hot pot event by choosing your meat of choice: pork or pork belly, beef, chicken, lamb or oxtail (available only in the evening). I tried them all, and the rolls of beef, which cook in mere seconds once dropped in the broth, were my favorite, followed by the meaty oxtail.

The menu is huge, and it can take a few minutes to narrow the selections, but on both visits, our broth pots arrived quickly, and the staff turned the individual heaters on high; the broth came up to a boil in just a few minutes, which means it is ready for the diner to cook. 

While the broth warmed, we perused the restaurant’s extensive buffet of vegetables, seafoods, sauces and desserts, which are far too many to name here. Among my favorites were crisp winter melon, broccoli, carrots, mushrooms, bok choy, various types of tofu, shrimp and both fish and meatballs. There’s a whole section of noodles, with both ramen and udon, and some noodles that will be lesser known to many Omaha diners, too. 

The sauce bar boasts broth enhancers like chopped raw garlic and peppers, along with fresh herbs and a thoughtfully curated selection of all kinds of sauces. A combination of hoisin and chili oil is a can’t miss for me. I also liked the sweet seaweed salad and kicky fermented kimchi so much that I got bowls of both on each visit. 

My friend said the whole experience felt thoughtfully arranged.

“It’s all-you-can-eat, but it’s not buffet vibes,” he said. 

On each visit, we didn’t experience an ingredient that wasn’t fresh or tasty. Several times, I saw  the restaurant’s staff patiently explaining some of the more unusual ingredients on the buffet to unfamiliar diners, a kind detail. 

My friend who dined with me at lunch did note that while some ingredients are labeled, not everything is. A few more labels might be a good idea, because even he – a restaurant industry veteran – and I had a hard time identifying some of the vegetables. With so many selections, we also thought a printed menu might make the experience easier than scanning a tableside QR code. 

Chen told me later that what makes hot pot special for Omaha diners isn’t necessarily the ingredients.

“The cultural significance of hotpot and the social bonds it forms make hotpot a special meal,” she said. 

I think so, too, and I’m glad Omaha has one more place to experience it.