Curri

Some of the ladies I work with and I decided to go out for my birthday to have lunch at Curri, an Indian lunch buffet. The restaurant was very busy and had a large buffet with quite a few delicious options such as tikka masala, tandoori chicken, salad with various dressings, naan, galub jamun, pakora, and more. I tried a little bit of everything on the buffet, and was not disappointed with a single item. 

The rice was rich in flavor, there was a variety of curry dishes, the tikka masala was creamy and delicious, and the naan was lightly buttered and toasted.

The restaurant had cleared out quite a bit by the time we wrapped up our lunch, and we were all very satisfied with our meals. This restaurant is a great place if you only have an hour lunch break, and was so good that I returned again a few weeks later with Shane. The choices on the buffet were different for both of my visits, and each time I was very happy with my meal . I will definitely return a third time for some delicious Indian food at a great price!

Rice Bowl Chinese Restaurant

Late one Sunday evening Shane and I decided to go out for dinner. After driving around until approximately 9pm and finding no open restaurants, we came across Rice Bowl and decided to venture inside. I had been told by a colleague that Rice Bowl was a great little Chinese place, so my expectations were somewhat high. 

The sign on the door said that the dining room closed at 9:30pm. We arrived around 8:50, so we decided to dine-in. The server made sure to let us know that the dining room closed at 9:30, and promptly asked us what we would like to order. We took a few moments to look over the menu and I decided to order my Chinese staple, Moo Goo Gai Pan, while Shane ordered Imperial Pork. 

Each dish came with either white rice or fried rice and two crab rangoons. The fried rice was bland and resembled white rice, and the crab rangoon were dry, crispy, and had minimal filling. The crab rangoon filling tasted of primarily cream cheese, and neither of us could detect any crab meat. We both would have liked to have some sweet and sour sauce to dip our rangoon into. My Moo Goo Gai Pan was good, but it was definitely not authentic. The sauce was very similar to sauce you would find on a beef with broccoli or chicken with Chinese vegetable dish. 

Shane's dish was a little bit better than mine, but still not authentic. His pork was lightly breaded and crispy, with a sauce that was more similar to sweet and sour sauce with some small chili peppers, containing hardly any spice at all. 

 Overall, this restaurant is a good choice if you want a cheap meal late at night when everything else is closed. Otherwise, I suggest looking for a more quality Chinese restaurant, as the food at a Chinese buffet would have been better than our meals at Rice Bowl.

Dinkers Bar

We had read online that the "best burgers in Omaha" were at Dinkers Bar so we decided to check them out. Before leaving, we looked at the menu and I was very excited to see that Dinkers served chicken gizzards. Shane was excited about the "world-famous" onion rings featured on the menu. 

Dinkers was located on a street with limited parking, and many people parked along the side of the building by driving over a curb. You place your food order at the back of the restaurant and are given a table number for a server to bring you your food. All drink orders must be placed at the bar, and Dinkers only accepts cash. 

We ordered an appetizer of chicken gizzards, which were perfectly spicy and served with either homemade ranch, bbq sauce, or honey mustard. We ordered both ranch and bbq, but the gizzards were good enough be eaten on their own without any sauce. These gizzards were only $6 and can only be ordered after 5pm.

 Shane ordered the Haystack Burger, which was a juicy medium burger topped with a slice of honey smoked ham, American cheese, and a fried egg. Shane added all the fixings to his burger, he says that it was good, but that the cheese, ham, and egg did nothing to make it "best burger" quality. 

Shane also ordered onion rings, which were supposed to be "world famous". They were lightly breaded and somewhat soggy, with limp onions and bland flavor. Shane had to add salt to the onion rings to make them worth eating, and he never adds salt to anything.

I ordered the Husker Burger, which was a juicy medium burger topped with hickory smoked bacon, bbq sauce, and sauteed onions. I added all the fixings to my burger as well, and was very happy with my choice. The bacon was very thick and crispy, the burger was perfectly juicy and seasoned, and the bbq sauce was the perfect touch to put this burger over the top.

My burger came with french fries that were nothing spectacular, but with how incredible the burger was, I will definitely be back for more. Shane says he will order something different next time, but I enjoyed my burger so much that I may just get the same thing. One thing we do want to try on our next visit is the Rocky Mountain Oysters featured on the appetizer menu for after 5pm. Hopefully we like them!

San Luis Restaurant

If there is one thing we have discovered since moving to Omaha, its that 24th street has amazing Mexican food. We wanted to try a new place near 24th street, so we ended up going to a place called San Luis Restaurant. We always take it as a good sign when we go to a Mexican restaurant and most of the customers are Hispanic, and San Luis certainly did not disappoint.

Our experience at San Luis started with a basket of homemade chips, which were thick and reminded me of pita chips, as well as a squirt bottle of orange salsa. The salsa was very flavorful and delicious, our only concern was that we did not have a dish to put the salsa in, so each time we tried to squeeze some on a chip, a chunk of tomato would come out and make the salsa spray in all different directions, making a complete mess. This salsa was good enough to just squeeze straight into your mouth... if you are feeling very uncivilized. 

Similar to our visit at Taco Peligro, we decided to try a variety of items to see how they compared. We ordered a $3 appetizer of Chicherones y cueritas, which is basically a large fried pork skin covered in what appeared to be boiled pork rind with lettuce, tomato, avocado slices, and a sour cream sauce. The fried pork skin was flavorless and crispy, and the pork rind was tender and cold, but a little too slimy for my liking. While this dish was not completely awful, it was definitely something we will not order again. 

For our meal, we ordered four items to share: An al pastor sope, a carne asada huarache, a milaneza torta, and a cheese gordita. The al pastor in the sope was absolutely phenomenal with the perfect amount of seasoning and incredibly delicious pork.

The huarache had moist and delicious carne asada, and was basically a really big sope, as the toppings were the same as the sope, with lettuce, tomato, sour cream, and cheese. 

The torta was full of milaneza beef. Milaneza is very similar to chicken fried steak with a saltine cracker breading. There was also tomato and lettuce on the torta. This sandwich was very flavorful, but did not compare in flavor to the sope or huarache. 

When we were placing our order, we asked the server which gordita she would recommend and she told us to order the cheese & peppers gordita. Taking her advice, we ordered it, and were incredibly disappointed. The tortilla "crust" was bland and flavorless, and the cheese was mild and pretty flavorless as well. The peppers were the only added flavor in this dish, and they were all clumped together in the middle, creating an overpowering amount of flavor in one single bite. This picture makes the gordita look as appetizing as it actually was:

Overall, the salsa, sope, and huaracha made this experience worth a second visit, and after seeing what the customers around us were ordering, I think we know what we will get next time (the Mega San Luis, basically a giant plate full of pasta, shrimp, veggies, meat of all types, guacamole, etc). Also, one of the best things about this restaurant was that our entire meal, including tip, was under $20. We will definitely be returning, but next time, we will ask for a dish for salsa, and will order the Mega San Luis!

Dixie Quicks

Shane and I love watching the show "Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives" on the Food Network. Recently, we watched an episode about a place in Omaha called Dixie Quicks. I had tried to find this restaurant once before, when I ended up at Shucks Fish House & Oyster Bar. This time, I looked up the new address in Council Bluffs and we ventured out to see what the hype was all about. The restaurant was very modern, with an interesting wait staff and an even more interesting "menu". The menu is written on a chalkboard in the middle of the restaurant, and from our seats, it could not be read. There are no descriptions of what each entree consists of, and you have to stand around in a group of people trying to decide what you would like to order.

In this photo, you can see the menu against the far wall. Personally, I found it frustrating that I would have to stand in front of the chalk board to decide what to order, and that there was no way of knowing what each item was (without asking). After looking at the chalkboard, you would have to remember your order until the server came to take it from you. Everything on the menu was divided into price groups, the appetizers were all one price, salads another, sandwiches another, and entrees another. From the quality and portion size of our meals, this place is really overpriced.

Each of the entrees came with corn bread and a salad. The salad was bland, and Shane and I agreed that the best thing about the salad was the one grape tomato that they included with it. The corn bread was decent, slightly dry, but fairly good with added butter and honey. 

Shane ordered Chilaquiles, a decent Mexican dish that was obviously Americanized. Traditional Chilaquiles is made with corn tortillas, but this dish was made with tortilla chips and had a texture similar to a frito pie. 

I ordered chicken fried steak, and was surprised by the brown gravy when it arrived. My side of green beans were obviously frozen beans that had been steamed and completely unseasoned. The chicken fried steak was okay, but could have had more spices to boost up the flavor. The mashed potatoes were just that, mashed potatoes... nothing to write home to mom about. 

After our experience with yet another Triple D restaurant, we are starting to think that maybe the restaurants that we dream about on "Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives", may not actually be as great as they look on the show. Dixie Quicks is just one more Omaha restaurant that we will be adding to our "Don't Visit Again" list, as it was an overpriced meal that I could have made at home and been ten times happier with the outcome.

Tacos Peligro

After reading reviews online about the "best tacos in Omaha" and the "most authentic Mexican food in Omaha" we decided to try Tacos Peligro. Pulling up to the restaurant, we had our doubts as the restaurant had been tagged with graffiti and there were bars on the windows. 

We entered the incredibly small restaurant and seated ourselves at a booth in the corner. Taking a look around, we knew we were in the right place, as the clientele were all Hispanic, and all looked very happy with their authentic dishes. The server brought us some homemade chips that resembled pita chips with a cup of salsa, some delicious avocado salsa (with a small kick), a dark red salsa (that was very, very spicy), and a cup of lime wedges. He also brought the menu's, and we were shocked by the incredibly low prices (so many things under $5).

After reviewing the menu, we decided to order a variety of the items priced under $3 to share. We ordered a carnitas (pork) pupusa, a lengua (tongue) taco, and a cabeza (head) sope. The man taking our order seemed somewhat surprised at our choices, but left to place our order. 

Once again, I forgot to take pictures of everything we ordered, and we downed the pupusa before we realized we had not taken a photo. The sope (pictured above) was so delicious, the corn tortilla-like sope was very flavorful, topped with the most tender cabeza meat in the world. The flavor of the meat was so succulent and delicious, and it almost melted in our mouths. The sope was covered in lettuce, tomato, a thin Mexican cheese, and a homemade sour cream sauce.

The lengua taco was very tender and delicate, but also full of flavor. The taco was covered in cilantro and onion. We added the avocado salsa, the red salsa, and the limes to each of these dishes, and were blown away by the authentic goodness in each bite. 

We loved our meal so much that we decided to order one more sope and one more taco, this time trying the tripas (tripe) and carne asada (marinated steak). The carne asada was incredible, and while the tripas were not my favorite, Shane seemed to love them. 

One important thing to know if you plan to make a stop at Tacos Peligro, is that they only take cash, so come prepared! We had to make a trip to the bank and come back to pay our check, since we were unaware of the cash only policy.  Overall, this restaurant was so delicious that I was dreaming of the tacos a few days later and had to return within 4 days with a coworker for lunch. I tried two different types of tacos and was still just as impressed as before. This, ladies and gentlemen, is the real deal, true authentic Mexican, and heavenly deliciousness!

Saigon Restaurant

Shane and I had just finished watching a movie at Westwood Cinema and were in the car headed home when we saw Saigon Restaurant across the street. Since we were still on a mission to find a Vietnamese restaurant that compares to our favorite Minnesota restaurant, Viet Flavor, we decided to stop and look at a menu. I ran inside to grab a to-go menu and came back to the car to look it over with Shane. The menu featured a variety of spring rolls, as well as different types of Pho that were reviewed online as the "best pho in Omaha". There was also a special running on three different types of Bahn Mi. Thinking that we might have found our new "Viet Flavor", we ventured in to Saigon Restaurant.

We were seated at a very large booth and promptly brought two glasses of ice water with a cucumber in them. The cucumber gave the water a funny aftertaste, so much so that Shane asked for a water without cucumber.

The server was very nice about getting a new water, but seemed surprised that someone would request to not have any cucumber. When it was time for us to order, I asked the server what her favorite spring roll was, which she told me was the shrimp and pork spring roll. We took her suggestion and ordered the spring roll, and also asked for one combination Bahn Mi and one pork Bahn Mi. She got a confused look on her face, went to the kitchen and came back to inform us that they did not have the right ingredients to make the combination Bahn Mi. Since we wanted to try a variety of foods, we ordered the chicken Bahn Mi instead.

The spring roll was very dry, and contained a lot of mint. There was hardly any pork in the spring roll, leaving it bland and boring to taste. Even after adding quite a bit of their homemade fish sauce and peanut sauce (which were both quite spicy), the spring rolls were still not up to par.

The chicken Bahn Mi was decent, with moist and flavorful chicken and a small amount of daikon. The menu said that each sandwich came with a liver spread, but it was undetectable in both sandwiches. There was also a homemade mayo that traditionally comes on Bahn Mi. The mayo was put on the sandwich so sparingly, that it was undetectable as well. 

Since we wanted to share the sandwiches, we asked the server for a knife. She returned with the knife and seemed slightly agitated. The pork Bahn Mi was similar to the chicken, average in flavor, lacking cilantro and jalapenos and with a minimal (unnoticeable) amount of liver spread and mayo. Since the mayo is one of our favorite parts of Bahn Mi, and since these sandwiches were lacking, we requested a side of mayo to add to our sandwiches. The server, seeming even more agitated, returned to the kitchen and came back to tell us that she could not provide a side of mayo, as they only made a certain amount and needed some leftover for future orders.

This restaurant was easily my biggest let-down in the city of Omaha. The Bahn Mi would have been much better, had they been served with jalapenos, additional mayo, and some more cilantro. We would have requested jalapenos or more cilantro, if the server had ever come back after our request for extra mayo. Overall, this restaurant had poor service, unauthentic food, and left a lot to be desired. This is easily one restaurant we will never be returning to.