This past weekend, The Omaha Critic and I duct taped the kiddos in the closet (har har…grandparents are wonderful things) and escaped for a long overdue date night. Long overdue, especially since it was our anniversary! (WOOHOO, go us!) While our normal inclination is to head out to you know where for sushi, we instead decided we needed to do some work for the site here, and hit up a place we’ve never been before.
This time, that place happened to be LiT…the Contemporary Tapas Bar and Lounge on 180th and Center. We arrived around 5 pm on Saturday, which obviously is a bit early for things to be happening at LiT. Now, we’ll admit, we’re in our mid 30’s. Our general impression was that LiT probably caters more to the 20-something set. That said, the decore is very nice, upscale, and geared more toward a night out drinking than dining.
Alas, it is generally the food that we’re there for! The Critic and I ordered four different tapas dishes: crab fritters, shrimp cargot, candied coconut jumbo shrimp, and pepper encrusted beef tenderloin skewers. I also partook of the drink menu, and ordered an ultimate chocolate martini and a dirty monkey martini.
Let’s tackle the food first. The crab fritters? Awesome. The texture was fantastically light and the outside crispy. The inside gave you a great taste of crab, witha sweet edge of corn. The fritters were very enjoyable, especially when eaten with the creole remoulade and the chipotle honey. Next was the shrimp cargot – or shrimp served in the fashion of escargot- fried in butter and garlic, and topped with melted havarti cheese. The shrimp were cooked perfectly, and the dish was quite enjoyable. The Omaha Critic preferred the shrimp, I preferred the crab fritters.
On to the “main course” dishes. The Critic took the shrimp, and I had the tenderloin (although we shared quite a bit, as you should withtapas.) I will admit? I wanted his. The shrimp was great, as was the orange marmalade dipping sauce. Is it better than The Critic’s other place to get coconut shrimp (Outback Steakhouse)? No. About the same. Probably about the same price as well. The tenderloin was good as well – tender and juicy, and great withthe sauce it was served with. Bothplates came witha small salad with vinaigrette dressing that was very tasty. All in all, the food was very good.
The price for the food? Not a bargain. The price aren’t huge – $10 for the crab fritters and shrimp cargot, $17 for the coconut shrimp, and $22 for the beef tenderloin – but when you consider that these are basically the same prices you’d pay for similar dishes at other local restaurants and get more food – it’s just a consideration.
Our other main observation about LiT is that the service? It’s not so great. The Critic and I are big on good service, and definitely try to show the love to those servers who do a great job for us (Hi Rusty, Sammy, and John!). When we don’t get great service, we try to determine if there’s a good reason (really busy night), or if the server is just inpet. Sadly, we have to say the server we had at LiT was somewhat inept.
I’d like to tell you how the Dirty Monkey martini was – but she brought me a second Ultimate chocolate martini instead. While I didn’t mind the chocolate martini, I wanted to try something different the second time. I’d have complained…but our server never came back for me to tell her. When it came time to pay, we waited for a considerable amount of time for our server, and finally went up to the bar to pay. If that was the type of place LiT was, we’d understand, but it isn’t. So, the food was good, but the service was not so great.
Pluses: The food was very good, the decor is nice. For this I would have given it a solid 4 napkins.
Minuses: The service wasn’t great, and the prices are a little high for what you get. These things degraded my rating.
Overall Impression: It is probably a fun 20-something lounge, but I wouldn’t plan on it for dinner. I give it 3 napkins.
~The Critical Wife
