The Omaha Critic

Ok, I will admit we are big Food Network watchers in this house.  The Omaha Critic and I both love to cook, and inevitably on the weekend we end up watching something that makes us drool with food lust.  Often, that comes from Guy Fieri’s Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.

Guy was in Omaha at some point in the last year or two, and one of the places he covered was California Taco, on 30th and California.  After seeing it on tv, The Critic and I decided that one of these days we’d have to make it down there.  Well, we tried last weekend.  Sadly, we arrived right before 9 PM when the restaurant closed.  However, the guy at the door was nice enough to let us in to place a quick order to go – and thinking quickly on our feet, we ordered some beef puffy tacos – I think they’re referred to as california tacos on the menu.

The puffy taco itself is a piece of flatbread stuffed with taco meat and deep fried, after which they add lettuce and cheese.  In our to-go bag, they also included cups of red salsa and green salsa, to add a little extra flavor.

After waiting maybe 10 minutes, our order of 4 puffy tacos was handed off, and we headed out to the car, wishing we’d been there early enough to try the chimichangas and other treats on the menu.  Alas, we will have to visit again sometime in the future!

I will say, we both enjoyed the tacos.  Without the sauces, they were a little bland for our liking.  I liked the addition of the red salsa to the tacos, where The Omaha Critic preferred the heat of the green salsa.  The tacos were a good size and flavorful, and all in all, we both thought they were good.  The price?  It’s a little high perhaps for what it is and the location, but that’s based on The Omaha Critic’s Texas roots.

Pluses:  The food was good.  It didn’t take a long time, and thankfully, they still let us order as they were closing the doors.

Minuses:  It’s a little pricey for what it is, but it was still pretty good.

Overall Impression:  The puffy tacos weren’t enough to sell us on this being one of our favorites.  They were, however, enough to get us to want to go back and try more of the menu.  All in all?  I’m going to give it four french fries.  With salt and red salsa, Baby.

~~The Critical Wife

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

I know we’ve mentioned Hiro Sushi a time or two.  There’s a reason for that.  From the moment you walk through the door at Hiro, you are transported into a serene, beautiful world that delites the senses.  From the design of the restaurant itself, to the wonderful service, to the amazing food, there is no aspect of Hiro with which we can find fault.  Ok, that’s not entirely true.  They’ve become pretty popular, and it’s not as easy to pop in and get a table anymore!

One thing we have failed to mention here due to our pure love of their sushi is that Hiro DOES serve many other non-sushi items!  While we most frequently enjoy their sushi (Wasabi Stingers, Baby.  Wasabi Stingers.), The Critical Wife’s pregnancy, and occasional lunacy have driven us to order other things from Hiro’s Menu.  I can’t say that we’ve ever been sorry.

Over our five years of patronage, we have enjoyed both the Japanese and Chinese food served at Hiro.  This post, however, is specifically about the Chinese Menu.  The dishes we have most recently tried are Milton’s Chicken, Imperial Chicken, and the Peanut Butter Chicken.

The first thing you will notice about Hiro Sushi’s Chinese food is the extremely high quality ingredients.  Each dish is cooked to order, meaning that your food hasn’t been sitting around in a warmer, flash fried at the last minute, and served gooey or mushy after reheating.  The chicken is beautiful white meat – freshly cooked and not at all “ambiguous”.  There are no nasty bits or questionable pieces floating around in these dishes.  On top of that, the flavor overall will leave you amazed and impressed.  I challenge you to try Hiro’s Chinese food and tell me you’ve ever had better.

Price-wise, Hiro’s Chinese food may be a few dollars more than your average Chinese restaurant.  The thing is?  It is so worth it.  Every bite is fresh, hot, flavorful, and cooked just for you, when you ordered it.  The owners’ pride in their restaurant once again comes through in every dish.

Plusses:  Hiro’s Chinese food is by far the best we’ve had, and we have eaten A LOT of Chinese food, in a lot of cities, with a lot of “Ambiguous Chicken”.  The owners are also a big plus, as is the spectacular service we’ve come to expect at Hiro.

Minuses:  The only one we can force ourselves to come up with is that Hiro has gotten very busy.  Thankfully, the owners are opening a second restaurant in the Old Market area – so we expect this mini-minus to be resolved soon!

Overall Impression:   You will not find better Chinese food in all of Omaha than that served at Hiro Sushi.  The biggest problem is picking just one dish.  So we recommend choosing several.  Have we mentioned it’s also great cold the next morning?

The Omaha Critic and I (his oh so critical wife!) are always on the lookout for good pizza.  I’m not sure if we’ve mentioned it in these parts, but we have a large brood.  While the youngest isn’t quite up to chowing down on a good slice of pie yet, the rest are highly appreciative of any place that will serve them tasty melted cheese and pepperoni. 

Sadly, I will admit we find most of the major pizza chains lacking.  Sure, they will do in a pinch, and some of them have some fairly cheap deals that allow us to feed our gang without going broke, but they just serve pizza with no character. 

In hopes of finding pizza WITH character, the Critic and I went AWOL and tried Pudgy’s Pizza near 168th and Harrison.  We showed up around 7:30 on a Friday night to find the place busy, but with a table or two open. 

We grabbed a table, and I went up to the counter to place our order, which was for a 14″ Chicago Deep Dish with Pepperoni, Beef, Olives, and Mushrooms.  Yeah, The Critic is a purist and would have probably preferred straight up pepperoni or “The Works”, but *I* was the one ordering!  Had he noticed they served them, The Critic would also have liked to try their Chicago style hot dogs, but we will have to save that for another time.

The restaurant itself is unassuming.  The decor is obviously meant to bring Chicago to mind.  The joint itself isn’t fancy.  You order at the counter and get your own drinks.  But really?  You don’t need fancy in a pizza joint.  In a word, it’s comfortable.  Honestly, that’s perfect for a neighborhood pizza joint.

After a bit of a wait (it was Friday night, and they had a steady stream of business) our pizza was delivered to our table by the owner, along with paper plates, napkins, and plastic flatware.  Again, it’s unassuming.  But the pizza itself?  It was good.  The Omaha Critic and I have both spent some time in Chicago, and tried various pizza joints, including the famous Lou Malnotti’s.  I will say, it is not quite as deep, nor as saucy.  But it was still VERY good.  The crust was thick, but not doughy.  The toppings were plentiful and high quality.  They sprinkled the top with garlic salt or powder, which added a nice tang to the pizza.  All in all, it was a great pie. 

That character we were in search of?  It came in the form of Pudgy’s Pizza owner Phil “Pudgy” Cerra.   While it was our first time eating in the restaurant, we felt like we were somewhere we’d been many times before.  Pudgy stopped at our table several times to check on how we were doing, how the food was, and to make some suggestions for future visits based on how The Critic doctored his pizza (lots of red pepper!).  While this could be annoying if done by the wrong personality, it certainly wasn’t.  Pudgy is a very personable guy, and obviously has the drive it takes to make a great pizza joint work.

I can definitely say we’ll be going back, and taking our band of devils cherubs with us next time!

Plusses: The food itself – hearty, tasty, and plentiful.  The service – all of the employees were smiling and appeared to be having a great time!  We have to say the owner, Phil “Pudgy” Cerra was a big plus.  His personality brings a lot to the overall atmosphere of the place.  Also, the kitchen, which is visible from the counter where you order, is clean and appears to run very well.

Minuses:  They need a bigger location with more tables.  A jukebox would be nice (or some sort of music).  And if the pizza was about a half inch deeper, it would overtake any Chicago Deep Dish we’ve ever tried.

Overall Impression:  The pizza “friggin’ rocked” (The Omaha Critic’s exact words).  We were greatly impressed not only with the food, but with the owner’s great care and concern for all of his customers, and the great attention he paid to making sure everyone had a great experience.  If you’re in West Omaha, it’s definitely worth your time to get a great pizza.  Even if you’re not in West O?  It’s well worth the trek.  Pudgy’s Pizza.  Get some!

Ok, so here’s the thing.  We’re kind of batting 1000 on having places we mention on here go belly up.  Bella’s?  Gone.  O Mai Vietnamese?  Gone.  Cuba Linda was gone for awhile, but now appears to be back.  So.  Yeah.  Is it just us?  Should we stop visiting?  LOL.  Sadly, it’s probably mostly a sign of the current economy.  Downer.

Anyway – today I wanted to share with you something I had the EXTREME pleasure to buy for The Omaha Critic a couple of weeks ago.  I am a BIG fan of the downtown Farmer’s Market in Omaha.  Yeah, I’ve hit the one out at Village Point a few times (and would love for it to be bigger).  I’ve also hit the one that was in Millard for a while.  But downtown?  It has my heart.  It’s just a whole experience.  SO, we pack up early on Saturday AM and head down there to get good veggies and hang out for a bit.

Anyway.  Where was I?  (Did we mention that The Critical Wife has had a baby and therefore does not always have her shinola together when posting anymore?) 

Oh yeah.  Chocolate.

Zola Chocolates, to be precise. 

Now let me be clear.  I am not a typical woman.  I am not a woman who craves chocolates once a month (or all month), or who hides special chocolates away to enjoy without the clamoring of her children for a bite.  Really? I’m not a chocolate person.  Really.

I know, I know…it’s strange.

Zola Chocolates, however?  I would strongly consider selling off a kid for some of those!  They are absolutely AWESOME.  I bought a small sampler of six truffles, with two extra salted caramel truffles, KNOWING my Hubby would love them. 

Well, here’s news.  My husband is the most generous, sharing, loving man in the world, because he shared every one of those truffles with me, even though they are the most amazing chocolates either of us have ever had!

Each truffle was a special flavor…Dark Velvet, Peruvian Coffee, Sweet Heat, Pecan Praline, Earl Grey,  and Milk and Honey.  Each one a little ball of happiness…a firmer outside, but as you bite into it, sweet, soft, chocolatey, happiness-in-a-ball.

Honestly, I just can’t go on about them enough. 

SO…get thyself to their website to find the location closest to you, or to their spot down in the Old Market on Saturday mornings, and try some.  You will NOT be sorry. 

My favorite at this point is still the salted caramel, but the sweet heat, the milk and honey, and the Peruvian Coffee are all right up there too!  (I think this week I might have to buy all the other flavors, so we can at least say we’ve had them all.  You know.  Purely for the purposes of reporting on this website.  Mmhmm.    )