Zachary Sam "More Sam than Zachary" Z.'s Profile

Hooray! A ramen place in Capitol Hill that is walkable. This means I no longer have to make the trek up to Aloha Ramen when I have a quick craving.

While I do prefer Aloha Ramen, this place definitely has some good variety and great flavors. I love the ability to customize your ramen bowl with additional food items - or just get the Samurai Armor and have a little bit of extra... everything!

Speaking of the Samurai Armor, it's the combos here that bump the review up to the four stars. I have to say, part of the appeal of coming here for ramen is getting a rice bowl that I can take to go, then eat as a late-night snack later that day (or for breakfast the next morning). I was turned off from the pork rice bowl early (the first one I got was really dry and flavorless), so now I go for the Mentaiko with Mayonnaise, because I love fish eggs, and mayo... why not?

I also like their ramen punch card. This is great if you tend to come with a friend or loved one, because you can work through the card twice as quickly. That means you are only 6 visits away from a free bowl of ramen! What's not lo love?

I have to say I'm in the camp that's more negative on Eileen's. My family ordered a holiday tray and a variety tray while I was home for Christmas vacation.

The holiday cookies had a frosting:cookie ratio that was 40:60, which was just too much frosting in my opinion, no matter how good it is. This frosting, however, wasn't good - it was way too sweet for me.

Most of the rest of the cookies just tasted off to me. The only one that I liked even a little bit was the Oatmeal Raisin, which gives them their second star.

Also - I'm not really sure I'd call these cookies colossal. Maybe there were larger cookies that I didn't see because they were behind the counter...? But the cookies I had were about the same size as what you'd get with some Peperidge Farm varieties, and are definitely smaller than cookies you can buy at most grocery stores.

I can see that this place has its fans, but personally, I won't be back.

We stopped in to try a cupcake, and opted for the Red Velvet. It tasted OK, but the frosting tasted more like a regular frosting than cream cheese (which is fine, but not my preference for Red Velvet). Also, it was quite cold from being in the cooler - more so than other cupcakeries.

We stopped by early, so I'm not sure if that explains the lack of variety that they had that day. They had the standard chocolate / vanilla permutations, plus a chocolate peanut butter (I think), and the Red Velvet. Based on their website, I had expected a few more flavors. I know these are available for custom orders, which is great for locals who are having events, but I was bummed we didn't get to try some more interesting flavors while we were there.

In all, this place is A-OK, and I love that downtown CB has its own cupcake shop. Next time I'm in the area, I'll definitely stop by to see what they have available that day!

Bliss has tons of different offerings, but we were after cupcakes! We went for two of their cupcakes - the Ginger Peach and the Pink Champagne.

For me, the cupcakes were somewhere around a 3.5 to 4. The Pink Champagne was definitely my favorite of the two - the cake had a nice flavor and was slightly fizzy! (Or was that just in my head?)

The Ginger Peach was also tasty, but I'm personally not a fan of their cream cheese frosting. I appreciate a cream cheese frosting that isn't insanely sweet, but this one tasted more like plain cream cheese, rather than cream cheese *frosting*.

All told, they have a nice variety of cupcakes that, based on the two that we tried, were pretty tasty! I'll come back next time I'm in the area.

Holy monkeys did I screw up my diet here. But unlike some other diet mistakes I made while on my Omaha vacation, I have to say that this one was WORTH IT.

First off, these burgers are huge. You probably don't need a double. And if you were thinking about doing the challenge... well... you'll probably fail, but good luck to you nonetheless.

Since they don't have any healthy options like a turkey burger or a veggie burger, I decided to stop fretting and get whatever sounded good. My eyes were drawn to the southern burger because it was topped with BBQ sauce and ONION RINGS! It's like the Western BBQ Cheeseburger I used to make when I worked at Burger King many years ago, but bigger and waaaay better. I added some jalapeno bacon and a fried egg on top to make it perfect.

Yum.

The one thing that took me by surprise was our food being brought out. It was kinda shocking to see the burgers - no plates - sitting on a tray (how much is that tray used? Was it clean?), grabbed by the server (does he wash his hands after working with cash and credit cards?), and placed directly on the table (not sure if I'm more afraid of bacteria or the cleaning solution they use to clean the tables). Your only saving grace is a napkin, which I decided was OK for me (the server went to great lengths to hold my burger with the napkin), but given that the size of the burgers is much larger than the napkins, I still had a lingering concern.

Now that I'm aware of the situation, I think I would approach Stella's with a plan. First, take a napkin from the centerpiece and spread it in front of you on the table before your food arrives. That way, your burger has a landing pod. Second, ask for more napkins. Even though our table was relatively well stocked, we ran out of napkins quickly. When they're doubling as plates, there's only so much to go around, y'know?

With that plan in place, I'm more than happy to return to Stella's if I need a place to really go wrong on my diet again.

I was nervous about coming here, because I'd heard a lot of negative reviews from friends and family. After clarifying with some folks, this is the scoop that I heard: Their cakes used to be on the dry side (and not so good), but they've supposedly gotten steadily better over time.

So we stopped in for a 4-pack: Black & White, Sweet & Salty, Red Velvet, and Caramel Apple. Regarding the cupcake quality, I'd give 3 stars. The chocolate cake was fine, and I actually really liked the Sweet & Salty overall.

The Black & White wasn't quite what I expected. The "White" references the white chocolate godiva frosting on the top, but the flavor wasn't really what I was hoping for. While I acknowledge that white chocolate is essentially sugared-up chocolate, the frosting tasted a little bit too sugary for me.

I thought the caramel apple and red velvet cakes were solid. Unfortunately, a couple days passed before we were able to eat them - but JB gets points because the 2-day old Red Velvet was actually more moist than the red velvet we had just made (the tops got a little crisp... but that's another story).

They get their fourth star because of their clever Facebook promotion. If you follow them on Facebook, they'll announce a limited supply of cupcakes of the day. They are usually new flavors they're experimenting with, or else just a flavor they are giving out. If you stop by and ask for it by name, you get it - for free! Definitely something I'd take advantage of if I lived in the area.

This is the place to go in Omaha for ice cream - especially if you're on the hunt for fun, unique flavors that change up regularly. It's on the same level as my favorite ice cream shops around the country.

During my last trip here, they had a flavor I hadn't seen before, but it quickly became my favorite: Salty Seahorse! It is a salted caramel ice cream with oreo chunks in it. And it was *seriously* salty! But in a good way. The flavors combined really well, so it was an enjoyable treat from start to finish.

No matter what flavor(s) you opt for here, you'll get something delicious. So try a couple flavors, and pick your favorite!

Five stars because of the great way they do Korean-Japanese fusion. I've been to Korean sushi restaurants - but usually found they lacked really good grill fare. Korean restaurants with great food may have a sushi roll or two, but they really don't have enough to properly be called a sushi restaurant.

Maru manages to bring the best of both cuisines under one roof. A huge variety of maki, plus my favorite cooked Korean dishes. We tried a special maki roll that was basically a california roll with a lobster mix on top, as well as a couple other standard rolls. Tasty all around. Nothing that blew me away in terms of sushi, but it's definitely a good destination to get your fix.

We also tried the Galbee. It was just as delicious as my favorite Korean places in Seattle. It was at this time that I learned that not everyone eats short ribs the same - after eating this with my usual dining companions, I had become accustomed to eating *all* the meat off the rib. My parents, on the other hand, eat the outer part of the meat but still leave some of the (fat? cartilage?) on the bone. They didn't know what they were missing!

This is a good place to get a ton of variety, all of it tasty. I'll be back when I'm in Omaha!

Decent food, awful service.

I was meeting my mom here for lunch. I arrived at the restaurant 5 minutes before she did, yet still found myself standing in front of the counter when she arrived. No fewer than 5 hostesses had been running back and forth in front of me, but none of them had managed to so much as make eye contact or acknowledge my existence.

Once my mom arrived, I stopped one of the servers and said, "Excuse me! Should we just seat ourselves?"
She gave an exasperated sigh and said, "Just sit wherever you want."

Looking back, I think you are supposed to just seat yourself - but there's no signage for this anywhere in the front of the restaurant. Which means that the hostesses are responsible for communicating this - and they did a poor job in that regard.

The service didn't really pick up during the meal either (we ended up getting our own silverware, for example). The food itself was just OK. I appreciated that they offered a heart healthy omelet, but found that the ingredients weren't meshed very well. Like they made the eggs, tossed in raw broccoli, tomatoes, and turkey meat, warmed it up slightly, melted a slice of cheese on top, and served it. It was good - but not the best omelet I've had by far.

When I find myself in Countryside Village at lunch time, I'd usually suggest this place - but after my recent experience, I think I'll be more likely to find a different destination.

Visiting Omaha for the first time in a long while, I was really surprised by Midtown Crossing *in general* - but Blanc was definitely a great destination in this new area.

I ended up ordering the Turkey Burger. I really liked that they had a variety of burgers that catered to people watching their calories, vegetarians, or people wanting something different than a standard burger. The Turkey Burger ended up coming to a pretty reasonable calorie total, and had a great taste - so much so that I finished it in 3 minutes! (I was a little hungry.)

My party also ordered the cheese curds and sweet potato fries, so I got to try both of those. Both were tasty, but I enjoyed the cheese curds slightly more - biting into them produced a burst of cheesy, greasy goodness that just can't be beat.

I loved that the sweet potato fries were brought out in a mini shopping cart. So cute! They are perfect with the spicy aioli that they bring. I recommend that over the ketchup - for me, the ketchup was a bit too sweet.

The chill environment and good food make this a great place to grab a bite with friends. I'll definitely be back when I'm in the area!