I just finished up a client meeting and it was now time for me to take my clients out for lunch. Immediately the discussion started abround where we should go and of course I was faced with the standard question of “where would you like to go?” I have always been intrigued about this question when it is asked to a non-local on his or her first visit to their city. What are you supposed to answer on that? As always I would like to answer that: “I have no clue as I am not from here and have never been here” but the more politically correct answer would be “I am flexible, whatever place you recommend” which is of course the answer I used. The first few ideas thrown into the mix by my clients were Chili’s, Olive Garden, and Outback which I politely declined as we have those everywhere. Then one of my clients said “how about Thai?” I liked the sound of that but his boss declined it and that trumped that idea. After some back and forth it was decided on to go to a place called Ryan’s Bistro. I was excited because the CIO told me that it may be hard to get a table there and those are words I always like to hear. Packed places for lucnh usually means great food.
Ironically upon arrival the place was not even half full and we were seated immediately. The worst thing with empty restaurants is that the wait staff throws themselves on top of you as soon as you are seated by the hostess and are so eager for some business. We fought her off quickly by ordering some drinks and proceeded to tell her we needed a few minutes before she should return again. I glanced over the menu and at first glance I was impressed as there was a great selection of sandwiches, salads and entrees in line with what you should expect from a bistro. By this time the waitress had already been over once again asking if we were ready for our order but we politely turned her away and asked her to give us a few more minutes.
I ordered the Corn Chowder as I never had anything like it and the Brisket Melt with Au Jus because not only am I a brisket fan but I also love French Dip so what better way than to combine them both. Now here is when it starts getting funny…….
I was served the soup and it was plated in the most unusual way, a plate with a small square soup bowl with some greens underneath the “soup square” that were wilted and quite unattractive. Were the greens/salad leafs there for a purpose such as decoration or where they there as a coaster type functionality in order for the “soup square” not to slide on the plate? Secondly, it was served in a square soup bowl…..have you ever tried eating soup out of a square bowl with a round tool, i.e. the spoon? It is almost like trying to fit a rectangle into a round hole, it just doesn’t work so of course there was soup left in the bowl that you could not get out unless you drop the spoon and drink it. By the way, the soup was pretty bad so it was probably lucky that one couldn’t get all of the soup out of the bowl. It was sweet, almost like a dessert and the texture very odd. If you ever tried to puree corn as you would puree carrots you would now what I mean. Corn is almost one of those vegetables that if you are making a soup you leave the kernels whole. The waitress also said that the would be beautiful hints of nutmeg but for those of you like me that love putting nutmeg in everything and anything you would notice that there were no hints at all.
On we go to the sandwich….what a train wreck that was. I honestly don’t know what I ate because it had no resemblance to brisket nor did it taste like it. The bread it was served on was like a sandwich roll made out of Wonder bread, the second it hit the Au Jus it became a nice bread sponge that fell apart or started running down your hand like if it was melted cheese. By the way my entree also had lettuce leaves/greens under my sandwich as did my soup if you recall. This place started to look like one of those places that Gordon Ramsey in "Kitchen Nightmares" or Thomas Hellstrom in "Hellstrom rydder op" have on their shows. This place is in dire need of help on all levels.
My clients did mention that the restaurants around this area have seen a lot of turn over; no wonder if this is how they run them and the food they serve.
Finally I have visited a place I would not visit again. No thank you to this one!
Overall Rating: 1
Food Rating: 1
Cost: $$
17607 Gold Plaza #107
Omaha, NE 68130
http://www.ryansbistro.com/ordereze/Content/1/Summary.aspx
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