17415 Chicago Circle, Omaha (402) 359-1340
To begin with, this is a steak place which is not really my thing. However, I have been here a couple times and even I would eat steak here, if I wanted to eat a steak. Today, I am just going to talk about my most recent dining experience at Firebirds.
We were at Firebirds for a party so I began with a cocktail. I have a passion for pears so I could not resist the Dessert Pear Martini. It was full of pear flavor without any of the cloying sweetness that sometimes accompanies this fruit. The vodka, sweet and sour, and pear juice were well balanced and delicious. In fact, it was so good, I had two!
Along with cocktails, we enjoyed appetizers. The star here and from anyone I have talked to is the Lobster Queso. Barely salted tri-color tortilla chips accompany a warm bowl of pepper jack cheese, tomatoes, spinach, and lobster. Such strong flavors could overpower lobster, but this dip has unexpected large chunks of lobster making it a rich and flavorful starter. Despite the richness, you will not want to share. Thank goodness decorum will hold you back from gobbling it all down because there will be much more food to come. We also sampled onion rings which were large and crispy due to a panko coating.
Firebirds offers a variety of salads that are large enough for an entrée, but some also work nicely to be shared for your salad course. Trust me… share the salad. Do not order your own. You may think it is priced to be a side salad, but don’t be fooled. Share the salad.
Along with salad the wait staff will bring fresh sourdough bread and butter. In our case, we had to twist the waiter and waitresses arm a bit to get enough bread for our table of ten. Seriously. We are ten people. We need more than one 6” round of bread. The bread is warm, but impossible to cut properly with the utensils provided. The butter is cold and impossible to spread on delicate fresh bread.
The service was timely and we did not wait long for our entrées. It is a steak place so of course my beau and I ordered fish dishes. Ordinarily, a steak place only does steak well, but the fish was unexpectedly pleasant. He had the Sesame Encrusted Salmon which was cooked perfectly. Salmon is hard to screw up yet I frequently find it overcooked. This was just right and had a lovely ginger mustard flavor under the crunchy sesame crust. Neither overshadowed the salmon. Most delightful on his plate was the fried spinach. He is not a fan of cooked spinach but this was unexpectedly light and crispy. It was reminiscent of potato chips and equally as addictive. They carried a hint of garlic, were lightly salted, and melted on your tongue. I would return just for this spinach.
I opted for the Pecan Crusted Trout. Two large filets filled my plate and were topped with a serving of peach cilantro salsa. The salsa had great potential but the acid had begun to work on the peaches and the result was a slightly muddled sauce. The moisture from the salsa also softened the crunchy coating on the fish but the flavors were pretty good.
The dessert list looks unassuming, merely listing them by name. Key Lime Pie. Carrot Cake. These are the desserts we ordered to share with each other. The Key Lime Pie was good enough that my beau seemed to forget we were supposed to be sharing it. The carrot cake was a completely different take on the traditional. Instead of a high stack with many layers, this was one (large) square of moist cake, uncluttered with the fruit and nuts some people find necessary, topped with a rich and lightly sweet cream cheese frosting. On the side, a serving of warm salted caramel. This is everything you could want in one bite, sweet, salty, rich, amazing.
After carrot cake, I really have nothing more to say. If you like steak, or even if you don’t, Firebirds is a good restaurant to try. The portions are huge and the flavors are not at all what you might expect from a steak place. Enjoy.
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