Chaikhana Grill & Shishkabobs — Restaurant in Omaha

I am currently sitting in this beautiful little secret of a restaurant in West Omaha, hoping like hell that it succeeds. We stopped in here at 3:30 on a Thursday afternoon for a sort of special "day-off" meal. (Erin and I rarely get days off together.)

We were greeted almost immediately. There is no waiting area, which might prove difficult if business booms for them, but that's something we'll hope for later. A cozy little room with a small bar in a relatively busy strip mall, the decor is warm and perfect. The seat cushions are well-decorated and they have throw pillows! By far the most comfortable restaurant seating I've ever had.

Our server, who also doubled as the host, immediately proffered menus, and after a short moment of allowing us to peruse the menu, took our drink order. (The menus themselves are very classy in appearance and complement the decor well.) After another minute or two he took our order. We shared dumplings, sambusas, hummus, lamb kebabs, and a chicken shawarma wrap.

I can't begin to describe the seduction of flavors that accompanied our set of dishes. Suffice it to say, if you appreciate Middle Eastern, Mediterranean, and western Asian cuisine, you will not be disappointed. Our lamb kebab, for example, was cooked perfectly. Not overcooked, not undercooked. The first bite you taste will emit essence of mint and citrus. The second you will notice a hint of cumin. These dishes just keep on giving. Even their French fries are delicious!

Be forewarned, though: if you do not like onions, this might not be the place for you. Many of the aforementioned items contain onions in healthy quantities. Both the Sambusas and the dumplings, for example. And the dumplings might be too oily for some (although not for me). But if you have an interest in expanding your palate beyond basic Midwestern food, I cannot recommend this place highly enough.

This restaurant is every bit worthy at this time of a five-star rating! Thank you, Chaikhana. I will be back and I hope to see you continue to create your savory...

Fantastic food, and very authentic salad Olivie. :) I will definitely be back!

…well, that (above) is how it used to be. I’ve gotten Olivie salad and gyro in the past. Today I tried the kebab, and they are not as good — by a long shot. :( Plus, all the prices have gone up, which wouldn’t be a problem if the quality had also, but this whole thing was just no good. In addition, the food was supposed to come with a regular salad (like with lettuce), and instead came with a large plate of chopped coriander/кинза with a tiny amount of bulgur, thinly-shredded carrot, and green onion, and unfortunately I’m one of the people for whom coriander tastes like soap, so…🤮 I tried to be civil and eat a little, but finally the gagging got the best of me. I’ll probably go back, but I’ll never again depart from ordering just the salad olivie and/or gyro. And of course now I’ll have to be sure to mention no coriander/кинза on anything, no matter what I order. I don’t know why so many restaurants have started failing to mention coriander as an ingredient in the food description, but honestly, if I’d known that the ‘garden salad’ was pure coriander, I’d probably have decided to not experiment and order what I always get. The tea is okay, only okay, and their signature bread is nice. I can’t speak to the authenticity of the taste because I’m not familiar with that region, but it’s definitely not bad. Tonight it was one of the best parts of the meal, but to be honest, the meal was pretty bad so that’s not...

Tonight was our first time at this restaurant and it was a wonderful experience. All of the food items were wonderful and the service was good, though not perfect. It's a casual place, so no need to dress up. We were with friends, so sampled several items, including three appetizers. The hummus, though fairly standard, was fresh and tasty, not bland nor overly seasoned. The sambusa were nice and served with two very different but tasty sauces. To our surprise, the star was the olivie salad - an unusual variation of potato salad. Extremely fresh and surprisingly light, it had evenly chopped pieces of potato, carrot, chicken, with some egg seasoned nicely with fresh dill and other herbs. We followed these with their borsh, which is served in a large portion just filled with content, leaving just enough broth to satisfy - shredded cabbage and beets, a little potato, and a surprisingly large amount of beef, all accented with a dollop of sour cream. Main courses were all nice as well, including my beef shish-kabob, which was well seasoned, fairly tender, and served with two complementary sauces and a little rice. We had no room for dessert. Prices were quite reasonable, but not cheap. All in all, we will be going back soon as we all had...