Dynamite Woodfire Grill — Restaurant in Omaha

I really cannot recommend it. More misses than hits.

We had an early, 5pm, first seating reservation. We arrived early and sat in the hotel bar patiently for the restaurant to open. 5pm came and went and they were still having their staff meeting. At about 5:10 another couple walked passed us and went on in. I didn't mind the wait, but the fact that nobody came out to the hotel bar to look for us after their 10 minute delay was an annoyance. We decided to advance to the hostess station on our own. It was abandoned. Finally the hostess noticed us from across the restaurant and made her way back to her station. Then another delay as she fumbled a stack of uncharged tablet computers in order to find two that worked to function as menus. Totally unprepared for the evening. Then... In the almost empty restaurant, she tried to seat us immediately next to the one other couple. I had to tell her no and direct her to another table for a little social distancing. That whole seating part was not good. Cocktails - my wife's margarita was good, but I decided to throw them a curve ball and ordered a Ramos gin fizz. After a couple of different cycles of clarification of my order, the drink that arrived was quite a good one! The grilled octopus, very tricky to do without turning it into a block of rubber, was executed perfectly; red stuff they served it on was not a good pairing. Too much cumin, totally overpowering the delicate flavor of the octopus. The dish's fingerling potatoes were ok. The grilled tuna was good itself, the rest of the items on the along with the tuna were not. The dipping sauce was bland, the chopped veg garnish was sloppily cut. The kind of lack of attention to detail that you would never find in any Japanese restaurant. I love cornbread, so the cornbread starter was nice. But it seems they baked the cornbread in a cold, little cast iron skillet. Everybody knows you need to have the skillet hot when you add the batter to form that good crust. My by-the-glass Oregon pinot noir was oxidized. My wife's by-the-glass merlot was very good. Clearly the pinot noir bottle has been sitting around a while. They are not handling their by-the-glass wine properly. The meat course We both ordered the ribeye. They were both cooked to order properly. But it was all downhill from there. The menu offered a demi-glace; they don't have it. Fine, I like sauce Béarnaise perfectly well with a steak. A heavy steak knife and new fork come out in advance of my steak. My steak comes out, I pick up the new fork and the handle is sticky. Yuck! I ask for a new fork and then have to wait several minutes, with my food before me, before a clean fork appears. Not cool. For an upscale, downtown Omaha steak place, it was not very good. Just too tough; you need that heavy steak knife. In a town world-famous for excellent steak, a decent steak is not enough. The Sauce Béarnaise That was a farce! With my steak come a side of sauce. I taste egg, butter, no tarragon, and it is separating in the little metal cup. I ask the waitress to get me the Béarnaise, and she brings me a different cup of the same stuff. I told her, this is not Béarnaise, and it's separation makes it a poor example of whatever it is. So I asked for the sour cream/horseradish sauce my wife had ordered, which was just fine. After a few minutes, the manager comes to our table and tells us that indeed, they had messed up the sauce Béarnaise and that a new batch would be out soon. I told her that the horseradish was ok, but I'd like to try their fixed Béarnaise once it was done. Whatever they did, it was just some sauce with tarragon sprinkled on top at the end. But at least you could taste tarragon in the last iteration.

I used to work across the street from a cooking school in Philadelphia. The whole experience reminded me of eating at that cooking school. I didn't mind being a guinea pig dinner at the cooking school for an $8 lunch. But for a top price meal at a downtown Omaha steak house, trying hard just doesn't...

What a disappointing experience. We were looking forward to another fancy date-night option in our rotation, but almost everything missed the mark.

We knew it was going to be expensive because they didn’t put prices online. This was fine with us as long as the prices matched the experience and quality.

The atmosphere was nice, but it wasn’t consistent. The decor was somewhat fancy, but then the seating was super casual. For the money spent here, you’d think they would hand you the menus, help you pull out the extremely heavy chairs, come by and clean the crumbs off your table like they do at fancy steak restaurants, acknowledge the special occasion, something. The service did not match the money spent.

At first we were vibing with our server. A true professional, he had the personality for the job. Great wit, somewhat funny jokes…but wow. Was he PUSHY. I worked many years as a server myself, so I appreciate a good upsell suggestion, but this guy was relentless. To the point where we were annoyed. He tried to make us spend more money in every way that he could, from suggesting more expensive drinks despite our clear preferences, to even telling us not to order something we wanted because it was half the price of what he wanted us to have. He was obviously terrible at reading people and getting the hint. We weren’t taking his bait, and his attitude went down hill once he finally realized it. I don’t think he even thanked us for coming in or said goodbye. He was more concerned about making sure we’d spend a lot so he’d get a higher tip than he was about us actually enjoying our dinner.

The food:

Cornbread was terrible. Like they tried too hard with a variety of seasoning. It’s cornbread, doesn’t need to be fancy.

Filet. A $69 piece of meat that tasted like a steak you’d get from a cheap buffet. Yes it was that bad. You can get a better one from Applebees or your favorite chain. It had zero flavor. Did they even season it? The fact that every steak comes with a sauce should’ve been all we needed to know. The sauce didn’t have any flavor either. And it was served to us rare, despite ordering medium rare. For $69, you’d think they’d have us cut into it upon delivery to make sure it’s right. Nope. You’d think this would warrant a manager coming by to make sure the issue was resolved. Nope. Maybe a salad while we were waiting? Or a dessert to make up for it? Nope.

Mac and cheese was decent, nothing special. My husband actually called it “a joke” but I didn’t think it was that bad.

Short rib was actually really good. My only reason for 3 and not 2 stars. But order something with it because the little vegetables they put around it don’t go far.

They describe themselves as a “smart casual” restaurant. Smart because of the iPads that didn’t work great? We had to keep sending them back because my husband and I noticed we had different menus. There is nothing casual about dropping a couple hundred bucks on a meal. I hope they can work out the kinks and figure out what direction they’re going, because I do think there is potential with the location...

This was our fist time at Dynamite. We went for the Fire to Table Event. We walked in and were guided to the area which was a pretty nice set up. It had a cool ambiance to it. We ordered a few drinks during the cocktail hour. We were seated at a large table with approx 20 people that you don’t know , which is cool. Reminded us of a cruise ship New people & new conversations. Overall the food was pretty lack luster in flavor. Their presentations were good but I was expecting better based on what we had seen online. The chicken was good & seasoned well but nothing to say wow about. The chimichurri pork was actually very good - but it wasn’t nothing to put the evening over the top. The tomahawk - it was overcooked mostly and dry. If i had ordered it as a meal for us during a normal dinner, I would have sent it back. The sides were good, but they too were the same - nothing to say wow about. The wait times between the sides became kind of long at one point. It was a lot longer than it probably should’ve been - I’d guess 20-25 mins. The service was also an issue. Our water glasses and those around us went empty a few times and we had to ask for more water each time. We didn’t see a server often to get a cocktail from the bar. I’ve had better service at an Applebees probably. For what we paid, $330 for a meal for 2 - I would expect exceptional service. We paid less for meals and had had better service. Staff wasn’t rude or anything of that nature, they just weren’t around. Overall it was a fun experience but I would not do it again and most likely wouldn’t give it any recommendations. If you want a fun evening and have the funds to spend that on a dinner experience - go for it. If you want a great steak dinner with great service, I recommend you go...