Early Bird West Omaha — Restaurant in Omaha

Went to the soft opening of this Early Bird location today, and it was fantastic. Been to a couple soft openings of other establishments and this was one set a bar that will be extremely difficult to beat.

The staff and restaurant were running this restaurant as if it had been opened for years already.

The atmosphere is absolutely awesome, you walk in and the smell alone drives your hunger up. The dining room is well thought out. They have a mural on the left hand side that captures the location well, with a little zorinsky lake mention in it. The bar area is awesome as well, plenty of space for drinks and food. They have a dual use outdoor seating option with garage doors that can close on colder days. We loved sitting there today with the beautiful weather.

Up next, the service. The staff was so nice and so well organized. We were regularly getting checked on. Any questions we had about the menu, they had answers for, and gave great recommendations. They were also very attentive, refills right before we ran out on cue, and timed everything extremely well with us.

Now onto the food.

Appetizers: Hash Holes, Cinny Bobs, and Cinnamon rolls.

The cinnamon rolls are the perfect combination of flaky, doughy, gooey, and the icing was just different but in a good way. Their icing is a vanilla buttercream icing that just hits different. I’m a fan.

My new favorite sweet, the Cinny bobs, fried cinnamon roll dough bites on skewers that come with caramel and icing dips on the side. These are the very definition of getting the perfect cinnamon roll bite every time. I shamelessly ate these quickly without regard for sharing with the wife and kids.

Hash holes, our new favorite savory. Hash croquettes stuffed with cheese and bacon, and queso to dip in. Need I say more? Just get them, trust me.

Entrees:

Avocado’s jam- nice breakfast sammie on rye with ricotta, eggs, bacon, and bacon jam. Wife loved it, I didn’t get to try it, but photo posted below.

Chicken and Waffle:

Plenty of Waffle with two chicken strips, eggs, and pork sausage gravy. Awesome balance of flavor and daughter claimed “now this is how you make chicken tenders”. She ordered the adult portion because she’s got a bottomless pit and enjoyed every bit of it.

Pancakes and Waffles:

Cinnamon roll pancakes, they are a fan favorite here for a reason. They are extremely rich in flavor and have the perfect density. Two pancakes portioned into four “rolls” and an awesome balance of flavors. It’s also great because we got to share it four ways with our family of four. This is usually my go to, and I combo it with eggs, links, and add their hash browns.

Bonus points here: The hash browns are seasoned and you can order them crispy. Love that they always ask.

The game winner today, the Churro Waffle. Fried, cinnamon sugar galore, caramel and vanilla buttercream, whipped cream, so much goodness. Was curious when we ordered to see how “heavy” this might be, and it wasn’t, at all. It went down dangerously easy, and was dangerously light. And now we’re all full and happy.

Would highly recommend it, they open up officially on October 7th. High quality food, service, in a fun atmosphere. Can’t wait to go back and try some other options.

One last thing, they have an awesome drinks menu. We were lame today and just went with iced lattes and chocolate milk for the kids. But one of the best drinks menus I have seen at a...

I really wanted to like this place. We had been looking forward to trying it since they opened. Unfortunately, our one and only experience wasn’t good. I wish I had read the reviews first. What an absolute rip off for very average food. Meal 1: two plain pancakes ($10.50). Side of scramble eggs ($4.00). Meal 2: two blueberry pancakes ($13.75). Meal 3: two eggs, 3 pieces of bacon, hash browns, one slice of toast ($13.75). Meal 4: chicken sandwich and tots ($14.25). Total bill: $61, which includes tax and 3% credit card fee.

The pancake meals were very average…tasted like basic bisquick pancakes. Neither of my kids made it more than half way. The egg/bacon meal was also very basic. My wife said she liked it, but she is a very positive person, so not sure how much she actually liked it. She didn’t finish it if that’s any indication. Based on my personal observations, not worth $13.75. I ordered the crispy chicken sandwich with tots. The tots were disgusting, cold and greasy. Literally the worst tots I’ve ever had. The incredibly small portion was a good thing in this case. The chicken sandwich was completely flavorless. There was clearly no seasoning and no sauce that I could see or taste. It was an odd sensation actually, to eat something and not be able to taste it. It was like when you have a cold and can’t taste anything. Imagine the flavor of a boiled unseasoned chicken breast on a bun with nothing else. It actually looked really good, but had almost zero flavor. I’m not even sure how that’s possible, but Early Bird pulled it off somehow.

Also, there are no refills on drinks. We just got water because the drinks were $4.50 and I’m not willing to pay that even with free refills. As stated above, there’s a 3% fee if you pay with a card. We learned this later at home after looking at the receipt. You pay your server at the table and they stand there with the device while you enter a tip. You can enter a custom tip, but the lowest option for predetermined tip is 20%.

Regarding service, our server was friendly but kind of rude at the same time. It’s hard to explain. To be fair, I don’t think it was intentional, rather just his personality. Not a big deal. What I didn’t care for was how after each person ordered their food, he tried to upsell additional items without making it clear that there would be additional charges for them. For example, my daughter ordered the blueberry pancake meal and he says “do you want eggs or bacon?”. We all thought it was included with the meal based on how he asked. Thankfully she clarified and declined.

Over all, we paid $56 (before taxes and fees) for very mediocre food that we could have made better at home for about $5. Had the food been impressive, I would be writing a very different review right now. Needless to say, we won’t be returning. Their slogan “The early bird gets the worm” cleverly crosses out “worm” and adds “pancake”. I think I would happily eat a worm before wasting my money at this...

My kids and I decided to try Early Bird and were very disappointed. The restaurant was not very busy, but waited about 5 minutes for anyone to seat us. The food choices were standard for a Breakfast / Lunch place, pancakes, waffles, eggs and sandwiches. My son wanted a cheeseburger, but was told they were out of cheeseburgers, granted this place closes at 2:30 and we were there at 12ish, it was very disappointing. He decided on the BBLT sandwich, the bacon in my opinion was way overcooked almost burnt. He got the hashbrowns, as they do not offer french fries, but tater tots and other potato options. The hashbrowns were a thick slab of potato again not what we expected and were very under seasoned. My daughter order the blueberry pancakes with a side of eggs and bacon. The bacon again was very overcooked / burnt and the scrambled eggs were dry with no seasoning. I understand restaurants need to cater to a large variety of people, but what I can never understand is basic seasoning to make the food not bland and inedible. I had the chicken sandwich with tater tots. The sandwich was suppose to come with avocado and if it had any, it must of have been the smallest piece ever. The chicken was also under seasoned and bread was not what I would call toasted, heated was the best way to describe it. The tater tots were a little over done and under seasoned, but that type of potato can be a little difficult to season. The service was fair, but not very attentive to the table. For the quality and service we received, the price was a little high. Based on this experience, I would not come here again. There are other better places similar to Early Bird in the area, e.g., Le Peep, that are more consistently better. The current rating of