La Casa Pizzaria West at Pacific Springs — Restaurant in Omaha

8 days ago the much anticipated La Casa Pizzeria West @ Pacific Springs opened to crowds of excited diners. I had been told that it was overwhelming for the staff over the weekend and pizza orders were out of control.

My wife and I decided to give it a try tonight and to make sure we did not have to park in the street (as I had witnessed people doing over this past weekend) or wait to get in, we arrived shortly after 1600 hrs. (I will say that by the time we left, 50 minutes later, the lot was full).

Upon walking in we were shocked to see that this was not a sit down and be waited on establishment. It is being billed as a self service restaurant where you go to the counter to order (either dine in or carry out). They do however take your name for dine in and bring your food to you.

We found a suitable table ( although it quickly became a cold spot as the heat was turned down and it was too near the door inviting cold air to our legs and hands) and perused the rather small menu. I will say here that we have been to the full service restaurant on Leavenworth many times over the years and had anticipated this establishment to be the same.

Back to the limited menu, there are 6 specialty pies listed and the same number of double crusts. Of course you build your own for either choice.

There are basic appetizers with the only curious one being the Garlic Romano Cheese Fries.

Three sandwiches and three salads made the list along with three desert items.

Main entre’es are two pasta choices, Spaghetti or Lasagna with meat or meatballs. If you order the dinner portion it comes with two slices of Italian bread and a side salad.

We opted for the lasagna with meat and spaghetti with balls, both full order dinner portions. We also asked to upgrade our house salads to Caesar Romano and though they didn’t have this option in the POS, the manager happily accommodated us for an up charge of $1.50 each.

The salads are out quickly and were served in a nice white deep dish. The dressing was satisfying and the prosciutto was a nice touch. They came with a sealable pouch of Romano cheese. The bread came with the salads and a pat of butter (not enough for me).

The main dishes soon followed and while mine was piping hot (spag & balls), my wife’s was barely warm though it was a baked dish. It was also served in a disposable bread tin type container while mine was in another large deep dish bowl. We were not impressed but she surmised it was relevant to their carry out business which she assumes will be most of their business.

My spaghetti had a rich deep red sauce and perfectly cooked pasta of a higher end grade than most places serve. The meatballs were delicious as well and there were two decent sized balls on about two cups of pasta. The sauce was a little watery in the bottom (which I detest) but nevertheless it had good body and flavor otherwise. It was good enough that I ate the whole bowl.

My wife’s dish however was a total disappointment. Where to start. Besides barely being warm, the noodles were not the usual lasagna type (wide and flat) but rather more like Martha Gooch egg noodle variety. There didn’t appear be any ricotta cheese and limited sauce. She had about four bites and was done.

About this time the heat finally came on and the place was filling up. We package up the lasagna and headed for the door. We both agreed that the $39.95 plus an additional $1.00 for a small container of Romano (grated) as there is no table Parmesan, was way out of line for this type of food in the portions served, and especially in a self service type environment.

IF, we come back, it would be to try the pies on the patio, but before the summer heat makes that unbearable as it faces the west/northwest.

All in all a disappointment. They should have built a copy (Full Fledge Dining) of the Leavenworth store in this part of town and priced it...

This review is for Saturday 3/23/19.

My BF & I live in West Omaha and we have been driving by the new La Casa location, wanting to visit since they opened. Neither him, nor I were aware that there are other locations, but after visiting we found out that La Casa actually has a couple other Omaha restaurants. We arrived around 7:30 pm and had no trouble finding a parking spot. Don't get me wrong, they were certainly busy, but the parking lot has plenty of parking. Our first impression of the restaurant was a little chaotic, but we didn't really have any expectations, this being our first experience. We decided to sit at the bar and dine in. I initially ordered a red beer with a lime, but they didn't have tomato juice OR limes, so I decided to have a Diet Coke instead. We took our time looking over the menu and we were checked on a couple times before we decided to order a half order of onion rings, half order of fried ravioli, and the Classic Cudduruni, subbing Pepperoni for the Hamburger. It took longer than we would have liked to get our food, think almost 40 mins for our appetizers and then another 10 for the Cudduruni, but no big deal, we weren't in a hurry. The onion rings were really great. They were flaky and cripsy, not too salty, and definitely made from scratch. The toasted ravioli was even better. The half orders were perfect portions for two people to split. My one complaint with the appetizers is that they didn't have any bottled ketchup, just packets. The Cudduruni came out a little while later and I'll be honest, it was worth the wait. Think almost a calzone, it's a crust pocket with the toppings inside and then cut into pieces. The food is very obviously made from scratch and the love shows. It was delicious. I decided I had a little room for dessert, and picked out a Cannoli. Thinking about it now, I wish I would have grabbed a couple more to-go. The cookie/crust part was flakey and had a chocolate coating, while the filling was smooth and sweet. The Cannoli would have been big enough to split but my guy isn't much of a sweets person, so darn, I had to eat the whole thing. Our total came to $44 and some change before tip.

The things that kept it from being great: We had to ask each time to have our sodas filled. Not a huge deal, but we WERE sitting at the bar and it would have been pretty easy for the bartender to be paying attention to our drinks. The ketchup packets were cheesey. No one likes to rip those damn things open to get two dips of ketchup. The atmosphere was great if you like people watching and don't mind a little chaos, but I wouldn't come here if my goal was to have a relaxing dinner and drink after a long day. The wait for food seemed a little excessive, but again, not a huge deal to us, though I wouldn't go if I was on a tight time frame. The bartender set our tab down almost as soon as they brought out our food. This was a little off putting, like we should be in a rush to eat and leave. Once I ordered dessert, he had to refigure the tab anyway. I would have liked him to wait until we were all done eating to give us the ticket.

Over all, we had a good experience. We will absolutely be back to try more off the menu and I'll plan on getting Cannoli's to-go. The things that weren't great are really simple and easy fixes or tweaks. I'll update next...

No joke, probably worse than eating Little Caesars. Just got done this evening. Price, quality, only plus was service. Beyond nice and helpful deciding what to order, and getting food to us. 02/09/2023

1 meatball sub, one small pizza, large toasted ravioli, 2 small things to try and one dessert to split, 3 fountain drinks $80.80. 3 of us ate this evening. My whole family of 5 could have gone to Texas Roadhouse almost on that and gotten 3 times the quality of food

Meatballs are okay but was told by staff their the nest in town. Their marinara is bland, but everyone has their tastes. Expected much higher from the reputation and heritage of this business.

Pizza was God awful, Got a small meat lovers-ish. Pizza dough was crispy but toppings and sauce bland. I'm someone who hates over salted and seasoned stuff as a reference. Literally no taste on pepperoni. Beef had no seasoning, dry and pulverized to a powder. Overall pizza was greasy, as well.

The worst was the dessert. I should have known better looking at it but we tried the chocolate covered cannoli, us three split it. I literally felt like I was eating frosting out of a can with some crunch in it. Bland leaning towards sweet,, no discernable specific taste from any of the ingredients. Chocolate didn't even taste like chocolate and it was wrapped in it. Center filling had the consistency of vanilla icing with nothing added to it.

I have been wanting to take my family here because of the name. I love Italian food and my family does too. I even live down the street hoping to make this place a regular. I'm glad only me and my two boys had to experience this. My wife would have been livid at this quality of food for the price and I specifically wanted to take her later. Not....gonna....happen. I would love to say it was a one off, bad experience but it was every thing we tried. Only really good thing was their garlic French fries. I finished my food just because I spent so much.

I never leave reviews, but I was so disappointed I don't want anyone else to experience this or hopefully management/owners happen to take a random...