Ramona's Mexican Restaurant — Restaurant in Omaha

This is a cute little place in North Omaha right on 30th St. Walking inside, it was cool and clean and they invited me to sit where ever I wanted. The place was pretty empty for 5pm on a Thursday, so I assumed it was just a little early for their usual crowd.

I was greeted quickly and my soda was out in seconds.

As I had never been here before I needed a few minutes to study the menu and they gave me about 5 which was what I needed.

I have a tendency to grade Mexican restaurants based on their chips, salsa and guacamole. Theirs was okay. The salsa was served warm with cheese sprinkled on top which was a new one for me. I have never seen this done before. The salsa was okay, but too smooth for my tastes and being served warm really threw me off. I got a mix of both corn and flour chips. The corn chips have a seasoning on them that was rather spicy- similar to the old recipe at VooDoo Taco. I am not a fan of this so I only ate a couple of those. The flour chips are obviously made in house and they were good.

Their guacamole was bright but lacked flavor. It seemed to literally just be smashed avocado and lime juice. There was no other flavor to it. No salt (so I generously added my own to taste) no other spices, seasonings, onions, tomato, garlic or cilantro. It definitely needed something more to make it pop.

I ordered the #7, their chicken flautas. These fried rolls of soft Taco and chicken were the star of the meal. They were very good with the now salted smashed avocado to cool off the bite. Their Mexican rice was okay but the rice was not fully cooked so each grain was still a little hard in the middle.

All in all it was a decent little local place. I did hear them discussing their jello shots they had apparently just made that were not set yet. They were planning to sell them 3 for $10! Those tiny things are most definitely not worth more than $3 each! Especially when you can go to another local place like Homy Inn and get them 4 for $5. I wish them luck in selling them, but that price seems...

We arrived at Ramona's on a rainy Tuesday late afternoon (4/16/2024), and we were immediately inundated by a stifling stench of what was possibly disgusting-smelling disinfectant...? No one greeted us or acknowledged us upon entering, so we chose a table that was extremely sticky to the touch. My initial thought was to leave immediately, which we should have. Our first waitress boasted horrifyingly long fake nails, not something I want touching any portion of my plate or beverage. We were brought a small monkey dish of homemade salsa or pico de gallo, which sat unused until our meals arrived. Thankfully, she deferred to a different waitress who informed us they were out of corn chips, guacamole and when I ordered the Indian Taco with chicken, she came back to tell us they were also out of chicken. The generously portioned food arrived in a timely manner but was barely warm, copiously covered in cold shredded cheese, which never melted the entire meal. The Indian Tacos we ordered were not accompanied by refried beans or rice, which one expects at a Mexican restaurant. The menu choices were few, and not inspiring. The items were very pedestrian and with the exception of tamales, not at all what you'd consider authentic Mexican food. How they won Best of Omaha is a mystery, but as we dined, we did notice a high volume for takeout. There must not be many options in town. Overall, with the stench, the dirtiness, the bland, cold food, and being out of the key ingredients that make a Mexican restaurant unique, it was a horrific dining experience never to be repeated. If I was the owner, I would have sent one of the employees during this slow time to the grocery for chips and avocados at the very least. I could give zero...

Visited Ramona's for Valentine's Day especially so that my wife could have the Indian Taco. It lived up to the hype -- delicious! They had the Combination Dinner as one of the daily specials and the waitress said they would happily do substitutions. I swapped the tamale out for a chicken burrito instead. We ordered the Chips with Salsa to get started. I recommend getting the mixed chips -- the Corn chips are sprinkled with chili powder which gives them a little kick; while the fried Flour chips were also legit. The chunky salsa had good spicy flavor without overpowering the senses. After devouring all the chips and salsa, we didn't have room to eat the entire entrees. So we took some home to enjoy later. As a result, I can't comment on the Taco's taste -- however, it looked great. My chicken Burrito and beef Enchilada were both very good. Our server kindly brought more hot Salsa to use with our meals. Meanwhile, there were a couple of negatives that affected our experience. 1) they were having plumbing problems which caused water on part of the floor. The servers apologized for that issue. 2) The bill had a "procurement fee" added on. When I questioned it, the server said it was their credit card merchant's fault, that they had signs posted [albeit very small ones], and that they would take it off if I paid cash. That exchange and the wet floor put a damper on our evening -- so I am lowering my rating by 1 star.

Overall, we enjoyed the food. The server was friendly and helpful (it's really not her fault that management is passing along the card processing fee). We will probably return with cash in hand when the weather improves so that we can have their...