V. Mertz — Restaurant in Omaha

What can I say about V. Mertz that hasn’t already been reviewed? On Friday, January 13th, I had my second visit, and this fine dining establishment is 2 for 2; one of the best dining experiences I’ve had – and that assessment compares to fine dining on both coasts!

Our first visit, last July, was for an anniversary (and the V. Mertz staff helped me successfully ‘surprise’ my spouse, who thought I was in Florida). That visit was perfect, and the entire staff hit it out of the ballpark.

V. Mertz can be difficult to find on your first visit. It's not signed well on the street, and is located at the back of The Old Market Passage. The Mexican restaurant at the front of the Passage stands out, and can lead you to think you are in the wrong place – you are not. Walk past the Mexican restaurant and you will quickly find V. Mertz. Despite that initial confusion, once you find it, you feel as if you’ve located a secret jewel, a hidden part of Omaha that not even a lot of locals know about. On this visit, it wasn’t the secret that thrilled us though, it was the way the Old Market Passage was lit, with twinkling white Christmas lights leading us to our destination.

We arrived on time for our reservation, and our table was immediately available.

We began with well made and new, custom drink concoctions with quirky names (such as ‘Trina Is A B*&$#’) started our meal, and ordered a couple of shared appetizers which quickly followed (artisan cheese plate and house charcuterie). These were prepared well, and were presented in a way that made sharing among our group easy. It was difficult keeping it to just two appetizers, they all looked incredible!

V. Mertz has excellent menu choices for dinner, we observed several come out to other tables, but honestly, we came for the steak. The restaurant uses American Wagyu beef sourced from the Morgan Ranch, outside of Burwell, Nebraska. After a prior meal at V. Mertz last July, we took a trip to the Morgan Ranch and picked up some Wagyu for home, met the owner, and enjoyed a ride deep into rural Nebraska, but that will be the subject of a different (and highly positive!) review.

For our recent meal, though we had ample time to observe other diners choosing items on the menu, we all chose the 6 oz tenderloin.

It. Was. Perfect.

There are no words that can describe the taste, texture, temperature, presentation other than to say … you won’t be disappointed. The V. Mertz chef, quite simply, presents well prepared and consistent meals that will never disappoint. Its why, despite our own culinary skills at home, we’ll continue to come back. We simply cannot do it as well as the Chef!

A truly divine restaurant experience is more than just the meal though, and so we must acknowledge the entire waitstaff, the bartenders – all came together to ensure excellent timing, service, and recommendations.

We...

What a tremendous disappointment!

We made reservations to celebrate our anniversary here for 8pm. My husband has been dining here since the 90's and suggested we go here, as we've been here several times for event dinners in the past year.

We called several hours ahead of time to see if we could arrive earlier (there were openings, as it was a wednesday evening), and the hostess said "absolutely" and asked if we wanted to come in at 7pm. Great!

We arrived at 7 and were seated promptly. There was one other large table of about 15 people that were seated shortly before us. We ordered a bottle of Pomerol for our meal, and a cocktail, and ordered an appetizer (lions mane mushroom) and entrees....and proceeded to wait. 20 minutes later, our drink arrived-it would have been fine if they were swamped at the bar...but we actually watched the drink get made and then sit and melt for 15+ minutes, at which point we inquired about it, and then it was brought to our table.

Our wine arrived...then we waited some more. At 7:45 our appetizer arrived- the appetizer was great and well prepared. We continued to work on our bottle of wine.....and waited, and waited. At 8:15 we still hadn't seen our server, so we flagged down the gentleman who appeared to be FOH or ops manager, and inquired when our dinner was arriving (it was over an hour already since we ordered). He explained that they were working on the other table, and our food would be out shortly.

At 8:30, we asked again for an ETA as we had finished our bottle of wine (Still hadn't seen our server)....the gentleman we spoke to (who was extremely rude) told us they could make our food to go if needed...and then proceeded to arrive at our table 10 minutes later with a check for our wine, drinks and appetizer. He apparently cancelled our dinner even though we never requested this.

I understand restaurants are busy and staffing is tough right now- but if they weren't prepared to accommodate a table for two, then the host shouldn't have had us come in an hour earlier. We would have happily gone and had a glass of champagne somewhere and arrived for our 8pm time.

They also cancelled our reservation via opentable- I'm guessing so they wont get a bad review.

So, an hour and a half for a bottle of wine and a mushroom....and being treated poorly. Our server actually apologized for the rudeness of the gentleman who brought over our check. Not to mention a ruined anniversary dinner. Needless to say, we...

Last night we had one of the best meals of our life. We finally crossed a big one off the Omaha bucket list: V. Mertz. And of course we did the tasting menu.

There wasn’t a single dish that we didn’t devour. Every single ingredient was expertly paired to compliment one another. The sensational menu accompanied with the incredible ambience of the old market passageway and our unmatched service from our waiter Charles made the night unlike any other. I wish we could do it every weekend. It was a night I wish I could relive over and over. It was The. Perfect. Date.

Here’s what we got:

We started with the bread service which I’ve heard is a MUST at V. Mertz. The bread comes out steaming hot. The coconut rolls are toasted with pork fat, seasoned with herbs, and served with soft, salted butter. Seriously PERFECTION. Crunchy on the outside and cloud soft on the side. So warm and fragrant... the perfect bread. After this we did the tasting menu for this week:

𝐓𝐡𝐮𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐚 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐭, lump crab, 𝐜𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐭, bagnarotte sauce, caraway cracker

** Tajarin, 𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐭 𝐩𝐨𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞𝐮𝐫𝐫𝐞 𝐛𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐜, black pepper

• 𝐅𝐞𝐫𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐩𝐨𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐨, country ham, 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐲, rosemary, confit potato, 𝐪𝐮𝐚𝐢𝐥 𝐞𝐠𝐠

** 𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐚𝐧 𝐑𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐡 𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐬 𝐦𝐚𝐣𝐨𝐫 (medium rare), bok choy, mushroom, scallion, 𝐱𝐨 𝐬𝐚𝐮𝐜𝐞

lavender frozen yogurt -

French press coffee -

• 𝐏𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐮𝐭 𝐛𝐮𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐛𝐨𝐦𝐛𝐞, dark chocolate ganache, cherry jam, edible gold leaf, 𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐛𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝

petits fours -

Absolutely everything was delicious. One of the standouts for me was the second course of hand cut tajarin pasta with sweet potato that tasted like rich, upscale adult mac & cheese.

Another standout was the third course that was essentially a potato pancake with ham, egg, and gruyere cheese. Many people think that tasting menu portions are too small to be filling, but I’ll tell you that this course will have you thinking differently. It was so filling that I was concerned I would be able to finish the rest of the courses! Don’t worry, I powered through...

Another standout for me was the lavender frozen yogurt which was served with a crumbly streusel and was the perfect palette cleanser before our rich peanut butter bombe dessert.

Seriously I haven’t had another meal like this in Omaha and I can’t recommend it enough. I can’t wait till I...