In continuing with my recent spate of requests for advice, any of you guys have any opinions on Omaha Steaks? Any of you ever gone for any of their offers? Tried any of their…um…meat?
The only person I know who has had one of their steaks liked it. I think that was Tom in his big time meat phase. They just sent me an offer where they’ll send me about a thousand pounds of meat (steaks, porks, even twice baked potatoes) for about fifteen cents. Trying to find out if it’s worth it.
They’re ok, so if you can get them cheap I’d go for it. You can get better stuff by going to a local butcher shop, though, and for cheaper than the normal list price.
Not even close worth the money. You can often get a better steak going to a supermarket and picking out a nicely marbelled ribeye. Omaha steaks are wet aged and not prime meat. They are shipped frozen and have a mushey unappetizing texture.
If you want to pay top dollar, buy the best. And yes, I did mean the superlative “best” not “best in the area” or “best for the money” but the best. In the world. If you haven’t tried a real dry-aged USDA prime steak, well, you should. Real steak tastes much better than you think it does.
If I didn’t live 15 minutes from Peter Luger’s (the best steakhouse in the world) I’d order from Lobel’s all the time.
Edit: If your deal is cheaper than your supermarket, go ahead and buy from them. But I’d wager it’s at least twice as much money per pound, even after the discount. Their frozen twice baked potatoes are amazingly unhealthy but actually pretty good.
Ah, but Lobel’s sells grain fed beef. That automatically puts them out of the running for the absolute best possible steak. Grass fed is where it’s at 8)
Steak is southern america is always fresh; they don’t even wet age it, so it can be very tough, watery, and not very flavorful. But on the other hand, you can get it every meal and rodizio/churrassceria’s are fun as hell.
Basically you sit down, and there’s an enormous buffet with everything from sushi to salad to shrimp cocktail on it, all meant to fill you up before the meat arrives. Each table gets a little card, green on one side and red on the other. Green means more meat, red means you’re about to die of gluttony. The servers come around every 14 seconds with enormous hunks of grilled beef, chorizo, lamb, chicken, you name it, if it bleeds they have it on a stick. You point to them and they slice off a hunk with (no lie) a frickin’ machete and put it on your plate. Great stuff. Definitely hit up a rodizio if you’re going to be in southern america.
I think he means South America… they do a lot of grazing/farming there with livestock… all that high altitude and little else to do makes the cows and camel derivatives very gamey…
Their rib-eyes are mucho tender and very flavorful.
I have to say though, yes the price is a drawback. As for delivered frozen etc… yeah but they are vacuumed sealed and frankly I enjoy the heck out of them.
Look for a good deal plus once you order, they will give you some kicker deals later in the year- check your mail- I have gotten some pretty good mega-deals from them.
EDIT: If you can find Kobe Beef (or US raised in the style of Kobe beef, buy it. screw the price but at least try it once)
I have used Omaha Steaks several times. Generally speaking, i find their meats acceptable. The Filet Mignons are nice, but then so is anything wrapped in bacon. Their hamburgers are shit imo; they may be good quality sirloin, but are pressed into a fatty McPatty. I’ve never tried their higher end products.
My favorite item was oddly their fish; for a frozen meal they came out pretty good, and better than i (used) to be able to cook fish (though i’m handy with grilled Salmon now). Stuffed Sole with Scallops; again, pretty low end but i preferred it to the meats.
Oh, and i tried the stuffed potatoes. Not shabby, again.
Really Omaha is just a frozen subsitute for cooking, at least when i used them. Generally a 20$ steak at your favorite meat market will turn out as good or better. But… when your late, or in a hurry, and for some reason just need a steak, Omaha isn’t a bad choice.
