Best-ter-est of Omaha 2010TM Of course we plan to do this again next year, so please leave comments below with your thoughts about what you like and don't like about the categories, results, promotion, etc.... We would like to include some "Best Dish" categories, but I think the votes would be so unique that we wouldn't have a clear winner for any category. I'm very open to ideas around this. Here are a couple of examples that came out in the voting. Big Horn Mountain BBQ: Beef Brisket

Upstream: Smoked Gouda & Blonde Ale Soup (x3)

Upstream: Tomato Basil

Mai Thai: Tom Yum Gai Soup

McFoster's Natural Kind: Roast Tomato Soup

Jaipur: Mulligatawny Soup

Grisanti's: Tomato Tortellini Soup

McFoster's Natural Kind: Sweet Potato Fries

Taste: Sweet Potato Fries

Smashburger: Smashfries (w/ Garlic and Rosemary)

Barrett's Barleycorn: Kitchen Sink Burger

Dinker's: Haystack Burger

Ethnic Sandwich Shop: The Irish Coned Beef Sandwich

Hiro: Husker Roll

Chinatown: Veggie Fried Rice

Whole Foods: Creme Brulee French Toast

Dixie Quick's: Oatmeal & Ice Cream

Mark's Bistro: Bread Pudding

Dario's: Banana and Brown Sugar Ice Cream Closing Thoughts For the most part, I'm very pleased with the results and I think they are a good representation of the Omaha food scene and the spots that foodies tend to favor. Next year we might try to clean up some of the categories, or at least define them better. I'd like to find a way to get restaurants like



On a personal note, while looking at the results, I realized the need for us to cover the Omaha restaurant scene more. Though I've been to well over half of the places on this list,



On a related note, we'd like to send out window clings to all of the restaurants you see above. If you make window clings or know someone who does, NOTES AND COMMENTS: Since the form fields were free form, we tried to interpret the results as best we could (e.g. We might count Radial Cafe towards Lisa's Radial Cafe). If you'd like to double check our work, feel free to look at the raw data . No member of the GFC team voted. Since this was such a small sample size and some of the categories were so close, some of the results would be different if our votes were counted.Of course we plan to do this again next year, so please leave comments below with your thoughts about what you like and don't like about the categories, results, promotion, etc.... We would like to include some "Best Dish" categories, but I think the votes would be so unique that we wouldn't have a clear winner for any category. I'm very open to ideas around this. Here are a couple of examples that came out in the voting.For the most part, I'm very pleased with the results and I think they are a good representation of the Omaha food scene and the spots that foodies tend to favor. Next year we might try to clean up some of the categories, or at least define them better. I'd like to find a way to get restaurants like Peru, Mucho Gusto nominated for something, but it, like many other restaurants, don't fit well into any of our current categories really. One thing that I noticed while looking at the results is that there are some great opportunities for restaurants to step up and fill some voids. Categories that were dominated by chains or just plain didn't have many votes would be a good place to start. So if you had been planing on opening a Korean soup-and-sandwich shop or a breakfast spot offering a burrito-on-a-bagel, you might have something going for you.On a personal note, while looking at the results, I realized the need for us to cover the Omaha restaurant scene more. Though I've been to well over half of the places on this list, we've reviewed just a fraction of them. Maybe you can help us with that problem.On a related note, we'd like to send out window clings to all of the restaurants you see above. If you make window clings or know someone who does, contact us . If you're a person who would like to help us design our decal, contact us . If you are a business owner who would like to offer something to the winners (such as Joe Frost from Elify who will be offering free online strategy consultations), contact us . If you just want to contact us, contact us :-)

We've closed the polls and tallied the votes. Once again a lot of great local restaurants took many top spots, while national and regional chains didn't fare as well in most categories. Several categories had big changes, several where very dispersed in votes and the new categories this year, especially the broad categories towards the end, were fascinating to see (I love the Most Overrated category).Voter turn out was not what we were hoping it would be, but that's a bit of a dilemma. We don't publicize much beyond our readers in order to keep the results of a higher quality. Finding really good food requires us to lean on those who are really passionate about food. We figure if you heard about this poll through our limited promotion and felt moved enough to vote, then you were a true foodie. This was always meant to be a poll for foodies, by foodies, so thank you to all the foodies who voted. We hope you enjoy the results as much as we did.Some quick notes about our notes. By some categories, you might see a [NOTE] in brackets that gives you some insight into that category beyond the winners ranks. For those, we urge you to take a look at the raw data to get a peek at all the votes. You'll also see the same kind of notes by individual restaurants. This is to give you an idea of how things have changed since last year and/or key you into decisive wins.

Labels: AWARDS, Best Of, LOCAL EVENTS, OMAHA, RESTAURANT REVIEW, RESTAURANTS