In January, when we launched our yearlong examination of Omaha steakhouses, we started by asking a few simple questions: What is the Omaha steakhouse, anyway? Who is doing it the best in 2025? And what gives it such staying power, continuing to define what both lifelong Omahans like me and visitors love to eat?

We’re back with the final story in the series to answer at least one of those questions: Who is doing it best. After 10 restaurants, many steaks, many desserts and at least one excellent spaghetti sauce — of course we had to have one, in this town of Italian steakhouse lore — it turns out there is one definitive winner, a place that ranks as Omaha’s best steakhouse according to my highly scientific process. (Or, really, my taste buds.)

But there’s much more than one to seek out as a diner in this beef-loving town. What follows are my rankings in each Steak Town USA category, and an underlying argument that steak, and steakhouses, continue to provide Omaha memories to return to.

Filet

Two of the 10 filets I ate this year stuck in my mind: Brother Sebastian’s 12-ounce St. Thomas cut and the 12-ounce bone-in, wet-aged filet I ordered off the steak cart at 801 Chophouse. The two moments became memorable because, generally speaking, the ribeyes we tried during the year outshone the filets.

Not at Brother Sebastian’s, where the server noted that my medium rare order would result in a center closer to rare because of the thickness of the cut, which was fine with me. The resulting piece of meat was spot on, seasoned but not salty and with a satisfying grid of char marks.

Owner Scott Lurry, who bought the restaurant two years ago after working for Koch for 43 years, shops for the restaurant’s beef every week, getting quotes from four different vendors in an effort to keep the prices at Brother Sebastian’s reasonable. He said for the past six months, he has primarily bought beef from Omaha Steaks.

Lurry said he tries to serve Angus when he can get a good price. And his St. Thomas filet, at $53.95, is more affordable than the other pick in this category. The steak at Brother Sebastian’s also comes served with the salad bar, bread, choice of potato and vegetable. In my book, it’s one of the best deals at any Omaha steakhouse we found in 2025. I’m picking it as the filet as the year.

801 made this decision very difficult because the kitchen there puts serious care and technique into its pieces of beef. The steaks arrived seasoned and cooked exactly as we ordered. The beef was fatty and succulent. The 12-ounce filet in particular was mouthwateringly good, with a crisp sear on its exterior and an interior so tender it could be cut with a butter knife. At 801, all the steaks are served a la carte. The filet I tried will set you back $82.

The restaurant’s beef is all Midwestern raised and corn fed — sometimes in Nebraska — then butchered in Chicago, said Tyler Miller, who has been on the 801 staff for a decade. The kitchen dry ages the meat in the house for at least 28 days. Its best-known local beef supplier is Morgan Ranch, based in the Nebraska Sandhills.

Filet Rankings

SBH’s best filet: Brother Sebastian’s

Ratings:

Brother Sebastian’s - 5

801 Chophouse - 5

Committee Chophouse - 4

Pivot Prime - 4

Drover - 4

Ruhlman’s - 4

Jerico’s - 3

Johnny’s Cafe - 3

Cascio’s - 2

Gorat’s - 2

Ribeye

One ribeye stood out from almost the beginning of the series, and that’s the Committee Chophouse’s Delmonico, a 16-ounce bone-out ribeye that we ordered cooked medium way back in February.

The steaks come wonderfully charred and perfectly cooked, with juicy, flavorful finishes. Though the Delmonico had some extra fat around its edges, it’s easily carved off and, in the end, added to the rich, salty flavor.

I wrote down “salty-juicy-perfectly seared-bliss,” and that about captures it.

The steakhouses source beef from several ranches, including some based in Nebraska that breed Piedmontese, Wagyu and Black Angus cattle. A Committee Chophouse chef can pinpoint the first moment when he sensed the restaurant was an honest-to-goodness steakhouse.

It was the day that a few Nebraska ranchers arrived with their families, unannounced, for dinner. Then the ranchers’ friends started showing up, too, to this landmark spot inside the historic Cottonwood Hotel.  

“That was when it really clicked for me that we’ve embedded ourselves as a staple steakhouse in Nebraska,” said Brandon Kalfut, the Committee’s chef de cuisine.

Ribeye Rankings

SBH’s best ribeye: Committee Chophouse

Ratings:

Committee Chophouse - 5

Drover - 4

801 Chophouse - 4

Jerico’s - 4

Ruhlman’s - 4

Brother Sebastian’s - 3

Pivot Prime - 3

Cascio’s - 2

Gorat’s - 2

Johnny’s Cafe - 2

Onion Rings

In this writer’s humble opinion, the best onion rings at any Omaha steakhouse are an easy pick: Johnny’s Cafe.

I have sent many friends and Omaha visitors to Johnny’s specifically for these onion rings, which are a shade of pale gold, dotted with specks of black pepper and a fine texture, filled with sweet, tender onion and fried to crispy perfection. There’s a note of umami in the simple batter, which co-owner Sally Kawa told me later gets made using the same formula it has for generations. The key ingredient: a thick sort of cracker meal that is the base of the coating.

Every morning, a member of the kitchen staff hand slices onions into rings for two hours. They get dredged twice, then refrigerated. Huge sheet trays of rings stay chilled until the moment they get dropped into a hot fryer used for that purpose alone.

“It’s labor intense,” Kawa said. “We haven’t changed one thing. It’s old school.”

Onion Rings Rankings

SBH’s best onion rings: Johnny’s Café

Ratings:

Johnny’s Cafe - 5

Brother Sebastian’s - 5

Drover - 3

Gorat’s - 3

Jerico’s - 3

Ruhlman’s - 3

Cascio’s - 2

801 Chophouse - 1

Committee Chophouse - N/A

Pivot Prime - N/A

Shrimp Cocktail

When we visited the Committee, I knew that their shrimp cocktail was going to be hard to beat. But I didn’t know it was going to absolutely annihilate this category. We ran into a lot of watery shrimp and forgettable cocktail sauces. No one came close to the Committee’s five impressively large prawns, their quality and freshness unmatched by any other steakhouse. 

The dipping sauces are the absolute best, too. A horseradish-spiked cocktail sauce, a creamy tarragon aioli and a small dollop of glossy seaweed salad get paired against the juicy, briny shrimp. The horseradish has quite a kick, and the bit of seaweed lends an unexpected hint of umami and is heavy on sesame.

Shrimp Cocktail Rankings

SBH’s best shrimp cocktail: Committee Chophouse

Ratings:

 Committee Chophouse - 5

801 Chophouse - 3

Brother Sebastian’s - 3

Drover - 3

Jerico’s - 3

Pivot Prime - 3

Johnny’s Cafe - 3

Ruhlman’s - 2

Cascio’s - 1

Gorat’s - N/A

Loaded Baked Potato

After eating a loaded baked potato at every steakhouse I visited this year, I can tell you that it has been solidified as my favorite steakhouse side dish. There are several good ones in town, and my rankings reflect that. The one-pound loaded baked potato at 801 Chophouse, for example. Or the crispy-edged version at The Drover. Both those potatoes tied for second after the one that wins, from the Committee Chophouse.

The Committee upgrades every single ingredient on its loaded baked potato: bacon bits get swapped with impressively chunky cubes of lardon, sour cream with crème fraîche and shredded cheese with a hot spoonful of cheese fondue. All that gets topped with a hunk of butter and curled green onions. The soft, pillowy interior is all held together by a super crisp, salt-coated potato skin.

Is it over the top? Absolutely. Is it damn delicious? You bet it is. 

Loaded Baked Potato Rankings

SBH’s best loaded baked potato: Committee Chophouse

Ratings:

Committee Chophouse - 5

801 Chophouse - 4

Drover - 4

Brother Sebastian’s - 3

Gorat’s - 3

Ruhlman’s - 3

Jerico’s - 2

Johnny’s Cafe - 2

Cascio’s - 1

Pivot Prime - N/A

Best Dessert/Speciality Item

The “specialty category” yielded mostly desserts during the year of steak, including pie, bread pudding, two carrot cakes, bananas Foster, cheesecake, souffle and even baked Alaska.

When I went back through the rankings, I chose just one dessert, but then two more: the best specialty dish and the most creative dish. Make 2026 the year you sample all three.

By this point, in both this series and in the city, the pie at Jerico’s is legendary. Made in-house daily, Jerico’s has three cream pies: banana, coconut and chocolate, plus key lime.

Owner Chuck DiDonato said the same chef, Fred Kurbis, now semi-retired, still makes those pies every day.

“If it’s not broke,” he said, “don’t fix it.”

I could not agree more. The pies are exceptionally creamy, with a thin, flaky crust.

Cream pies can be cloyingly sweet. Not at Jerico’s, where the airy filling gets balanced with chunks of banana, a hefty layer of whipped cream and a sprinkling of crispy shaved almonds. Before I could even think about the calories, my slice was gone.

Honorable mentions for the skillet cookie at Ruhlman’s and the made-to-order chocolate souffle at 801 Chophouse, my other two most memorable desserts this year.

Dessert/Specialty Item Rankings

SBH’s best dessert or specialty item: Jerico’s Banana cream pie

Ratings:

Jerico’s banana cream pie - 5

801 Chophouse chocolate souffle - 5

Ruhlman’s wood-fired toffee skillet cookie - 5

Committee Chophouse baked Alaska - 4

The Drover’s cinnamon toffee cheesecake - 4

Gorat’s OG spaghetti sauce - 4

Johnny’s carrot cake - 4

Pivot Prime’s beef tallow candle - 4

Cascio’s housemade spaghetti sauce - 3

Brother Sebastian’s raspberry bread pudding - 1

Best Italian Steakhouse Moment

As soon as I eyeballed the O.G. meat sauce on the menu, based on a Gorat’s family recipe from the 1940s, I knew I was ordering a plate.

Chef Josh Saligheh said the meat sauce is indeed based on an old family recipe that was once printed in a community cookbook. He jazzed it up, using house-ground steak, beef tenderloin and a tomato sauce seasoned with red pepper flakes and cooked with a house-made beef stock.

It is rich and deeply savory, with nice textural interest that comes from the blend of ground meat and hunks of juicy tenderloin. I recommend ordering it without hesitation — in fact, I’ve gone back, and ordered it once more.

Most Creative Dish

“The server brings the squat, vanilla-hued candle to the table and lights it with a flourish. A few moments later, he returns, head slightly bowed, offering a basket of locally baked Le Quartier bread.

“The diners at our table at Pivot Prime, a new steakhouse near 132nd and West Dodge, pick up a slice and timidly drag it through the warm pool of what looks like liquefied candle wax beneath the candle.

“It feels like we are doing something wrong. Criminal, even.

But then we dip the bread into that melted candle again, and again, more assuredly and forcefully, until we are dragging slices of bread through it. Joyously getting away with it.” 

That’s what I wrote in August about Pivot Prime’s beef tallow candle, a melted beef fat marvel that mingles with balsamic and rosemary, is meant to be devoured. It creates a food moment that diners will still be talking about months later.

Best Overall Steakhouse

The clear winner for best overall steakhouse based on our rankings delivers on so many levels. It has that classic steakhouse atmosphere. It has delightful service. And, crucially, it has the ability to execute almost any piece of high-quality beef to a precise medium rare. 

Since my first visit, I have loved its way of straddling the past and future of Nebraska steakhouses. This steakhouse serves vintage cuts of meat and old-school side dishes, like creamed spinach, that almost any middle-aged – well-aged? – Nebraskan will recognize. But the dishes are prepared with skill, with precision, with a modern flair.

I’ve dined at this steakhouse many times now. I have never had a subpar steak or a bad experience. That’s saying something. And that, plus its outstanding scores across the dishes on our list, is why we’re naming it the best overall steakhouse in Omaha.

I am already on record as saying my most beloved Omaha steakhouse is The Drover. Johnny’s will forever have a soft spot in this food critic’s heart for its century-old charm and those onion rings. Honestly: I love so many places on this list. They are Omaha history and Omaha present. They help tell the story of my own dining life.

But the best overall steakhouse in Omaha, based on our rankings, is none other than the Committee Chophouse, located in the historic and now-renovated Cottonwood Hotel in Blackstone.

Best Steakhouse Rankings

SBH’s best steakhouse: Committee Chophouse

Ratings:

Committee Chophouse - 4.6

Drover - 3.7

801 Chophouse - 3.7

Pivot Prime - 3.5

Ruhlman’s - 3.5

Jerico’s - 3.3

Johnny’s Cafe - 3

Brother Sebrastian’s - 3

Gorat’s 2.8

Cascio’s - 1.9

This year, during Steak Town USA, we tried the same selection of dishes during each visit to an Omaha steakhouse:

a ribeye, cooked to medium;

a filet, cooked to medium rare;

an order of onion rings;

shrimp cocktail;

a loaded baked potato;

a Manhattan; and a Negroni.

We’ll also tried one specialty item per stop, identifying one thing the steakhouse is known for and adding it to the list.

Steakhouse rankings based on overall average of 1-5 ranking for every Steak Town USA dish the steakhouse serves.

This story was originally published by Flatwater Free Press, an independent, nonprofit newsroom focused on investigations and feature stories in Nebraska that matter. Read the article at: https://flatwaterfreepress.org/steak-town-usa-its-time-to-pick-the-best-...