Eat the Worm

I probably should have reviewed this place a long time ago. This is probably my wife and my favorite bar in Omaha. The food is amazing, delicious, and cheap. Probably the best bar/​drunk food you can get, with chicken empanadas and nachos to die for. Ian, the manager (and bartender a lot of the time), is the man. He was probably the reason I became a regular, and the reason that I always come back. Having moved to Houston, I only come to Omaha about once a year, but I always stop by here and Ian always remembers me. Oh, and the margaritas here are strong enough to kick your ass

Service is extremely slow and food is by no means great. They also charge you for water. You’d be better off getting food elsewhere. If you just need some drunk food check out Localmotive, Maria Bonita, or the gyro food trucks instead. Otherwise Old Chicago has a $ 2 pub pizza anytime after 10pm. If you come here you’ll just find yourself waiting for over 30min to get food and another 10 waiting for a table to open up.

I’ve been here a few times. I chuck this place up as just a late night, not so ready to head home yet type of joint. Service seem to be nice each time I’ve been. Although each time I went here I was «adult beverage induced» So it’s a not so bad place. Had a few beers here. Never tried the food, not in a rush honestly. Maybe one day. Good after the club/​event whatever. spot though.

Food is inexpensive and good, tequila selection is fantastic and Ian the bartender knows his stuff.

Food is good not rocking. Great queso. Al pastor burrito was good meat .: not much else and missed the Al pastor part. Margarita is Devine. Great tequila selection. So many… Even Centenario!

It all depends on what your looking for. It is more of a bar then a restaurant. Not sure what happens when this place is packed with drunk people wanting food. The kitchen is a flattop and two or three burners. and one woman. I agree it would be nice if they had fresh salsa… hell they could probably buy it from one of the Mexican restaurants outside of town where tje Latino population eats

Racist guy at the door! Pushed us out of the door!
I can’t believe it! The guy with beard! I can’t believe this is happening in 21^st century!

It seemed like it might be a hidden gem or a greasy dive. The house margarita lacked imagination and had a cheap aftertaste. The guacamole was mixed in a blender from a big bag – not sure where that could even come from. The empanada tasted like very old grease. We left without finishing anything to find a better dinner. I would need to be very drunk to find that food or atmosphere acceptable.

Great after midnight eats, fun staff, usually my last stop on the way home from the old market area.

Justin is one of the best bartenders I’ve ever had. Fun, engaging, knowledgeable. Food was delicious and affordable. Open late which is a huge plus around here. My only wish is for the burritos to be a little bigger. I’ve had bigger and equally good for this price. If this place could do that it’d be a must visit every opportunity.

It was a about the only place downtown at 9:00 at night that wasn’t packed to find food before our concert. Should have went hungry.
They have nachos, burritos, tacos etc. food is an afterthought. It’s a bar. It took forever to order even though there were only two people ahead of us. We ordered chips and salsa, a couple burritos and canned soda. We had to clear off our own table to sit down.
The chips were fried on site. They were delicious and were the best part. The burritos were ehhh. The outside was crisped on the griddle so it was good. But the inside was flavorless and all the same mushy texture. My husband was not impressed with his either.
The bathrooms were gross. Pure nasty. The vinyl on the seats were falling apart in the booths and cushion falling out. Place just seemed dirty. Not a fan.

I went here to cap off the day of my 21^st birthday with a few margaritas with my boyfriend & best friend. I’d heard good things about the place from a coworker and was excited to check it out.
Let me start this off by saying that my boyfriend & I both spent quite a bit of time working in the food service industry, so we know how restaurants work. We know what good service is, & we have standards. We know the difference between a good server & a bad server, and we’re always super nice to our servers regardless because hey, we know that restaurant guests mostly suck.
So we come in (it’s not busy whatsoever) and sit near the back in these nice leather seats. We sit for a few minutes chatting, our server comes over, so we start ordering our drinks with her and she asks for my ID. I proudly show it to her (it’s my 21^st!) and she stares at it for a minute & kind of looks confused so I politely point out the date to her & she says «um yeah, I know where the date is. I’ve been bartending for awhile now.» Okay, be more off-​putting. I check IDs at my job & people point out the date to me all the time, but it doesnt annoy me & I would never be rude about it.
Whatever. Small rude comment right? I order a frozen raspberry margarita. «Oh, the only frozen margaritas we have are strawberry & lime.» Okay, I thought it said differently on the menu, but no problem! I like strawberry. «Okay, I’ll take a frozen strawberry margarita.» She corrects me, «A BLENDED margarita.»
Look, they’re the same thing, and your menu says frozen. So what’s the issue? My boyfriend orders a Red Bull margarita and asks if he can have it blended. She says no, because apparently they would pour in the Red Bull after blending it and it would melt the drink, which doesn’t really make sense at all. But again, whatever.
She drops off our drinks & doesn’t come back after that, which was completely fine with us because of the attitude, and because when my boyfriend goes up to the bar for more drinks he finds that the bartender is pretty great! He even comes back to check on us later on. I ask him for another frozen margarita and he lists off all the flavors of frozen margaritas they offer… including raspberry. So, I don’t really know why this girl felt the need to act rudely when she doesn’t even know all her stuff.
I initially gave it two stars for the great drinks, décor, & overall feel of this place but I had to give it another star for the awesome bartender who made our night turn out so well. If we hadn’t had to deal with the initial bad service I definitely would have given Eat The Worm 4 stars!

Bad enough for a first review! I have been here before when they were busy and gave them the benefit of the doubt based on that. Showed up on an evening when there were no excuses and they failed to impress me. The food was lukewarm and had no flavor. There were no other customers there and I watched my food on the grill why is it not cooked properly? This was a night when my two friends and I were the only people waiting for burritos. Completely unacceptable! If you are looking for a quality experience go to south omaha or even dare I say Taco Bell beats this place. This is a sad excuse for mexican and should be avoided at all costs! The star is for the bartender who did not deserve to put up with this mess of a place.

This has the makings to be a great place, but I should’ve listened to the reviews. I thought since I came early in the day the service would be better… I was clearly wrong. There’s one guy making drinks and one guy cooking. The bartender/​waiter/​busboy is great and nice and my drink is awesome, however I had to flag the poor busy guy down to get a menu and again to order, which you have to go to the bar to do. No ones coming to your table, trust me. My nachos were cold so I sent them back… The cook had an attitude. They came back room temperature. I’m trying to inhale them before they’re cold again. They’re delicious but I prefer my food hot. Oh, I wasn’t offered any silverware or utensils. Not sure if that’s poor service or if they don’t have any. People were so disturbed by the service they just left. I should’ve done the same. So to recap :
Drink=awesome but took a long time
Food= tasted great but cold

Although I’m not much of a tequila drinker, this place has absolutely great food. I always order either the chicken taquitos or the beef nachos. The queso that drenches these foods is nothing like I’ve had at any other Mexican-​American food establishment and the service is always friendly and quick. The portions are pretty big, especially for the prices which most foods run under 7 – 9 dollars. I frequent this place on a weekly basis when craving a late night meal which is convenient since they stay open until 3. I highly recommend this place if you’re looking for a casual and fast meal or a blended margarita!

When the place first opened it has great. The last 3 – 4 times it was terrible.
Last time I went the waitress was too busy letting her friends take selfies with the bottles of tequila. Our order wasn’t started until 20 minutes after we arrived since the cook was on break.
They were out of a lot of things including napkins.
They renovated when they took over from the Zios that used to be there, but the place has gone to hell since. It is very rundown for its old market location and its age.
It is in one of the safest areas of omaha, but I don’t feel real safe in there.
The paper just ran a story about an assault in the alley behind it by a customer of the establishment.

Drunk food, that’s about all I can say. Questionable crowd, security guy out front. Service was good, helpful guy took our order.
Chicken bone found in chicken taco (gross) and they don’t make their own hot sauce as most tacqueria type joints do.

We were visiting Omaha from Denver, tried Eat The Worm on a recommendation. I can’t recall the bartenders name (I blame the memory loss on the Tequila) but he was big guy with glasses, funny socks, and a great imagination. Just tell him what you like and he will mix up a handmade creation that will leave you wanting more.
We ordered taquitos and I could not believe it, not just some freezer to fryer cardboard tasting snack, but handmade, stuffed with fresh beef, cheese, and salsa, rolled up goodness! Those little guys were so melt in your mouth great I had to try the Carne Asada burrito. Equally great, I was reminded of the food I loved in San Diego!
All In all a great visit to Omaha, nice city with some great people, drinks and food…

Only rating for the service
To the doorman: Physical action should never be taken without at least attempting to give a warning.
I have never been treated so rudely by anyone until last night. I was literally man handled by the door man for trying to go back into the bar to meet up with friends (Note: I had already paid for my food there). He wouldn’t let me past him and as I was trying to talk to them, without asking me to leave, he shoved me away, yelled at me and literally pushed me outside. I am appalled at how violent he was, no warning at all just physical action. Sure if i was a drunk asshole then I would have deserved to be treated that way but I was ending my night and trying to make sure my friends got home safe. Overall, if you are looking for somewhere to treat you decently this is NOT the place.

I was starving for some good food and stumbled in here a few nights ago. I got some grilled veggie tacos and an ‘Albino Cheetah’ I usually don’t go for corn shelled tacos, but these were great! double shelled so the goodies don’t fall out. the Albino cheetah is lots of tequila, some lime, and soda water. It’s clear and goes fast. good name for the drink. they also have a decent selection of beers. My favorite menu item is the Taquitos. No longer corn shelled meat cigars, these are akin to smaller chimichangas. A must, now for me