Amsterdam Falafel & Kabob
Hoppen Hierarchy:★★★
District: Dundee; Central Omaha
European Street Food
Perfect For: Casual Dining; Takeout; Lunch; Vegan Options
Standout Dishes: Feta Fries; Doner Kabob Sandwich
On the surface, Amsterdam Falafel & Kabob appears very simple and straightforward. The menu is relatively brief and, depending on which location you visit, you’re ordering from a walk-up window or in a mall food court.
But it only takes a few bites to understand this food is far from elementary. Drawing influences from Indian, African, Turkish, and Egyptian cuisines, Amsterdam’s exotic spices and sauces make each bite an adventure, a journey into something you aren’t going to find many places in Omaha.
The restaurants’ owners fell in love with European street food while living abroad and decided Omahans needed to try these flavors, too. Amsterdam’s original location opened in Dundee in 2008, followed up seven years later in the Flagship Commons food hall inside Westroads Mall.
Though seemingly limited, the menu allows diners to create a heavily customized meal. Even tweaking just one or two elements can change the entire flavor profile of the dish, making each experience unique and exciting. Plates are built by selecting a:
- Base: sandwich, plate (served with hummus), or salad
- Protein: doner kabob or falafel
- Sauce(s): garlic, herb, spicy green, spicy red
These dishes can be paired with sides like Moroccan Peanut Soup, hummus, and creative takes on fries.
The sandwiches steal the show in more ways than one. The flavors of the proteins pop right out of the pita pocket. Roasted on and thinly sliced off a vertical spit, the juicy Doner Kabob (a beef/lamb combo very similar to gyro meat) has a nice caramelized exterior and delivers hits of oregano and thyme. The Falafel (deep-fried balls of ground chickpeas) are asteroid-sized, crispy pucks of fresh, garlicy deliciousness with an herby punch. Pickled red cabbage and carrot chickpea salad add acidity and freshness.
Amsterdam packs so many ingredients into these sandwiches, it’s a minor miracle the flatbread doesn’t become soggy or fall apart. But this pocket not only holds together but also delivers a pleasantly chewy consistency.
The lion’s share of the sandwiches’ flavor comes from the powerful, wildly different sauces that allow each visit to be a create-your-own-adventure experience. From the creamy, tzatziki-like Garlic Sauce to the bright, dill-forward Herb, mild Spicy Green, and aggressive Spicy Red, each brings an entirely new element to the sandwich, and mixing the sauces allows diners to play mad scientist with their food.
Whatever plate you choose, you’re making a mistake if you don’t add a side of fries. The Curry Fries are a fine side dish on their own, as these thin-cut, crispy potatoes get a deep, earthy flavor from a dusting of curry powder.
But they’re child’s play compared to the epic Feta Fries. Amsterdam’s four sauces are liberally ladled onto a generous helping of curry fries, all topped with tangy, salty feta cheese. What this plate lacks in presentation it more than makes up in flavor, and the mixing of different sauces and presence of cheese makes each forkful distinct from the last.
As a walk-up counter, Amsterdam doesn’t offer much in the way of ambience, but it’s not meant to. This is street food, intended to be eaten on the go, and it works perfectly for that purpose. And at $8 apiece, these catchers mitt-sized, appetite-destroying sandwiches are a steal.
Whatever you want to say about the food coming out of Amsterdam Falafel & Kabob’s window, don’t call it simple. Judging this book by its cover would be severely underestimating the flavors that emerge from seemingly-humble beginnings.