OMAHA'S BEST CHEESESTEAKS

Philadelphia may be famous for the cheesesteak, but Omaha has some pretty good versions of the beloved sandwich. And let’s be honest; in what world is a combination of bread, sliced beef, and melted cheese not a glorious thing?

But there are varying levels of success with this sandwich, so I sought out to find the best cheesesteaks in Omaha. I crowdsourced opinions on where to find Omaha’s finest, then tried them all to come to a final ranking.

To be clear, this is one man’s opinion. I’m no cheesesteak authority; this is simply a list of the sandwiches I enjoyed the most.

Only regular menu items or specials offered at least once per month were considered on this list. “*” indicates the item is a special and is not on the everyday menu.

BEST CHEESESTEAKS IN OMAHA

1. Block 16—B16 Philly

Meat: 🥩🥩🥩🥩🥩
Bread: 🍞🍞🍞🍞🍞
Accompaniments: 🥪🥪🥪🥪🥪
Tradition: 🍴🍴🍴🍴
Flavor: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Overall: 9.8

grilled angus ribeye | sweet onion | coopers sharp cheese | roasted garlic mayo | Le Quartier hoagie

Finding fault with Block 16‘s cheesesteak is like trying to find a hole in Michael Jordan’s NBA resume; it’s so close to perfection, the exercise feels useless. Every element of this sandwich plays off another, starting with the beef. This dry-aged Angus ribeye is sliced paper-thin to achieve brilliant tenderness, and its rich, savory flavor makes for a perfect partner with the sweetness of caramelized onions.

The gooey, tangy cooper sharp cheese and creamy garlic mayo add fat and moisture, but this sandwich would fall apart if not for the Le Quartier hoagie. This bread maintains a nice crustiness while soaking up all the juices to ensure you get every last ounce of flavor.

2. Jalapeno Popper Cheesesteak—Sauced by Alfaro

Meat: 🥩🥩🥩🥩🥩
Bread: 🍞🍞🍞🍞
Accompaniments: 🥪🥪🥪🥪🥪
Tradition: 🍴🍴🍴
Flavor: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Overall: 9.6

While Sauced by Alfaro‘s rendition of the cheesesteak isn’t the most traditional, it packs an entire farmers market worth of flavor into each bite. The beef is tender, well-seasoned, and folded into melted cream cheese for a luscious richness. Cheddar and pepperjack join the party for a little more cheesy goodness, and the sweetness of the onions balances all the rich elements.

It’s the two additions on top that make this sandwich so unique (and delicious). Chunks of bacon are liberally dispersed, and a jalapeno cream adds just the right touch of heat.

TL/DR: this is one of the most unique and delicious sandwiches in Omaha.

3. Nocturnal Eats—Market St Philly

Meat: 🥩🥩🥩🥩
Bread: 🍞🍞🍞🍞
Accompaniments: 🥪🥪🥪🥪
Tradition: 🍴🍴🍴🍴
Flavor: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Overall: 9.4

shaved ribeye | grilled onions & peppers | whipped cream cheese | white American cheese

This is a juices-running-down-your-arms, 15-napkin type of sandwich, and it’s 100% worth the mess. Nocturnal Eats seasons its shaved ribeye well, then mixes it with a whipped cream cheese and white American cheese for a gooey, salty conglomeration delicious enough to eat by the spoonful. The rich salinity is balanced by the sweetness of sauteed onions and peppers.

It all lives inside an in-house roll that’s chewy and bouncy, porous enough to absorb all the meat juices and melted cheese. This sandwich is a messy beast, but it’s crazy delicious.

4. Philly Cheesesteak—M&M Beef & Steak

Meat: 🥩🥩🥩🥩
Bread: 🍞🍞🍞🍞
Accompaniments: 🥪🥪🥪🥪
Tradition: 🍴🍴🍴🍴
Flavor: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Overall: 9.4

M&M Beef & Steak is a food truck selling (as its name would suggest) two items: Italian beef sandwiches and cheesesteaks. And the latter is arguably the closest you’ll find to a “traditional” Philly cheesesteak in Omaha.

The cheese whiz, mixed both into the beef and ladled on top, is intensely salty and tangy with a wonderfully creamy texture that works well with the shaved ribeye. M&M allows you to add onions and sweet and hot peppers for no charge, so this sandwich has a pleasant heat to it.

The bread, baked in house, is light and airy on the inside with a thin, chewy crust.

5. Tradishish—Umonhon

Meat: 🥩🥩🥩
Bread: 🍞🍞🍞🍞
Accompaniments: 🥪🥪🥪🥪
Tradition: 🍴🍴
Flavor: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Overall: 9.3

beef | raspberry chipotle BBQ | pepper jack | red onion | red pepper

Your traditional cheesesteak this is not. Tradishish serves an indigenous twist on the classic sandwich that makes you reconsider what a cheesesteak can be.

The raspberry chipotle BBQ sauce is the main flavor driver in this sandwich, melding with the tender, thick-sliced sirloin to give each bite a sweet, smoky punch. The pepper jack injects a subtle heat, and the roll, sourced from Le Quartier, has strong integrity and great chew.

Tradishish is a food truck that also utilizes the kitchen and serves at the Drinkaway Lounge (5434 S 99th St). Wherever you encounter this cheesesteak, you should absolutely get one.

6. Barrett's Barleycorn Pub & Grill—Beef Philly

Meat: 🥩🥩🥩🥩
Bread: 🍞🍞
Accompaniments: 🥪🥪🥪🥪
Tradition: 🍴🍴
Flavor: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Overall: 9.0

roast beef | hoagie | sautéed mushrooms & onions | Swiss | cream cheese

The flavor profile of the cheesesteak at Barrett’s Barleycorn Pub & Grill is wildly different from any other in Omaha. The roast beef, sliced a bit thicker than most to give it some body, is marinated in teriyaki, giving it a good dose of sweetness and umami. It’s a wild flavor for a cheesesteak, but it’s so craveable. The meat is mixed with cream cheese and Swiss to give it a salty creamy finish. Barrett’s allows you to add sauteed mushrooms, onions, peppers, and jalapenos, which make each bite its own adventure.

The bread is the only downside. It’s soft and does a great job of soaking up the cheesy meat juice, but it’s not toasted, and when compared to other homemade breads on this list falls a bit short.

7. The Approach at Indian Creek—Black Bird Cheesesteak

Meat: 🥩🥩🥩🥩
Bread: 🍞🍞
Accompaniments: 🥪🥪🥪🥪
Tradition: 🍴🍴🍴
Flavor: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Overall: 8.8

shaved ribeye | American Swiss cheese | onions | pickled peppers

Yes, it is worth visiting Indian Creek Golf Course to get this cheesesteak. The staff at Approach, the course’s clubhouse restaurant, combines fine dining with street food.

The Black Bird Cheesesteak starts with sliced, chopped ribeye that has just the right amount of unctuous fat. That’s folded into melted American Swiss cheese, which has the meatiness of American and the nuttiness of Swiss. Pickled peppers provide pops of acid to offset the richness of the gooey meat/cheese mixture. But what really elevates the sandwich is how chef Kyle Lamb transforms the onion portion of the cheesesteak, making an onion soubise (a classic French sauce) that brings an underlying sweetness.

The bread, which is a bit thick and lack that crispy outer sheen, is the only real drawback here.

8. Noli's Pizzeria (Aksarben)—Ansel's Famous Philly

Meat: 🥩🥩🥩
Bread: 🍞🍞🍞🍞🍞
Accompaniments: 🥪🥪🥪🥪
Tradition: 🍴🍴🍴
Flavor: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Overall: 8.6

Noli’s Pizzeria is known best for its titular pizza, but its cheesesteak is just as delicious as the pies. And it all starts with the bread, which the restaurant makes in house. Crusty and chewy on the outside while tender and soft in the middle, it’s a delightful sandwich vehicle, and it’s pores soak up all the sauce and cheese.

That’s important, because there’s a lot of moisture on this sandwich. In addition to melted cooper sharp cheese, Noli’s adds a “dynamite sauce”, which has a bit of a kick. These two combine to form a creamy, slightly spicy component that takes over the flavor of the sandwich. It also gives some moisture to the ribeye, which is well-seasoned but a bit dry.

This may not be the perfect cheesesteak for a traditionalist, but it’s a darn good sandwich.

9. Rookies Bar & Grill—Phanatic Philly

Meat: 🥩🥩🥩
Bread: 🍞🍞🍞
Accompaniments: 🥪🥪
Tradition: 🍴🍴🍴
Flavor: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Overall: 8.0

steak | mushrooms | onions | peppers | jalapeños

The steak on Rookies‘ cheesesteak is far better than any I’d expect from a bar. It’s seasoned very well and developed nicely caramelized bits from its time on the grill. The sauteed vegetables bring the sweet to balance the savory, and the jalapeno juice adds a little heat to every bite. The only thing that’s lacking here is cheese; it’s present, but there just needs to be more of it.

10. Dundee's Place Bar & Grill—Philly Cheesesteak

Meat: 🥩🥩🥩🥩
Bread: 🍞🍞🍞
Accompaniments: 🥪🥪
Tradition: 🍴🍴🍴
Flavor: ⭐⭐⭐

Overall: 7.2

The meat should be the star of a cheesesteak, and it absolutely is at Dundee’s Place Bar & Grill. This steak is seasoned wonderfully, as the salt enhanced the beefy flavor, and the grilling adds a nice smokiness. And the amoroso roll is soft and pillowy, though it could use a bit more toasting.

The sauteed onions, peppers, and mushrooms add a little sweetness and earthiness, but this sandwich is seriously missing cheese. Some provolone is melted onto one side of the roll, but it’s lacking the richness one wants from a cheesesteak.

11. Wilson & Washburn—Philly

Meat: 🥩🥩
Bread: 🍞🍞🍞
Accompaniments: 🥪🥪🥪
Tradition: 🍴🍴🍴🍴
Flavor: ⭐⭐⭐

Overall: 7.1

shaved ribeye | Swiss | onions | red peppers | shisitos

I enjoy so much of the elevated comfort food at Wilson & Washburn that it makes me wonder if I visited on an off day. But I can only judge based off what I experienced, and the ribeye on this steak was tough and chewy. It had good flavor and was still juicy, but I didn’t want to fight with it as much.

The other components were wonderful. There was a good amount of melted Swiss, the sauteed onions and peppers were sweet, and the shisito peppers added a whisper of heat. Had the meat been cooked better, this would be a very good cheesesteak.

Pro tip: ask for the horseradish aioli and add that to the sandwich. Game changer.

12. Jimi D's—The Classic Philly

Meat: 🥩🥩
Bread: 🍞🍞🍞
Accompaniments: 🥪🥪🥪
Tradition: 🍴🍴🍴🍴
Flavor: ⭐⭐⭐

Overall: 7.0

shaved prime rib | sautéed red pepper | mushroom | onion | provolone

There is absolutely nothing wrong with the cheesesteak at Jimi D’s. It’s a good portion size, the melted cheese oozes into every bite, and the caramelized onions and peppers add a nice sweetness to cut through all the rich elements of the sandwich. The bread is soft, but holds together well.

The shaved prime rib is a bit tough and underseasoned, but not in an egregious way. This is a very solid if unspectacular cheesesteak, one that I would happily eat again, but doesn’t give me a strong urge to seek out.

13. Motown Philly—Backlot Taphouse

Meat: 🥩🥩
Bread: 🍞🍞🍞
Accompaniments: 🥪🥪
Tradition: 🍴🍴🍴
Flavor: ⭐⭐⭐

Overall: 6.5

I’m a big fan of the Detroit-style pizza at Backlot Taphouse, and I was hopeful the care and flavor they put in their pizzas would extend to the cheesesteak. I fear I might have visited on an off day, because it did not.

The steak was tough and overcooked without much seasoning. And while I loved the cheese blend of mozzarella and Muenster, the beer cheese on top seized up and added a peculiar texture. The sourdough hoagie was puffy and nicely toasted and the veggies were sautéed well, but this sandwich was a bit of a miss.

14. Pepperjax—Famous Philly

Meat: 🥩🥩
Bread: 🍞🍞
Accompaniments: 🥪🥪
Tradition: 🍴🍴🍴
Flavor: ⭐⭐⭐

Overall: 6.4

steak | American Swiss cheese | onion | mushrooms | pepper

Pepperjax, a fast casual cheesesteak joint, originated in Omaha, so it had to be included in the hunt. As a quick service restaurant, its quality might not match some of its Omaha peers, but it’s still a tasty cheesesteak.

The steak is chopped to a delicate thinness, and it’s seasoned very well, if it’s a bit overcooked. The cheese (three slices of Swiss American) is a bit weak, but the sauteed peppers, onions, and mushrooms add good texture and sweetness. The roll has a nice crust but doesn’t add much else.