GOOD LOOKIN'
Hoppen Hierarchy:★★★★
Classic American Breakfast
Perfect For: Breakfast/Brunch; Casual Dining
Standout Dishes: Churro French Toast; Crispy Potatoes; Breakfast Burrito; Breakfast Sandwich
Good Lookin’ is a good mood cafe.
Whatever concerns or worries you have seems to melt away as you enter this brunch oasis. The large plate glass windows spill warm sunshine throughout the welcoming dining room, and the friendly staff ensure each guest is attended to and feels cared for.
Of course, nothing puts one in a good mood like good food, and that’s where Good Lookin’ truly excels.
Good Lookin’ has a homey, welcome interior; after placing your order at the counter, you can settle in at the coffee bar or at a table amongst brick walls, wood floors, and clever, fun artwork (like Albert Einstein dribbling a basketball). The setting all at once feels familiar and like you’re about to experience something new (if you’re on the run and don’t have time to stick around, the entire menu is available to go as well).
The newer location, located off 168th & Center in the Shops of Legacy, also boasts a cozy, sprawling patio perfect for sunny Nebraska mornings.
This cozy cafe’s menu covers the entire breakfast spectrum, from cozy greasy spoon classics to modern takes on classic breakfast dishes. There are hearty, stick-to-your-ribs plates like the Biscuits and Gravy and Chicken Fried Steak alongside more health-conscious choices such as Avocado Toast and Sweet Potato Chorizo Hash. There’s something for every palate here.
Perhaps no two dishes better represent Good Lookin’s embrace of comfort food and innovation than the Chicken Fried Steak and Churro French Toast. The Chicken Fried Steak sticks pretty close to tradition, combining the sweet richness of wagyu beef with a salty, crunchy exterior from the deep fry, a runny over easy egg, and an O’tillie chorizo gravy is so delicious one could happily drink it through a straw.
But the Churro French Toast is unlike any you’ve had before. The thick slices of bread are crusted with finely crushed cornflakes and cinnamon sugar, giving them both texture and sweetness, and each bite send forth a warm rush of better. The French toast is perfectly fine on its own, but adding Nutella or Good Lookin’s caramel whip allow you to make each bite unique.
But the best dish might be the Eggs Benedict, a fun riff on the classic dish. It starts with two perfectly poached eggs that dutifully spread their warm yolk over the entire dish with the slightest saw of a knife. The egg is soft and supple with a jammy exterior.
The aji hollandaise adds a tang and touch of citrusy sweetness to the rich hollandaise, and the smoked salmon adds a good level of salt. The housemade English muffins happily sop up any extra yolk and hollandaise without becoming soggy.
What really sets the dish over the top is the schmear of bacon jam on the muffin, which adds a salty/sweet combo that ties everything together.
Ask five different people what their favorite thing to order is and you may well get five different answers. You can’t go wrong with the customizable Breakfast Sandwich, which uses a pillow-y housemade English muffin as its base. From there you can choose from peppery sausage or crispy bacon and adorn it with an egg cooked however you like. Creamy white American cheese envelops your protein like an amoeba, while house aioli adds sweetness.
There’s nothing transformative about Good Lookin’s take on the Breakfast Burrito, but everything is cooked extremely well and sealed in a griddled tortilla package. The eggs are buttery and fluffy, the chorizo adds a savory spice, and tater tots bring saltiness and pops of texture.
The Good Lookin’ Bowl is unlike anything you’ll find at another Omaha breakfast restaurant. With poached eggs, pesto wild rice, bacon jam, sweet potatoes, feta, and peppery arugula, it’s completely different take on brunch. But the combination of flavors and textures worked brilliantly, as each bite is a different experience. The poached eggs are cooked perfectly, and the bacon jam is delicious enough to eat off a shoe.
But the real winner is the Crispy Potatoes. If you got to Good Lookin’ and don’t get a side of these, you’ve done something wrong. Boiled, squished by hand, then fried, each potato chunk is an individual snowflake with varied crispy edges and creamy starchy innards.
With toast, eggs, potatoes, and a choice of bacon or sausage, the Double Standard has all the familiar breakfast elements. The eggs are cooked well and the House Sausage has a wonderful balance of sweet and heat.
If you prefer a sweet breakfast, the Ricotta Pancakes are exactly what you’re looking for. These light flapjacks carry a creamy airiness and enough sweetness that you don’t need to douse them in syrup (but no one will judge if you do).
But Good Lookin’ isn’t all about breakfast. Open until 2PM, it also has a limited lunch menu, highlighted by the Fried Chicken Sandwich. The breading adds a brilliant crispy texture and good salt while allowing the inside to remain moist and juicy, and the brioche bun is a warm, soft home for the chicken to roost.
And any brunch spot worth its salt better have some good coffee. Good Lookin’s drip coffee is strong but flavorful, and its lattes are creamy and smooth, even without its adding one of its lineup of flavored syrups.
Even if you didn’t have a bite to eat, you could have a great time at Good Lookin’. The casual atmosphere beckons you to slow down and forget what’s going on outside of these four walls, and the staff works hard to ensure your experience is nothing short of spectacular.
But if you didn’t order food, you’d be missing out on one of the best brunch spots in Omaha.