NICE ROLLZ
Hoppen Hierarchy:★★★★
District: Blackstone
Creative Asian/Korean Food
Perfect For: Casual Dining; Lunch; Takeout; Vegan Options
Standout Dishes: Spicy Bulgogi Burger; Crab Rangoon Nachos; Fried Rice; Black Sesame & Peanut Butter Noodles
Nice Rollz is, in many ways, the American restauranteur’s dream.
The concept was born when owner Kristina Lee began selling egg rolls out of her apartment during COVID. Her food became so popular that she was offered the opportunity to operate out of a coffee house kitchen, serving classic breakfast dishes with a Korean twist.
But Nice Rollz’ popularity really got a head of steam once Kristina started Burger Night, a once-a-month ticketed occasion in which she serves possibly Omaha’s best burger, and definitely its most interesting… but we’ll get to that in a minute.
Because the faster this little start-up grew, the more it became apparent Kristina wouldn’t be able to unleash the full breadth of her culinary talent in a coffee shop kitchen. She needed a fully built-out space—and that’s exactly what she got when she moved into Kamp, an elevated food hall in the Blackstone district.
And now Kristina is free to cook the food that she truly loves: Korean dishes with a touch of her own creative flair, with a well-stocked kitchen and a fluorescent, eye-catching bay at her disposal.
But first, back to the burger.
This melding of flavors is so unique it will quite literally surprise you. You’ve never experienced something like this before. The combination of ingredients seems kind of wild on paper, and it might take you a couple of bites to fully dissect everything your tastebuds are experiencing. But once you wrap your mind around this inventive brilliance, you’ll realize you’re eating one of the best burgers in Omaha.
Offered on the last Sunday of each month (watch Nice Rollz’ Instagram and Facebook pages for the sign-up form), this burger is a shocking combination of sweet and heat. The patty rests in a bulgogi marinade, infusing it with a natural sweetness, before it’s cooked to tender perfection. Pickled cucumbers and onions add more sugar, but then a hot pepper cheese and a Gochujang mayo bring spice and balance. Then the yolk from the over easy egg breaks and oozes yolk-y goodness everywhere, tying this burger masterpiece together.
You can even enjoy this burger if you’re not a meat eater. Nice Rollz also offers a vegan option that is not only delicious, but completely plant-based.
The burger is an amped-up version of what you can consistently expect from Nice Rollz. If you glance at the menu, it looks like a fairly standard Chinese takeout, as it’s populated by fried rice dishes, egg rolls, and versions of General Tso’s chicken and sweet and sour chicken. But once you get a taste of Nice Rollz’ flavors, you’ll know this is anything but expected takeout food.
The best example might be the Crab Rangoon Nachos. Crab rangoons are often disappointing because they’re fried poorly, leaving them a saggy sack of breading filled with cream cheese that must be rescued by a dunk in a sickeningly sweet sauce.
These nachos bring the crispiness that the normal crab rangoon desperately needs. Wonton chips are fried to a crunchy texture, then topped with a mild, tangy cream cheese and a delightful sweet and sour sauce.
The chips, despite being layered with ingredients, don’t become the least bit soggy or saturated with oil, and their crispiness provides the perfect base for the complementing sauces to play off one another.
This is the type of dish that’s supposed to be shareable, but it’s so addicting you’ll find yourself fighting your fellow diners for the next chip.
Not all of Nice Rollz’ menu features such creative twists, but each dish is simply an excellent version of itself. The Fried Rice is excellent, offering a nutty, buttery taste to go alongside a moist but not sticky texture. The dish is flowing with vegetables, bits of scrambled egg, and whichever protein you choose.
A dish new to most American palates is the Black Sesame & Peanut Butter Noodz, a popular street food in China. Cold noodles and peanut butter sauce may seem an odd combo, but once you taste the way the sweet, nutty peanut butter plays with the salt and umami of the soy sauce, you’ll be hooked. And Nice Rollz’ cooks the noodles to a perfect slippery tenderness.
At the intersection of sweet and savory is the fantastic Korean Corn Dog, a unique street food popular in Korea. Nice Rollz skewers half hot dog/half mozzarella stick, and fries it to a perfect golden brown. The dog is dusted in sugar and drizzled with honey, ketchup, mustard, and mayo, mixing sugar with gooey, molten cheese and a deeply savory hot dog. It’s a wild dish, but one you’ll want to order another of.
Kristina made her fame originally on egg rolls, and the Beef Egg Rolls show you why. Fried to a perfect golden brown, they’re crunchy and packed to the brim with savory beef. And for a deep-fried item, the grease is minimal.
The other side item you must try is the Naughty Cukes. Thinly-sliced cucumbers and onions are marinated in a delicious sweet/spicy sauce, giving them both sugar and fire. Whether you incorporate them into other dishes or eat them by the spoonful, they’re sure to disappear quickly.
Great as the other dishes at Nice Rollz are, the fried chicken options fall a bit short of their brethren. The breading is well-seasoned, but it becomes a bit saturated and soggy in the sauce; a minor complaint, but one that should be mentioned. It’s not much of an issue with the Not Tso Nice Chicken, which combines sweet, sour, spicy, and tangy flavors to create an addicting dish. And the vegetables, it must be noted, are sautéed to a tender consistency that releases their inherent sweetness.
The Sweet & Sour Chicken doesn’t have quite that same burst of flavor. It’s more sour than sweet, and the lack of crispiness is sorely missed.
But both dishes are still tasty, and they come with a treasure trove of that brilliant fried rice.
Nice Rollz has always been an exploration of something new. First, it reinvented egg rolls by stuffing breakfast ingredients inside them. Then it redefined the breakfast sandwich and created my personal favorite burger in the city.
And now Kristina gets to cook the food that makes her most passionate and happy, and she does it damn well.
The only problem with Nice Rollz is it will make you swear off your favorite Chinese takeout spot. That place just simply won’t match the heart, passion, and experience that Kristina puts into her food, and I’m confident you’ll recognize that from first bite.