The Oven

Service was fine, food mediocre. I had Tandoori Mixed Grill which consisted of a pile of dry rice, two rolled up meat sausages, three red shrimp, and four chicken chunks – all dry. The cup of Mulligatawny with a half cup of rice was good. The wife had a vegetarian tray with seven little half cups of various mixtures and naan/​flatbreads. She liked her wine and I liked my Nebraska beer. But the food is NOT great here! And to pay half a hundred plus tax for that meal was not satisfying.

I recently had dinner here with a group of 12. I had Chicken Tikka Makhani, my wife had Lamb Korma, and we shared a Paneer Kulcha.
We were very pleased with our entrees. Flavorful and exciting. The Paneer Kulcha naan felt like a Chicago style stuffed pizza (it was located with the naans on the menu). I am not a naan connoisseur, but I had not encounter a naan like this before. It was tasty, and much heavier than the traditional flatbread naan we thought we were ordering.
The waitress was very accommodating of our large group, and quickly fixed a mistake that was made with our friend’s order. She also managed to give everyone the correct dish even when we shuffled our seating after we ordered. Very impressive!

Great service, check.
Great drinks, check.
Awesome food, generous portions, and super reasonable prices, check.
Nice relaxed ambiance that makes a great place for quiet dinners. The food was fresh and fantastic, made with care.
I have to say, I was surprised to find great Indian food in Lincoln, NE, but perhaps I shouldn’t have been.
Nebraska 1, Me 0

I thought the service was great. The soup was excellent, the korma sauce (red sauce) for the chicken tikka korma seems more of a Marinara sauce. It was odd. Fine, but seemed off from every other red I’ve ever had. The Naan was bland. But garlic naan good. I asked for vegetables in place of rice bc we had ordered so much bread. They were accommodating and replaced rice with what seemed like curried veggies. Good. Over all, if in Lincoln I’d go back if in the area. But wouldn’t go out of my way to eat there.

Great experience. Good service, authentic, classy décor, and tasty food. The server was knowledgeable of ingredients and helpful with my food allergies. They have a good beer menu, extensive wine list and also mixed drinks. We had vegetable pekora and also the vegetarian thiali. We felt pleasantly full splitting these two items between two of us. The aloo gobi was great and every dish tasted fresh and authentic. I would definitely eat here again.

Meh.
That pretty much sums up all the experiences I have had at the oven.
The best thing on their menu is their mulligawtany soup. It’s earthy, has a good level of heat and with a squeeze of lemon can turn any bad day into a good one.
The chicken tandoori is usually pretty dry and a dangerously red color (I don’t understand why every Indian restaurant needs to add food coloring to Tandoori, enough with that). The appetizer plate has some good and some bad. Their samosa is decent (3 stars). The platter doesn’t really offer a lot of variety. 90% of the food in there is just vegetable pakoras of various types all dipped and fried with the same batter. With a «platter», I would expect more variety in flavor, texture and cooking style. The only difference comes from the shish kabob, which isn’t fried.
The entrees really are mediocre. They seem to be targeting a western palate (I mean, I don’t blame them, as 90% of their customers didn’t grow up with native Indian food). I wish their menu wasn’t filled with so much fluff and they would have a fewer items with more thought put in. I mean, what is the point of having butter chicken, chicken tikka korma, chicken tikka masala when they ALL taste pretty much the same. Just pick one and perfect it. The chicken needs to be marinated for a longer time and not so dry.
Their naan is decent but I wasn’t a fan of the Kabuli naan like everyone seems to be on here. Mine was under cooked and lacked depth/​flavor.
If I go there again, I’ll just stick to the plain naan and soup and if I’m craving something fried, a samosa.
Non-​food related stuff: service is usually pretty good. The ambiance is good and filled with people on dates. Bathroom are clean. Both times I’ve ordered to-​go, they’ve made me wait more than the time they said and each time, the order have been messed up in some way.

Service was great!!! Excellent tikki chicken wrap and chicken tikki madras. Will host family and friends here soon.

BEST INDIAN FOOD Lincoln, hands down. Order the Malai Kafta. The Oven’s Malai Kafta is my favorite food on the planet.

Has been a while since we last been here for dinner. Tonight was excellent everything, including service. Had a variety of food items. Thanks folks. Great dining experience.

What a find in Lincoln, a Classy Indian restaurant with a cool wine cellar! You can peruse the the various wines and taste them with the help of the sommelier. I ate downstairs as well. Started with some pappadam and veggie samosas. Dinner was Chicken Tikka Korma with some amazing garlic naan… Very good experiance, comfortable atmosphere and great service!

WOW… where to start? All around a terrible experience. Last time I checked, the basics of Indian food are spice, butter (ghee), cream… and love (which nothing had). The Chicken Tikka Masala tasted like Italian watered down pasta sauce. When we received the dry somosa’s we asked for plum sauce… any sauce… said they didn’t have any. The Biryani rice was incredibly dry and cold. I will hand it to them for their wine list… some rare finds. But they were out of the one wine we ordered. I would have said something re: our experience but we were in a large group with 3 kids that just wanted some food. So sad as I had high hopes visiting from out of town. I hope someone can turn the restaurant around (and service) as I had heard it’s an institution in Lincoln.

Lamb Vindaloo, Garlic Naan, Mulagatawny soup combined for an almost perfect meal. Honestly blown away that Lincoln NE of all places would have some of the best Indian food I have had anywhere in the country. Highly recommend, you will not be disappointed.

Really dark aesthetics, used a flashlight, or come right when it opens– you’ll have the restaurant mostly to yourself. They have an oversized wine selection, which is great because. who doesn’t love wine?
Not really a fan of Indian food, but if I were, I’d chose The Oven to trump all. Anyway, Goa Shrimp. That is all.

Enjoyed a nice dinner upstairs. Food was good, service was quality.
I went downstairs for a night cap for some wine with a couple friends afterward. Poor service from the bartender, and she managed to mix up my credit card. She ran another party’s tab on my credit card… and then gave my credit card to someone else. Then, they tried to give me someone’s credit card on accident (which I suggested to them that they should not do)
I understand there are mix-​ups, but saying «sorry» just doesn’t cut it. The bar wasn’t busy, and there was no reason for this. Because of this mix-​up, it has crippled my travel plans as I’m trying to fly back to Chicago tomorrow.
This really has nothing to do with the décor of the restaurant of he taste of the food. Sadly, I cannot recommend this place based on this experience. The lack of quality control and customer care has left me financially strapped.

My all time favorite is the spinach bread. Which is stuff naan with spinach, paneer, and cream cheese. I always get that every time.
However the entrée I got was a disappointing. I ordered the chicken tikka masala. The chicken pieces were really dry and that it was hard to swallow. The curry didn’t help and felt that it didn’t have much flavor when I ate it with the rice.
I think for the future visits, I will be ordering spinach bread only.

Do NOT let your friends scare you, they have tons of delicious NON SPICY foods. I LOVE Indian food, and the Oven does not disappoint. That said, they also have lots of spicy foods too. The servers know their food and can make great recommendations if you have an aversion to spicy or milk etc. Let them guide you if you don’t know your way around Indian food.
The Oven has the most amazing Mulligatawny Soup, it really is a must try. Interestingly enough I found that Zoup in Lincoln also has a Mulligatawny soup which is sort of similar but different. Both are good in their own right. I usually order the Lamb Vindaloo which is probably my favorite dish.
This place is really worth visiting and its location in the Haymarket area and 2 blocks away from Pinnacle Bank Arena make it a great spot for dinner before a show.

The ambiance was lovely and the staff was attentive and patient with my parents that never had Indian food before.
As other reviewers have noted, the Mulligatawny soup was wonderful.
All of our dishes were flavorful and well-​balanced with the appropriate level of spice, the naan was yummy, and the portions were plentiful. I wish the meats were a bit more juicy, but overall we were very pleased to find this little gem in Lincoln, NE.
The wine list was very impressive, but I’m not sure how we were supposed to go about getting a tour of the cellar.

Excellent! Our server was kind and helpful. She shared with us about spicy and less spicy dishes.
I’m not big in to spice and my meal was the perfect amount of spicy. Just enough heat to make me glisten but not enough to make me sweat uncontrollably.
We started with the spinach bread naan. So good. It’s a must have item.
Then I had chicken korma. Yum! It was spicy for a weak sauce like me, but the flavors are incredible! Ordered a plain naan with it and feasted!
Both co-​workers had very good food and all would come back again.

Summary– Surprisingly amazing Indian in the midwest!
Food– 5 Stars
All the Naan was awesome. The cashew one was particularly awesome.
The Mulligatawny soup was excellent, I could just eat that all night long.
The lamb vindaloo was very very good, spiced perfectly. The Chicken Tikka was also excellent.
Service– 3 Stars
Our waitress was OK but a little slow/​inattentive overall.
Drinks– 4 Stars
Good beer and wine menu with some good beers on tap.
Atmosphere– 4 Stars
Well done, a nice place.

This is an update to my previous review below: I’ve now eaten here several times since coming to Lincoln and the service is generally pretty good. The lentil chips if you specifically ask them to bake them are gluten free, also I’ve never gotten sick after eating here so seems pretty safe for the gluten intolerant!
Previous review
We ate here a few weeks ago while in Lincoln and it was a pretty good Indian place although what we had didn’t really floor me.
The atmosphere and ambiance is really great. Its down at the Haymarket (so parking can be tough) and is very well decorated and romantically lit. There was also someone playing the guitar while we were there for dinner. We were seated quickly which was nice. It wasn’t busy, only maybe 5 – 6 tables and 3 – 4 servers working.
Service was okay but could have been better, it took about 15 – 20 minutes for our server to come over to us even for a drink order. The server did not know much about the gluten content of any of their food so she went and asked and it took a while longer for her to get back to us and the response was similar to «I dont think this stuff has any of it». made me a little nervous.
We ordered and waited about 30 minutes for dinner. She brought us both soup, even though my boyfriend asked for salad, but we didn’t say anything. The soup was okay but not great, but that might have been a taste preference, I’d never had Mulligatawny before. When she brought out the meals mine was right but my boyfriends was completely the wrong thing. She noticed as she was putting it in front of him and took both back to the kitchen and it was another 20 minutes before our meals came out. we were quite hungry by this point and I’d downed all my wine for the sake of survival ;)
Regarding food taste the tiki masala he ordered was great, I’d definitely have it again. The chicken saag I ordered was not so good, and it is generally my favorite Indian dish anywhere I’ve eaten. It was pretty flavorless, but the tiki masala was excellent. Price was affordable for the portion sizes.
Overall, I’m going to give this place another try when I move to Lincoln and try and order some other items and see if the service issue was just a bad night. Seems like reviewers really enjoy this place.