Brushi Bistro & Bar

I’ve been wanting to dine here for quite some time. Finally had a reason to go because of a baby shower I attended in their private party room. Went early to have dinner and so glad we did!
It was fairly busy but service was quick and friendly. The waitress told us the specials… and there were a lot of them! Most were seafood and although I won’t eat seafood in a land locked state, they really sounded good! I didn’t order any of them. I knew what I wanted, in fact, I’ve known what I wanted to order there for quite some time!
I ordered the Onion Soup Normandy for my appetizer and I was not disappointed! Onions in a cider and cream sauce with gruyère cheese. It was not what I expected, but was really great.
For my entrée I had the Whiskey Roasted Chicken which is ¼ of a chicken (dark meat). It was fantastic as well. It was plated beautifully, (as all the dishes were), and was super tender, juicy and had a little zip from the whisky sauce/​natural juice. Wonderful. My only complaint was the mashed potatoes that came with it were on the cold side. Can’t eat cold mashed potatoes!
Others at my table seemed to really enjoy their meals as well, however I honestly was so busy savoring mine that I didn’t pay much attention to others!
I wish I would have taken a picture of the plates to post, but now I have a reason to go back! Not that I need one because I will definitely be back.

Might be my favorite restaurant in Omaha! Portions are modest but I prefer to have quality over quantity. The vegetables are cooked perfectly! There isn’t a vegetable plate on the menu but I would order one if there was! The beef filet, quesadilla, onion soup, salmon, and euro salad are some of my favorites!

This place is awesome. I am so jealous of people in omaha that can go there everyday. I will return here with every visit I make to Omaha.
The care that goes into making sure that each plate is perfect is so obvious. Paul has created a great environment with amazing food. I recommend trying the Normandy onion soup, the euro salad with the sun dried tomato dressing, the mushroom chicken or the whiskey chicken. This place also has the best scallops I have ever had. Chocolate mousse cake for dessert, it is my absolute favorite dessert of all time.

This is one of my five favorite restaurants in Omaha.
It’s a cozy neighborhood restaurant was very sophisticated atmosphere and excellent service.
The menu ranges from your basic hamburger to gnocchi to fantastic salmon and a paella that will knock your socks off.
Very decent wine selection.
Everything is excellent.

The drinks are great. The food is grand! The acoustics are odd as the speakers aren’t in balanced locations so depending on where you sit, the music can be too loud or hard to hear. LOVE the staff! Did I mention that the food is YUMMY!

We’ve been here twice now and both times had wonderful food, reasonably priced. First time had the gnocchi and my husband had the short ribs. The gnocchi was sooo good, some of the best I’ve tasted. Not too heavy and great flavor. The short ribs were tender and juicy. Next time we had whiskey chicken and the salmon. Again, great flavors with well done sides. Also had the coconut soup and the onion soup. The coconut soup was different with the lemongrass and spice. I’ll definitely have it again. Took a star off because the place can get loud and it is a bit slow, not sure if that’s due to the kitchen or wait staff but we were waiting longer than you would expect throughout the meal. A minor inconvenince given how wonderful the food is!

Love it! Mom and I had the salmon and it was great! Service was excellent! Dad has some dietary restrictions and they were accommodating !! Will be back!

My husband and I chose to celebrate our wedding anniversary here based on the reputation of the chef, Paul. Our soups were fairly bland and our entrees were mediocre. The presentation was very nice and the service was excellent. We like to support local merchants but we won’t be back.

Brushi was perfectly in the middle between where we were coming from and where our friends lived so it was decided this was it. Though wedged in the a corner in a shopping plaza, the inside was spacious and inviting (albeit a little dark).
For appetizers, our friends ordered the Mozzarella, Tomatoes, and Asparagus. Perfectly average dish and as expected… although, I think a more clever name could have been conceived. My husband ordered the Roasted Whiskey Chicken and I ordered the Braised Beef Short Ribs. Both dishes presented themselves beautifully (see picture).
Onward to taste. It was good. While it tasted perfectly good, it was not an amazing dish that left me in awe. It was safe and maybe that’s the best way to describe the food. This is a place that you go if you want to eat something that most people will like because they play it safe.
Everything was cooked perfectly except (for my preference) the veggies were a little undercooked. If you like soft veggies, you won’t find them here. BUT to their credit, what a beautiful assortment of veggies– green cauliflower, purple cauliflower, corn, orange carrots, yellow carrots, mushrooms, zucchini, squash. My husband thought his dish was good, but not memorable.
Service was fine, but we all thought our server was a bit awkward. It wasn’t that he didn’t come by at the right times to check on us/​pick up dishes/​refill our waters, it was in his delivery and body language… just a bit awkward.
So it in short, this is that restaurant you like just fine but NEVER think about it first when it comes to eating out.
Note: This is more like a 3.5 stars, but I felt that rounding up to 4 stars was a bit too generous.

On a recent trip to Omaha, my friend and I tried this yummy restaurant. We sat at the bar and HAD to get the curry fries. They were delicious as was the rest of our meal (salad for me, Brie sandwich for my friend). We ha a couple of glasses of wine and the bartender was super friendly.
In reading some other reviews, I guess this place is the same people who were behind Prima 140 which I remember going to back when I lived in Omaha. Great quality and great staff make for a great restaurant. The outdoors seems like a fun place to have a happy hour evening but also a tiny bit outdated.
The staff is obviously pretty passionate about yummy well prepared contemporary American food.

I was a fan of Prima 140 so it is natural to have high expectations about this new (ish) spot.
I have now been to Brushi’s twice in a couple of weeks and unfortunately there have been a few problems each time. On our first visit with two other couples it was busy and two of us ordered the hamburger. In both cases the burgers were cold and I am not sure if it was the server or the kitchen. I assume the burgers cooked faster than the other meals and were left to wait.
On our second trip there 4 couples and it was a Wednesday night so it wasn’t crowded. Our server wasn’t overly friendly, but I can live with that since he wasn’t rude.
The first problem was that if you sit at a table, no happy hour for you, only in the bar. According to the server they don’t want people just sitting at the tables «drinking beer». I am not sure how many people would actually do that between 4 – 6 nor would I expect huge numbers of diners between those hours.
The real problem was the order process. Two in the party ordered the same meal, an evening pork special. When all of the food came out they were short one of the pork meals. The server didn’t same anything and just left after putting down the other meals. Long story short he had not put in the second order!!! Why he didn’t come back and tell us that is beyond me, but we finally had to go up to the kitchen window and ask.
Finally he apologized and they comped one pork meal and one beer. When the food arrived our friend ate while we finished our drinks. Embarrassing.
I have given three stars conditionally. When you spend over $ 400 on a Wednesday night specifically or any night for that matter you would expect better.

Stopped for a late lunch on a Saturday. I had heard great things so I was anxious to try it. The décor was lovely and the bar looked inviting. The menu had a nice mix of options for all appetites. The onion soup is a creamy mix and to die for! Also had a flatbread pizza which just exploded with the different favors. Our server (Jeff) explained each dish both in ingredients and preparation, not missing a detail. He was friendly and fun and made the experience even better. We can’t wait to go back for dinner & try the other items on the menu!

Sitting at the bar is the best place. In the dining room it’s loud. But never had a bad meal.

We were aware of Chef Paul’s work at his former restaurant Prima 140 so wanted to try Brushi. Food was on par with best in town with much more reasonable prices. We had top sirloin and pepper steak, both of which were excellent. They were somewhat busy but not packed yet service was very attentive. Will definitely be back.

Another great experience with this fine restaurant. Service at bar and dining room excellent. Chef prepared two special orders that weren’t on menus and the dinners for the other six diners were excellent. Busy place so make reservations. One of our favorite places in a town full of excellent restaurants.

The reputation was excellent. The expectations did not match the experience. The food was tasty yet were in very small portions. They had a different take on onion soup, which was very creamy. The entrees did not have enough spice and the seafood paella was rather bland. Sadly I was disappointed with the service because of their lack shared attention between tables.

Fantastic! Came with a party of 8. Every meal was great and service was great! What a great experience

If I could give no stars I would. We called ahead and asked if they had a gluten free menu. They said they could accommodate us. We ordered two gluten free meals. After almost finishing the meal we saw a cracker that was garnishing the dish and asked again –just to make sure — what it was made of. The clueless waiter comes back with «wheat flour» likes it was no big deal. Needless to say when we had to ask for something to be done, the chef/​owner smirked and rolled his eyes. Eating gluten free is a necessity for those with celiac not a trendy diet choice.

I have been there three or four times since the place opened.
The chef is an artist and quite a fine one at that. Every time a plate of food comes out, I feel compelled to take a picture of his work.
The food is always good, if not great. It is creative, light, fresh, and a bit eclectic. The gnocchi is both hearty and fluffy. The whiskey chicken is wonderful. I had the salmon the other visit. Flaky and perfectly seasoned.
I have not had an issue with the service. All my servers have been friendly and helpful.
This is one of the better restaurants in Omaha and it’s only a few months old. Its best days are still to come.

Really wanted to try this place. Hope I get the chance to before they go belly up because food looked fantastic. However, they are so poorly staffed it is not funny. Was there on a Wednesday night. They were pretty busy, did not have reservation, young gal at front said it would be 10 – 15 min. 30 min later still sitting at bar and did not even have a drink.
I looked closely at the floor, they had no bartender, (yep no bartender!). I counted three or maybe four waiters-​waitresses working with no help (food runners). Open kitchen so I could see they were well staffed in there, which you could tell by the amount of food sitting in window waiting to go to tables. Watched food just sit there and sit there. No way anyone received a hot dish, just no way. We decided to leave as we did not want our first experience to be a bad one, which it would have been because of service. I can tell this was not a one time thing as other reviewers have said this.
Chef, FIX THIS! I want to give you a shot!