Maria Sangria (11th and Harney)

nativeomahan · Post by **nativeomahan** » Sun Jul 21, 2013 3:29 am

I spoke to a city council woman yesterday about this place. The police are fed up with all the troubles the bar upstairs causes them. Right now they dedicate 10 officers to patrolling the block with this restaurant/lounge each Friday and Saturday night, and they are tired of the manpower drain. Apparently the city never issued them a certificate of occupancy. It was an oversight, but the city wants them to clean up their act or shut down, and they aren't willing to wait much longer.
This location is truly snake bitten.

nebport5 · Post by **nebport5** » Sun Jul 21, 2013 8:19 am

Since Flagship Restaurant Group seems to be taking over downtown maybe they could give the space a go..."Bros & Hoes".

Hyok Kim · Post by **Hyok Kim** » Wed Aug 14, 2013 11:41 pm

guy4omaha wrote:I eat out way too much so I have seen a lot of restaurants.

I used to, and have seen and learned.

guy4omaha wrote:The good, the bad and everything in between. But I usually try to give everyone the benefit of doubt.

I used to as well. Not anymore. Life is too short, and my pocket is not limitless. Every time I spend my money on unworthy restaurants, I am hurting worthy restaurants.

Nowadays, I give benefit of doubt to only one shop restaurant owned by the chef with formal training and experience.

guy4omaha wrote:
Because my first experience at Maria Sangria's was so bad the first time, I tried them again not once, but twice more in the effort to give them a chance to improve. My third time there was the worst.

You know what they say, "Fool me once, shame on you".

guy4omaha wrote:
Sorry to say this place is the worst restaurant I have been to in terms of both food and service. Especially the service.

I have no complaint about the service here. It was fine for me. It was the food that really riled me. This place is a scam/rip-off. She is hiding behind her ethnicity to imply an authentic cuisine bearing her heritage ala 'Traditional Family-style Italian-American Steak/Pasta houses'.

I ordered chicken paella since it was cheaper than seafood version, and I wanted to minimize my losses in case the chicken paella sucked. (If they can't do chicken paella right, then they obviously couldn't do seafood paella right, either.)

Authentic paella usually takes about 30 minutes, since paella needs be prepared from scratch when ordered. Nothing can be pre-made in advance.

I was surprised when the paella showed up in about 10 minutes! What I was given was a basically a glob of cafeteria style Spanish rice with a few pieces of boiled chicken thrown in! Yep, no frying of any kind, at all. No trace of saffron smell/flavor or thread. No olive oil of any kind. No socarrat, the rice crust that forms at the bottom in a pan. No bomba rice.

This so-called paella was obviously from warmed over buffet table, all pre-cooked before being ordered. The bill was something like $25 for this hog feed.

I had real paella at trendy restaurant in Portland back in 99. The bill was about $10. It was seafood paella (the most expensive version of paella), and small in portion, but it was rich, very rich since authentic paellas use plenty of olive oil, and I could taste strong saffron flavor, and yes it had socarrat at the bottom, and made from bomba rice.

Maria Sangria is a scam.

"We called ahead before our second visit to order paella, which takes at least 25 minutes to prepare. Maria has three different paella choices: a mix of seafood and meat, all seafood or chicken.

We ordered the seafood version, Paella de Marisco, which is $38.99 but serves two. Maria uses two types of clams, mussels, two kinds of shrimp and squid in her seafood paella. The jasmine rice is prepared first and then the sautéed seafood is mixed in with four whole shrimp on top of the finished product. The paella is served with a salad and rolls made locally at Rotella's.

It was the best paella we have had since we lived in New Mexico. The rice tasted like the ocean and was perfectly prepared. The abundant seafood was seasoned, but not too spicy. I thought the whole shrimp on the top were a little overcooked but, for the most part, the paella was nearly perfect." - Mike'l Severe, the OWH correspondent

Majority of reviews of Maria Sangria are positive, and totally false. Only small minority of reviews tell the truth about Maria Sangria.

Omaha_Gabe · Post by **Omaha_Gabe** » Thu Aug 15, 2013 5:04 am

The second story of Maria Sangria has turned into "Diamond Omaha"

"Omaha's newest gay bar"

jessep28 · Post by **jessep28** » Thu Aug 15, 2013 5:17 am

Lol. I so want to post that Electric Six song.

nativeomahan · Post by **nativeomahan** » Thu Aug 15, 2013 12:25 pm

Omaha_Gabe wrote:The second story of Maria Sangria has turned into "Diamond Omaha"

"Omaha's newest gay bar"

Well good luck with that. This location is cursed. I suppose after having tried just about everything else short of a Mennonite Social Hall, why not give this a shot. I don't think it will make it to New Year's.

"Gay" bars are folding nationally. I think it is a combination of the gay community not needing alcohol to bring us together, plus the proliferation of Internet social sites, and the fact that most bars are now just fine with PDAs by LGBT customers. Kind of sad, but life goes on.

iamjacobm · Post by **iamjacobm** » Thu Aug 15, 2013 10:26 pm

Resolution to cancel Maria Sangria's liquor license is in the agenda for next week.

Hyok Kim · Post by **Hyok Kim** » Fri Aug 16, 2013 1:20 am

iamjacobm wrote:Resolution to cancel Maria Sangria's liquor license is in the agenda for next week.

Somewhere food god from Spain is smiling. This blasphemy of Spanish cuisine must end.

Coyote · Post by **Coyote** » Thu Sep 26, 2013 10:38 pm

License revoked!

RNcyanide · Post by **RNcyanide** » Thu Sep 26, 2013 10:45 pm

I'm waiting for the day a long-lasting tenant to move into this space...

Linkin5 · Post by **Linkin5** » Fri Sep 27, 2013 12:00 am

Coyote wrote:License revoked!

Lol, this place is so awful.

jessep28 · Post by **jessep28** » Fri Sep 27, 2013 12:37 am

Their attorneys are going to appeal to District Court, so they may be able to keep the license until that process is complete.

cp jay 07 · Post by **cp jay 07** » Fri Sep 27, 2013 1:38 pm

SHUT IT DOWN!

swgiust · Post by **swgiust** » Fri Sep 27, 2013 9:27 pm

My wife and I ate there once.. Never again. Food was bad. Not interesting. Not flavorful. Lots of deep fried junk. Basically the restaurant was a cover for the bar/night club. This part of Omaha caters to tourist. It does not need a hip hop nightclub.

justnick · Post by **justnick** » Sat Sep 28, 2013 1:31 am

swgiust wrote:My wife and I ate there once.. Never again. Food was bad. Not interesting. Not flavorful. Lots of deep fried junk. Basically the restaurant was a cover for the bar/night club. This part of Omaha caters to tourist. It does not need a hip hop nightclub.

why shouldn't a part of omaha that caters to tourists not have a hip hop nightclub if it's run properly and isn't a generally regarded horrible place regardless? i've seen many hip hop and rap type artists bashing this place on facebook saying they won't even play there if offered, which is sad because omaha really does need a venue dedicated to the omaha hip hop community, which while not exactly my genre, i know to be a rather extensive and talented bunch. if someone took the time to actually put an effort into this place it could be rather amazing, but it's always seemed to me like it's a place of let's do the least effort and see if this plan makes us money if not we can always change it up next year and see if we make it rich on that concept.

RNcyanide · Post by **RNcyanide** » Sat Sep 28, 2013 6:20 am

Once this place folds, I think it would be an interesting place for retail, possibly.

Post by **Brad** » Mon Sep 30, 2013 2:27 pm

What that place needs is for the parking lot across the street to go away and a building with ground floor retail built. I think having a "dead block" across the street really hurts this location for retail option.

nativeomahan · Post by **nativeomahan** » Tue Oct 01, 2013 2:40 am

Brad wrote:What that place needs is for the parking lot across the street to go away and a building with ground floor retail built. I think having a "dead block" across the street really hurts this location for retail option.

It does. Plus that half block or so really just needs to be developed. I believe that about 10 years ago plans were announced for something like a 19 story hotel for that parking lot. Then nothing ever materialized.

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