Omaha Steak - Deal or Dumb? (coupon & unboxing too)

Omaha Steak - Deal or Dumb? (coupon & unboxing too)

by Liv | Published on September 3rd, 2010, 12:45 pm | Food

So I decided to try my whole hand at the Omaha Steak deal. If you're not familiar, Omaha Steak is a mail-order food company that prides itself on quality meats. In a world of e-coli, salmonella, and 16 year old Food Lion butchers who think fattening my roast increases their paycheck, I felt at the ripe old age of 33 I needed some security in my life. What's more is every steak I've ever purchased from the grocery store has been complete crap. I've tried finding a butcher locally that is open more than 1 hour every other week on months that end in "z" but it hasn't happened yet. (Still taking suggestions.) So I turned to Omaha steaks. They had been pressuring me for months after I joined their coupon club newsletter. Today it arrived... So far I'm impressed. Even the UPS driver was like "guess someone is eating good tonight." I was expecting some cardboard box, but got this massive cooler. Free cooler = free fishing floaty! Score.

Now the question is... is the stuff actually cold inside? I was starting to get all scientific. After all I did use a coupon, were they going to just send me gray hot-dogs and call them German because I was a cheap-o? Once I got the plastic wrap off I found indeed, the stuff was still frozen thanks to a block of dry-ice. Score #2, we're having a fog fest tonight in the love nest. Boo yah!

Next I checked out the meats. The hot-dogs, cough, I mean... gourmet hot-dogs... (put your nose up in the air when you say that) weren't gray, they were the color you expect them to be. The steaks had a inspection notice and a signed letter of guarantee. (impressive) They even include "conversation starters" on little business card like pieces of paper to get your swanky meat fest of a dinner party going. For a moment I forgot I was a poor college student, and had visions of eating filet mignon daily like America's capitalist elite. Best part yet is each meat comes in its own box. If you love boxes. (and who doesn't?) It's like bloody meaty Christmas in there.

I've yet to try the lovely foods, but tonight I plan on breaking out the steaks. For anyone interested they do seem to send better deals after you've actually bought something from them. They sent me this coupon to entice me further:

4 5oz filet mignons: $31.99 (coupon code RZ2490) if you use this link:
www.omahasteaks.com

It's still yet to be determined if this is a deal or dud, but I'm a simple person who loves boxes, and dried ice- so, if the meat is anything as good as the packaging it should be delicious.

It sounds like with the coupon those 5oz filets are around $21.00 per pound. I've gotten really good filets from Harris Teeter for 7-8 per lb and usually been happy and never gotten sick. HT has the best deal on meats for the quality, especially at the big one at Friendly, if you like nicer cuts. Fran's Meats also does a good job and gets in fresh oysters sometimes, too.

Omaha is a good little steak, but you have to wait for it. It comes frozen. It's over priced. Great for a gift! Give HT another try. You might even get a whole tenderloin buy one get one free or something. Wowie kazowie.

Where's Fran's Meats? Couldn't find it in Google.

Those fillets were $25.59 per pond -- pricey.

Try the Fresh Market meat counter. I'll bet you'll be impressed.

Okay, made the steaks and potatoes tonight. Very good. As good as any steakhouse steak with no excess fat. It was all meat. Every bite was tender. The potatoes got rave reviews from everyone else, but I didn't see anything special about them. I cooked up some stuffed giant mushrooms too. So far, one of the better dinners in awhile.

I think I was expecting something really special from Omaha and ended up thinking everything in the package was just OK. I had the usual discounts, so it wasn't all that bad. I do remember reading the warning about dry ice which I totally ignored and had a little ice burn.

Your first mistake was going to food lion for ANY meat. Their meat sucks! Blech! Almost any grocery store (Lowe's, Harris Teeter, Fresh Market) is going to surpass them easily, some are better than others. The Downtown Farm Market also has three freezers full of grain fed beef, bison, and chicken. It's free-range, chemical and hormone-free too.

The problem with the downtown farmers market is it's always closed. We've tried a half dozen times to go, and it's always closed.

Convience is a definite factor here.

I go to Harris Teeter, and while in general their meat is better than Food Lion, I haven't found it to be of this quality yet.

Liv wrote:The problem with the downtown farmers market is it's always closed. We've tried a half dozen times to go, and it's always closed.

Oh that sucks! I got two groupons for them and didn't have that problem. I will say that the guy told me that since he placed the deal at Groupon, his business has quadrupled, so maybe that will help as far as hours go. He also told me that the farmers come in on Thursday and deliver their goods, so Friday and Saturdays are the best time to go. I doubt that anything here is going to be as good as those Omaha steaks anyway. I lived there for a while and man...they are all about the beef there.

We're talking about the one down by War Memorial Stadium aren't we? Or is there another one I'm not aware of?

Liv wrote:We're talking about the one down by War Memorial Stadium aren't we? Or is there another one I'm not aware of?

It's the one on 505 N Greene St. close to where it intersects with Smith St. It's a small place, but catch them on a Friday or Saturday and it's got some great selections.

Jamy wrote:
Liv wrote:We're talking about the one down by War Memorial Stadium aren't we? Or is there another one I'm not aware of?

It's the one on 505 N Greene St. close to where it intersects with Smith St. It's a small place, but catch them on a Friday or Saturday and it's got some great selections.

I'll check it out.