11-Worth Cafe

Saturday, April 28, 2019

11-Worth Cafe

2419 Leavenworth Street, Omaha, NE

Where we went:

Today we thought brunch sounded good. There are many great places in Omaha with Breakfast/Brunch options. We decided to go to another Omaha classic that has been on our “to blog about” list for a while now, the 11-Worth Cafe downtown! 11-Worth Cafe’s unique name comes from the street they are located on, Leavenworth. When “Eleven” is pronounced fast, it sound like, “Leaven”, so 11-Worth Cafe it is!

What We Ate:

The menu at 11-Worth Cafe is quite large, so it took us a while to figure out what to order. Kyle chose to try something different, the Santa Fe Chicken Omelette. This Omelette came with chunks of seasoned chicken, diced tomato, onion and american cheese, it also came with hash browns and a pancake. Kyle goes old school for breakfast and ordered a good old fashioned glass of milk to wash his meal down with. As Eric was poring through all the traditional breakfast items on the menu, he found something he had never seen before, the Croissant French Toast, and he HAD to try it. To round out his breakfast, he had 2x2x2, which comes with 2 eggs x 2 meat pieces (Eric got bacon, because . . . bacon) x 1 hash browns + 1 toast but swapped out his toast for a pancake.

One thing to note, almost every omelet has a “Jr.” version. Unless you are really hungry, we recommend that Jr. option, the normal omelets, though delicious, are HUGE!

The Food:

Kyle loved his Sante Fe chicken Omelette. The southwest seasoning on the chicken was a unique mix with the more traditional omelette topics of tomatoes and cheese. Kyle has never been a big fan of hash browns. There is the option to get the order without hash browns, but he had forgotten how big the omelets are, so he got them thinking he would at least eat most of them. He only had a few bites, which were good, but not anything he wanted to eat a lot of when there were so many other tasty things to finish.

Eric’s Croissant French Toast, tasted exactly like what it sounds like, and it was delicious. It tasted just like an egg batter-dipped croissant, with all of it’s buttery, flaky deliciousness intact, but with the added bonus of being eggy and syrupy. It was a definite plus, despite it’s simplicity. In fact, Eric thinks that more breakfast places should just try egg battering various breakfasty items because it’s just so darned good!

For his 2x2x2, the bacon was perfectly cooked, and while his hash browns were basic, he liked them better than Kyle made them out to be- he likes the salty, peppery, starchyness contrast to the sweet syrupy covered everything else. The eggs were also basic, but well prepared.

The Pancakes, the pancakes at 11-worth are to die for! They are seriously some of the best in town. They were fluffy and cakey and the only real drawback for them was that the syrup provided was rather thin and more sugary than mapley. So, in other words, the pancakes were great, but 11-Worth could use with a syrup upgrade.

The Atmosphere:

11-Worth Cafe has a very old school American diner feel to it. You feel less like you are in the downtown of a modern major midwest city, and more like you have stepped back a few decades into a diner in the middle of a small farming community in central Nebraska.. Simple tables and booths, wood paneled walls, drop ceilings and even a counter with those old school stools that are bolted to the floor. The walls are decorated with old school, “grandma’s kitchen” type decor, giant wooden spoons and forks, and other trinkets and nicknacks. That being said, don’t expect to be seated right away. 11-worth has an entire waiting room dedicated to those waiting for a table to open up. Luckily we didn’t have to wait for long, but the room was quite full when we arrived. They do offer free coffee while you wait though! And they apparently have a case of 11-Worth merchandise available!

The Service:

Despite how busy things were, out service was very prompt! The waitress was more talkative than waitresses are at most places, this is something that can get on your nerves at times, but here it didn’t feel as invasive as it could have been. She wanted to take our order twice before we were actually ready, but it came off less pusshey and more, I want to make sure you are served. The food came out fast and fresh. Eric’s pancake did get missed at first, but the waitress was very apologetic and brought it out right away when we pointed it out. Frankly, considering what a busy madhouse it was, we feel lucky that that minor goof was the only that happened our entire visit.

In the End:

11-Worth is a great place for a relaxing meal to start your day. The service is lightning quick, which offsets the extreme popularity of the place. Considering it’s location downtown, and the high volume of customers, you may worry about parking, but 11-Worth has you covered! They actually own an entire parking lot right across the street from the restaurant, so parking is not only free (a sad rarity downtown) but plentiful and easy to access! The food is fairly basic, but consistently well prepared and easy on your wallet. Besides, breakfast is all about comfort food, and 11-Worth is a quintessential low-key comfort diner.