Boston Market - Omaha

Fast Food Meets Comfort Food. Boston Market is basically fast food meets comfort food. You can order things like rotisserie chicken and meatloaf and get sides like stuffing, macaroni and cheese, and mashed potatoes. I believe the industry calls it "fast casual" but that is just marketing spin for what is still basically fast food. Boston Markets used to be all over, but they suffered the same fate as many chains that expand too rapidly and ended up closing many of their locations after going through a bankruptcy in the late 1990s. There were even owned by McDonalds for several years. I was shocked to discover that there was still a Boston Market in the Omaha area. Food is good. It's not great. Also, it's not terribly consistent. Sometimes it tastes like it was just made and sometimes it tastes like it's been sitting on the steam table for several hours. Their Rotisserie Chicken is "fall off the bone" tender, but tends to be overcooked (breast meat is moist, but the connective tissues have all broken down so much due to the extended cooking that the breast meat has an unpleasant texture). There's something about whatever they sprinkle the outside of the chicken with that when combined with the juices from cooking makes the skin sticky. If you touch the skin while eating the chicken it WILL stick to your fingers. It tastes good, but the stickiness borders between comical and annoying. Meatloaf is good as I recall, but it's been so long since I ordered it that I won't try and review it from distant memory. Sides are decent. Their Fresh Vegetable Stuffing really seems to vary in moisture level and texture. Also, they tend to undercook the vegetables in it, so you're crunching on those. Generally I like it. Macaroni and Cheese (spirals and cheese would be more accurate) has changed over the years. It has a sort of freakish orange color to it now that I mostly find disturbing. The Garlic Dill New Potatoes are my favorite side and most excellent. Service is friendly and certainly a notch above most other fast food restaurants. If you're dining in they serve the food on real plates with metal silverware. I don't know why as using disposable plates and silverware wouldn't really alter your dining experience any. They do this thing where they carry your tray to your table for you. I appreciate the gesture, but mostly it's just awkward. The dining room isn't crowded or especially large and I am not feeble, so there's certainly no need for them to assist. So, immediately after ordering I want to fill my drink but I cannot because an employee is holding my tray and waiting for me to choose a table. So, I have to skip getting my drink, then I feel pressured to hurry up and choose a table. After all that I can go back to the counter where I was and finally get my drink and condiments. Like I said, it's a nice gesture but mostly awkward and unneeded. If it was a full service (slow food) restaurant I might rate it a "Don't Like" as I've certainly had better of this type of food at other full service restaurants, but since it's a fast food restaurant I have to temper my expectations accordingly. So, when eating fast food you could certainly do a lot worse. They sell decent food at decent prices with fast food speed.

Fast Food Meets Comfort Food. Boston Market is basically fast food meets comfort food. You can order things like rotisserie chicken and meatloaf and get sides like stuffing, macaroni and cheese, and mashed potatoes. I believe the industry calls it "fast casual" but that is just marketing spin for what is still basically fast food. Boston Markets used to be all over, but they suffered the same fate as many chains that expand too rapidly and ended up closing many of their locations after going through a bankruptcy in the late 1990s. There were even owned by McDonalds for several years. I was shocked to discover that there was still a Boston Market in the Omaha area. Food is good. It's not great. Also, it's not terribly consistent. Sometimes it tastes like it was just made and sometimes it tastes like it's been sitting on the steam table for several hours. Their Rotisserie Chicken is "fall off the bone" tender, but tends to be overcooked... read more

I was expecting it to be busy but it was dead, not a single customer.

I was lazy last night and didn't want to cook, but wanted comfort food (the struggle is real, I know).

There used to be a lot more of these places in and around Omaha a decade or so ago, so the first point I'd like to make is that if you want to eat at Boston