Carmelas Bistro And Wine Bar

Went to Carmela’s again tonight and I haven’t Been there for months. What I love most about my neighborhood bistro is that the Owner and Chef change out their menu often that it forces me to try something new. I am pleased with my Scampi Sea bass. Seared to Perfection with a creamy scampi sauce & sauteed shrimp. It was scrumptious!
I ended my meal with their Red Velvet Cheesecake! It was also amazing! I mean who doesn’t like Red Velvet.
Service is always top notch and I never feel that we are rushed out of there. Waiter informed me that the Chef is currently working on their new Spring and Summer Menu and it may have fresh Catfish on it! Yum! I grew up in southern Mississippi so I’m no stranger to catfish. I can’t wait!
They added a fire place to their main dining room and it was really cozy. Well done Carmela’s team keep up the good work. Always One of My Favorite Places to Dine!

I’ll start off by saying the food was delicious! Unfortunately, the service was rough. We waited for 20 mins to order drinks and they took awhile to come — basically arriving with our food. Bread came the middle of our meal instead of ahead of time. With this said, we will to back since the food was awesome and give it another chance.

So good! We came here for New Years Eve and had one of the best meals in a long time. I had the lobster tail stuffed with crab and tarragon sauce with mashed potatos and haricot verts.

My favorite salad — Kale salad — is at Carmelas! They also have my husband’s favorite clam chowder.
Besides that they were so kind to treat a friend who’s having chemo at NHO close by in an incredibly special way!

I am giving this experience two stars only because the waitress was trying so hard and a nice person. We started out our by ordering a sweet Brandy Manhattan, only to be told that they had no sweet vermouth. A small matter, unless you run a fully functioning bar. My S.O. ordered the sea Bass which he has had before and it was beautiful and delicious. I generally have their scallops, but took a leap and decided on the filet, at $ 27.00. I ordered it medium rare and when I cut into it, it was well on the outer edge, then medium well with a pink center. We asked out wait person to ask the cook to try it again because it was clearly over cooked. After a bit, she returned my original steak and said that they had thrown it back on the grill since the middle of the steak appeared «under cooked». So ridiculous that we were rendered nearly speechless. We requested that unless they could cook it correctly, we would not né paying for it and asked to see a manager. The waitress returned and said that she felt the grill was defective, not the chef, and that she had been communicating with the manager via telephone. Needless to say, we never saw the manager. RED ALERT! A fine ding establish running itself? The waitress was very apologetic I sincerely felt sorry for her with no back-​up. I took my meal to-​go since my friend had long since finished eating. I have eaten at Camelias several times, and the only thing consistent about the place is it’s inconsistency! Had a couple of not great dining experiences initially, but keep being drug back there by friends. When it’s good, it’s very good, but tonight was a night that has made me think the gamble is not worth the money to repeat.

We had brunch here today and it was amazing! My friend ordered bread pudding French toast and she just raved about it! I had the grilled Caesar salad and clam chowder soup. The soup has SO much clam and bacon in it, it was fantastic! The salad I could have done without. We also ordered the calamari for an appetizer. It was smothered with a sweet pepper sauce which made it kind of slimy. I would surely ask for the sauce on the side next time. Last but certainly not least, the Bloody Mary I ordered was a meal in its self and super delicious!

Stopped by on a Sunday evening. It wasn’t very busy at 6:00 ordered the Bistro Burger and the Chicken Juliet. The chicken was great as usual. The burger not so much. It was my fault for not reading the toppings as it had blu cheese and I dislike that a lot. I ended up scraping it off. I thought the burger was a little dry though. And the fries not so good. They were not hot. The ketchup was good. Seems like they do their own if I remember correctly.
The service was something to be desired. I’ve had the same issue here before and I did not recognize any of the servers. First, no bread. Other tables had bread, but we seem to have been forgotten. Not good service. I should not have to request the bread.
Water glasses were not filled quickly.
I didn’t feel like the server was very interested in our experience. I gave three stars only because the food is good and it’s worth a visit. We will go back at some time but there are other places nearby that have steady, reliable service.

Hey peeps they changed the menu… Bummer AVOID the bruschetta horrible. Imagine a martini glass of cold tomatoes on bread. GO BACK TO WHAT YOU USED TO SERVE. Fancy glasses of tomatoes and goat cheese are not good.

Classy place right thur. :)
I stopped in on a Friday night to enjoy a bottle of wine and cheese tray with friends. The inside is lovely, great décor, wine all around, there’s even a gift shop. Our service was excellent, meat and cheese tray was also very good and complimented the wine well. I will be back.
I was dressed down (heading from casual day at work) and would liked to have looked a little better, but I wasn’t made to feel uncomfortable either. Place is a bit pricey.

Summary– great lunch with pretty good service. Loved their salads.
Food– 5 stars
Everything that came to our table for lunch was awesome.
My Rachael’s sister sandwich was great as was the salad I got on the side. My wife was happy with her smoked salmon blta and the quiche looked great too.
Service– 3 stars
A little slow overall but friendly and helpful.
Atmosphere– 4 stars
Nice place with wine bottles everywhere. Might get loud when crowded?
Drinks–
Didn’t try anything but the wine list was killer.

I’ve been here three times in the last few months and have definitely enjoyed the food, but had mixed experiences on the service.
The atmosphere is amazing. Beautifully decorated with lovely wall art, rich curtains, and warm colors. The lighting is low and it is broken up into a couple cozy rooms.
The menu is surprising for Nebraska. It feels closer to home like something I’d find in Napa or Sonoma. Proschuitto, truffle fries, bisques, figs, I’ve been in heaven with all the gluten free options I have here. My favorites have been the pig and fig flat bread which they do gluten free and their lobster bisque. I’ve so far had both the rib eye and the Capone sirloin with the bacon jams, both were great. I haven’t been hungry enough to try dessert yet, portions are generous.
Service is interesting. I have only eaten in the dining room once and that was actually a really good experience. Server was nice and friendly, food came out correctly and promptly, and everything went by ideal.
Ive come two other times for their first Thursday of the month wine tasting event, which is a steal by the way. 10.00 for six generous tastings and 5.00 of that can go towards the purchase of an already discounted bottle of wine. Both times I’ve done this service has been ridiculously slow. Both food takes forever, water glasses empty, plus the guy that does the tastings always forgets you and your server has to keep reminding him you’ve been waiting. Last time he left without even giving us the option to buy wine. Or server did, we paid for two bottles he apparently was out of. So we were given replacement ones, of a different type​.So. The wine night could use some organization.
Price is really affordable for the quality of ingredients and portions. I would definitely recommend giving this place a try. Seems to be hit or miss for a lot of Unilocalers, but overall I’ve been pleased.

My wife and I have eaten here many times and enjoyed it very much until Tonight (Saturday night-6:30pm). I was surprised that the place was so empty during such a peak dining hour! On the bright side our service was fine and to be fair my wife enjoyed her salmon, however my food was way below par compared to prior visits. I ordered the million dollar burger which I mistakenly believed was the same great Kobe beef burger I’d had there many times before (not inexpensive at $ 16 for a burger, but in the past had been worth it). Well, have you ever grilled too many burgers on the grill for your family at home and refrigerated the leftover burgers for a few days and then warmed them up in the microwave? The meat has an old meat flavor. That’s what the burger tasted like at Carmela’s tonight. Had to return it as I just couldn’t eat it. So I ordered the pasta with marinara and Meatballs. Same problem with the meatballs and couldn’t eat this entire either. Not sure what has happened with their beef supply but it will keep us from returning. We spent over $ 80 for dinner and a couple of drinks and I had to warm up some leftovers out of our fridge when we arrived home to finally have something that tasted decent. I understand now why only a third of there tables were full Saturday night at 7pm when we left. Too bad…