Lansky's

Restaurant: Lansky's
Address: 50th & L
Website: http://www.lanskys.biz
Genres: Pizza, Pasta, Phillies
Check Constraints: Short order.
Chain: Yes | More Omaha Locations: Yes

==NinjaDebugger==
Ordered:

• Chicken Alfredo (7.69)
• Cheese Bread (3 pieces, 2.69)
• #1 Giant Chicken Philly (4.95)
• Soda (1.79)

Lansky's is not hard to find. It has what was, once upon a time, a prime location, and is now still a pretty good one. It also has parking lots on both sides of the restaurant, and an entrance for each lot. In fact, the place is pretty stretched out inside, with the kitchen and half the seating at one end, and the rest of the seating stretched down along the way. Of course, people tend to congregate at the end with the kitchen and the soda machine, but what else did you expect?

More importantly, Lansky's is a local chain, with a restaurant each in Omaha (this one), Bellevue, and Council Bluffs. The Lansky's menu is kind of a mix of Italian, pizza, phillies, and sports bar, as you'll see with the selection of appetizers we ordered. For the record, the cheese bread is excellent, and comes with an oversized cup of handmade marinara for dipping, as do like, half their appetizers.

Lansky's has three ways to order their phillies. You can get them plain, just meat and cheese, which is how I like mine, or you can start heaping onions, peppers, shrooms, and other such nastiness on them. For my money, a giant hoagie with two or three pieces of quality cheese over which is heaped a huge helping of well seasoned chicken and nothing else, just cannot be beat. I couldn't even -start- on it this time, so I took it back to work, threw it in the fridge, and had it the next day, and it was every bit as good as fresh.

The chicken alfredo, though, oh man. I ate it there, of course. Every last bit of it, nearly down to licking the plate clean. I have been to actual professed Italian restaurants in Omaha, and not one of them has given me an alfredo quite so delicious. They only have grated parmesan, but you won't need it at all, the sauce is nearly a perfect blend of garlic, cream, and parmesan, very much unlike the overly creamy and occasionally slightly bitter stuff I've had elsewhere. It comes with two big chunks of garlic bread, which also goes well with the alfredo, and it's made with a huge helping of the same chicken as they use for the phillies, which really just puts the whole thing over the moon.

I got two excellent meals for eighteen bucks, and I gave most of the bread to other people. Go to Lansky's. Eat. Enjoy.

==Chamelaeon==
Ordered:

• Regular Chicken Philly Meal ($6.99)
  
• #3 Style, (Peppers, Onions, Mushrooms)
• Regular Drink, Fries
• Regular Fried Ravioli ($3.95)
• 3pc Garlic Toast ($1.85)
• Beer Cheese Dip ($1.25)

"Nastiness", says ND. Delicious, says I. The only right way to enjoy the phillies is with the full complement of sauteed toppings, including green peppers, onions, and mushrooms. If you're desperately in need of more flavor I would support getting a tub of the marinara for them, but ketchup is for french fries. And heathens. The food here is what I would call "generally solid". Could you find a better cheesesteak in Omaha? Probably. Will you pay more? Possibly. The advantage here is the known quantity factor.

Their fries are seasoned, but nothing overwhelmingly special. The ravioli can probably be avoided - it's not burnt to a crisp like some places, but it's essentially nothing but a taste-free carrier vehicle for the pretty good marinara - or the beer cheese dipping sauce. This stuff is worth it, but eat it fast, because as it cools down it rapidly moves from "delicious" to "government cheese" status. Their garlic toast is also decent, but there's no reason not to get the with-cheese version like ND did.

Last point - the menu is expansive. It's not Wheatfields-big, but it's sizable. I know businesses that order work lunches out of here, which not a bad option, because it's good, cheap, and there's really something for everyone on their menu.

==Mecha==
Ordered:

• Build it your way Calzone ($4.75 + $2.00 for 4 toppings)
• Canadian Bacon
• Pineapple
• Green Peppers
• Roma Tomatoes
  
• Regular Drink, Onion Rings ($4.44 as a combo)
• Regular Spicy Pub Pickles ($4.45)
  

Knowing Lansky's has parking in the back is important for first-time visitors, because the front parking lot is kinda tight. I went with the pocket pizza option, as Lansky's will not only do pizzas by ingredients, but the calzones as well (with the same price as a personal size pizza.) This is good because their actual standard calzone selection, while containing a few delicious options, is very limited, and I didn't want to double up with anyone's choices there.

I think that next time, I'll sub out the tomatoes, which were admittedly good, for more cheese, as the calzone didn't seem to have quite enough cheese binding it on its own. The ingredients were solid (what do you want from pineapple?) and the crust itself tasty. This calzone, as prepared, was not hugely messy or difficult to cut, but I'm sure that can vary based on what exactly you get. They come with dipping marinara/pizza sauce, as there's not a lot (or maybe any inside), and I think that's the largest reason why this calzone, at least, wasn't a mess factory.

On the appetizer front, I actually liked the ravioli and could taste flavor in it, but it wasn't amazing or anything. The spicy pub pickles were as advertised, not too spicy though. Onion rings were fine too. The Beer Cheese sauce was pretty good as well. Cham's estimation of 'solid' for this place is not wrong, although I have to admit that this place has an excellent Aloha pizza (I like their topping choices) as well. And, having done it, the calzones reheat well enough, too.

==Moogle==
Ordered:

• Italian Sausage Calzone ($5.95)
• Regular Drink, Fries ($3.08 as a combo)

If I had seen the build-your-own calzone, I probably would have gotten exactly the same one Mecha did. I spotted the Hawaiian pizza option in the menu and thought that looked good, but wanted something more like the calzones. Italian Sausage was a fine choice, however. The calzones are pretty good sized. Due to work, I ended up taking home a corner of the calzone and a handful of fries. I could have finished there, but I felt like I needed to get back to work sooner and didn't really want it sitting in my stomach all afternoon anyway.

The calzone was pretty crumbly. It definitely could have used more cheese to hold it together. This style calzone had an awful lot of green/red peppers--maybe a little too much for my tastes. The marinara was a little hard to use with the calzone guts spread all over the plate. Still, it was tasty enough that I was pleased with it. The fries were actually pretty good. They weren't too dry or greasy. They were also lightly seasoned. The calzones reheat well enough, but the fries are another story. They were edible, just not nearly as good as the first time around.

==MapleSyrup==
Ordered:

• Vegetable Calzone ($5.25)
• Regular Drink, Onion Rings ($4.44 as a combo)

I was originally going to try the Reuben, but then I made the mistake of asking Moogle what he was getting and my fate was sealed. Unlike ND, I loves me some peppers and onions, so I went with the Vegetable Calzone. It was the size of a medium pizza folded over. The crust was a nice tasty crispy and chockful of mushrooms, green and red bell peppers, onions, and black olives. The peppers were cooked so they weren't soft and were on the verge of crunch. The onions didn't overpower any of the rest of the filling. Unfortunately, as Mecha lamented, the filling didn't bind together well. It could have used a good amount more cheese. I ended up cutting off a piece of calzone, scooping some crust and filling into my mouth, then shoving a half forkful of marinara in there to taste. It was a very good calzone, though next time I'll probably roll my own because a Hawaiian Calzone sounds really good.

It was a good price and a good calzone. I'll be going back.