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The Omaha Steaks Adventure

Posted: Wed May 05, 2021 5:15 pm
by Casual Observer
Got another flyer from Omaha Steaks last week so what the hell, why not give it a try. At this point I'm pretty much resigned to paying more for less quantity of higher quality meat so it's not as bad a deal as I used to think it was. This deal was "12 free burgers" when you buy a bundle of meats. Here's how it's gone so far:

1) Try the website and the deal on the coupon is nowhere to be found. Of course no coupon code on the flyer to look up.
2) Call the 800 number, indian sales rep picks up almost immediately.
3) Wade through 15 minutes of her trying various upsell schemes before even getting my order in the "cart". Ended up adding an additional 12 burgers which put the order over $150 earning free shipping.
4) While going through her "columbo close" upsells, find on the site a $25 off deal if I give them my email, did that. Interrupted indian girl to say, "oh, wait, I just was offered an additionsl $25 off on the website for signing up, can you apply that as well?"
5) girl puts me on hold while she consults their "customer support team", comes back and says yes she can get that done but the other department will have to apply the discount
6) another 10 minutes of various offers including trying me to sign up for a yearly fee for special discounts on a product I've never had before, ugh.
7) turns out they double charged me, first a hold for $169 (the original price) then a charge for $144 (the extra discounted price) and still waiting for the hold to release

Order Process rating = F (I could have gone to Costco and back in less time)

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Well, FedEx has some egg on it's face as well. Delivery was scheduled for Saturday but tracking showed it sitting in Hillsborough OR until Monday. Bad FedEx. Bad boy. The dry ice in the cooler was fully sublimated when I got it but luckily they did use a freezer truck for all except the last mile so everything was still frozen.

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Cute labeled boxes in the cooler. Not sure cardboard is the best idea in a chilled environment, condensation and all, but ok.

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Frozen meat, super tightly vacuum packed in heavy plastic. These puppies are going right into the freezer.

So the order. All of the steak is 14 day aged prime.

4 Filet Mignons: 5oz which is small but the saving grace is they are nice and thick. Been enjoying pan seared filets with butter so that's probably in these guys' future.

4 Sirloins: also small which is absolutely not the way I roll with sirloin but ok. Probably will cook these with the filets and have a little of both.

4 Chicken Breasts: these had better be the best tasting chicken breasts I've ever had. I better do something interesting with them to justify bothering.

4 Bonless Pork Chops: not too much smaller than supermarket boneless chops. Definitely going to brine them for a couple of days and then looking for some kind of caramelized apple sauce or something.

24 Burger Patties: When I was 17 I had a friend who was living at his grandparent's boat cottage on Canandaigua Lake and we spent the summer water skiing. Besides learning to drop my second ski and jump the wake, the best parts of the summer were his alcohol collection and cooking burgers on an outside Propane grill. I've always been a charcoal grill guy and of course still love the taste and experience but there's something uniquely satisfying about taking a patty out of the freezer throwing on a propane grill and eating a fresh tasty burger within 5 minutes. No fuss, no mess, just throw it on and flip it you're done. I'm not going anywhere near Burger King or McD's all summer long. Convinced the wife to let me get a propane grill, primarily for these burgers. I could get a free grill any day of the week on Craigslist but I'm thinking something like this at Home Depot around the corner.

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Stay tuned, the dishes that come out of this adventure will follow.

Re: The Omaha Steaks Adventure

Posted: Wed May 05, 2021 5:58 pm
by Ice Cream Jonsey
I have not had the experience of ordering with them through the phone, but I did order from them a bunch to send meat to my parents for Christmas the last couple of years. My understanding is that, rather than just sanely offer food at a price, there's a zillion "sales" and then a zillion more dark patterns on the site. You will never pay what they are calling full retail for it, but you end up weighing your aggravation versus how much of a discount you found. I am sure there are people who are good at it.

My parents have said that they liked 'em, so either they just want me to not feel bad or it was fine to throw on the grill. I'd get some shipped here but we have a very small freezer at the moment.

Re: The Omaha Steaks Adventure

Posted: Wed May 05, 2021 6:08 pm
by pinback
For years, my mother would send us these as our Christmas gift. I found my favorite things were the non-beef offerings. The stuffed potato things were good, and the hot dogs were the best. The steaks, well... you let me know what you think.

Re: The Omaha Steaks Adventure

Posted: Wed May 05, 2021 11:38 pm
by Jizaboz
pinback wrote: Wed May 05, 2021 6:08 pm For years, my mother would send us these as our Christmas gift. I found my favorite things were the non-beef offerings. The stuffed potato things were good, and the hot dogs were the best. The steaks, well... you let me know what you think.
Yeah! wtf is up with that? The person that lives with me’s dad sent us Omaha steaks once. A steak and lobster tail dinner for 2. I really appreciated the gesture, but I could have made a better filet and Canadian tail here from the grocery store. The sides however were easily heated and tasted awesome.

Re: The Omaha Steaks Adventure

Posted: Thu May 06, 2021 1:30 pm
by odyssia76
I think Omaha steaks are a huge scam. Way overpriced for what tiny pieces you do get and as you guys noticed the whole system is based on absurd come-ons and coupons etc which can be a major pain in the ass. The quality is just OK compared to real organize pasture raised grass fed beef. It is super easy to get much better meat at the same price or less. My grandpa used to send them as gifts and then one time he was over and he saw how tiny they were and he got so mad he never bought from them again. I agree that their side orders are tasty though but still way too expensive. You can find many places online that will sell and ship much better meat grass fed much tastier and bigger for t7he same price and you are supporting small farmers in many cases. Omaha is just a racket selling torture meat.

Re: The Omaha Steaks Adventure

Posted: Thu May 06, 2021 3:49 pm
by Ice Cream Jonsey
Because of this thread, I logged onto their site today to try to buy some food for my brother because he has been helping out the family. It is impossible to actually purchase anything there. Every single page has them screaming about other deals at you. No sane person is working at that company. and I guess you have to have $99 worth of food before they will even think about shipping? I don't get it??

Re: The Omaha Steaks Adventure

Posted: Thu May 06, 2021 3:51 pm
by pinback
You wanna speak to their manager? I wanna speak to your mother.

Re: The Omaha Steaks Adventure

Posted: Tue May 11, 2021 12:01 pm
by Tdarcos
The thing I remember about them is that their office is on John Galt Boulevard. You can probably guess why I remember.

I was going to say this wasn't the forum to discuss Adventure Games, but then I realized it was not what you were referring to.

Re: The Omaha Steaks Adventure

Posted: Tue May 11, 2021 1:42 pm
by odyssia76
John Galt? Who is that hahaha! Yeah why does that hot surprise me?

Re: The Omaha Steaks Adventure

Posted: Mon May 24, 2021 8:12 pm
by Casual Observer
Omaha Steaks order update. Verdict: Not unhappy.

First we did some steaks, 2 of the Filets and 2 of the Sirloin. Not big steaks to be sure but that can be par for the course with aged steaks, these are 14 days I think. Seasoned with black lava salt, garlic and fress ground pepper, did them on charcoal of course with cherry and apple wood chips providing perfect flame for my favorite, pittsburgh style ("black and blue"). No
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2 steaks each were enough and ended up with some leftovers even. Very fresh and flavorful tasting steaks for what they were.

Next, did 4 of the burger patties (out of the 24 in my freezer) on me new Propane grill. First time I ever cooked anything on a propane grill myself, like ever. Probably should have payed attention to BTU's or some shit, right? You guys probably know all about this stuff. On my little 2 burner, these things took next to forever to cook, fully defrosted but still cool from the fridge. I kept my two at med rare with a thin strip of rare right in the middle. For the wife, an extra couple flips for a solid medium.

Very very fresh tasting burgers, and again very flavorable and not qualified as "for a frozen hamburger patty", it's a good hamburger if not overcooked. I was worried as they looked grey in the packaging when frozen but thawed to a nice pink.
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Flavored them with the Black Lava Salt, Garlic Powder and pepper and did them on the propane grill but used this little bad boy to make some real flame and charcoal flavor, not to mention needed extra heat. Worked, but ended up being as much if not more work than firing up the charcoal grill so not sure how often it'll get used.
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The 4 Chicken Breasts were no larger than the sirloin steaks, took a picture of them next to the same hot wheels car and it's too sad to show. Very fresh tasting chicken breasts, were just fine added to a leftover Cheesecake Factory pasta dish but really I can't think of any real meal I would make with breasts so small.

Overall, Omaha Steaks was worth doing once, if all I got were the burgers then that works out to $6 a burger which is less than fast food so if I can have a fresh cooked burger cooked my way (rare) without much fuss for less than burger king it's worth it. Not sure I'll do this again though, it's just too easy to get quality meat at any number of stores nearby.