Formosa Zen

Wow! What a hidden treasure! It’s Sunday night — I’m being lazy and didn’t want to cook. I have celiacs and have to be careful with gluten, dairy and corn products. I called to see if they make gluten free foods — EVERYTHING on the menu is available gluten free … Including hot and sour soup!!! This place is awesome! Great food — nice people that own and manage! Might have just found my new favorite place in Omaha !!!

We tried this place tonight due to all the fabulous reviews on here and another. I hate to say it, but it’s probably one of the worst Chinese food I’ve ever had. I’d rather have Hy-​Vee Chinese. We ordered fried wings and calamari for appetizers and then for entrees ordered the chicken phở, general tsaos, chicken pad Thai and sesame chicken. We were not able to eat the pad Thai or the wings due to taste. I had to resort to eating rice with the sauce from the general tsao’s.The phở (should’ve known better than order Vietnamese at a Chinese place) didn’t have the right ingredients for the broth. It tasted more like the base of hot and sour soup. The general tsao and sesame chicken had no differentiation in taste. There were only two other tables (2 top each) there; one of which were obviously friends with the daughter of the owner (who was one of the waitresses).
I will say that the two servers we had were very friendly and attentive.
Disappointed on many levels, but mostly because I was hoping for a good place to eat in west Omaha.

This is not your fast food, take out, bland Chinese. Nicely decorated and very clean, local art on the wall for sale. Super attentive service. Small but interesting menu, ingredients are very fresh. Asparagus, peppers, onions — all fresh and nice chopped. Colorful presentation, flavorful but not overpowering sauces. I had the basil shrimp and my wife designed her own. Both were fantastic. Easily the best Chinese in West Omaha if not Omaha. We’ll be back.

My wife and I stopped by this place for lunch today. The parking lot was empty, it was just about noon on a Friday, often not a good sign of quality. However, it is tucked back in a strip mall and not easy to spot from the road.
We were greeted upon entering by our smiling hostess, who also ended up as our server. A quick scan of the restaurant confirmed we were the only diners (no one else came in over the course of our meal). The interior is very nicely decorated in black and red with neat shelving around the tables full of Chinese bowls and plates.
We ordered the pan fried dumplings, hot and sour soup, egg drop soup, sesame shrimp and a «make your own,» dish (my wife chose Kung Pao sauce with chicken and some vegetables).
All the food came out at a good pace, cooked fresh. The hot and sour soup was excellent with lots of good chunks of stuff in it. The egg drop soup. Wow. Probably the best I’ve ever had. I almost wanted to order another. The dumplings were very tasty, with a nice crispy wonton and a huge side of dipping sauce.
The sesame shrimp was outstanding. The shrimps (which were huge) had this extremely light and thin coating of batter, you almost couldn’t see it, but the flavor was there, which I loved. I hate when there’s more batter than protein in a dish like this. Perfect. The Kung Pao chicken was a bit on the bland side, but no harm done, it was still good due to the quality of chicken they appear to be using. Crisp vegetables. Maybe a different sauce would have made this one pop more.
A really great lunch, excellent friendly service, we are just afraid they aren’t getting the business they should be. Hopefully they are busier in the evenings as this might be my new favorite Chinese place. They also deliver in a four mile radius. A quick check showed us to be 3.7 miles away, which could be dangerous to my bank account. Please check this place out, don’t let them go under! I need that egg drop soup in my life.

Glad that Jenni made her way back to the restaurant scene. Date night with my wife. Good food and decanted wine. Lo Mien was great. Only suggestion I would make is try a seat not facing the overhead lights. Down lights point to walls and make it a bit distracting

I just love finding the next big thing in the crowded world of restaurants — and Formosa Zen is a great possibility! We found it based on reviews — 100% Five-​Star — and I knew that had to mean this was a special place. It was.
The décor is modern Asian, sleek, black and red with attractive lighting and art.
Our starters — Crab Rangoon and Pan Fried Dumplings– were artistically presented, perfect temperature and flavor, each with a marvelous sauce.
Our entrees — Pan Fried Noodles with Shrimp, Beef, and Chicken and the Lemongrass Salmon were truly as beautiful as they were delicious! We will return!

Ate lunch here. Crab Rangoon were really uniquely shaped and tasted awesome! Pot stickers were great too. Fried rice was really fresh. I had the General Tsao Beef which was really yummy and a good change from the tradition chicken. The restaurant also is very clean and has a great modern atmosphere!

Eggrolls had no pork in them and they served them with sweet and sour sauce. I ordered the phở and I was told it had beef and meatballs in it but only had meatballs. The meatball had chunks of cartilage in it! I won’t be coming back.

I was in town from LA working. I was looking for something to eat for lunch and I stumbled upon this place. It’s set back in a half empty shopping plaza. I found the décor very nice. The food was GREAT! I feel this place could do more business if people knew where it was. Definitely worth looking for.

I really enjoy this place. It’s very nice inside with cool art and a small family environment. Crab Rangoon is amazing. Best in omaha.

The best crab Rangoon in Omaha. The best pan fried dumplings in Omaha. Seriously, either one is a reason to return. At the risk of using an overused word, the Amazing Stir-​Fried was. We wanted to eat the sauce in the Lemongrass Salmon right out of the serving dish with a spoon. Seafood Soup is indescribably good. Beyond words. Décor is tasteful, service fantastic. We will return.

3 words… WHITE. MEAT. CHICKEN. Need I say more? Well, I’m gonna.
I grew up close to the owner’s previous Omaha restaurant, China Road, on 132^nd and Dodge. It was by far our favorite Chinese restaurant. When we found out they had sold and left, I was devastated.
So imagine my delight at finding a Unilocal review of a new place less than a mile from my work whose owners were the very people whose food I loved oh so many years ago!!!
Needless to say, my expectations were immediately very high.
Jenny, the owner, greeted me at the counter. I was giddy and she was so sweet when I told her how much I missed China Road. She asked my favorite dish, and they had it on menu, Sesame Chicken. Sorry nothing exotic, but you love what you love. She told me they were frying the fried rice fresh and I had to try the hot and sour soup. Well, twist my arm.
My order was out in no time and I’ve never been happier to dodge potholes back to work. After opening everything up, and diving right in, it completely met my expectations. Like I said, they started pretty high. The flavors, quality, and amount of food for the price were spot on. We will be back, and I’ll be bringing my family with me!!! Most likely during a live music night.
Thank you for coming back to Omaha, and I wish you many years of success.

I went here for the first time today for lunch. So good! Not a fan of the calamari but the curry amazing with chicken was, like the name says, AMAZING. I will definitely go back and would recommend it. I took half of it home and had it for dinner. Num num. The lettuce wraps were pretty good too. Very nice staff.

The Phở is one of the worst attempts at phở I’ve ever tasted! Oh my goodness it was horrible! The Chinese dish was pretty good though.

The Taiwanese beef soup has good flavor but the beef is very fatty, pretty much all fat. Too bad, it ruins the soup. I tried it twice, both times there was little meat and lots of fat. I would not get it again.

First of all the proprietor stopped by our table and greeted us personally, which was so nice! The ambiance is very modern and upscale and most importantly the food was fantastic. The service was perfect and we never went without water. I had Red curry chicken. It was delicious! And my friend ordered the Amazing stir fry which lived up to its name. We also ordered the pan seared dumplings which came with a very flavorful and savory sauce.

Formosa Zen is an outstanding asset to Omaha of authentic Taiwanese (Chinese) cuisine that cannot be missed. The owners of the restaurant are extremely friendly and set us up with an incredible meal that already has us planning our next visit. The pan fried Mi Fen (炒米粉）was insanely good and the Taiwanese beef noodle soup was 100% authentic — more so than anything I’ve seen even on the West Coast. If you want something more than the typical sweet and sour Americanized version of Chinese food in Omaha, look no further my friends.

Great new restaurant close to our house. We’ll certainly be coming back. Of the 4 tomes we’ve been there, everything has been great.

Oooh how I want so badly to rate them higher!!!
We actually were recommended in several places to try this place out (husband’s coworker,
) so we decided to go here one Friday evening. There were only 2 other tables when we arrived and about 8 when we left so you could tell traffic was picking up.
Upon arriving, I noticed the décor was matching and tastefully done. Black and red are not my first color choices as it tends to be dark/​dim, however, it was all well coordinated. The exterior is deceivingly small because the restaurant is quite spacious when you get inside.
We sat in a booth and were immediately handed menus. There were only two people on the floor– a server and someone I assume was the female owner. They were both SUPER DUPER nice, which is why it pains me to only give them 3 stars, but here’s why…
1. Service was really disorganized– Our waters were empty quite often and it’s not that they didn’t care, they were just too busy/​preoccupied with waiting on the other tables. Like I said, they were really nice… but after we got our food, we weren’t checked upon until it was time for the check.
2. The food was just average– l tried their «Formosa Noodles» which had chicken, beef, shrimp and veggies over crunchy noodles. It was good, however, it tasted no different than any other «brown sauce» at an Asian restaurant. Maybe I just expected their signature dish to have some other crazy flavors that I’ve never tried in a Chinese dish before.
The good was…
1. Very nice people (albeit below average service)
2. Very clean bathrooms
3. Convenient location– like ½ mile from our home!
I was originally going to give them 4 stars, but I need to warn you. DO NOT GET THE PHO!!! I know of some Chinese places that have a decent phở (Vietnamese dish), but this is NOT one of them. It tasted like water mixed in with some phở concentrate with some noodles thrown in– very disappointing.
A really good Chinese place just down the street is Five Spice, I would HIGHLY recommend them. The food there is great (some of the best), service is really quick, and place is clean.
So in summary, very average food, slow/​disorganized service, well decorated, and clean. They did try very hard to give us the best service/​food, but it was just lacking. We may be back at Formosa Zen… maybe.

Best Asian food in Omaha in my opinion. Jenny and Andy (previous owners of China Road West Omaha) returned to Omaha and just opened this place. Much more than typical Chinese food. You can create your own dish or try one of their excellent menu items. They even have fish and lamb chops. My favorite is the Basil Chicken. Ask for the hot peppers if you like your meal extremely hot! I’m going to eat here once a week. They have a full bar and even a kids menu with chicken strips.