By Brady Reeves
For nearly a year, customers kept asking Omer Noorwala, the owner of Oh My Gill on College Hill, the same question: When are the burgers coming back?
The College Hill store, also known by its trendy acronym, OMG, had discontinued the popular item a year ago, much to the chagrin of local foodies, because the kitchen at that location could not handle the demand.
But fans persisted, prompting Noorwala to keep looking for the right spot to bring the burgers back.
The answer arrived quietly on June 23, Noorwala’s birthday, when Oh My Grill Chargrilled Burgers soft-opened at The Mall at College Square. The eatery is one of several locally owned stores that have popped up in the mall since it was purchased in March, 2026, by the Davis family, whose goal is to transform the mall into a vibrant spot for entrepreneurs seeking to connect with the community.
Granted, it was hard to keep the new store under wraps when it was taking shape in a place as public as the food court. People began to notice the unique logo, the renovations and the menu displays. But there was no announcement on social media. Online ordering and delivery services remained turned off. Even parts of the menu, including the restaurant’s milkshakes, were being held back.
Still, customers found their way to the counter.
“I haven’t announced that we are open,” Noorwala said. “Whatever you see anywhere is organic.”
The subdued opening is intentional. Noorwala wants employees to have time to learn the menu, become comfortable in the kitchen and gradually adjust as more customers return.
During the restaurant’s early training days, customers who stopped at the counter were surprised to learn that their meals were free. Preparing the food gave employees an opportunity to practice, while the customers became some of the first to enjoy the tasty burgers.
Word began to spread. Within days, Noorwala said, the dining area had filled several times during lunch.
For him, the response affirmed what customers had been telling him since the original burger operation on College Hill switched to a Mediterranean menu.
“I have some diehard fans,” he said.
How OMG became a Cedar Falls staple
Noorwala opened the original OMG on College Hill in 2019, shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted restaurants across the country.
When dining rooms shut down, the restaurant joined DoorDash and other delivery platforms. The shift introduced OMG to customers beyond College Hill and helped the young business develop a following.
For approximately six years, the restaurant became known for its thick, char-grilled burgers with combinations of toppings that encouraged customers to find a favorite and stick with it.
Noorwala remembers customers ordering the same burger for months or even years. Some regularly picked the mushroom Swiss burger before eventually moving on to another favorite. One customer ordered the Casa de Fuego for about four years.
“I would beg them to try something else,” Noorwala said. “They would say, ‘No, we want this. We like this.’”
In March of 2025, Noorwala remodeled the College Hill location with a focus on Mediterranean food.
The change addressed several challenges the space posed. Char-grilling thick burger patties created considerable smoke, placing pressure on the building’s ventilation system. Each burger could also require about 15 minutes to prepare, which did not always fit the busy schedules of nearby students and instructors moving between classes.
Noorwala wanted to offer food that could be prepared quickly but without sacrificing freshness or flavor.
The College Hill OMG Mediterranean then introduced rice bowls, plates and wraps featuring falafel, gyros, chicken shawarma and other dishes. Its tandoori chicken has since become the location’s top-selling item.
The new concept also allowed Noorwala to draw more directly from his family and cultural background.
He grew up primarily in Chicago and has family roots in Pakistan. His relatives have operated restaurants, banquet halls and catering businesses in Chicago for approximately 30 years. His first summer job was working in one of those restaurants, where he began learning how to serve customers before eventually finding his way into the kitchen.
At the College Hill restaurant, some of the recipes carry connections to the people who influenced him.
The tandoori chicken, for instance, is prepared using a recipe from Noorwala’s late aunt, preserving a small but meaningful memory.
“That’s her recipe that we follow,” Noorwala said.
That personal approach extends throughout the Mediterranean menu at the College Hill location. Noorwala looks to recipes passed down by mothers, grandmothers and other family members as it works to create food that feels authentic to the traditions behind it.
A glimpse of home
The connection to Noorwala’s culture is also visible in a mural at the College Hill space.
Created by artist Jesse Collins, it depicts a Middle Eastern street scene, with a vendor shaving meat from a vertical shawarma spit while a group of customers wait nearby.
“It’s just a little thing of back home,” Noorwala said.
Blue tiles cover another wall, helping him create the feeling that customers are stepping into a space connected to the cultures and traditions inspiring the menu.
The restaurant’s design is personal in other ways. Noorwala’s children, Zainab and Maryam, helped create the sign hanging inside, and he plans to make a large piece of artwork for another wall himself.
Before entering the restaurant business, Noorwala studied graphic design in Chicago. He has long been interested in drawing, painting and murals, and he remains involved in designing and building his businesses.
Noorwala’s hands-on approach is modeled after his father, a chemical engineer who handled plumbing, electrical work and household projects himself.
“He taught me all when I was a kid,” Noorwala said.
Noorwala carried those lessons into his own businesses. He helped remodel the College Hill space and created many of its details from scratch, approaching the dining area with the same care that he brings to crafting a menu.
The result is a space where the recipes, mural art and the surroundings work together.
The Mediterranean concept proved successful, but the questions about the return of the burgers kept coming.
“We’ve always been looking for a spot to open the burgers again,” Noorwala said. “People have been constantly asking us.”
Bringing the original burger back
The opportunity emerged at The Mall at College Square, where new ownership and an existing commercial kitchen made reintroducing the burgers more practical.
That’s how OMG Chargrilled Burgers came to be.
The new restaurant brings back 10 of OMG’s core “hero burgers,” along with a rotating selection of seasonal and specialty options. Familiar sides, including garlic mayo fries and sweet potato fries, are also on the menu.
The patties remain one-third of a pound, thicker than a standard quarter-pound burger and are char-grilled rather than smashed. All meat served here is halal and kosher. And for toppings, hickory-smoked halal beef bacon is used instead of pork.
The menu is the result of years of collaboration and experimentation.
Noorwala credits Sophia Shiffman and William McCaughey with playing pivotal roles in developing the original burgers. Shiffman, who studied culinary arts in New York, worked alongside Noorwala and McCaughey as the group tested recipes and created the menu before the first OMG location opened. As the burgers return, Noorwala wants their early contributions to remain part of the restaurant’s story.
The new location at the mall will eventually add more ordering options and menu items, but Noorwala is resisting the urge to introduce everything at once.
He expects the initial training period to last several weeks. The restaurant’s website will follow, with delivery platforms introduced after the team has had more time to build confidence and speed. Milkshakes made with Hansen’s Dairy ice cream will also return in a couple of weeks.
The measured approach reflects advice Noorwala gives to people interested in opening their own restaurant: Start small, learn the work and understand the demands before scaling up.
He recommends first working inside a restaurant or food truck to determine whether the industry is the right fit.
“There’s a lot more to it than seeing people lined up at the register,” Noorwala said.
His own experience required patience and continued investment. During OMG’s early years, Noorwala used income from his other businesses to support the restaurant as it developed its customer base.
His family taught him that customer experience must remain the priority, a lesson he continues to apply with each new endeavor.
That means the OMG name is now growing in two directions. The College Hill restaurant will continue serving Mediterranean food, while the mall location will focus on the burgers customers crave.
Noorwala is also preparing to expand OMG Mediterranean to Cedar Rapids, where he hopes to add breakfast, coffee and pastries.
For now, he is enjoying the return of the burgers alongside the customers who spent nearly a year asking for them.
“Even I was craving the mushroom Swiss burger,” Noorwala said.
