Tulsa Food

Last week we featured Tulsa’s ten best dishes of 2012. It’s a list Tulsa can be proud of and each time I see the photos I get a little thrill. Well over 300 readers clicked the “like” button at the top of the page; that’s a new record for me. The restaurant I’m featuring this [...]

A new Mexican restaurant has opened in Tulsa!! This announcement usually elicits more yawns than raised eyebrows. But Dex’s Mexican Grill stands head and shoulders above the rest. (Well, most of the rest.) Why? Perhaps it’s the daughter, Corine McGuire. She’s so committed, her mother explained, she comes in early each morning to roast the [...]

“I should have grabbed more of the carnitas!” I said. It’s not that I was hungry. By then I had devoured most of an epic banquet of some of the best and most authentic Mexican food I’ve found in Tulsa. But those carnitas were so good! Now I wish I could boast that those delicious [...]

Drive through the north-east side of Downtown Tulsa past Peoria, take a right on Trenton, just before Utica. You’ll come to a place where residential meets industrial and the sunsets are still huge. Boom! You’re there. El Rio Verde. Go on and pull up to their dirt parking lot, order your food, and feel free [...]

Ricardo’s is not the kind of place I normally like. It’s a Mexican restaurant without any Mexicans. (There might be some in the kitchen I didn’t see, but I think not.) It was owned by a guy named Richard Hunt, who named it Ricardo’s rather than Richard’s to sound more authentic. You won’t find any [...]

Los Unicos isn’t a fancy place. There is no A/C. There is no silverware, plateware, or glass. No reusable napkins. No waiter. Heck, there isn’t really even an inside environment to relax, minus a couple of stools in a breezeway. It’s a structure that holds a kitchen. A friendly cook or two inside that kitchen. [...]

Cruise down Sheridan and just past 21st Street you’ll see a tiny house with a lavish splash of color on the front. Inside that tiny house, huge platters of food await. It’s good food too, not the best Mexican in Tulsa by any means, but definitely a cut above average. You’ve seen the menu a [...]

Surprisingly good authentic Mexican food right where you’d least expect it. I’ve been conditioned to believe that the best Mexican dining can be found in humble taquerias which, while usually bright and cheery inside, could, without much of a stretch, be called dives — places where no one speaks a word of English and the [...]

Cafe Ole has been on Brookside for just about as long as I can remember. Yes, even back in those bygone days when the Brook sold books and teenagers danced till dawn at the Icon. Now it’s older than some of the people legally drinking at nearby bars, and every few months or so I [...]

Some of the best and most authentic Mexican food in Tulsa can be found right near the corner of 51st and Yale. When the chef of one of Cherry Street’s finest restaurants told me this, I flat out didn’t believe it. I thought I knew that neighborhood. But it’s true. Just cruise south on Yale, [...]

I think I have a real problem when it comes to food trucks and shacks. It’s hard not to stop and give ‘em a try when cruising Tulsa. Just like any hole-in-the-wall restaurant, trucks are hit and miss. However, Mr. Taco, a taco shack here in T-Town, has been a hit time and time again. [...]

(*great margaritas AND great food) I regularly find myself in a conundrum, regarding Tex Mex restaurants in Tulsa – either they have good (and in some cases, great) margaritas, but the food disappoints, or the food’s great but they only serve 3.2 beer. I don’t know about you, but I require a margarita with my [...]

Guillermo Rojas, a courtly old gentleman from Bolivia, was living in Buenos Aires 23 years ago when he got a phone call from a relative in Tulsa. She wanted him to run a Mexican restaurant. He had never eaten Mexican food in his life but he came to Tulsa and made Casa Laredo a success. [...]

Around here, when most people say “Let’s go out for Mexican” they want just one thing. They don’t want rigorously prepared authentic Mexican moles, the seven fabled sauces of Oaxaca that take all day to prepare. They don’t want an elegant place serving upscale entrees like La Cocina. No they want a big loud happy [...]

I’ve passed that squat ocher building many times without even a glance. It’s easy to do; the outside is the essence of nondescript. If I’d been more observant I’d have noticed that there are always a lot of cars parked outside. People know they can find good food there. Last night, thanks to a tip [...]

Freebirds World Burrito has made its way to Tulsa and the masses are enjoying. The privately owned California burrito chain serves customized burritos with flavor and style. Pick from multiple tortilla sizes, even a huge 7 pounder. Freebird serves up fresh flavors and amazing hot sauces. Behold the cross section of my carne asada burrito [...]

Think about restaurants, think about Tex-Mex, and you’ll probably get an image of a lazy, cheerful little cantina with sombreros on lollipop-colored walls, indifferent food and service, and killer margaritas. Walk through the sculpted cast-iron doors of Mi Cocina, and those images will be forever dispelled. Mi Cocina, the first branch outside Texas of an [...]

I don’t think there is any doubt that Mexican cuisine is the most complex and sophisticated in the New World. (Sorry, Peru!) Many of the dishes date back to pre-Columbian times, and their startling blend of flavors seem like relics of an ancient, long-forgotten and inscrutably alien civilization. And the pinnacle, the absolute apex of [...]

Judging by the number of Mexican restaurants in Tulsa I would have to say it might be one of Tulsa’s favorite types of foods. Maybe it’s the ability to share flavorful food with a friend that makes this food so great. It may seem hard to differentiate between the many Mexican restaurants around, but Tres [...]

Cinco De Mayo is around the corner and we want to help you celebrate next week with style and taste. With four Tulsa-area locations, Compadres Mexican Grill is a local haven for great Mexican food and drinks with a kid-friendly environment, accommodations for large crowds, quick seating, bar seating with big screens to catch a [...]

Fly over Brookside by night and it’s a glittering string of diamonds. But head south of the Interstate and all the glitter’s gone. Forlorn, half-abandoned strip malls huddle by the road, and in one of them you’ll find Casa Frida. Step through the door, though, and you’re in another world. A tropical beach world of [...]

Local Eateries Finding Success Beyond Our Borders We thought it would be fun to look at some Oklahoma restaurants that not only are thriving, but have expanded regionally and, in some cases, nationally with their chain. Although many are very unique and different in their business approach, they all share the common ground that they [...]

Some people ask me how I get around to so many random restaurants. My secret…. I often find myself randomly driving around Tulsa looking for a cure to a void in my life at that moment. Hungry! I don’t mind driving for 20 – 30 minutes before I find something that looks good. Last week [...]

It was our last outing before the snow. We wanted something warm, homey, comfortable. “I’ve heard of a place called La Hacienda,” I said. It was a good choice. Both the food and the restaurant live up to that description. It’s a tiny place, welcoming, and run by friendly people. The chef when it opened [...]

I’ve talked so much about Wolfgang Puck and Brady Tavern and Gemma’s, so I offered to take my best friend there. Nooooo, she said, let’s go to Senor Tequila! Oooookay. I hadn’t been there in years. I remember the original branch on a now-demolished corner of 51 and Harvard. Mexican families drinking their half-gallon margaritas. [...]

The first time I saw the “Tamale Man” was at the corner of 15th and Boston.  I think it was in 1956, the year I received my Morgan Plus 4 and began tooling around Tulsa.  There he was, a metal push cart lighted with a lantern and protected with an umbrella.  Whiffs of steam and [...]