Tulsa Food

Until about a week ago, if you wanted great barbecue in Tulsa you’d have to leave the city. You’d head up north to Sperry and Donny Teel’s domain, or south to Broken Arrow to Oklahoma Joe’s. Or go to Northside, or make it an early meal and have lunch at Burn Co. Today, good barbecue [...]

Thai, Japanese, and Vietnamese are foods I adore. Packed with unique flavors and spices and generally with a touch of heat. But I have to admit that I don’t think I’ve ever tried Korean-style food. Odd. I have no recollection of ever eating a bite of bulgogi, yangnyum, bibimbob, etc. These dishes are quite foreign [...]

I’m always a sucker for a place named Napoli’s. I spent quite a few happy summers in Naples (which Italians call Napoli) when I was barely old enough to join the Boy Scouts, so just the name (Na-po-li: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate, as Nabokov might [...]

Working on the East side of town, I could probably go somewhere different for lunch every day for the next month and not have to eat at the same place twice. There are so many little privately owned places in the few surrounding miles that many people have never even heard of. Sad thing about [...]

It was Saturday and the prime time of the night, but Brookside was deserted. Bar after empty bar, all dismal and dreary, and then I wandered into R at the corner of 34th. Oh the place was packed! I could barely squeeze in the door. Sultry svelte women in those little black dresses and pearls, [...]

What would you do if a really gorgeous girl invited you to dine at the Olive Garden? Some people might take a Faustian perspective and say that’s like selling your soul to the Devil. While I don’t believe that the Darden Corporation is Satan, I do think that, if Satan finds the time to laugh [...]

Lately I’ve been tooting the horn for Tulsa with every review I write. It’s an exciting time. Finally we have restaurants worthy of New York or California or any place you can name. But what if you want cuisine as elegant and refined as New York but of a kind you just can’t get in [...]

If you’re an East Coast transplant homesick for New York and you can’t afford the price of a plane ticket home, just get yourself to the corner of Brady and Main. You’ll find a row of old brick houses that could have been moved brick by brick from the city where walking is a pastime [...]

“Come on Milk,” says his rascally friend Guitar Bains in Toni Morrison’s magical novel “Song of Solomon”. “This ain’t New York; choices are limited.” But this was fifty years ago and more, he wasn’t in Tulsa, and he wasn’t looking for fried chicken. New fried chicken places are springing up in Tulsa every week or [...]

Baker’s Fish House is way way off the grid. Your GPS can’t find it. The street address is just plain wrong. No one is sure what town it’s in. Some say Porter, others say Oktaha, and a few maintain it’s in Wagoner. Best to say it’s somewhere between Wagoner and Muskogee, right near the Verdigris [...]

The crown has been passed. There’s a new king in town. Let it be known throughout the land that the new Grand Pooh-Bah, Supreme Monarch and Reigning Emperor of Fried Chicken in the State of Oklahoma is A-1 Chicken Shack on 46th Street North in the City of Tulsa! The whispers first reached me a [...]

Memories have a way of becoming a bit foggy, and if you haven’t noticed, things we remember tend to get idealized beyond what they were in realty. That’s why I wasn’t sure what to expect when I paid a visit to Rex’s Chicken recently. The brand has recently been revived by Beautiful Brands International in [...]

Some time before the year 1300, groups of tribal farmers from Yunnan in southwest China drifted down into the virgin untilled lands just east of Burma. They called themselves Thai and the land became Thailand. We were sitting in the tiny, cozy dining room of My Thai restaurant and I was trying to impress my [...]

The Boston Deli’s Hasty Bake Cooking Class featuring Biltmore Wines was held Monday night 09.20.10. The class featured Boston Deli’s owner Ken Shafer utilizing grilling, smoking and baking technics on the best grill made in the world – Hasty Bake pared with a wonderful wine producer Biltmore Wines. The menu consisted of first course Ancho [...]

Tucked neatly behind Long John Silvers/A&W between a liquor store and a Chinese restaurant on the NW corner of 21st and Garnett resides some of the most amazing grilled chicken ever. The place is called El Super Pollo, which I find to be humorous considering the mash of English and Spanish in its name. It [...]

You wake up late. It was one of those nights. Suddenly you remember. You promised to cook a gourmet meal for your girlfriend and she’ll be there in half an hour! And you have only $10. Well, now you can offer her “Farm-raised Poussin braised in Thyme, Fennel and Coriander”, served on a bed of [...]

If you’ve been reading this blog, you’re no stranger to Elote Cafe. There have been several reviews and everyone loves it. All their food comes straight from local farmers. Now I’m a huge fan of local farmers. There’s nothing finer than corn or tomatoes fresh off the vine. And so I expected to be blown [...]

Today for once I was in the mood for a chicken sandwich, but I couldn’t just have any chicken sandwich…I had to have something unique. I knew I was going to be cooking up some burgers on the Barby tonight, so I wanted to balance out my day with a little white meat for lunch. [...]

So I admit that when it comes to Asian Cuisine, I may not be looking for all that authentic. Maybe my general dislike of fish flavors. Growing up in the country, we would only eat at a Chinese place maybe twice a year. But in those non-authentic versions, there is still a world of difference [...]

Superb food in an elegant Brookside setting for $12. What more can I say? Oh, there’s more. There’s a crucial point almost halfway through Virginia Woolf’s masterpiece “To the Lighthouse” when family and friends assemble for dinner. Sitting around the dinner table, each feels alone, distant and uncaring as they perform the social rituals of [...]

Good Indian restaurants are rare. India, like Mexico or, for that matter, Oklahoma, has a home-cooking tradition, and all the best meals are served behind closed doors, in private rooms which you can dream about but never enter. Rarer still are Indian restaurants which depart from the sanctified yet somehow boring canon of dishes that [...]

Hibiscus is a Jamaican restaurant on Peoria exuberantly decorated in lollipop colors. It must be a pleasant place to be when it’s crowded with happy people, but when I stopped by last Friday around 3 PM it was totally empty. We looked around and left and then the owner came out and urged us to [...]

A few months ago I had lunch at Keo. It’s well worth the trip. The space is sleek and airy, with 15 foot ceilings and floor to ceiling windows. Upscale decor (and good service) with downscale prices. Most entrees are $9. The chef was born in Cambodia (though she grew up in Oklahoma) and most [...]

Cardigans is a great place tucked away on Lewis Avenue offering home-cooked food, great service and a calm atmosphere. Open for 16 years, Cardigans reminded me of a sports bar type atmosphere without all the noise. The walls were scattered with history derived from pictures of Tulsa, and how things used to be downtown. Deep [...]

Fall is finally here, and thanks to some of our amazing readers, so are the recipes! Make sure to give these fabulous finds a try, and show some love on their websites! Hot Pumpkin “Cereal” This light and filling fall dish is perfect for a breakfast meal or afternoon snack! Have 10 minutes? Cook up [...]

Beautiful weather, awesome friends, and sweet margaritas. It was a beautiful Saturday night and some of my friends were in town. We decided to meet for a late dinner and drinks at El Guapo Cantina which is located in the Blue Dome District here in Tulsa. First of all, the building itself is impressive. With [...]