Doc’s is now the most exciting place to eat in Tulsa. Genius chef Ian van Anglen helms the kitchen. His new menu adopts the “new Southern” idea and takes it to a higher level. My dinner last night started with an appetizer that Ian created just for me. Perfectly cooked pork belly lounged on a bed of hominy and other vegetables. It was the quintessence of Southern cooking. The pork fat and the hominy joined to provide a complex rich flavor.

Southern cooking, complex rich flavor and perfectly cooked meat were also the hallmarks of my next course. Rack of lamb ($26). I’ve never had lamb so flavorful and juicy. It came on a bed of crunchy greens and pickled onions, whose savory and sour flavors were the perfect counterpoint to the meat. Part of the meat was coated with a subtle Creole mustard glaze and that just added to the goodness.

Ian also recommends the duck ($19) and hopes to add many memorable new dishes when the fresh produce starts rolling in from the farms around 2 months from now. So go.

Doc’s Wine & Food
3509 S. Peoria Av, Tulsa
949-3663

Here is an informative New York Times article on “new Southern” cuisine: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/06/dining/06indi.html

My original review of Doc’s, which stressed the “new Southern” theme.

http://tulsafood.com/brookside/docs-wine-food-new-southern

If you want to stuff yourself with mediocre food for $11, then head for Himalayas Aroma of India Restaurant. It’s where Kolam used to be. Kolam was a Tulsa treasure, offering rare dishes from the Chettinad region of Tamil Nadu and from Kerala in south India, dishes you can’t find anywhere else. And Himalayas, which took its place when Kolam closed, has a branch in Norman which has some of these same dishes. So I had high hopes for this place. Unfortunately, those dishes are not on the Tulsa branch’s menu. Perhaps the dishes from the a la carte menu are good. Sadly, the dinner buffet isn’t.

Oh it looks just fine, lots of variety. And you can make yourself a fine-looking plate.

But the Chicken Tikka Masala, that pretty red thing at the lower right, is completely tasteless, and so is the Lamb Korma that’s the other meat dish. Vegetarian dishes are somewhat better. The green Palak Paneer has a spinach flavor, the chickpeas (on the left of the photo near the spinach) have a hint of spice, the yellowish shredded cabbage have an interesting spice flavor too. But they’re not worth the trip. The rice, a biryani, is… well, just rice with a bit of oil taste.

Desserts are pretty good though. The sphere on top of the photo is a Gulabjaman, which is like a pancake with maple syrup, and there was a neat white liquidy pudding. Still, not worth the trip.

Himalayas Aroma of India
4844 S. Memorial Dr.
270-1445
http://www.himalayasok.com
Open daily for lunch and dinner

Warehouse is a great place to hang out on Saturday night and I’ve been there more times than I remember. But I never dreamed of eating there until Urban Tulsa tipped me off to Tuesday’s steak special. So I rounded up my friends and went last Tuesday afternoon. For $9 you get a salad (I chose the tasty Blue Cheese dressing) and then you get this.

A nice little sirloin steak, overly spiced perhaps but good flavor, some toast, and a monster baked potato big enough to be a meal in itself. Not a great meal perhaps, but for $9 certainly a great deal.

It’s easy to pass by La Altena. It’s just a nondescript shop at the side of a strip mall at the corner of 21st and Garnett. It looks like it’s closed or even vacant, except for a sign that says “Helados”. It’s pretty drab inside too, but there’s some great Mexican ice cream there. They make it in back. When I stopped by, they had mostly run out but the friendly clerk, fluent in English and of course Spanish, told me the flavors they had left. Mango, bubble gum, strawberry and guava. I got a two-scoop cup for only $1.25, and they were big scoops. Of course I got mango and guava. It was lovely. Full, rich ice cream and not, as I was expecting, shaved watery ice. I won’t pass by there again without stopping for a cup.

La Altena
11330 E 21 Street
706-9647

Genius chef Doug Atkinson left long ago but Go West still soldiers on. And they’re doing a great job! Some of the entrees are the same, some have been tweaked a bit, and some are new. All are in the flamboyant cowboy style which made Go West famous. The cowboy-themed decor’s the same too.

Thanks to owner Johnny Wimpy, the welcome is as warm as ever. Even warmer was the soup, a fiery (and lovely) cream of jalapeno. The bread platter is so good you’re tempted to fill up on that. I got one of the new entrees. Campfire Steak Medallions ($18).

 

Mole Poblano is a rich, complex Mexican sauce with a rich, complex history. The history goes back almost 400 years (more, if you count the Aztec origins) and the sauce is so complex it takes almost a whole day to prepare. I wrote a long description of Mole Poblano in my review of Tres Amigos in South Tulsa. A reader commented that the spectacular mole at El Fogon is the best in Oklahoma. But El Fogon is almost twenty miles from midtown Tulsa and, because the dish is so hard to make they serve it only once a month (and not on the same day of the month either). So I forgot about that.

 

 

On a dark and desolate block near Sheridan Road, right where you’d least expect it, there’s a magic golden door to the Orient.

Step through, and Vietnamese food and friendly service await at Binh Le Restaurant, a restaurant run by members of the same family that have run Vietnamese restaurants such as Ri Le for 30 years. I found the food average at best, but several friends have advised me that the dishes, especially those on the vegetarian menu (which I did not try) are exceptionally good. Here’s what we had.

Deluxe Bun Cha Gio, a cold and pleasantly flavored noodle salad with beef, chicken and egg rolls.

Fried rice.

Binh Le

5903 E 31 St.

835-7722

Open daily (except Sunday) from 11 AM to 9:30 PM

“If you want a steak as good as ours,” the manager told me, “you’d have to go to Peter Luger’s in Brooklyn.” Well I can’t vouch for the truth of that, but I can tell you the steaks at Doe’s are crazy good.