Photos by Rachel Langley Maucieri, Sara Stewart, Jeff Fierberg & provided
When I first visited Oklahoma City in 2017, I remember a distinct sense of awe as my brother’s in-laws took us to The Jones Assembly for an after-dinner Irish coffee. The digestif was great, but the atmosphere was on a scale I hadn’t even seen in my home city of Chicago. Elsewhere, I was similarly dazzled by the scene (and the caramelized plantains) at Cafe Kacao, the finger-licking fried chicken at Eischen’s and the views from Vast. I was at once mesmerized and perplexed at how an American city like this could exist — so robust and metropolitan, yet so humbly under-the-radar. Clearly, that first trip proved formative, as I’m now the one taking out-of-towners to all of these seminal spots that make Oklahoma City’s food scene so indelible. A couple years ago, a friend from Milwaukee visited for the first time, and immediately upon entering The Jones Assembly, she turned to me and said, “I can see why you moved here.” She has since returned to OKC on an annual basis.
I wrote about food in Chicago for 13 years prior to moving here in 2020, and while the third biggest city in the country certainly has no shortage of unique dining experiences, the same is true of our fast-growing community. Over my years here, I find myself re-experiencing that same sense of initial awe, be it a brand-new restaurant or an enduring cornerstone that only gets better with age. If you’re in search of that same feeling, check out these unique dining experiences in and around Oklahoma City.
High Tea
For a bit of potable pomp and circumstance, OKC restaurants are going big for high tea. As at The National, which offers rotating afternoon teas on weekends in the soaring Great Hall, with enchanting themes like “Alice in Wonderland” and “Bridgerton.” Reservations are required, and tickets start at $50/adult and $25/child, inclusive of tiered trays with finger sandwiches, twee desserts and a choice of tea and sparkling wine. For afternoon tea in a Victorian mansion, Bradford House offers tea service once a month (or for parties by request), featuring varieties from around the world, finger sandwiches, freshly baked scones and dainty desserts. It’s $50 for adults and $30 for children, with optional Champagne supplements. The newcomer is Chef Andrew Black’s Perle Mesta, whose pretty-in-pink motif lends itself perfectly to a pinky-raising high tea, available Monday-Saturday from 1-5 p.m. The restaurant offers four different tiered experiences, with the lowest being a choice of two teas and a selection of sweet and savory bites for $65 per person, and the highest including a choice of teas and wine with sweet and savory bites for $75.
Transportive Dining Experiences
Like Cafe Kacao, a Latin American brunch restaurant specializing in Guatemalan recipes, OKC teems with similarly transportive dining experiences. Take Naija Wife, a West African counter in a subterranean downtown food court, where richly redolent soups — like egusi, made from melon seeds — share a menu with jollof rife, yam porridge and fried turkey smothered in pepper stew. Mediterranean Imports is a market-deli hybrid, stocked with everything from falafel sandwiches and Greek wines to spices aplenty, that reminded me of my trip to Tel Aviv a few years back. Ma Der Lao Kitchen serves the best Southeast Asian food I’ve had outside Thailand, and while I’ve yet to make it to Tokyo, Awaji Izakaya feels like the next best thing — a pitch-perfect Japanese pub awash in Japanese lanterns, Japanese highballs and the most authentic sushi in town. And in a city filled with steakhouses, Jamil’s sets itself apart with its homey confines and Lebanese menu. Suffice to say that this is the only steakhouse where your filet is preceded by smoked bologna and tabouli.
Mediteranean Imports
Cafe Kacao
Tasting Menus
Fine dining has taken off in OKC of late, as evidenced by Chef Black becoming the first Oklahoma chef to take home a James Beard Award in 2023, for his work at Grey Sweater. And after Bon Appétit heralded Nonesuch as America’s Best New Restaurant in 2018, the Midtown marvel has only continued to evolve. Under new ownership from James Beard Award-winning restaurateur Kelly Whitaker, the restaurant elevates the Southern meat-and-three premise with both a la carte and prix fixe options, menu items changing daily, robata cooking and large-format items, like chicken-fried steak for the table. Within The Crown, chef Eric Smith flexes his creative muscles at The Crown Room, a veritable choose-your-own-adventure-style tasting menu experience, while Paseo icon Picasso Cafe popularly offers multi-course themed vegetarian dinners each month, with dishes like “seafood” martinis and spaghetti fra diavolo with roasted jackfruit.
Nonesuch
The Crown Room and Grey Sweater
Old-School Institutions
Flashy new spots bring plenty of razzle-dazzle, but enduring institutions channel the Oklahoman essence in their own unique ways. Such as Cattlemen’s Steakhouse, the oldest continuously operating restaurant in the state, a Stockyards City staple known for its steaks, its cowboy decor and its lamb fries (which is a nice way of saying “lamb testicles”). In Okarche, Eischen’s is a bar so old that it pre-dates statehood, and while it still feels like a taxidermy-clad saloon, its claim to fame is its golden-brown fried chicken, utilizing the same secret blend of spices of herbs since the ’60s. For a late-night fix, Bobo’s Chicken is a food truck that commands long lines for its deep-fried comfort food, only available weekend nights until 2 a.m. And in another genre of old-school, Junior’s is a swanky supper club preserved in time, serving up Americana like shrimp cocktail, filet mignon and brandy ice since 1973, from the lower level of the Oil Center Building.
