We cooked many meals at home in our RV, but our schedules didn’t always allow home-cooked meals every day. Steve and I spent three months here, and three months of great restaurants in Oklahoma City. So what restaurants did we enjoy the most during that time?
This is not a complete list of every restaurant where we had a meal, we really did eat out a lot. I include only the restaurants we truly enjoyed a great experience at, some of which we went to more than once. We did have many satisfying fast-food restaurant meals, but the restaurants listed here are our favorites.
The Metro Diner
We were first introduced to The Metro Diner when visiting friends in Virginia. There are several locations throughout the country and one just happened to be right down the street from where our RV was parked. This restaurant has good comfort food, meatloaf, roast beef, chicken, and home-cooked food.
We enjoyed a good Thanksgiving Day dinner here, turkey and dressing with all the trimmings, including bread pudding.
Abuelo’s Mexican Restaurant
Abuelo’s is a chain restaurant with locations in nine states. As a matter of fact, an Abuelo’s restaurant is not far from our home. These restaurants are beautifully decorated and have the look of a courtyard in Mexico.
The restaurant located in Oklahoma City does not have the expected typical menu. It serves excellent meals, several unusual salsas, a delicious bar menu, and reasonable prices. Abuelo’s staff was welcoming and made us feel at home each time we visited for dinner.
Bedlam Bar-B-Que
Bedlam BAR-B-Q serves great barbeque in a fun and happy atmosphere using old family recipes. The restaurant’s centerpiece indoors is a baby grand piano with a round glass top surrounded by barstools!
Bedlam’s name came about years ago as the word used to describe the wild crowds attending OU and OSU wrestling matches. Later it came to represent all OSU and OU games, primarily their football rivalry.
Oklahoma’s Indian heritage is on display here, including memorabilia from the days of the real cowboys and Indians.
A marvelous outdoor patio and entertainment stage are out back of the restaurant, through the back door. We had delicious barbeque meals here and added this to our favorite places in Oklahoma City.
Tucker’s Onion Burgers
Well, this is where I had the very best fried chicken sandwich I have ever had in my entire life – called the Tucker’s Clucker! Seriously, the best sandwich ever.
A burger topped with fried onions sounded delicious, but I chose the chicken instead. Great choice, as were all the burgers the rest of the gang ordered. I don’t believe you can go wrong with anything you order here at this stand-in line, order at the window shop.
Burgers and shakes are made here the old-fashioned way. Add fried onions for a fantastic taste treat, yes, even on the chicken sandwich. This is a small chain restaurant with four sites in town.
Ted’s Café Escondido
We stopped in at Ted’s more than once. Ted’s serves terrific Mexican food in a family-welcoming atmosphere. Our first visit was at the original Ted’s in North Oklahoma City. My sister Marsha and her friends have been going to this restaurant for years.
Marsha told us to look for Amelia, who usually took care of their table. I began to ask our waitress if she knew my sister, but she asked if I was Marsha’s sister first! What a coincidence. She says we look just alike. We had an amazing experience here visiting Amelia.
Neighborhood JA.M.
If you need an excellent sit-down breakfast restaurant, this is the place to go. It’s a great neighborhood breakfast spot with five locations throughout town. Breakfast JA.M. is only open from 6:30 am to 2:30 pm, just breakfast, and brunch.
It was a bustling place when my sister and I stopped here one weekend morning, and we did have a brief wait, as you might expect at a great eatery on a weekend morning.
Pie Junkie
The Pie Junkie is located in the Plaza District of Oklahoma City, home to excellent restaurants, retail shops, and many other neighborhood businesses. Block parties and festivals are held here regularly. If you are not a participant in the festivities, it is a magical people-watching adventure.
The Pie Junkie is one of those fantastic one-of-a-kind shops you can’t help falling in love with. They sell homemade pies, pie slices, and whole pies! Pie Junkie is a takeaway store, but tables are located outside where you can sit and enjoy your piece of pie immediately if you choose.
There are many pies to choose from, and from the extensive sample I have had, I can report that they are all delicious. They sell over 100,000 slices of pie each year!
The Mule
The Mule, just across the street from the Pie Junkie, is a small soup and sandwich kind of place. We enjoyed the most amazing BLTs and soup here. The weather was warm enough for us to sit outside on the patio in the sunshine.
However, the highlight of our sisters’ lunch was discovering The Mule could make the Negronis we’d been searching for to drink a toast to our brother. This is a great place, and we have beautiful memories from here.
Brent’s Cajun Seafood and Oyster Bar
We just happened onto Brent’s Cajun Seafood and Oyster Bar one afternoon when we were driving around at mealtime. This was another great choice. Authentic Cajun food is served here in a fun atmosphere.
Steve and I shared a roast beef po-boy, full of roast beef, and both of us had more than enough to eat. The young lady that served our food was hysterically funny and entertaining.
Cattlemen’s Steakhouse
Cattlemen’s Restaurant is THE place to go for a good steak in Oklahoma City. It is located in the heart of The Stockyards area and has been serving steaks since 1910, and is described as Oklahoma’s oldest continually operated restaurant.
This restaurant has many colorful stories associated with it, one being the restaurant was won in a dice game! Throughout the years, Cattlemen’s has served great meals to many famous people, evidenced by the drawings that cover the walls.
Cattlemen’s was won in a dice game in 1945 in which the owner Hank Frey wagered his restaurant if Gene Wade could win a roll two threes, a hard six. Just like that, Hank Frey owned a restaurant.
George’s Happy Hog Bar-B-Q LLC
We arrived at this barbeque place just at 11 am when the door was just being opened for the day, stood in line, placed our orders, sat down, and just like that – the line of guests waiting to place orders was all the way to the door. That is an excellent commendation for this barbeque, I think.
There is not much else to say about George’s; they have simply great barbeque.
Eichen’s
Eichen’s is a bit of a drive outside of Oklahoma City, about forty miles outside of town. The restaurant was established in 1896 and is the oldest Bar in Oklahoma. They have a full-service bar and serve great craft beer, but I believe Eichen’s serves the best-fried chicken ever.
Eichen’s has a limited menu that includes: whole fried chicken, roast beef sandwiches, barbeque sandwiches, homemade chili, Frito pie, and cheese or chili cheese nachos and fried okra – that’s it. A bar that serves fried chicken!
The fried chicken and okra we ordered were served in open cardboard containers. We were given parchment papers to eat off of with our plastic utensils and complimentary Eichen’s cups. Delicious fried chicken.
Eichen’s suffered a massive fire in 1993 but rebuilt and reopened later that year. A portion of a hand-carved bar from Spain was recovered from the fire and displayed with other items salvaged from the fire.
Eichen’s is a day trip, do not miss the fried chicken extravaganza!
These restaurants are listed here in no order, just as their memories hit me. Each one was a fun, memorable experience we had during our extended stay in lovely Oklahoma City. Not only does Oklahoma City have great museums, but it also has great restaurants – many of which we have not yet even visited.
We had good times here, including the one night we left our RV in favor of a hotel room to not have to endure the 50+ mile per hour winds forecast for that night. I think we would have managed okay in the RV, but Lilly and Tank do not like noisy weather of any kind.
Adventures everywhere we go, even if it is high wind or a great meal at a new restaurant we’ve never been to before.
Thank you for sharing such valuable information. We at Kirby’s Steakhouse is thebest restaurant for business dinner OKCthat welcomes guests with food fit for a legend.
You are welcome. We look forward to visiting your restaurant also, next time we are in the area. The menu looks fabulous.