Braums forever.
Braums is nice, but their food is overpriced and they are always way too crowded. We buy all of our milk there, though, and the ice cream selection is aces. If we can manage to avoid a huge crowd of football or soccer players when we go, the missus and I like to get some soft serve and relax.
If any of youse guys live in or pass through Oklahoma, or more specifically Oklahoma City, a trip to the Cattlemen's steakhouse is in order. The food is on the expensive side, and the place is a bit of a hole in the wall, but the quality is incredible. The menu is brief - there's one page devoted to steak, and then one page with the small selection of appetizers and non-steak menu items. Two pages, that's it. They had three different appetizers - one of which, in particular, brought us to the restaraunt in the first place. Lamb fries.
Let me preface this by saying, three years ago you were hard pressed to get me to dip my chicken mcnuggets in honey mustard. Even the thought of eating something in the offal category was completely appalling to me. But living in Oklahoma, I am constantly surrounded by delicious but possibly troubling food. I've adapted.
The Lamb Fries were tasty, if a bit bland. Like all offal they had the slightest off taste to them, the kind of hint in the back of your tongue that says "I really shouldn't be eating this". Unlike most offal, that went away after two bites, and what I was left with was some breaded balls (if you'll forgive my wording) that tasted more or less like fried clams, fried catfish or popcorn chicken. Midway through our appetizer I proclaimed "This needs malt vinegar". We were in agreement, and the next time we try this delicacy we'll have to request some, and in the event that they don't have it, bring our own. Malt Vinegar has become a favorite condiment, and I have yet to find a fried savory food that isn't improved by it's addition.
We then went on to the main course, two 20 ounce t-bone steaks seasoned to perfection and cooked bloody rare, served in what were basically oversized butter dishes. The steaks were an inch thick, and the dish they were served in was filled with meat juices half-way up the steak. These t-bones were about two tics below porterhouse in terms of size and quality, with the filet portions being immense and the strip portions healthier than expected. Alongside this massive steak was served a bake potato (which lay woefully uneaten through the meal, though I am sure it was delicious) some rolls (which I partook of when we returned, after it had sopped up some delicious steak juice) and a salad with a house dressing that was more or less some kind of white cheese sauce. I am not a salad person, but it was delicious. Not a steak, but certainly worth putting in my mouth.
Overall the experience was a+. The pricetag was pretty high for a meal for two, ringing in at just under 70 dollars, but the quality of the food was so high that I felt it was a small price to pay, and the service was so good I ended up tipping the waiter nearly 20 bucks. We get two-three meals like this a year, so I don't feel too bad about spending over a hundred dollars on dinner (counting the gas it took me to drive 90 miles to OKC.)
On a side note, since the Cattlemen's steakhouse is surrounded by barrios on all sides - this is advice aimed at anyone living in the southwest/midwest - if you have never stopped and gone into a mexican restaraunt in the bad part of town where the menus are all in spanish, and you have to get direction from the cashier/waiter who understands like seven english phrases, you haven't lived. The fact that people go to taco bell when one of these places is literally next door is shocking to me. See also mexican bakeries and grocery stores. You will find that these places have a shocking level of quality for the price you pay and even with a massive language barrier it's always friendly faces and people happy to do business. Tulsa has a few really good places, like El Refugio Azteca, but for the most part these places are single businesses with few sattelites, but I garauntee if you live in a major city in the southwest or west-midwest, there's dozens of these places in your city just waiting to be found. Be adventurous, you just might find the next local legendary burrito shop.
