Restaurants in Tulsa

Camille Rutkauskas and her husband, David, glanced at the Tulsa mall's food court and its predictable litany of fast-food options. That's when an idea struck—why not open a place that's the antithesis of all of this? With that, the couple opened Camille's Sidewalk Café, a place focused on fresh coastal- and Mediterranean-inspired food, fresh baked goods, and fruit smoothies. With a menu highlighted by made-to-order wraps and paninis with ingredients such as brie, herb-garlic tortillas, and pesto mayo, the couple's vision propelled Camille's Sidewalk Café to a franchise with locations in nearly 30 states, as well as Puerto Rico, the Middle East, and the Banana Republic.

Behind the counter at Top That! Pizza, a colorful collection of more than 30 toppings, 10 cheeses, and 8 sauces await each pizza-lover’s creativity. They first pick from three crusts, including honey wheat, then choose sauces such as Thai peanut and basil pesto to adorn their personal-sized pies. Lastly, they select from locally sourced toppings such as marinated ribeye, Polish sausage, and applewood bacon, as well as regional cheeses including asiago and gorgonzola, before their creation is baked to a golden crisp in just three minutes. Customers can then sit down to enjoy their customized pie at the restaurant, or take it home. It’s the concept of combining choice, quality, and speed come to fruition that Top That’s creators envisioned years ago. Today, locations stretch across Oklahoma, Texas, and Colorado, and menus make room for baked dishes such as chicken alfredo and meatball marinara.

Baking is a science that requires exact measurements and timing. Perhaps that is why Emeline Bauder, a former environmental chemist, always knew she would return to the kitchen. At Nibbles Cafe, she now combines that precision with an armory of fresh ingredients to forge sweet pastries. Still warm from the oven, scones made with real milk and eggs drop next to teacups, whose delicate shape and bright hues bring to mind a tulip blossom. The bread that encases the café’s sandwiches bakes fragrantly in house, and eyes wander to impressive ranks of cakes. From delicate swirls of batter and frosting, Emeline has drawn forth a reproduction of an Italian castle, a groom’s treasured Jeep, and other elaborate sculptures.

High tea is served on gilt china in the midst of red velvet couches that capture the sensation of lounging in a Victorian salon or sitting on a stuffed trophy fire truck. A gleefully mismatched crew of chairs encircle wrought-iron bistro tables, and the light from the crimson chandelier brings to life the colors of cut flowers and the goldenrod walls.

Hearty recipes perfected at CheeZies Pizza's Tulsa headquarters bake into golden crusts across more than 15 locations in Texas, Kansas, Missouri, and throughout its home state. A simple menu of signature dishes fills plates with hot and barbecued wings, jumbo calzones glistening with garlic butter, and breadsticks dappled with savory cheese or sweet sprinkles of cinnamon. Spangles of meat and vegetables emulate the flavors of savory tacos and tropical treats atop specialty pizzas, and customizable pies arrange patron-chosen ingredients to satisfy every palate and pepperoni feng shui principle.

Sheets of sunlight skate over an idyllic garden into the low-lit dining room of Warren Duck Club, the upscale-restaurant-in-residence at the DoubleTree Hotel Tulsa at Warren Place. Savory scents traipse across dark, wood-paneled walls, sating the olfactory senses of diners perusing breakfast, lunch, and dinner menus. Sumptuous salmon filets swim in fragrant lochs of basil butter sauce beside blackened beef tenderloin hand rubbed in executive chef Tony Perez's secret blackening spices and drenched with a decadent béarnaise, typifying the high-end cuisine's commitment to creative flavor combinations that don't involve soda and Pop Rocks.

Rather than masking the natural tastes of their fresh, never frozen, meats, the cooks at Elmer’s BBQ strive to enhance them with rubs of carefully blended, complementary spices. Flavors meld in the smoker, where ribs, sausages, and soon-to-be-pulled pork slowly tenderize over hot hickory. As diners lick the sauce from their fingers after a hearty meal with home-style sides, they can admire the music memorabilia jazzing up the walls or use their toes to play their own tunes on the restaurant's piano.