About 2 years ago my mom found a Groupon for $400 of restaurant.com gift certificates for just $40. She sent it to me, since I go out to eat more than she and my dad do, and for my food blog. I went to a couple of places, but then honestly completely forgot about it. So about a week ago I told her if she found another similar deal to let me know. Lo and behold, she found $200 of certificates for $20. I got the "gift" email and went online to redeem it. Imagine my surprise when I realized that I still have $355 from the original deal. Plus 2 certificates totaling $15 that I had bought but never used. Great thing about it, you can exchange unused certificates, so now I have $570 in restaurant certificates to use. Thank goodness they never expire. But now, I really need to pay more attention to the deals, and make a concerted effort to use these whenever I travel.
I know it's shocking, but there's not many places in Stillwater that are part of the program. Actually there's only 2. There's a couple more options in Perkins, which honestly did surprise me since it's smaller than Stillwater. I came across Cafe 33 in Perkins. I had never heard of it, but the food sounded good. So Mary and I decided to check it out. Perkins is about a 15 minute drive from campus. Downtown Perkins is a left turn off of Perkins Road, so we were surprised to turn right. And neither of us had ever seen any restaurants in that direction, at least not before you hit Guthrie.
Cafe 33 is in the same building as Perkins' Livestock. The livestock barn is to the right, and the restaurant is to the left. You can't hide from the barn smells in the hallway, but the food smells take over as soon as you walk through the door to the restaurant. The inside reminds me of a combination school cafeteria/diner/western restaurant. We knew we looked out of place when we drove up, but it was fully confirmed when we opened the door to the restaurant and everyone stopped and looked at us. It was full of construction guys and ranchers. You seat yourself, and we took a table along one wall. There's about 25 tables, including one family sided table with a Lazy Susan. They've got a small station on the other wall for their daily lunch buffet. There's also a small bar area where you can sit up there and eat. The decor is very western.
Both of the waitresses were very friendly, and ours was quite excited when we told her this was our first trip, and we came because we found out about it on restaurant.com. Mary asked me if they would even accept the coupon. They chose to be a part of the program, so I really don't think they have a choice, as long as you abide by the policies stated on the certificate. Mary and I had both looked at the menu before we left the office. It's a large menu, with lots of options and very good prices. They are only open for breakfast and lunch, and you can get breakfast all day. But I still hadn't fully decided on a meal, so we started with the fritters.
These were really good! I have to admit, not quite as good as the ones Andy's mom makes, but still delicious. I really like that they were made with cornmeal. Lots of flavor.
For lunch, I had the blue cheese & bacon burger, and Mary had the grilled chicken wrap. We also got Texas toothpicks and okra. Before you think we're nuts for ordering so much food, we didn't have a choice. The certificate required us to spend $20 to get half off.
My burger was awesome. The beef was so fresh and had tons of flavor. The blue cheese was just okay. My favorite is when it's mostly chunks, and this one was runny. But I love blue cheese so I still ate it. I was very surprised because the burger wasn't that big, but with all the food we had that's a good thing. Mary and I joked that they had probably killed the cow when I ordered it.
I tasted Mary's wrap. It was good, but the chicken was shredded, so all the textures in the wrap were almost the same. As Mary said, "it only had one note". I agreed. Diced chicken would have been better. But the flavor was very good, and tasted like they had smoked it.
I have to admit I was a little disappointed because the fries and Texas toothpicks (fried strips of jalapeno and onion) were just warm, not scalding hot like I like them. But they were still good.
My burger was awesome. The beef was so fresh and had tons of flavor. The blue cheese was just okay. My favorite is when it's mostly chunks, and this one was runny. But I love blue cheese so I still ate it. I was very surprised because the burger wasn't that big, but with all the food we had that's a good thing. Mary and I joked that they had probably killed the cow when I ordered it.
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| With Parmesan cheese, Caesar dressing and lettuce |
I have to admit I was a little disappointed because the fries and Texas toothpicks (fried strips of jalapeno and onion) were just warm, not scalding hot like I like them. But they were still good.
I'm usually not a fan of fried okra, but I really liked these. I think I liked them better because they were thick cut, so still had some bite to them. And the coating was really good.
As we walked up to the counter to pay, we noticed the gargantuan homemade cinnamon rolls.
As we walked up to the counter to pay, we noticed the gargantuan homemade cinnamon rolls.
The waitresses talked about how good they were, but we were so full at that point it was all we could do to waddle out to the car. We smartly decided against it, but figured we could come back for breakfast at some point.
Will I go back? No question. The food was delicious, and the service was prompt. She did forget our drinks, but once we reminded her they came out fast. It was also great people watching when a real legit cowboy came in, with chaps, a scarf, cowboy hat, and a mustache. And as we were leaving, they were having a cow auction. I was tempted to go back there and look, but it was cold and rainy. Next time.
Will I go back? No question. The food was delicious, and the service was prompt. She did forget our drinks, but once we reminded her they came out fast. It was also great people watching when a real legit cowboy came in, with chaps, a scarf, cowboy hat, and a mustache. And as we were leaving, they were having a cow auction. I was tempted to go back there and look, but it was cold and rainy. Next time.
