Tony always makes breakfast on Sunday mornings for me & Joni before I leave Dallas. I'm not sure if he does it all the time, but he does it when I'm there, so that is the most important. Breakfast tides me over until I get to OKC, and then I'm ready for lunch. I looked on restaurant.com, but didn't find anything that I really wanted. So then I went to Keep It Local OK. It's a website that features discounts and promotions for local businesses throughout the greater OKC area and Tulsa. The card costs $10 per year, but you can easily make your money back in a couple of months. And it's completely worth it, to frequent local places.
After some searching, I decided to try out West Restaurant. It's on Western Avenue, in a trendy part of OKC with lots of shops and restaurants. But there was a catch...I didn't have the Keep it Local card...and West doesn't sell them. So I stopped at one place that advertised they do, but they don't. So I went to another place in Classen Curve, and found one. At that point I was kind of annoyed, and about to just eat at a place there. But I decided to forge on and head over to West. Besides, it was only a few minutes away.
As I pulled into the parking lot, I felt completely underdressed. People were obviously coming from church, or they dress up all the time. And I was in shorts and a tee shirt--but I had just driven 3 hours. And then I saw a Lamborghini. But once again, I forged on.
The restaurant is a pretty good size. There's a full bar and a few booths immediately behind the host stand. There's a main dining room, private dining room, and also a wine room featuring a wall of wine. The color scheme is dark, but there's windows all along one wall, so it lets in a lot of natural light. There's also a great outdoor patio that wraps around 2 sides of the restaurant.
It's funny because my server thought she recognized me as a patron who hadn't been there in a while. Turns out, she used to work at Louie's in Stillwater. Small world.
I started with the warm West chips, and added bacon
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| Homemade chips, topped with bleu cheese and drizzled with balsamic vinegar |
These were awesome. The plate was super hot, so I'm guessing they put the plate of chips under the broiler or something to slightly melt the cheese. The chips were thick cut and crispy, and the blue cheese was, well, blue cheese. So I was happy. The cheese and vinegar are an excellent combination. I love balsamic vinegar, but they definitely went a little heavy on this plate. The bacon was okay, but I don't know that it really added a lot to the dish. And it was an extra $2. So next time I would leave it off. I tried to be good, but the chips kept tempting me. After a little while I pushed the plate away so I wouldn't eat any more. It's definitely way too much for one person. It's a great appetizer for 2-3.
I decided to go healthy for my entree, with the zucchini pasta. I thought about adding chicken, but the server said it was a pretty good sized portion without it, so I skipped it
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| pomodoro sauce with roasted garlic, spinach, mozzarella, Parmesan |
This dish was outstanding. And honestly, you really don't even know you're not eating regular pasta. The pomodoro sauce was very flavorful and light. It would have been really good dipped in warm bread. I didn't do a good enough job of mixing the mozzarella and parmesan into the the pasta, so towards the end it had kind of clumped up. But that was my own fault. I just took it off and ate the remaining pasta.
Will I go back? No question. The food was delicious, and the service was excellent. And the patio seems like a great place for happy hour or a long lunch. Next time I just have to dress the part.
