Stillwater, a small city in the state of Oklahoma, is known as the original home of country and western ‘red dirt music.’ Slightly less than an hour’s drive to either Tulsa or Oklahoma City, Stillwater is well positioned to help tourists see the most of Oklahoma, a state full of native American history. Due to its rich culture and heritage, the town boasts a multitude of stunning restaurants. Here’s our favorite to visit in town.
Cool as a snowflake and just as unique, Eskimo Joe’s is a fun bar in Stillwater Oklahoma. The bar is a centre for the local community. Themed dinners, live music and more provide great entertainment for guests and visitors on an almost nightly basis. Somewhat of an institution, this bar has actually been open since 1975, serving great food since day one. Dinner kicks off with a selection of starters, with options including all manner of cheese topped fries (some with bacon, peppers and more), while main dishes of pecan smoked pork or blackened chicken make for a delicious repast.
The Original Hideaway Pizza first opened in 1957, situated in a small brick building a stone’s throw from the campus of Oklahoma State University. Just a small restaurant in the early days, Hideaway’s 12 tables were easily filled by the hungry students studying nearby. The restaurant is famed for its happy-go-lucky approach, with singing waiters and occasional streakers turning this venue into Stillwater’s go to location for fun. All of the pizzas are big, even the so-called ‘small’ ones, and come with a variety of indulgent toppings. On the off chance you don’t like pizza they also have a number of pasta or sandwich options.
Deceptively named Pagoda Pizza, this restaurant is definitely not about your favourite Italian foodstuff. Rather, it serves Asian comfort food at its finest, taking inspiration from medieval Japan. Using the crepe-like okonomiyaki, a Japanese pancake, as the ‘base’, pizzas come topped with all manner of Asian specialties. The yin and yang pizza comes topped with shrimp and bacon, while the Fuji comes with extra spring onions, cheese and a fried egg. All pizzas are covered in the signature (and delicious) Godzilla sauce.
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It’s safe to say that there isn’t anything much more traditional than a kitchen built around the tenants of a previous generation, and that is one of the many qualities of Granny’s Kitchen. The menu is small, but consists entirely of the dishes that your mother’s mother used to make. Breakfast options focus mainly around eggs, with omelettes, country style burritos and eggs benedict all helping to kick start your day. Lunch options move onto include pot roasts, barbecued ribs and chicken and cheese quesadillas. There are, of course, a number of burger options available too, all of which are suitable for the meat and bun addicts out there.
Boba Fusion Café has been described as the best Chinese and Korean restaurant in the whole of Stillwater. A meeting of two cuisines, the menu draws heavily upon techniques and dishes from the Korean peninsula. Warming meaty stews, topped with kimchi (a pickled and slightly fermented cabbage side dish) will tantalise the taste buds by hitting both the sweet and sour sides of your tongue. Other dishes of wok fried noodles, grilled seafood, and marinated meat options all come together to make Boba Fusion Café an experience that is difficult to forget.
Taking inspiration from the Big Apple, Brooklyn’s Contemporary Comfort Food serves modern American indulgence fit for all the family or friends. Run by the fourth generation of the Geresi family, who first settled in Brooklyn from Italy in the early 1900’s, the restaurant features recipes and dishes steeped in family history. Chicken fried steak (a flattened steak with mashed potatoes and gravy), Sicilian style meatloaf, and chicken and ricotta waffles, are all comfort dishes, designed with feel good factor in mind. There are also a number of great upmarket dishes too.
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Bad Brad’s Bar-B-Que is a typical American smokehouse, serving up the best in barbecued meats and sides. In the USA, barbecue is serious business, and each state likes to do things their own way (as do most barbecue restaurants). A small family run operation, Bad Brad’s has two sites in Oklahoma, one in Yukon and one in Stillwater. The Stillwater establishment offers starters of breaded fried cheese sticks, onion-breaded green beans and cheesy fries. Main meals are not for the faint hearted, huge piles of slow cooked pork, chicken, beef and ribs can be combined with any number of sides. The saddle buster, an enormous plate of all three, is a challenge for only the bravest of diners.
As the name might suggest, The Ranchers Club in Stillwater is big on beef and especially steaks. Incorporating elegance with an overall appreciation for the simple things in life, The Ranchers Club is decorated unpretentiously. Furnished with simple ‘cowboy comforts’, guests can expect to find antler decorations, wooden stools and leather upholstery throughout the restaurant. The Ranchers Club also exhibits a number of oil paintings, each depicting an individual interpretation of life on the ranch. There is a wide selection of steaks available, from filet to T-bone, with an equally impressive selection of sides. If you fancy a surf and turf, simply add a lobster tail to your steak plate.
Zannotti’s Wine Bar, nestled in downtown Stillwater, is a little gem of a Tuscan restaurant. A hit with wine lovers, Zannotti’s specialises in serving a great number of imported European wines, leaning naturally towards housing a selection of Italian bottles and vintages. The restaurant is well known for its live music and its tasting table, which is a dining table where bigger groups can enjoy a guided experience through the more refined elements of Italian cuisine. Dishes make the very best of Tuscan inspired ingredients, focussing on fresh meat and vegetables, as well as a variety of pasta options.
A quintessential Japanese restaurant, Tokyo Pot is decorated as if it is straight out of the land of the rising sun itself. As diners might expect, dishes are centred around delicate and clever flavour fusions, which when combined land a tasty and powerful punch on the tongue. As well as popular sushi rolls, Tokyo pot also features a great number of noodle and rice dishes, which is useful when catering for people who can’t quite get to grips with the concept of raw fish. With an authentic take on Japanese food, this really isn’t one to miss.
