Oklahoma City Restaurants

The Red Onion Mexican Restaurant is located at 5936 NW 23rd St. in Oklahoma City (map). They are open every day for lunch and dinner. Call them at 405.495.1817.

Editor’s Note: We’ve had a bit of a fajita challenge going on here lately. Casa Perico and Poblano Grill have both been written up as leading the fajita landscape of OKC. Now Levi brings us a new contender, The Red Onion. What do you think? Who has the best fajitas in OKC? Leave us a comment and let us know.

Sometimes you just want pie. You know how it is…you get a craving for a good piece of pie, then you remember nobody serves fresh-made, flaky-crusted, still warm from the oven pies. Unfortunately, I haven’t found a place for great pie yet (if you know of one let me know), but I have found the best place in Oklahoma City to satisfy your fajita craving.

The Red Onion is a classic mom-and-pop Mexican restaurant. It’s located in a quaint, bright yellow building (that was probably a fast food “restaurant” once upon a glorious time) on the south side of 23rd street. You would miss it if you were not looking for it.

As you go in, it is ambiguous as to whether you should seat yourself or wait to be seated, though most regulars just come in and pick their favorite spot. You never have to wait for a table, but I hope to change that, because everyone needs to hear about the fajitas. It has that old, fast-food-place-converted-to-a-Mexican-restaurant smell, but no worries, because you will be glad you came.

You know how it usually goes. You order fajitas at “Mili’s” or “Ed’s Tescondido“, and one day you get hot, sizzling, loud, angry, juicy, tender slices of meat with slightly softened, bold onions and peppers. These are the kind of fajitas that everyone watches on their travels to your table. But then the next week you go, you don’t even hear the fajitas coming! The onions are limp on the plate, the meat is tough and dry, and the only sound we hear are customers groaning in disappointment.

Not so at Red Onion, where every time I have ordered fajitas over the last two years, I have consistently gotten the juiciest, tenderest, most flavorfulest beef and chicken anyone could ask for. And at $12.99, you can share them with your spouse (or dog…not that I do).

If you aren’t too into going to a restaurant for just one item, I would rethink it in this case. Sure they have other food that is delicious, standard Mexican fare, but you don’t need any of that. Get the fajitas, else you won’t be able to hear the sound of your stomach grumbling over the sizzle and scream of skillets in the air.

Go say hello to Jesús Cortés and his friends at Oklahoma City’s premier fajita house, The Red Onion. And yes, the fajitas come with … red onions … mmm …

Other articles you might like:

• Poblano Grill vs. Casa Perico: an Okla-mex challenge
• Casa Perico is a great Okla-mex pick.
• Alvarado’s Mexican Restaurant has higher quality and higher prices
• The great OKC onion burger tour, part one: Johnnie’s Grill
• Chica’s Mexican Cafe: they serve fresh fruit (and other surprises)

This article was posted by Levi Duggan on Friday, November 30th, 2007. It is filed in Mexican, Northwest OKC. Please leave your comments below (we'd love to hear from you), or trackback from your own site.

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