Oklahoma City Restaurants

Buddha Tao is located near Quail Springs Mall at 2737 W. Memorial Road in Oklahoma City (map). They have a fantastic website with all of the information you need, including their full menu at buddhatao.com.

Buddha Tao does a lot of things very well, but prices itself at the level where they really need to do everything extremely well. So, while Buddha Tao absolutely brings a unique and quality offering to the Oklahoma City restaurant landscape, we’re a little unsure on whether that offering is worth the price tag.

First off, let me explain that this review represents more than just my own perspective. All of our four regular writers dined together here and each offered their own thoughts which I am incorporating into this review. In addition, one of our readers, Chris Johnson, submitted his own full review of Buddha Tao, and I am working in some of his perspective as well. So, you are getting a wide range of opinions in this article. Now, let’s get to it.

Buddha Tao is very slick. Everything from the website to the building’s exterior and interior are polished to the level that I thought it had to be a chain the first time I saw it. But, rest assured, it is not a chain. Buddha Tao is related by ownership group to In the Raw Sushi in Tulsa, but there are no other Buddha Tao locations, at least at the time of this writing. Incidentally, Buddha’s owner, Tony Henry, told me that while he does co-own the Tulsa In the Raw, he is not a part of the group opening the new location in Bricktown.

Buddha Tao is also pricey. As Greg puts it, “Buddha Tao is the kind of sushi restaurant I would love if I was rich. The decor is simple, but cool. The menu is chock-full of great items. Too bad I’m not rich, though, because I couldn’t afford to eat there on any kind of regular basis.” Putting together a complete meal at Buddha Tao, even at lunch, is going to cost you $15-$25 per person easily, and much more if you really want to try out the sushi.

This fact, and just the general feel of the place, lead me to believe it might be more of a dinner and late night kind of place than a lunch place. The four of us went at lunch and the restaurant was nearly empty. Makes sense to me as I thought the menu offered little for the lunch crowd. The pricing is high for lunch and the service was slower than what you need to fit a lunch hour. We haven’t been at night, but I can imagine dinner is more of Buddha’s thing.

Ok, so let’s talk about the food. There is good food here. There’s interesting food to be tried. Like the Robata Grill, a unique technique of charcoaling that packs a great flavor. Sarah ordered the beef tenderloin and pineapple Robata ($11) and gave us her perspective, saying “this was probably some of the best steak I have ever tasted. It was beyond fork tender and practically falling off the kabob. The lunch portion was small, with four bites each of steak and pineapple. The guys were thinking they would have liked more meat, but for me, it was perfect.”

I have to confirm what Sarah has shared about portions. If you’ve read much of my writing you know I’m no fan of large portions, but this was decidedly too small. For $11 you get the single scewer. Rice is $3-$4 extra. Plus, you’re probably going to need something additional to really get a full meal, so you can see how the bill starts to add up.

Buddha Tao also offers some excellent sushi. We all had fun trying the Lucifer’s Folly roll ($10.50). Heed the warning offered by the menu, as this is one seriously spicy roll. Greg explains, “Stuffed with Chinese mustard and jalapeno, rolled in 7-spice and laying in wasabi aoili, it will clear out your sinuses in a burst of pain. But, unlike biting directly into an habanero pepper, the searing heat will be gone in a matter of seconds. What does it taste like? I couldn’t tell you. I was too busy trying not to rip my nose off my face.”

Greg describes our take on the rest of the sushi as follows:

“The most popular roll at the table was the very expensive lobster roll. At $23.50, it is an extravagance, but a tasty one. Plus, there’s an entire tail’s worth of lobster sitting on top of the thing, so at least you know where the money’s going. The Big Buddha roll ($14) was also a treat for the eyes. Beautifully crafted, the roll looked like one solid piece until you started pulling bites away. With a crab cake center and seared tuna on top, it was probably the easiest to eat (and look at) roll we had.

The vegan roll ($5) didn’t excite me, but that’s probably because its flavor was subdued next to the lobster, crab cake and other-wordly pain of the other rolls.

One glaring omission was a sashimi platter. There are sashimi selections ranging from $11-$14, but they are for one kind of seafood each. As much as I like my raw fish, I also like a little variety and I fear that paying $25+ for two kinds of fish might be a bit much.”

The menu also offers a lot of other options. Andrew had the Kobe beef burger ($11) and loved the fact that they prepared it perfectly to medium rare, as requested. As he says, “Most places cook to at least medium when you ask for this, but Buddha Tao didn’t shy away from it. It had a spicy mayo on it that really brought out the mild flavor of the Kobe beef. I thought it was fantastic.”

I was the only one who was dissatisfied with my order. I tried the noodle bowl, which I thought looked terrific on the menu. You can order it with your choice of meat and I chose Filet Mignon ($15). Unfortunately, the meat was not nearly as tender as what Sarah experienced. In fact, it was very, very tough. Plus, I just didn’t like the noodle bowl. The broth was very dark and overpowering and, I guess, I wasn’t expecting it to be so much like a soup as the menu described it as “tossed in a tangy-savory katsu sauce.”

On the other hand, our reader, Chris Johnson, really enjoyed the noodle bowl. He comments, “A mixture of vegetables accompanied a proportionate serving of chicken — and we all loved this dish. The flavors really shined through and it was the favorite entree of the evening.” So, this one is obviously a matter of taste, though I would avoid the steak when ordering this as it seems the chicken comes out better.

So, is Buddha Tao worth a try? Well, on the one hand, it’s definitely unique and there is definitely some good food here. On the other hand, it all comes down to value — is it worth the higher price tag? Personally, I’m glad I tried it, but I doubt I’ll be going back. But that’s just me, and I think the question of value is something that each person has to answer for themselves.

If you do go, I recommend going at night instead of at lunch (with the exception of a few lunch only items, the menu appears to be very similar between lunch and dinner), trying the Robata grill and some of the very special sushi rolls, and planning for the higher-end cost. Do that and you’ll likely have a great experience, then you can decide whether to make it a regular stop.

Have you been to Buddha Tao already? Let us know what you think in the comments.

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This article was posted by Tim Wall on Tuesday, November 4th, 2008. It is filed in Chinese, Northwest OKC, Sushi, Upscale Grill. Please leave your comments below (we'd love to hear from you), or trackback from your own site.

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