Oklahoma City Restaurants

The Red Moon Cafe and Bakery is located at 13425 N. MacArthur Blvd (map) in
Oklahoma City. They can be reached at (405) 728-5511. Hours are something like the following**: Sun 9-5, Mon-Wed 8-7, and Thur-Sat 8-9.

PLEASE NOTE: We have learned that the Red Moon Cafe is closing or may already be closed.

Whenever I hear of a new, locally-owned restaurant opening in the Oklahoma City area, I really try hard to like everything about it. I want really badly for it to succeed, and therefore I tend to overlook a lot of things and give it many chances before I write it off. But unfortunately, even after giving it many, many chances, I’ve got to say that Red Moon just isn’t quite up to par. On the other hand, my husband is a huge fan of the place, so obviously not everyone agrees with me.

Here’s the thing … the food is good. I’m not saying that you can’t get a decent meal here. The menu contains a nice variety of “cafe-type” foods for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and breakfast is served all day. It always tastes good and it is always hot. I like just about everything I’ve tried including soups, salads, omelets, sandwiches and daily specials (though my experience with the desserts has not been as great — more on that below).

“So, what’s the problem?” you ask. Well, two things. First, the owners have tried something new by setting up their restaurant in the lobby of the Legacy Bank building. I can’t decide if this is “a go” or not, as I still feel as if I’m eating in the lobby of a bank. It needs just a touch of something, but I’m not sure what.

Second, and most importantly, my main complaint is with the service. At best, I would describe it as inconsistent. At worst, it can be downright frustrating. It’s never crowded when we’re in there, but for some reason, it takes a really long time for our food to arrive. And it seems the less crowded, the longer it takes. And it’s an order at the counter then seat yourself place, so I never can tell where the bottleneck is coming from.

Of course, there were also what I refer to as our two “mustard incidents.” I’ve known my husband for 25 years, and he has never, ever eaten anything remotely resembling mustard. In fact, he can’t stand the sight or smell of it. So of course, the first time he ordered a hamburger here and asks for the mustard to be held, our server brought his burger teeming with mustard. He very politely explained to her that he asked for the mustard to be held, and she grabbed the plate, huffed off, and in a minute returned, sliding his new burger across the table without so much as another word. I wrote it off as opening-day jitters.

But then, a couple of months later, he ordered a chicken sandwich without the mustard. Someone from behind the counter brought it out, again full of mustard. My husband sent it back with the person, and a few seconds later, the server from incident number one appeared at our table with the replacement sandwich and proceeded to pick a big argument with him, accusing him of ordering mustard. I couldn’t believe my ears. It was so ridiculous that even the other customers were looking our way. If I had my wishes, it would have been the last time we went. But since my husband loves the place so much, we continue on.

Since then, the rule of the day has been wrong orders. If I order the vegetable soup, I get the black bean. If I order the Caesar salad, I get the house, etc. Recently, at least, they have been nice enough to try and make things right (without scolding us), but I wonder how hard this stuff can be when there is only one other table with customers.

So, the service is poor but the food is good. As I mentioned above, just be careful with the desserts, because they are not always fresh. They are displayed on a turning wheel right beside the cash register, making them very tempting because they look so good. However, last time we were there, my husband ordered a huge cupcake that was very dry. He took it back to the counter, and, to their credit, they did promptly exchange it for something else.

Finally, I will give them credit for serving appropriate portions. It’s always refreshing to find a place that sizes their meals according to what we all should be eating, rather than the gargantuan-sized, chain-restaurant meals that take up an entire table.

In conclusion, if the Red Moon could vastly improve their service, and make the place look a little less like a bank, then I’d say they’ve got a great shot at a winner. But as it stands now, whenever my husband says it’s time to go to the Red Moon, I just sigh and put my mind into Seinfeld-episode mode and try to get myself mentally prepared for another adventure. At least the last couple of times we’ve been out there, we haven’t seen or heard from the hostile wait-person, who could be compared to Seinfeld’s soup nazi. Instead, we just encounter a bunch of young kids whose only crime is wrong orders. But I’ll take that any day over being yelled at for mustard.

** Note: the kids who work here are very nice, but are sometimes unsure of things. Hence, the “probable hours” in the opening paragraph. I called today to get the hours and got completely different times than when we went tonight for dinner and I asked. The hours listed at the top are what the kid told me tonight. My best suggestion if you’re thinking about going later in the evening - call first to make sure they’re open. Then get ready for an adventure.

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This article was posted by Sarah Sutton on Wednesday, March 19th, 2008. It is filed in Cafe / Deli, Coffee Shop, Northwest OKC. Please leave your comments below (we'd love to hear from you), or trackback from your own site.

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