Sophabella’s for a great complete dining experience
by Sarah | February 3, 2008 | 16 Comments
(votes: 14, average: 3.43) 
Loading ...Sophabella’s is located at 7628 N May (map) in Oklahoma City (879-0100). Hours are 11am - 10pm Mon - Thurs; 11am - 11pm Fri - Sat; and 10:30am - 9pm on Sunday. Brunch on Sunday is held from 10:30am - 3pm.
I have found everything I like in a restaurant at Sophabella’s - comfortable atmosphere, consistent and classy service, robust, flavorful food and great Tony Bennett-esque music. It’s the kind of place you can go to on a dressy date, but feel just as comfortable popping in after a day at the mall in jeans and a sweatshirt. Plus, the menu offers just as wide a variety of food as the people you’ll find dining there.
Our family’s favorite appetizer has to be the toasted ravioli, probably because of the slightly spicy and thick marinara sauce with which it is served. This is the kind of marinara you can sink you teeth into. I get really disappointed by some of the other thin, runny marinara sauces served by other Italian restaurants, but you don’t have to worry about thin and runny at Sophabella’s. This could easily be a meal in itself, especially if paired with one of their signature salads. I usually just go with the house salad and dressing, which is a really nice Italian viniagrette. My husband won’t leave without a bowl of their homemade lobster and crab bisque - the best in town, he says. And no wonder, after interviewing the owners Bill Brazil and Sandy Ochoa-Brazil, I found out everything in the restaurant is homemade from scratch. And you can tell - it’s delicious.
Sandy says the fish is brought in daily, and one of the daily specials is usually a fish dish. She says the steaks are the same prime filet as what the high end steak houses in town serve, except at a fraction of the cost. And the pasta menu is pretty incredible - one whole page to itself, which contains a really great variety of almost anything one could want.
One of the specialties is their Chicago-style pizza, which you can order with a thin or thick crust, and it’s fabulous. In fact, they have a customer here in town who flies customers in from Chicago just for the pizza at Sophabella’s. The natives from Chicago compare the pizza here favorably to Geno’s in Chicago. The dough is homemade and the sauce is homemade.
Sandy says another specialty during Sunday brunch is their Bloody Mary bar, which has turned into a big hit with customers. For $4, they set up all of the fixings for you to make your own Bloody Mary just the way you like it. The rest of the brunch menu features a Cajun and French flair.
The catering business has recently been expanded by bringing on Peter Seay, who helped get the local Skirvin Hotel started. They are now ready to service wedding rehearsal dinners, as well as large-party catering. For catering information, please call 659-1809.
There has never been anything we have been disappointed in at Sophabella’s. I would just describe it as an extremely relaxing, comfortable, great place to eat. I never feel hurried - it’s someplace I like to go for the total dining experience. My foodie family members from Dallas really like it too, and I enjoy taking them there.
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So far, 16 people have responded to this article. Won't you join in?February 3rd, 2008 at 8:19 pm
I agree, I have never had a bad meal. The pizza is as close to Geno’s East as I have ever had outside of Geno’s East.
February 3rd, 2008 at 8:35 pm
Thanks for your comment - I was hoping someone “in the know” about Chicago pizzarias would post! Haven’t made it up there myself yet.
February 23rd, 2008 at 11:53 am
I have *never* had a great meal here and actually tasted the very worst fettucini alfredo ever created. The sauce had cooked (not carmelized or anything interesting) in it, which was not mentioned on the menu. I wanted to like Sophabella’s so much, but after three or so tries I doubt I ever go back.
March 5th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
The service has been spectacularly bad every time I’ve been there, both at lunch and dinner. I know this is an Oklahoma City tradition, but something is out of whack at this place. I would never have gone a second time were the double decker pepperoni pizza not stunning (at least in appearance).
The pizza is interesting once, but twice was enough. Their desserts are unispired, and everything costs more than it should on north May, especially since poor service keeps you in the place 20% longer than you should be. This is not a high volume or cooking time issue; it is a compotence issue. I’m not going to get into the Geno’s/Uno/several others debate, I love pizza period. However, I feel confident that Sophabella would never, never gain a following in Chicago.
March 5th, 2008 at 9:28 pm
Thanks for commenting, Robert. I’m amazed that so many different people can have so many different experiences at one place. But that’s why this site is good - we need differing opinions. I’m going back there this Saturday and am anxious to see what happens!
May 15th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
I’ve been to Sophabella’s once and eaten the filet with gorgonzola sauce another time at a private function. The filet was UNBELIEVABLE. I couldn’t get enough. When we dined in, my girlfriend ordered the strip steak with crab and lobster cream sauce and it was very tasty as well. I had a “chicago style” pizza. While it tasted good, it was not what I would describe as “chicago style”. It was more in the vein of BJ’s Brewhouse or Pizza Hut deep dish. When I think of Chicago style, I think deep, but I also think buttery, flaky, almost biscuit like crust. BIG difference.
The service was spot on-though it was pretty empty when we were in there during a prime dinner hour I thought.
A friend of mine had dinner there the other night and tried the thin brick oven pizza with goat cheese and some other toppings and said it was very very tasty as well.
May 17th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
Thanks for commenting, Austin - I especially appreciate the pizza critique since I have yet to have a “real” Chicago pizza. I’ve dined here twice since my original review and am sticking with my opinion - good food, good service.
May 26th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
My family and I always make it a point to stop by our FAVORITE Italian/Eclectic restaurant in OKC when we visit from Houston. Over the past year we have missed the owners because they had opened a second location in Yukon. I personally think the OKC location suffered while the owners were opening the other restaurant, like any business. But my family doesn’t have to worry about that anymore b/c the Yukon location is closed due to embezzlement.
We love coming to an establishment when you get a personal visit by the owner. The food is impeccable! We’ve eaten at a lot of Italian owned and Italian inspired restaurants in Houston and NONE can compare to the authentic flavors we find at SOPHABELLA’S. Since Mr.Brazil’s return, we have had nothing but delicious food and fantastic service! We love the pizza dough, the house bread and my husband always enjoys the stuffed gorgonzola. Our family recently thoroughly enjoyed a Mother’s Day Brunch fit for QUEEN!!! 15 of us were able to eat our hearts desire from King Crab Legs, Prime Rib to a sea of home made desserts!
I don’t know if you have been in there recently, but they completely redecorated inside and it’s beautiful by Brunos Home Furnishings.
I’m originally from Oklahoma and send my boss and his clients there all the time. They love it and appreciate the huge wine selection and great steaks. In fact, my boss just was there last week and had their KOBE Sirloin and said it was out of this world. We will always stop in for the best pizza, steaks, and oh, I almost forgot…the famous SOPHABELLA’S sundae!!
As you can tell by my comments, we’ve been coming to SOPHABELLA’S for six years and we’ve always had great food and service and will continue to recommend it and eat there!
May 26th, 2008 at 8:55 pm
Glad you’ve had good experiences also Zina - thanks for your insight. I agree the Sunday brunch is still a bit of a great secret here in town. And I’m glad the owner is back onsite only at the OKC location too. It’s great to see him circulating amongst the customers.
June 20th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
Agree, Agree, and Agree - If you havent been to Sophabellas, you need to go immediately.
For you pizza lovers, try the quattro formagio with your favorite toppings (the caramelized onions are everything you hoped and dreamed they would be)
July 1st, 2008 at 1:55 pm
I have only been for Sunday brunch and it’s definately my favorite brunch place. I’ve had brunch at a variety of places including Nova, Pearls and others. You get a ton of food for $7 or $8. They have a selection of about 10 different dishes and then you get to pick a huge homeade cinammon roll or biscuits and gravy to go with it. The Bloody Mary bar was amazing!
July 14th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
After reading many posts concerning Sophabella’s, I asked my wife if she’d like to try it out. She loves a good Chicken Marsala and me we’ll I just like to look at the menu and pick items that will sometimes lay under the radar. It all depends on my mood. We went on a Sunday night and maybe that was the problem. (Sunday Brunch) We sat down and spoke with the waiter explaining this was our first time at Sophabella’s. He gave us a chance to review the menu and brought us our drinks. I’d heard about the pizza so we decided to start out with some pizza rolls. The waiter put the order in and we previewed the menu more. We decided on Chicken Marsala for my wife and I tried the Linguini Besciamella. Each came with salad and bread, pretty normal. Then, it happened… We waited for the appetizer and then the salads and bread showed up. We asked “What happened to the appetizer”? Sure enough here comes the appetizer. On the table at the same time as our salads. Nothing gets me more @&$*#(#% when you can’t get good service and your food is not out in order. So here we are with our salad, bread and the pizza rolls. We tried the Pizza Rolls and they were fantastic. The crust was wonderful and the sauce great, not too chunky but not runny either. (We also noticed alot of take out orders for pizza and people at other tables ordering pizza) And then it happened again….. The entrees came out and we were still working on the salad. #$#^#%^$%^ The entrees were not great. The sauce on my meal seemed to be burned. The sausage, shrimp and noodles were good but with the sauce seemed to be put together at the last moment and then burned. My wifes Chicken Marsala was a big dissappointment. The chicken was really thick (no tenderizing) and tough. The sauce was really thin and had no flavor. It was just a bland marsala sauce added to noodles with a big piece of chicken. Had much better at Olive Garden.
So as we ended the night, we felt like we were dissappointed. Service was lacking, food wasn’t that good. We both looked at each other and said the same thing. “Good pizza place, posing as an Italian restaurant” Thanks for letting me say a word to two
July 14th, 2008 at 5:28 pm
Sorry you had such an inconsistent experience, Tom. I had the same thing happen to me at Hideaway the other night. Our appetizer, salads and pizza all arrived at the same time. Makes for a blah dining experience. Seems Sophabella’s needs a little help on its consistency also. People either really love it or…not.
July 30th, 2008 at 10:47 am
We have been to both the Yukon and OKC locations. We really liked the pizza, but my husband thought the chicken marsala was disappointing. The one thing that was always consistent during our visits to either location was the service. It was very poor but the staff was friendly. I was willing to sacrifice service for the pizza.
September 3rd, 2008 at 12:11 pm
This is the place my friends go to for pizza. It is always good and we usually have very good service. It can take awhile for the waiters to get around to you sometimes but usually we are not in a big hurry so I don’t mind. I also love to decor of the place, it seems like the type of place Sinatra would hang out at back in the day.
October 13th, 2008 at 8:43 pm
I tried Sophabella’s this past weekend. I thought the atmosphere was lovely and the service was very good but was highly unimpressed by the food. The soups were alright, though in need of a bit of salt. The main course, I cannot say the same for. I got the salmon en croute, which looked great but, regretfully, did not taste like much. My husband had the same experience with what he ordered. We noticed that EVERYONE around us was ordering pizza, so maybe we just missed the memo. I would give it a second try to taste the pizza but not for their other options.
Please tell us what you think.