If you’ve read many of our reviews, you know that we’re always searching for the unique things restaurants offer to the Oklahoma City landscape. So, when Andrew and I visited Rococo’s, there was one thing that stood out to us above everything else — east coast style.

You feel it from the moment you walk in. The rich, dark, almost swanky decor is absent the southwest influence that we’re accustomed to around these parts. The seafood-rich menu and extensive wine list add to the vibe. But you really find out what this place is about when owner/chef Bruce Rinehart stops by your table, which he is almost certain to do. Spend just a moment conversing with Bruce and you’ll understand what is unique about Rococo.

Bruce spent a lot of time opening and running restaurants on the east coast, so you can understand where the style comes from. If you are from that region, I’d imagine Rococo would feel a lot like home. If you’re not, Rococo is still worth your attention for its other great strength — fresh seafood.

We actually get a lot of questions about where to get good seafood in Oklahoma City. Now that I’ve been to Rococo, I can say I think it’s a worthy seafood contender. There aren’t a great many places I know of that offer simple, fresh seafood presentations. Most of the time around here, seafood is fried or blackened or spiced up in some other southwestern or cajun-influenced way. But at Rococo, we had a beautiful presentation of their Petrale Sole filet ($18.75), lightly dusted with flour, sauteed in butter and served with capers, lemon pulp and tiny, delicate croutons. It’s rare to get to taste the actual fish as much as you could in this presentation, and the fish tasted great.

We also had the crabcake (market price) that Rococo is happy to claim as the best in the city. That might seem haughty to you, but I’d have to say that I agree with the claim. This is not a mixture of crab and other fillers pressed into a patty. This is a heaping mound of huge chunks of crab meat topped with a few types of breadcrumbs and baked. You order crab and you taste crab — and again, the crab tastes great.

In addition to the on-menu seafood items, Rococo offers off-menu specials that vary daily as they overnight fresh seafood from the coast as available. That’s right, here is a place where you can literally taste fresh seafood from the east coast. If you want to stay up on what’s fresh, subscribe to their email newsletter on their home page, or follow them on Twitter. We’re seeing a lot of restaurants really utilize Twitter lately and Rococo is one that does a great job communicating that way.

Alright, so I’ve given you a glowing picture of what I think Rococo does best — seafood with an east coast flair. But their menu doesn’t stop there. In fact, their menu is widely varied with steaks, chops, pastas, and even some sandwiches at lunch. It might even be a bit too varied in my opinion. Personally, I’d like to see them expand their seafood options and limit the other things, but that’s just me.

I mean, I haven’t tried all that many things, but I had a bit of the Penne Bolognese ($15.75 at dinner) and, while it was fresh and perfectly fine, it was lighter on flavor than I would typically expect from the rich Italian dish. There are other places I would put above Rococo for Italian food, at least based on what I experienced.

Andrew had the filet ($25.25 and $34.75), which was very well-cooked and flavorful with a really nice sauce that didn’t overpower. I had a bite of it and thought it was good as well. Nothing wrong with it and it’s a decent price, I’m just thinking there are lots of other places you can get steaks done at least as well.

One thing to keep in mind is that Rococo offers a pretty reasonable lunch menu. Sandwiches and smaller entrees are offered anywhere from $7-$15 making a good value when you’re looking for lunch.

So, my bottom line on Rococo is that they offer a lot of options and they do it all pretty well, but if you want to try the thing they do exceptionally well and that’s unique here in our fair city, go for the seafood, especially the crab cake and whatever seafood specials Bruce is flying in on the day you visit. This is where Rococo shines and can provide you with something you’re not likely to experience anywhere else in town.

What are your thoughts on Rococo? Let us know in the comments.

I’m sure you are familiar with all those cliches about curiosity. You know, like “curiosity killed the cat.” Sure, curiosity steers me into lots of great shady finds all around the city, but this morbid curiosity sometimes bites me in the end. For example, sometimes curiosity causes me to reject steadfast rules. I recently broke the rule of “don’t eat at buffets, specifically seafood buffets, and even more specifically when that seafood buffet is not on the gulf coast but rather in Oklahoma.” I know — long rule.

Anyhow, I see Catfish Cabin every time I visit Leslie’s Pool Supply store next door. Unfortunately, I stopped at Leslie’s recently when I was really hungry and that bad painting of a dancing catfish on the outside window next door — the one that honestly looks more like a mutant seal — beckoned me to all-I-can-eat myself some catfish. What was weird when we walked in was that it felt like we were walking into a Chinese buffet. It had a fountain and those fold-up, asian-looking dividers. Then the smell of fried seafood filled the air and I was snapped back into reality.

It’s your typical seafood buffet with fried clams, fried shrimp, fried catfish bits, fried whole catfish, fried stuffed crabs, fried okra, fried potatoes, and so on. It’s kind of hit or miss on whether you get food that’s fresh out of the kitchen or the kind that’s been sitting under heat lamps for a while. The whole fried catfish that I had was actually pretty good, and I caught it as it was just being loaded on the bar. By the way, whole catfish is always fun to eat with the kids because you can wave the little fish skeleton at them and get a “that’s cool dad!” So, all-in-all, not a bad buffet.

On the other hand, it is still a buffet, and I don’t really like buffets. Mainly this is due to the hepatitis risk, and also the aggressive masses that push on you to move on down the line so they can fill their plates. Catfish Cabin had its fair share of the aggressive masses nearly reaching around me. I half-expected one of these folks to smash by face against the sneeze guard when I reached for the last roll. Fortunately, that didn’t happen.

I also had trouble stomaching the vegetables here. I’ve had a lot of bad mac and cheese in my day, but this mac and cheese made the stuff from KFC seem gourmet. I have a 6 year old, a 5 year old, and a 2 year old that wouldn’t touch this mac and cheese. That should tell you something.

On the plus side, the wait staff was great. They have a bunch of sweet little old ladies who you can’t help but like. Oh, and the desserts weren’t terrible. They were your standard buffet desserts — cobblers, puddings, and soft-serve ice cream. My kids love a place with the soft-serve machine. But next time we go out to eat just for the soft-serve, we will head to someplace like Jason’s Deli, and not here.

If you like paying $12 a person for an Oklahoma seafood buffet, then Catfish Cabin is for you. We’d love to hear from your side of the story in the comments. But for me, Catfish Cabin is nothing but a reminder to trust my past experience.

You see, this review isn’t about revealing new truth about all you can eat seafood buffets, but rather about offering a reminder to us all. We all learn culinary lessons in our life, but sometimes we need them reinforced so we don’t forget the sting of our mistakes which may have faded over time. So, remember the rules, and next time you see me at a shady diner about to order the five dollar T-bone, go ahead and stab me with your fork.