After eating lunch here last weekend, I had to take two showers, wash all of my clothes, and put a deodorizer in my car. Yep, all that just to erase the onion power clinging to me and everything I owned. Moral of the story — don’t eat lunch here if you have a blind date for dinner that night.  However, if you’re a regular Okie lookin’ for a great onion burger on a Saturday afternoon, this is your place.

I’ve never had an onion burger piled this high with onions. It was simply delicious. In contrast to most other onion burger places, Bunny’s doesn’t smash the onions into the meat. They’re grilled first, then piled high on top.  Mom and I had a discussion today as to whether adding cheese helps keep the onions in place.  She thought cheese made the onions more slippery, and she had trouble keeping her onions on her burger.  I actually thought the cheese acted as a coagulant to help keep the onions in place.  You, too, can have a fascinating discussion like this as you dine in onion heaven.  As usual, my husband — the plain man — had meat and bread only. No onions.  It just kills me.

Anyway, as if we didn’t have enough onions on our burgers, Mom and I also ordered onion rings. They had to be the softest onion rings I’ve ever had, and they were great piled high with ketchup. The husband had the “peels on” fries, which were also tasty.

Burgers here are priced according to how many toppings you order. A basic onion and pickle burger is $3.75, with a basket at $6. Burgers are also available with double meat, but take note — the onion burgers here are larger than the ones at the Yukon and El Reno places. My husband, the carnivore, ordered double meat and even he said it was too much. He even de-meated part of his burger (a first).  Now, that being said, these burgers are not as big as the ones at Nic’s Grill. And rightly so as, in my opinion, onion burgers are supposed to be smaller, yet packed with more taste.

It doesn’t seem that new owners Bobby Hawkins and Bill Burnett have changed the place much since they purchased it on September 20, 2008. And that’s good. Previous owner Bunny Biggers had a good thing going since she took the place over in 1990 (for a complete history on the building and location, see their website).  Bobby did tell me they are planning to become a chain by opening another location at NW 23 and Hudson in about two months.  This new store will operate the same hours as the current location.

We happened to be in the restaurant eating lunch on the day of the big Bedlam football game, and Bobby said they can gauge business on game days according to who’s playing, if it’s a home game, and whether or not it’s on TV.  He said in about ten minutes, they would have another rush right before closing, and sure enough, the place filled up as we were leaving.

It had been several years since I had been to Bunny’s, and I was glad to see several chicken dishes on the menu (around $7), along with a dinner salad ($2.75).  Hot dogs ($2) and conies ($2.25) are also an option, as is homemade chili ($3.25).  A kid’s menu is listed for $3.75.

I’m glad to see that Bunny’s will continue as a part of the OKC onion burger landscape under the new management.  They’ve got a good thing going, so try ‘em out and let me know what ya think in the comments!

Hot dog. Is there any other two-word combination in the English language that triggers more memories and food emotions? Probably, but it is hard to deny the importance hot dogs have played in the culinary history and tradition of our country. Unfortunately, Oklahoma City does not have a lot of places to get a good coney, in my opinion. We just lost Dawg House to apparent lack of interest by the Oklahoma City masses, so Coney Island is one of the only predominantly hot dog establishments left in the metro.

Coney Island can be found in downtown as well as on Capitol Hill. According to their signs, they have been serving “red hot wieners since 1924.” I have heard they have been around longer, some say since 1918. Either way, there’s plenty of nostalgia here. Inside, you feel like you have hit a time portal. Coney Island takes you back to a time where there were no credit card readers, where air-conditioning was never set below an almost-comfortable 75 degrees, and where napkins and utensils were apparently a luxury.

You can’t deny that these guys are good stewards of their money. I have seen them take unused napkins off the tables and stuff them back into the dispensers. I’ve also watched them wash their plastic utensils by hand in a big sink (this creeps me out a little, so I just eat mine with my hands). To further their cost-cutting efforts, they frequently turn the lights off on sunny days and get by on natural light alone.

The walls are decorated with big jumbo pieces of paper that have every year’s Oklahoma University football schedule and each game’s results hand written in marker (ruler-lined in pencil so all the lines are nice and straight, of course). These date back to the 1930′s. They serve cafeteria style as you line up and tell them what you want. Be ready please, they are impatient.

When it comes to the food you have very few options. There are hot dogs ($1.25) that can be decorated with mustard, ketchup, onion, chili, and cheese (10 cents extra). Then, there’s the Greek spaghetti ($4.15) in the tradition of the Cincinnati chili fanatics. It’s a bowl of overcooked spaghetti with chili, onions, cheese (20 cents extra), and, in the case of the Coney Island guys, a couple of red hot wieners. There’s also a Frito chili pie ($2.15).

The chili here is really interesting. It’s served the Cincinnati way (allspice, cumin, cinnamon, cocoa powder, and no beans). Calling it “Greek spaghetti” is weird because everything I have ever read is that it was a Macedonian immigrant that brought this chili recipe to Cincinnati, not a Greek immigrant, but I digress.

Anyway, that’s about it on the food options.  You can also get a bag of chips, a fountain drink, or a cold beer. If you want more choices, you are out of luck.

So, how does it all taste? Eh … it’s ok. The hot dogs have bright red casings. Again, I think this is a nostalgia thing. Some people think if the casing is dyed red, it tastes better. I don’t get it. In fact, I think it’s weird. Aren’t there enough unnatural ingredients in hot dogs already? Why inject the casing with red #6 and #4? And didn’t we determine in the 70′s that this causes cancer?  I have never been a big fan of the flavors of anything here, but it’s not bad, and there’s plenty of nostalgia to go around. It is what it is — a place to get cheap hot dogs.

One of the members of my shady restaurant crew wants to visit Coney Island weekly and always cites times he went as a kid and how it used to be across the street in another building and so on. I think Lance (another shady companion) put it best when he said, “You aren’t going here to eat good food here, you are going to eat memories.” Pretty profound for a shady restaurant guy. I’ve had the spaghetti with hot dogs, and it’s really not bad, but then again I cover it up with cayenne pepper to mask the flavor. It’s messy and you’ll also end up announcing to the world that you just ate it with that inevitable chili stain on your clothing and the horrendous Greek onion chili breath.

The biggest fans I have found of Coney Island, though, are my kids. Kids aren’t picky when it comes to hot dogs, and they remember you taking them to the “hot dog store” as you build memories they can “eat” later in life. It’s worth choking down a few mediocre hot dogs for them, and it’s cheap, too. Just remember your cash, remember your kids, and leave time to stop by the pawn shops and Volkswagen part stores in the area. It’s actually a pretty good way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

Ahhhh … the smell, the taste. If you’ve ever made the short trek west of Oklahoma City to partake of an original El Reno onion burger, you know what I’m talking about. If you don’t leave with your hands, hair and clothes reeking of fried onions for the rest of the day, you’ve missed it. El Reno is the onion burger capital of the world, and they even host an annual burger day festival every May where crowds swell up to 25,000 people.

Legend (actually, internet lore) has it that the first onion burger was created back during the depression, when meat was expensive and onions were cheap.  By smashing half an onion into a small meat patty, one got a larger-looking burger along with a phenomenal taste.  And the rest is history.

The first original onion burger joint was known as Bob’s White Rock.  In 1946, W. J. Siler opened Johnnie’s Grill (the J. stands for Johnnie) in El Reno.  The original restaurant had only nine bar stools.  Johnnie ran it until 1967 when Otis Bruce bought the place.  Steve Gallaway took over in 1995 when the place seated up to 29 people.  In 2005, he expanded to seat up to 100, and he still owns it today.  Gallaway was more than happy to talk history with me.

The atmosphere is one-of-a-kind. I’m talking the kind of place Hollywood directors dream of — with crusty ol’ Oklahomans fresh off the farm and Route 66.

Plus, the food is terrific. Onion burgers are traditionally smaller than the usual big-mouth restaurant burgers, but the taste they pack beats anything you’ll get from a chain. I’ve had onion burgers made two ways — with sliced onions and with diced onions.  I prefer sliced onions because they look better and you get more taste.  They’re usually served on a small, real plate (not paper) with one onion slice hanging over the plate’s edge.  And when you bite into it, you need to have onions hanging down your chin to get the full effect.  That’s why I started my great onion burger tour at Johnnie’s — I knew I would get the atmosphere I wanted and the onions hanging out of my mouth.

The only other thing on the traditional onion burger is pickles.  Then, you can add your own mustard, mayo or ketchup.  Personally, I like to add so much mustard that the meat usually ends up sliding out of the bun.  But talk about a knock-out taste!  You can also order your burger with the other standard veggies, but if you’re a beginner onion burger student, just start with the pickles and onions for $2.70.  A half order of fries, tots or rings is an additional $1.95.

For an onion burger joint, Johnnie’s has quite an extensive menu.  If someone in your party is not in the mood for an onion burger (gasp), then there are also salads (chicken or ham, $4.75), coneys ($2.70), dinner specials ($6.50), frito pies ($3.75) and a variety of sandwiches ($4).  They even offer a breakfast menu in the mornings.  Another specialty I noticed at Johnnie’s was a really tempting dessert display.  Steve said that Everett Adams makes fresh desserts for the restaurant every day.  Adams is a retired cook from the local prison, and boy did his coconut pies look tasty!  You can even purchase whole pies for $11 if you’re in the mood to take one home.

I love it that part of our state is known for onion burgers.  I was in a local restaurant last week and the owner said her Philly cheese steaks were the best in town.  I told her I’d never had one, and she about fell over.  I said, “We’re not in Philadelphia! You wouldn’t go up to Philly and order an onion burger, would you?” She said that made sense, and I tried one of her pizzas instead.  When you’re in Rome …

Anyway, that does it for part one of the great OKC onion burger tour. Johnnie’s is definitely a must-try if you want to experience onion burger history. We’ll see how it stands up against the others to come on the tour.  I plan on reviewing the other two famous places in El Reno as well as several in OKC.  If you have been to Johnnie’s please leave us your thoughts in the comments.  Or, if you have your own favorite onion burger place, let me know!

Sometimes I get in the mood for a taste of “old” Oklahoma City. You know, someplace that’s been around forever that has maintained a loyal, local clientèle. For this past birthday, we decided we would try Jamil’s Steakhouse since it originated in the same decade I was born – the 60s. I have heard of it all of my life, but had never made the trip cross-town to try it. So my husband and I loaded up the car with my mom and his parents and set out for the trip to Lincoln Blvd, just north of the capital district.

I knew it was going to be good the minute we stepped from the car and were met with a big waft of smoke from the smokehouse in the back parking lot. What a great effect for an appetizer. All of the walls inside are filled with hand-painted portraits of famous Oklahomans. It was great fun to try and guess all of them after we had placed our order, although we didn’t have much time because the minute your menu is taken away, the vast array of Lebanese appetizers begins to arrive.

It begins with individual bowls of tabbouleh, which tasted great. It could have had just a touch more lemon juice for my taste, but was still very good as it was not oily. Next is the hummus and pita bread (you pay for the bread), then a basket of smoked barbecue bologna. Now I have to say I think I swore off of bologna around the age of six, but since we were trying new things that night, I decided to indulge in a piece, and it was mighty tasty. I appreciated the fact they used Head Country barbecue sauce, which is made right here in our own state in Ponca City. Next were the cabbage rolls. The tasting of these was left to Mom and me, as my husband has sworn an oath to maintain at least a six-foot perimeter from all veggies. The cabbage rolls were about the only thing with which we were not impressed. I don’t know – a little bland or something, but we passed after the first couple of bites. The relish tray which also came helped to kick things back up a bit.

Our main dishes arrived soon, and my husband, the meat connoisseur, said his steak was one of the best he had ever tasted. His dad had one of the state foods – chicken fried steak – and said it was delicious and not the least bit greasy for a fried piece of food. The same with my jumbo fried shrimp – crunchy and tasty. And the cocktail sauce had a nice twist – it leaned toward the sweet side, rather than hot with horseradish. Probably the only thing we were disappointed with was the grilled lemon pepper chicken, only because Mom had them hold the lemon pepper (can’t stand anything hot or spicy). That made it rather bland, but only because we asked them to make it that way.

If you dine before 7pm for dinner, the early bird specials are available for $17.99, which include all of the appetizers and a baked potato. The early bird entrees are the fried shrimp, the KC petite sirloin, and the lemon pepper chicken.

The service was impeccable, as we had at least three people attending us. If you go, ask for Kenyatta’s table. He has worked there over three years and says the thing he likes best is meeting all the people and talking to them throughout dinner. Probably the thing I liked best were the old, wooden creaky floors and chairs. In my opinion, nothing adds more ambiance than creaky, wooden things. And, as in most restaurants these days, you’ll need a lighted magnifying glass to be able to read the menu if you’re over 40. I have found the greatest invention called The Owl – it’s a credit card-sized piece of magnifying plastic that also lights up. It stores handily in a wallet or billfold.

Since I am the oldest member of the contributors to this site, I will probably be the only one reviewing the old restaurants. But that’s fine by me. Quality definitely does come with age.

Please note: In 2008, Jaime’s changed ownership and became known as “Grill on the Hill.” This review is about the old Jaime’s and may not accurately reflect the new restaurant.

Deep in the heart of Capitol Hill lies a little known gem of a restaurant called Jaime’s Grill. Although the line spilling out into the street on a Friday around noon would argue that it’s hardly “little known.” Despite being located in the heart of the unofficial Hispanic Capital of Oklahoma City, Jaime’s is counterintuitively pronounced the English way. Jaime’s is a diner very reminiscent of the type of place you would find in a small town along the Mississippi River. Its no wonder, these guys are from Memphis!

Jaime’s is in a historic 100 year old building that attracts meetings of antique societies, car clubs, etc. Jaime’s walls are covered with pictures of what life was like before Capitol Hill was annexed by Oklahoma City. These pictures along with the antique planes, wagons, bikes, and other items scattered about with a disorganized genius remind the surprisingly diverse lunch crowd that it wasn’t that long ago that this part of the city was a bustling center of commerce.

While it may be fun to drive around Capitol Hill and practice your Spanish by reading all the local signs, peruse the pawn shops for bargains, or shop for that new dual vacuum advanced distributor for your Volkswagen Beetle at the salvage yard, the real reason to come to this part of town is to eat. Jaime’s gives you a compelling reason to do just that. Thick juicy burgers are probably the signature and can be ordered in various shapes and sizes. In fact, when the line is spilling out the door and the assistant to the cashier starts taking down orders to get a “head start” in the kitchen while you wait to pay, don’t be surprised if she takes a jab at you for only ordering a single when your friends order a double. Jaime’s has hand cut fries, homemade onion rings, and large slices of grandma’s pie, like any self respecting diner would have. You can also get the typical “meat and three”, as we Tennessee type people call a plate of a meat type product (catfish, shrimp, meatloaf, chicken fried steak) and a couple or three vegetable type products.

While all of these choices are tasty, there is one item on the menu that stands out above the rest, the “redneck club sandwich”. Imagine, if you will, your typical club sandwich with the toasted bread, crisp bacon, fresh tomato and lettuce, a little mayo…..ok now think about that thinly shaved deli style turkey. What could we do with that turkey that would really kick a club sandwich up a notch? That’s right! Replace it with thick slices of fried bologna!! Ridiculous! I haven’t seen another place in town that serves up fried bologna, but you can get it at Jaime’s in a couple different fashions. I respect that in a diner. For those looking for a healthier choice there is a variety of salad’s, baked potatoes, soup’s, etc.

Jaime’s has a lot of what you want in a lunch spot. Its relatively fast, the quality of the food is fantastic, and the price is lower than what you would pay at your local mega chain lunch spot for a bland slab of meat or overpriced sandwich. Are there any negatives you ask? I am always the type of guy to give you both sides of the story. First, Jaime’s is not a health food restaurant. You should probably eat an onion and a couple cloves of garlic at dinner to counteract any damage done by the fried bologna. I would like to think our readers are conscious enough of their health and well being to know to eat burgers and fries in moderation. Second, Jaime’s has a smell like that of your grandmother’s basement. Not exactly an appetizing aroma. Why it doesn’t smell of fries and onion rings when you walk in is a mystery to me. I kind of like the way it smells. Its a 100 year old building, it smells like one, but I have had others remark that they wish it smelled more like “food”. Third, the surrounding neighborhoods are not very aesthetic. I am particularly fond of the Mother Mary mural painted on a garage just down the road, but overall the neighborhoods are a little under-cared for. And finally, the Dr. Pepper fountain lacks CO2 despite numerous reminders to management that it is not working properly. They must not care. Normally this would bother me greatly, since Dr. Pepper is very important to me, but I have quit buying carbonated beverages at restaurants because they are overpriced.

So go try Jaime’s. Friendly staff, fantastic food, and historic culture. What else could you want in a lunch spot?

Just about everyone around here has heard of the Cattlemen’s Restaurant and it’s widely known as one of Oklahoma City’s best local dining experiences. But maybe not everyone has tried it for breakfast. And if you haven’t, you should.

The truth is that I’ve never been to the Cattlemen’s for anything other than breakfast, and always on a Saturday morning. It just gets the weekend started off right.

First of all, on Saturday and Sunday mornings, Cattlemen’s offers a breakfast buffet at a very reasonable price ($5.95). Now, I never personally order the buffet as I’ll explain in a minute, but allow me to let you in on one of the greatest restaurant values of all time — the Cattlemen’s buffet is free for kids. That’s right, absolutely free. I’ve been told by one waitress that it’s free for all kids all the way to 12 years old. We only have one four year old, so I haven’t experienced it first hand, but that’s what I’ve been told. What a rare and unbelievable value for families!

While the kids are enjoying everything on the buffet for free including eggs, bacon, sausages (link and patty), biscuits, gravy, home fries, hashbrowns, and mounds of fresh fruit; You can order off the menu if you like. And that’s just what I do for one very important reason — steak.

At Cattlemen’s for breakfast, you can order any steak and get it served up with eggs, potatoes and a biscuit. My personal favorite is the breakfast steak. It’s a small steak and probably not the prime cut of meat, but it doesn’t matter. Cattlemen’s prepares it wonderfully seasoned, tender, and mouth-watering every time. Together with home fries, scrambled eggs and a biscuit, it’s just about the perfect amount of food and an incredible value of taste at $7.95.

Of course, my wife tells me that there are a lot of other options on the menu that you can also order (she really likes the pancakes). And for that matter, there are a lot of other people I know who say that Cattlemen’s is also open at lunch and dinner. But so far, I haven’t found a compelling reason to try anything other than the breakfast steak and eggs on a Saturday morning. It’s just the way things ought to be.