Skip to main content

Restaurant Review: The Mule, OKC

The Mule, 1630 N. Blackwelder Suite 1, Oklahoma City, OK Visit their website for a full menu. They are open Tuesday-Saturday, 11:00am-10:00pm (the bar stays open until 2:00am on Friday and Saturday nights).









When we were little, our mothers would throw two slices of Kraft singles between two slices of bread, with a little mayo and butter, and griddle it to perfection, usually serving it alongside a bowl of Campbell's classic tomato soup. Now that we are all grown up, we are discovering entire restaurants devoted to the craft of this beloved childhood classic, taking that simple sandwich and raising it up to epitomize trendy eating. I recently had the pleasure of eating at one such establishment: The Mule, in Oklahoma City's Plaza District. Fans of OKC's local food scene will no doubt be familiar with this restaurant already. I had been there once previously, immediately after it opened, but waited to give it a second chance before sharing my views with the world, and for good reason--The Mule, like most establishments, suffered somewhat in the service department immediately after opening, and I wanted to give the chance to smooth things out before I denounced them forever on the internet.

That being said, I am going to spoil things from the beginning: I found my second experience at The Mule to be mediocre, rather than superlative. While they have worked out a lot of the kinks that were present at their opening, the service was still not great, and the food, while creative and ambitious, did not always live up to its hype.

I have had two sandwiches at The Mule. The Fancy Pants ($8.50) and The BCLT (Bacon, Cheese, Lettuce, Tomato, $7). The first is a crazy amalgamation of as many high-end ingredients as can be put on a sandwich, and all of them sound spectacular. It features wheat bread drizzled with balsamic vinegar, roasted chicken, brie, gruyere, caramelized onions, pears, and basil pesto. I love all these things, so I was very excited to taste this sandwich--it seemed like it couldn't miss. Unfortunately, the proportions of these ingredients made the sandwich not so much a cornucopia of my favorite flavors, but a muddled mess that didn't really allow anything to shine. The huge heap of onions were in themselves delicious, and perfectly caramelized, but tended to overwhelm everything else on the sandwich. The cheese was rendered kind of bland in comparison, and I couldn't taste the pesto or the balsamic at all. A more generous helping of both these things would greatly improve this potential-filled sandwich.This problem was noted by two other people in my party who ordered similarly complicated sandwiches (The Herbivore and the Macaroni Pony).

The BCLT was, in my opinion, a far superior sandwich. The bacon was crispy and flavorful without overwhelming the rest of the ingredients. The cheese (a combination of gouda and gruyere) was creamy and pungent, complementing the bacon. I went for the dollar upgrade to add avocado, and it was well worth it. Even though it's not avocado season, it was green and fresh, and added a wonderful creamy element to the sandwich. This sandwich smacked of something simple done right, and if every sandwich on the menu adhered to that, I think the restaurant would have a better tasting repertoire.

The side items are definitely the stars here, sometimes outshining rather than complementing their sandwiches. The onion rings are huge and crispy, with minimal grease, and great, salty, oniony flavor. The house salad is a well-rounded mix of veggies accompanied by a wonderful, creamy, lemony dressing that is indulgent and fresh. The Okie Poutine was a huge departure from any diet plan, but the fries, cheese curds, and gravy were all excellently portioned so that each ingredient hit the palate. The fries stood up well to their toppings, with only the very bottom of the pile getting at all soggy, and had a great crisp to them. The gravy was a salty, classic cream gravy, and the cheddar cheese curds were melted, but had that sharp bite that cheddar should have.

Alas, these wonderful food items and the huge beer list were detracted from by the again subpar service. We waited a long time (almost 40 minutes) for both the food and the checks (the former being a bigger beef for me, given my appetite) and our server not only had to ask us to repeat orders, but also forgot substitutions requested by more than one of our party (we were a group of seven).

I sincerely hope that my two excursions to this restaurant have been the exception, not the rule, because The Mule has all the makings of a great local hangout. If they can step up the level of service and perfect a few of their more complicated sandwiches, The Mule will become a staple in my restaurant rotation, rather than just a place I meet friends who like it better.


*Please excuse my lack of pictures. I didn't take any of my food because I am a horrible photographer, thinking that they would have publicity photos of the sandwiches on their website. No luck. Use your imaginations!
**I won't let this happen again.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner(s)!

Did you know that you can buy an entire chicken at the grocery story for less than $6? Well, you can. And if you are willing to put up with a little home butchering, it can make enough food to last you almost a week. I bought a chicken last weekend for our Sunday meal, and used the last of it just yesterday. This is a huge help when you are trying to mitigate the expensive cost of meat in your grocery budget. First, it needs a little work. I roasted the chicken for our weekend dinner, and I always butterfly it because it cooks faster that way. I'm not going to sugarcoat it--butterflying a chicken is kind of gross. Really gross, actually. But if you can overcome your squeamishness, it cooks great. There are a lot of great tutorials for doing this on YouTube, but here is how I did it.  Step 1: Remove the giblets (the heart, neck, and gizzard). This is disgusting because you must reach into a dead animal and pull out its organs. But once they are out, you can throw them away, ...

Zumba Night!

Okay, so, I haven't updated my blog about my weight loss every Tuesday night like I planned. But I am proud to report that not only have I continued to go to the gym at least thrice a week, I even convinced N to join it with me! The exercise thing is going a lot better. Today I even looked at myself in the mirror while I was zumba-ing! I don't think that I will ever be the kind of person who loves, loves, loves going to the gym, it does feel kind of good, kind of virtuous to get all sweaty and be able to tweet, "I am at the gym doing zumba!" For those of you who don't know, Zumba is the new fitness craze. I guess if you were to totally simplify things you would call it a type of aerobic class, but it is really so non-aerobic-y. There is not a lot of pumping, or jumping. It is 100% dancing. A little bit of salsa, a little bit of hip-hop, and tonight, even a little bit of ballet. It gets the heart rate waaaay up, and I always end up drenched in sweat, and best of ...

I Am Afraid of Snakes

I am giving you some valuable information here. Snakes are my biggest fear. My second biggest fear is that upon discovering my biggest fear, people will pounce on it and send me snakes in the mail, or put them in my bed, or my car, or throw them in my face like David Bowie did to Jennifer Connelly in Labyrinth . So, the other day, when Norris was getting ready to go on a short trip, we were talking about all the critters in our yard. Normally I like all these critters. We have a bunch of toads (like, seriously, we have like 20 toads in our back yard—and that’s just the ones we can find. Toads freaking love us.) and a couple tree frogs, and some praying mantises, and snails, and a family of birds (dusky flycatchers—the babies all just flew away and I was very sad) that nested in our patio light fixture, and for a few days we had a raccoon living in one of our trees. We also have a couple of hawks (I mean two hawks that are in a committed relationship. We know they care about each...