Stables Cafe — Restaurant in Guthrie

The Stables is our favorite restaurant in Guthrie! For several reasons. I like it for the meat; my wife likes it for the salad bar and the pie! Every meal we have had here has been very good and the same for the service. The restaurant is attractively decorated with nostalgic items and memorabilia. It is just fun to search the walls and ceiling to see what you can find and recognize. The salad bar is well stocked and maintained with fresh items. The service has been consistently friendly and attentive. Today’s dining experience was no exception to anything I have described here. Aside from the salad bar and the pie my favorite meals continue to be the, the Old Timer Burger, the Hickory Burger, the gigantic Chicken Fried Steak and my real favorite is the Rib Basket. The Rib Basket is a large serving of burnt end ribs and pieces. If you don't like burnt ends, then this is not for you. I love them! It comes with their homemade onion rings, but I prefer the fries. You get more than enough for a take home second meal. The Chicken Fried Steak is a large tenderized beef steak with a crispy coating that is a different than most common cafe chicken fries. They use what looks like cracker crumbs to create a thin crunchy coating. None of that thick heavy grease saturated doughy crust that is commonly found on the Oklahoma chicken fry trail. And it is big, covering the plate and smothered with homemade fresh cream gravy. My wife finished her meal with what she described as “the most perfect delicious slice of coconut cream pie!” Our server today was Beth. A super nice young lady that made lunch at the Stables, on the day before Christmas perfect! Parking is the biggest obstacle to eating here. It has a small lot and a big crowd, so you may end up parking around the corner along the curb. Save room...

Was in Guthrie for work and looked up local restaurants. Stables looked interesting. Upon arrival I waited quite a while was then greeted by a young lady who told me to go sit in the bar area since I was by myself. The bar area is all the way in the back of the building and wasn’t very inviting. I returned and she seemed upset that I didn’t want to sit back there. Then took me to a table of which there were several open and not many people. She explained they try to save tables for parties of two or more.

My waitress finally arrived and took my drink order. Brought me back a Diet Dr Pepper that was a combination of motor oil and who knows what. It was awful. I asked for a iced tea instead and she took my drink away. I went to the salad bar which was pretty nicely stocked with a good variety. Then she arrived with my food order and no drink. I asked aboit my tea abs she asked if I wanted sweet or unsweet. Unsweet was my choice. After quite some time and several trips to tables around me still no drink. I finally waved at her and she said “oh yeah your tea”. More time and more visits to play with the little girl at the booth next to me and she says, “your tea is coming”. It arrived and guess what, it’s sweet tea with a variety of lemons, oranges and a cherry in it. It was as bad as the diet Dr Pepper.

The chicken fried steak was the size of Texas and cooked perfect. The mashed potatoes were good and the gravy was ok but tasted to be from a can. The toast on the plate had one half that was ok and the other I think was used to mop up a spill prior to being put on the plate. I’ve never seen anything as soggy in my life.

Overall the food was decent but the service is lacking. If the food hadn’t been decent I would give...

The food was great. The salad bar was phenomenal! However, the whole time I was preparing my salad, two employees were working slowly and complaining about a third employee right in front of me. I’m scared to wonder what they might have been saying about this person if I wasn’t standing right there. They never spoke to me to greet me or anything, nor did they move to make it any easier for me to reach the salad dressings they were slightly blocking. My presence was noticed, then ignored. I had to walk back around to the other side instead of making a full circle around the island to get everything. They just complained a lot. The salad was still awesome.

We sat in the tap room, and the bartender was just sweet as could be. She really took care of us and made a great experience of our visit! I definitely feel the experience was as great as it was because of her. Don’t get me wrong- it’s a great place on her days off, too, I’m sure- but she really brought something extra to an already great place. I wish I could remember her name! But I hope the owners/management take REALLY good care of her. My review here would be slightly less positive if she had not been working that day.

The feel of the place and decor is pretty cool, too. It’s the sort of decor you can walk around to look at things and not feel like a weirdo. It’s got a great vibe! The only real downside of my visit was the publicly griping ladies at the salad bar, but I wouldn’t feel right docking stars from a review. Their poor attitudes will catch up to them without me needing to knock a great restaurant over it!

Note: I didn’t realize until I wrote this that I really only got pictures of the bathroom decor. 😂 I promise the rest of the place...