Angel's Diner — Restaurant in McAlester

I will never go back to this establishment. Myself and four of my fellow Police Officers entered Angels Diner in uniform during our lunch break as I was told this was a good “cop-friendly” establishment with great food. We were seated in the back of the restaurant away from everyone else, which I initially thought was a courtesy but later came to the conclusion it was to keep us out of sight.

We sat down to the table and ordered our food at 11:47AM. We didn’t see the hostess again for 20 minutes. Our drinks had run dry, but no one came to check on us. At around 1:10PM the hostess arrived with one of our appetizers and said the other is delayed because the cook didn’t see it. We got the second appetizer 5 or so minutes later. We then didn’t see the hostess again for 15-20 minutes. I finally got up, walked around to the front of the restaurant and found the hostess. I told her we have a hard deadline to get back to work. She said something to the effect of….. it’s on the grill, “it’s getting plated”. I assumed that meant they were putting our food on plates…….. but apparently I was wrong. 10 minutes after that………At 12:45 to 12:47 our food was finally brought out. I only observed 8 tables occupied-the majority were empty when I walked around, so there was no surge of people there.

We immediately told her we needed all the food placed in “to go” containers. We had now been sitting there for an hour with only two appetizers served. So, we walked up to the cash register because we literally had about 12 minutes to get back to our department. My bill came to $38 and some change for 2 lunches (A cheeseburger and fries and steak fingers with onion rings). The hostess never apologized for the delay. I even made a point to say “$38 dollars? I’ve been here an hour and didn’t even get to eat it here”. The hostess gave no response. It was at that point I informed her I would never be coming back here.

Because we were late getting back to our department, I didn’t get to eat for the rest of the day as this is our annual training. I ended up tossing the food away because it sat for 5 hours on a table. Given that, I cannot comment if the food was good. I can’t comment too much on the atmosphere because we were placed in the rear of the restaurant with two young women taking care of very loud babies. The service I can unequivocally comment on and it was absolutely abysmal.

As a Police Officer in uniform, I don’t expect to be given preferential treatment and I certainly don’t solicit or look for discounts. I didn’t choose this line of work for a few bucks off a burger. But when I’m treated “less than”, especially in uniform-I find that extraordinarily distasteful. By no means am I perfect, but in my professional life as with my personal life, I will still apologize for my mistakes and shortcomings and seek to rectify them. There was no apology or attempt to even account for a disservice. So, I’m my experience, I take that to be an intentional act.

I do not recommend this establishment. Myself and my fellow 4 Officers will not be coming back to this establishment. I will make sure every Officer in my department knows about our experience and I will suggest to other law enforcement agencies to avoid this location, or go in plain clothes if you want to be treated equally. How...

On road trips, when possible I try not to eat at chains/drive-throughs/common places. I started Googling along my route and found this place.

The location is just on the access road of the highway and really stands out from anything along this lengthy stretch. The signage is huge and really hard to miss. Adding to that is the pink Cadillac out front by the restaurant signs.

The inside is quintessential diner, decorated everywhere with throwback art, decorations, posters, models, and the like. Even the bathroom is uniquely adorned with murals on enclosures, etc. I never photograph bathrooms but I had to snap a shot of the murals in the unoccupied men’s room b/c they are so unique.

There are multiple rooms, as well as a covered patio out back.

We ordered the #1 and the Chicken Fried Steak and Eggs.

The Chicken Fried Steak and eggs with potatoes: Wow, I was impressed as soon as I saw this dish show up. The first thing I tried was the potatoes, and they had a delicious crunch and were soft in the middle. Spot-on cooking here! Thoroughly enjoyable. The eggs and toast were on point, but what stole the show here was the Chicken Fried Steak. It’s actually two steaks and I got the default cream gravy. The portion was very large, the steaks were actually quite thick (which is very nice), and the breading was well seasoned, thick, and stuck pretty well. I had no intention of downing the whole thing, but I couldn’t stop…

The #1 is a straight forward, simple combo of one egg, two slices of bacon (or one sausage patty) served with home style potatoes, and toast or biscuit and gravy. Everything was perfectly cooked and delicious as well!

As far as the experience, this is so quite obviously a local favorite and for good reasons.

The real treat here was when the check arrived. All of that food and two bottomless sodas, came out to $22 plus tax/tip. Tremendous value!

Our server as Misty and she was attentive and helpful.

I will find it hard to just drive by this place each time I make this trip and not...

HIDDEN GEM ALERT!!

We noticed that you were greeted not only when you walked in, but when you left. And, not by just one staff member! Angel’s Diner is a small hole-in-the-wall, 50’s atmosphere diner with gently aged decor of Elvis, Marilyn, and James Dean. They play 50’s music on Sirius Satellite Radio while you eat.

The grounds were clean and the floor of the diner were noticeably clean and well kept. The booth where we sat was clean and free of crumbs from previous patrons. When I used the restroom, there was some paper towels on the floor. Otherwise, a pretty clean eatery.

We ordered an appetizer that was steak chunks with a dipping sauce, I believe it was called John Wayne’s Cowboy Candy. The steak was tenderloin-like in that it was soft and chewed easily. It had a dipping sauce that made it explode in your mouth. My wife ordered the Maybelline Chicken Basket, I the Chicken Fried Chicken sandwich, and my 2-year old the Kid’s Corndog Basket.

My wife mentioned that the chicken (nuggets) were the best she’d EVER had. Additionally, my Chicken Fried Chicken was the crispiest I have EVER had. All of the food was prepared well, was hot, and fresh to our table. The Corndogs were regular mini corndogs and there is nothing to mention about them.

Here’s the breakdown: the cleanliness of the restaurant gets a 9/10; the taste of the food was great and gets a 10/10; and the value of the food versus the cost gets a stellar 10/10. That’s a 29 out of 30 or 29/30 = .96667. Multiply that by 100 and you get a 96.667% = 97% (rounded) = an A!

I would definitely eat here again and if you are passing through McAlester, wondering where you should...