Cattlemen's Steakhouse — Restaurant in Oklahoma City

UPDATE: Evidently Cattlemen's cares about what their customers say and my wife and I received an letter of apology and a request to come back and give them another chance. My wife and I revisited Cattlemen's last Friday, March 21st and they were really busy. I ordered what I usually do, that is the luncheon steak, mashed potatoes with brown gravy, and a salad with their house dressing. This time everything was wonderful. The steak was cooked to perfection and tender, the mashed potatoes and gravy was hot, and the salad with house dressing was just right. Cattlemen's comped up to $25 of our meal as part of their apology, which goes to show how much they care about customer satisfaction, which is rare these days. My wife and I will continue to go to Cattlemen's with the expectation our meal will be great. PREVIOUSLY: When I used to work in downtown OKC my buddy and I would at least go to Cattlemen's once a month at lunchtime for a special meal out. We'd always get there about 11am and never had a problem getting a good parking spot. We never had to wait for a table and were immediately seated and our drinks and order were taken promptly. I can honestly say we had nothing but the best, friendliest, and prompt service from any of the waitstaff in all our times coming to this establishment, which is an accomplishment to be commended, especially nowadays. I would always order the luncheon steak special, the house salad with house dressing, mashed potatoes with brown gravy, and it came with a dinner roll. When the steak came, the waitstaff always asked us to cut into our steak to see if it was satisfactory. At the time (and this was back prior to the end of 2016, my retirement), I can state with certainty that I don't ever remember getting food that was nothing short of fantastic. The 6 oz sirloin steak was always cooked to perfection, was tender and tasty, the mashed potatoes with gravy was always hot and tasty, and the house salad with it's addictive house dressing was the best. The dinner roll was tender, hot, and tasty as well. I believe the price for my luncheon steak back then was $7 and with my coffee it ended up just a little more than that for my final bill. What a value for a scrumptious lunch. I looked forward to it every month. Fast forward to the last time I visited Cattlemen's, which was last year. I was expecting things not to have changed but like the old saying goes, "you can never go back" kicked in and it was sad and disappointing. I had been a long time since I was there but amazingly the decor of this establishment had remained unchanged. Some would say that's a good thing and perhaps it is. However, some things that had changed for me are; the house salad didn't seem as fresh and crisp and the dressing was definitely not as tasty and was thick and lumpy; the luncheon steak and shrunk to palm-size, it was tough and had grizzle in it, and wasn't tasty flavor-wise. My mashed potatoes were not very hot and the brown gravy was somewhat congealed for some reason. While the overall cost of my luncheon steak had increased a lot over what it once was, I wouldn't have minded so much had everything I ate been what it once was. On a more positive note, the waitstaff was still amazing. Was that enough to make me want to come back? I don't think so. It had been a long time since I had been back to Cattlemen's. You see, my friend and buddy "Mickie" had passed away right before I had retired, so it made it hard for me to go back to our favorite food spot. Anyway, I hope at some point Cattlemen's gets back to its roots, that is GREAT-TASTING TENDER STEAK, WONDERFUL HOUSE SALAD AND HOUSE DRESSING, AND HOT FOOD. I'd love to come back when all that takes place. I miss the...

My son and daughter in law moved to Oklahoma a year ago and one day they posted pictures of here and told how good it was and I was like when I come to visit we are definitely coming here ! Well , I came down the first week of April and we came in on Thursday , April 3rd. We really really enjoyed it ! I've lived in Las Vegas since 1991 and been to several steakhouses that are highly recommended , but this one was sooo much better and a little cheaper than most. Also this steakhouse has been open for over 100 years !

I got the T-bone and it was cooked perfectly and was very flavorful. No Heinz 57 or A1 needed on this bad boy. My son got the Larger Filet Mignon and to be honest I liked his better than mine. I love a good filet , but most places don't seem to cook it right like I do at home , slow and seasoned , most places will not season or cook too fast and it will be a little dry. My daughter in law got the Ribeye and it was very good too. I can only think of one steakhouse in Vegas that I had a slightly better steak and I mean slightly , but it was more expensive. I would still pick this place over the one in Vegas.

We started out with appetizers , Potato Skins , A Shrimp with Cocktail Sauce , 2 Salads one with House Dressing and one with Thousand Island Dressing which was for me. My son and daughter in law love the House Dressing. My Thousand Island was very good and thick like I like it. The Potato Skins were good , but I didn't want to eat to much of them since we get a Baked Potato with our steaks and I wanted to leave plenty of room. I don't do shrimp , but my family liked them.

Now my daughter in law is a Chef and she asked about the Lamb Fries. She knew what they were , but asked if people actually order them or was it like kind of a gimmick. Our waitress said yes , lots of people do order them and like them and she said she would give us a sample to try. She brought us a plate with 3 of them with a lemon and a red sauce , maybe cocktail sauce , I'm not sure. Anyway my daughter in law was the first brave one , then my son , then me. I thought they were okay , nothing I would order again. They kind of reminded me of the onion rings you buy in the grocery store with the chopped up onions , not the whole onions inside. They weren't chewy or nothing like that which is what I was kind of expecting. To me they didn't have a lot of taste and knowing what they are is not something I would really be interested in eating. But I can say I at least tried them. I lived in Germany for 4 years during the 80's while in the Army and traveled all over Europe and tried lots of different foods I had never had before and found many that I loved and still get today.

I got a beer with my dinner and I just had to get a Cactus Kicker to go with it after a while. It's a green liquor drink inside a small cowboy boot shaped glass and you get to keep the glass and take it home. It was pretty good. I can't remember what all the ingredients are , but it had Rum in it. I would recommend you getting one. It tastes pretty good and a fun drink.

The service was great and I love the old school decor. The smell of an old building , the steaks cooking in the air , the families sitting together enjoying each others company , great food , slightly dark lighting but not to dark and not the blazing lights of the new steakhouses. It felt like you were stepping back in time of when I was kid going out to eat with my Mom and Dad. I would definitely recommend everyone to come and eat here and I will definitely be back when I visit my family again. I've been telling all my co-workers back in Las Vegas about the food and showing them pictures . It will always be a...

I have thought about this experience for a few weeks. I don’t usually feel the need to ever review a restaurant, but I have never felt more ripped off than when I went to cattleman’s.

To start very nice people, Rodney our server was awesome never let him go give him a raise.

This unfortunately is a restaurant coasting off of past success and is nothing more than a tourist trap.

We ordered ribeye, the t bone, the chicken fried steak, appetizers the shrimp and a steak soup which we thought sounded interesting

App: Shrimp themselves were actually good, but came on a bed of rice that was either over cooked or just plain stale. I don’t think it was worth the cost. Do not recommend.

App: Steak soup do NOT order. Bland, no taste, lukewarm warm. Just wasn’t good any aspect of it.

Salad: You get a house salad with your steaks; which in reality is 5-7 pieces of lettuce with a glob of their special dressing. I’m serious when I say the “salad” is 5-7 pieces of lettuce. It is a very small portion that comes in a bowl the size of a tuna can (Not an exaggeration). Maybe my expectation were too high? You also get some weird crouton chip/wafers which…I am not sure the bowl was so small you couldn’t really eat them with the salad.

House rolls came and they were okay nothing special. I think longhorns / Texas road house are better. They seemed to taste homemade just came out cold and deflated.

The steaks we ordered with bake potato and veggies. Again - veggies you get are one broccoli, 2-3 carrot chips, and 1 cauliflower head. Really small portion. Im not asking for the whole garden, but geez okay. The ribeye and t bone temperatures were pretty off. I ordered a medium rare and got a rare, we ordered the t bone at a medium (I know sacrilege) and got a rare. The staff was happy to fix which was great. The steaks were seasoned good, but really didn’t have any kind of sear or crust. Just grey in color. Below average steak.

The chicken fried steak which I heard OKC was famous for? Was disappointing. I’m no cook and I sound pretentious but any time you pour gravy underneath something it makes it soggy. That’s why it’s always poured over top of a food item. But the bigger issue is it just was not good. Over cooked, not really fried, no gold fry color on it, no crisp or crunch…just wet soggy mush similar to wet cardboard. Do not recommend.

Again, Rodney was excellent and I can see where the place has good bones and was probably great at one point. But the restaurant is riding the coat tales of a president that came almost 20 years ago, tourists like myself that do not know any better, and being “historic” with good advertising. Unfortunately, they draw crowds where I have to imagine there is a silent majority that feel the same as I do.

I highly recommend you avoid Cattlemen’s. I’m sure you guys are great, wanted it to be awesome…just plain was not a...