Bull In The Alley — Restaurant in Tulsa

After looking forward to a visit for months, I was not disappointed. I went with my mother and grandmother on a Sunday night after having made reservations the previous day, and we all agreed it was one of the best meals we had in a long time.

The restaurant is discreetly hidden in a nondescript alley in downtown Tulsa with a large green door opens into the dimly lit restaurant. Look for the small metal bull hanging above the door. The three of us were seated at a large round booth that could have easily held eight people. The decor is modern and dark yet cozy and is reminiscent of a speakeasy. From the looks of the large bar in the middle of the restaurant, the drink selection is great and we have heard great things about the martini cart.

We each began with the Caesar salad, which was very fresh and flavorful but had no croutons and could have been a bit bigger for the $12 price. I had the petit filet, medium rare, and our table shared an order of the Potatoes Egan (pan-fried potato wedges coated in parmesan cheese). All the sides are served family style and will likely be enough to serve at least 2-3 people.

The food arrived after about 20-25 minutes, and everything looked and smelled amazing. I had heard several reviews of this places steak being the best some had ever had. When I first tried it, mine seemed tougher to cut than it should have and not quite as flavorful as the others at the table. When a waiter arrived to check in on us, we informed him of this and he immediately offered to replace it. The new steak came out quickly, and the waiter told us that he and the chefs agreed I had accidentally received a lower-grade cut of meat. He told me that if anything wasn't totally 100% up to our standards, they would do everything to fix it for us. I very rarely send back food but I am glad I did in this case because the new steak was easily the best I've ever had, and the incident highlighted the amazing service the restaurant had and how dedicated they are to ensuring guests have the best dining experience possible. If you come here and anything is amiss, let someone know because the meal you are supposed to get makes everything very much worth it. The high-quality food and service made this experience five star-worthy.

The filets are only prime cuts and are cooked sous-vide so the cook is consistent throughout, then they are finished off in the pan to give the steaks a flavorful and slightly crunchy outer crust. They are very thick and juicy and the method of cooking and the marbling that comes with a prime cut makes it very tender. I'd highly recommend the Potatoes Egan which came out piping hot and were rich and flavorful.

Saving room for dessert is a must. Based on reviews we had read before coming here, we were excited to try the foot-tall piece of chocolate cake, so we were at first disappointed to hear that it had been discontinued (it was a 3-day process in house, ended up getting outsourced to keep up with demand, and quality went way down). Our server told us we should try the chocolate mousse pie, which ended up being some of the best restaurant dessert I have ever had. The portions are huge (the one "slice" we were served took up nearly a whole dinner plate and the three of us finished barely more than half of it) and it's worth every cent of the $20 price. And on that note, don't hesitate to take anything home—it's all too good to let go to waste.

With three Caesar salads, a glass of wine, a glass of iced tea, a cup of coffee, three filets ($45 each), the potatoes, dessert, and tip, the total was right around $300 for the three of us, but we all agreed that such an experience was worth every penny.

Although I can't speak to the martini cart or the piano player (neither of which we experienced but have heard great things about), I highly recommend this restaurant based on the incredible food, service, and atmosphere. Thanks to the entire wait staff, especially Tyler, who so graciously fixed my meal and was a wealth of knowledge about the restaurant and about Tulsa in general....

UPDATED AT HE BOTTOM..The Bull in the Alley has a great atmosphere and the service was top notch. My Wife and I went there for our Anniversary and were looking forward to eating here. We started with a slice of their special bacon and it was good, then the Caesar salad was also really good! Then came the $86.00 Porter house steak. It looked Awesome, but it was so dark in the restaurant and hard to see all the black char. First it had a very small filet side on the steak more like a T-bone, only 4 small pieces and since me and my Wife shared it, I only got one little piece. It was good but very charred. The strip side of the steak was tough and had lots of gristle. Not a good cut of meat at all. It was cooked to the correct temperature but it was very charred all over the outside of the steak and it was hard to taste the steak even chewing and chewing the tough pieces. We also had the potatoes Egan and they were different and I really liked them. My wife thought they were over cooked and dry and they were a little. We finished the meal off with a gigantic chunk of ice cream called turtle ice cream I believe. This thing was so big. Like the size of a volleyball or something. The ice cream was a good quality, but the caramel sauce and nuts were great. It would have been nice if they had a small version. Way too much for two people, it hardly look like we had touched it even after we had 4 large chunks off of it. Six to seven people could probably share this monster. We did enjoy our night out and If the steak were not $86 or it would have been better I believe I would be giving a much better review. UPDATE!!UPDATE!! UPDATE!!!:. After our first visit the management contacted me and after a bit of communication we decided to go back and try Bull In The Alley again. So this visit was the same great atmosphere, our waiter (Tyler) was outstanding. He was very positive and a pleasure. We started with the amazing Caesar salad (it's a 10), we also got the potatoes egan again (another 10) no really. This time they were perfect, my wife and I liked them. So then this time we both had the filet. We had them sear the steak and not char them. Let me tell you... These filets were so good. Pretty much as good as a filet mignon or any steak for that matter can get!! Maybe an inch and a half to two inches thick of deliciousness..You just have to experience it. We also had the chocolate mousse pie this time out and it was really good too. Huge!! If I had to pick between the 2 deserts we've had. I would probably pick the turtle ice cream ... The Carmel sauce was amazing... So I have updated my rating from a 3 star to a 5 star!! This second trip was Perfect and I appreciate the fact that Lindsey contacted me. Very awesome place, that wants to be the best they can be. I will definitely be coming back after this experience!...

TL;DR: decent to good food at truly absurd prices. This is the sort of place you go if you enjoy the appearance of being rich and/or generous.

The menu is VERY small. If I'm remembering correctly, the menu has 4-6 appetizers, 3 entrees, 8-12 sides, and 4 desserts. I'm unsure if the menu rotates. I ordered crab cakes off the appetizer list as an entree because I didn't want to pay $50 for a what I had (correctly) assumed was a small cutlet of salmon. Despite the decent texture of the crab cakes, the flavor was disappointingly fishy. The sauce that came with the crab cakes didn't match the flavor of the cakes themselves particularly well, in my opinion. My wife ordered the aforementioned salmon, which had an excellent flavor but was, as mentioned, rather small and quite steeply priced. In addition to our entrees, we also tried the bacon which had been recommended by a friend. The cut was excellent but frankly, you can get a pound of comparable quality bacon from Sprouts for the price of 2 strips off this menu. Further, I'm not particularly fond of the charring Bull in the Alley does to their bacon. The dessert was an absolutely massive pile of rock-solid ice cream (1/3 gallon) with a gummy-consistency chocolate drizzle, some caramel, about twice as many macadamia nuts as would've been appreciated, served atop a crust, all skewered with a steak knife. Though daunting, I was not a fan of this dessert. The ice cream itself was good once thawed, but the toppings ranged from 'not great' to 'icky.' Considering the size of the thing, I have to assume the ice cream is often ordered with the thought of it's mass being a novelty or curiosity meant for entertainment, rather than something they actually intend to consume.

The bar was... odd. There seemed to be plenty of bottles which simply weren't on the drink menu, but due to the shape of the bar, you'll be darned if you can figure out what they are. Many of the drinks have prices beside the names but, or whatever reason, the scotch does not. I personally ordered a Macallan 15, which ultimately cost somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2 the price of the full bottle and came with what I have to assume was half of their freezer's stock of available ice.

The service was very friendly and knowledgeable about seemingly everything, but not particularly speedy. The time to receive the food after ordering was somewhere between half an hour to an hour.

Despite it's small size, there are some good options on the menu here. That said, I'll never be back to figure which menu items are good as I'd prefer not to refinance my home in...