Fixins Soul Kitchen — Restaurant in Tulsa

Having visited this restaurant 5 times, I believe that it deserves a review. After opening in the summer of 2023, initially there were many compliments and encouraging words surrounding Fixins. Since then, the streets have been divided on whether to praise Fixins or disgrace it.

The hype for Fixins began during construction. The anticipation began when they put the name on the building months before opening. When they finally did, the line was wrapped around the building for days. It felt impossible to get a seat or make a reservation. Now, there’s only a crowd on the weekends. Tulsa has a good selection of Soul Food restaurants (My Momma’s House, Wanda J’s, Sweet Lisa’s, etc.), this felt modern and fun, people were excited. Generally, Tulsa’s Soul Food is inexpensive but unfortunately Fixins’ menu items are pricier than many restaurants in the area, let alone other soul food establishments.

I’ve visited June 10th, June 30th, October 30th (2023), January 26th, and January 28th (2024). The first year of opening the service was spotty. Sometimes there wasn’t a host present, there were often more guests than servers and the service was inconsistent. In my more recent visits, the service has gotten better: there’s often a host present to greet you and the server is more attentive. But, the biggest topic of controversy is the food itself. I’ve heard many complaints but I’ll only speak on what I’ve witnessed firsthand. Of the five times I’ve visited, I ordered; 1) Mac & Cheese with a Mojito, 2) Oxtails with okra & rice, 3) Smothered Chicken with Yams and Black-Eyed Peas, 4) Chicken Sandwich with Black Eyed Peas, 5) Peach Cobbler. The Mac & Cheese was a little dry but it wasn’t terrible. The bartender made a great mojito and the Mac & Cheese has gotten better since then. The oxtails come bone-in & sauced which makes consuming them difficult and messy. The flavor & presentation was great but I didn’t think it was worth the price. The okra is seasoned but it out comes whole, not sliced, and was tough to chew. The rice was rice. I remember the gravy on the smothered chicken being better than the chicken itself and the black-eyed peas being salty. The yams were yummy! Exactly how you’d expect at Thanksgiving. The chicken sandwich was pretty good but for $14 I would sacrifice the experience for a cheaper meal (and it’s the cheapest menu entrée). The second time I ordered the black-eyed peas they were just as salty. So far, my favorite visit was when I simply ordered the Peach Cobbler. It comes out in a mini-skillet, warm, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. It’s simple but it’s decadent and warms your soul.

During these five visits, I’ve often gone with a friend or a group and I’ve been privy to their experiences. I was told that the Kool-Aid Flavas were too sweet (so be sure to ask for ice), the chicken was too greasy, someone’s chicken wasn’t cooked through, the salad is too expensive, and the buttermilk biscuits were too dry.

Moving on, Fixins has many great things to lean on. The space itself is very appealing, they have a fully comprehensive bar and it has a built-in DJ booth. There’s plenty of diverse seating throughout the restaurant. The large glass windows allow for wonderful lighting and there’s a private room available for large parties/events.

Now, after all of that I could understand if you’d prefer to dine elsewhere or avoid the establishment altogether. It’s rather expensive, parking may be an issue and you may or may not end up liking your food. After my experiences, I think that the mixed reviews are justified but you still won’t know until you try. For me, they seem to be getting better with their service and more consistent with their food so I say...

Our first (and only) time going here was really disappointing. We wanted to love it — there’s not a ton of soul food places in Tulsa, and this is right downtown in a really neat area. But sadly we won’t ever go back. We had a 7pm reservation for a large group — a birthday party. We had another reservation for a bike bar at 9pm so we made the dinner reservation at that time, knowing that’d give us plenty of time to eat and get where we needed to be. We got there on time and checked in and then waited outside while they supposedly got the table ready. At 7:30 we finally went in to ask why it was taking to long and we were told they were cleaning off the table. 7:45 rolls around and my husband went back in and told the hostess, “hey our reservation was for 7pm and it’s now 7:45…” to which she responded, “okay?” So he said “well… we have somewhere we have to be at 9pm…” and her response again was, “okay?” Complete rude. No apology. Didn’t offer to check on the table for us. Nothing. Just was rude. (Her name was Jaiden.) So we just waited a bit longer and finally, right before 8pm we went back in and asked to see the manager because we’re now running behind and don’t have much time to eat. He said they were cleaning off the table. We told him we’ve been told that probably 3 times now over the last 50 minutes. He then questioned us about what time we checked in for our reservation, as if we’d showed up late and the delay was our fault. Maybe 5 minutes later they finally seated us and got our orders really quick. There was a lot of us, about 15, and they managed to get our food and drink orders in and out super fast. Which was a relief and the main reason I’d give them 2 stars. That and the food was fairly good. Nothing worth the money or the wait. But it was good nonetheless. My husband really enjoyed the wing and waffle. To throw SOME positivity in there…. HOWEVER, it quickly turned sour when the waitress, who wasn’t very friendly the first place, came over to give us the checks. She asked how we were splitting them and we began to tell her who was with who. We were practically all couples. And she cut us off mid-sentence and scoffed and said “you know we can only split this 3 ways, right?” And we were all confused… no? We had no clue because we were not told when we sat down or ordered. So then all 15 of us had to try and figure out who to group together and who would venmo who and it was just chaotic. And she acted put out the entire time about having to split the check up into 3, when in reality we were the ones inconvenienced. I mean, what do they do if 4 individuals come in for lunch and want to pay separately? They cant? How does that make sense. So my husband went to the manager and said “this really isn’t a good look… we already waited 50 minutes past our reservation and now when we really need to get out of here we’re being told we can’t split our checks up?” He acted like he was going to fix the issue but didn’t. Not sure if we got a discount. But either way we split it 3 ways and left there very salty about the experience. If they intend to bring in clientele and keep people coming back they need to be more accommodating and understanding. And the employees need to be trained in customer service. I’ve never been treated with such contempt at a restaurant before. It felt like we were at the restaurant where you pay the staff to treat you like crap lol. It was just strange and unpleasant. Our experience could have been turned around in a positive way if they had been more friendly and apologetic. But instead we were treated like we were annoying. Sadly I wouldn’t recommend them for...

We (me and my husband) visited Fixin for the first time while on our trip to Tulsa for our family reunion. The place was very clean, and food smelled delicious. We were seated quickly but was a little concerned with the seating because there were at least 50 plus seats up front and midway the restaurant yet we were seated as far back as you can get near the kitchen. When questioning the staff we were told oh well there is only one other table, and it is a bit small. This is 2024 and I cannot believe that black people are still seated in the back of any restaurant. Then we were seated by a family of five with small kids, we are retired folks, and it would have been nice to have a somewhat quiet spot in the restaurant. Although the music was definitely my type (gospel and quite surprising) it was way too loud especially with some of the clientele talking a bit louder than usual for a restaurant.

Anyways we had ordered some food from another restaurant in the area, and it was never delivered by DoorDash, and maybe it’s just the area but when calling the restaurant several times our calls just went to an answering machine. So after waiting for 1 hour we decided to just put on our walking shoes and see if we could find a nice place to eat since we were staying around the corner at the Holiday Inn Express. The best part about our visit was with the waitress Ashylnn, she definitely has the right skills for serving patrons. My husband ordered the peach cobbler with some tea, I wanted some chicken with waffles, well there was no white meat only dark meat, so then I ordered the chicken tenders, they did not have any. So, I just ask for some peach cobbler also while I tried to make up my mind of something the restaurant would have. While waiting the peach cobbler was delivered, although the appearance of the peach cobbler was amazing it was way way too sweet. I could have made an entire additional pan of peach cobbler with just the sugar from that bowl.

I then ordered the smothered pork chops with picked onions, candied yams, and charred okra with bacon. I took one bite of the pork chops, and they did not taste done and was pink (but I thought perhaps it was just some of the pink pickled onion juice that seeped through the brown gravy and made it pink, but as I was chewing it the texture was off. I do not think it was fully cooked. The candied yams lacked taste, and I did not see any bacon with the charred okra. I did taste both but was not pleased.

So will I return…YES. Here’s the thing I think all restaurants has a bad day, and obviously this was not a good day for the restaurant. But I will return when we visit Tulsa next (usually only once every two years) and give them another chance, because I stand behind their vision and in my heart I would love nothing more than to see the restaurant succeed. I will also return because of the spectacular amazing service given by Ashlynn who did EVERYTHING she could to make it right, but never once argued with me, she simply continued to do what she could to make it right without shining a bad light on the restaurant. The meal was taken off...