The Avery Kitchen & Bar — Restaurant in Tulsa

Made a last-minute reservation for me and my 4-year-old daughter to sit on the patio at The Avery—we were so excited for a little girls night on my evening off. We planned to enjoy the sunset, sip on mocktails, share an appetizer, and hang out for a good hour and a half. I was eyeing the filet, and she was thrilled about the idea of a burger outside.

From the moment we walked in, the vibe was off. The host seemed totally disengaged and made me lead the interaction. I gave her my name, and she quietly started walking us to a table. As we passed a server, she said to him, “This is you,” and he looked very clearly disappointed.

Meanwhile, my daughter was bouncing with excitement going, “Yay I’m so excited we’re going to eat outside!” But I could already tell the host was not taking us that way. I gently mentioned, “We had requested outside,” and she completely ignored me. I had to say again, “I’m sorry, but we wanted to sit outside tonight—we put it in our reservation.” She finally turned, looked confused, and told the already-annoyed server, “They want to sit outside.” His only response? “It’s hot.”

I stood there patiently until the host opened the patio door and said, “Take your pick. If you want a kids menu, you’ll have to ask your server.”

We sat down and tried to settle in, but then the server came out… and I’ve never experienced anything like it. No greeting, no hospitality. Just him standing over us like we were a problem. I asked about the kids menu and he begrudgingly rattled off a few options while pouring my water. He said he’d get my daughter a kids cup, took the regular glass he was going to give her, and dropped it on the table next to us. Literally. The glass tipped over, rolled off the table, and shattered on the ground. He watched it crash… then turned around and walked back inside. No words. No apology.

At that point, I realized we weren’t going to have the girls night dinner we’d expected. I calmly got up and decided to take my daughter somewhere else. On our way out, the host looked at me like she was confused, and I just said, “I’m not being served by that waiter—he’s crazy.”

As we were heading down the escalator, the manager ran after us to ask what happened. I gave him the short version. He was apologetic and offered to seat us with “his best server” and “fully take care of the meal.” I appreciated the gesture, but I declined.

As someone who works in the industry, I can tell this isn’t just a bad apple situation—it’s a culture issue. If one server feels that comfortable being blatantly hostile and another is supposed to be a five-star fix, that tells me there’s no consistent standard of service in place. From the moment we arrived—no greeting, no one checking the reservation notes, just a basic patio request brushed off—the tone was set.

This was hands-down the most uncomfortable I’ve ever felt in a restaurant. We didn’t even get the chance to try the food… but honestly, after that kind of treatment, I’m not too concerned about what we missed. The energy...

This review is for March 17, 2022. I made the reservation as a pre-dinner out before the Dua Lipa concert at the BOK. I have been here a few times, and there have been some "hits" an a couple of misses.

The 1st time we tried to eat here, as their main dining dinner menu had already closed down, all they had was their after hour slimmed down menu and so we walked out. That was not the food we had in mind. I just wish they stated this on their website.

When we did make it into eat, they had some specials going on. I had a Veggie Pot Pie, and it really was the bomb, and my friend had the Chicken Pot Pie. The large size and the flavor of the pies was awesome. I also had a couple of other meals there previously and they were good, but I do want to go back to the review for tlhis specifc night.

For this particular dining experience I had my daughter with me. We asked for a booth and was seated immediately, although we were a little ahead on our reservation time. When the waitress showed up I ordered a beer and she had water. The 1st thing was that out of all the brews on tap, according to their menu, they only had one that was listed. After I had been given the choices, I settle on a wheat.

We did not do any appetizers. My daughter had the Chop House burger, which she said was good, and I had the Trout. For the Trout, I will say that it was one of the best cooked pieces of Trout that I have ever had eating out. Looked delicious and tasted delicious. The only thing that I will say, for the way it was cut for frying and presentation, is to watch out for a few tiny bones that may have neen missed. No big deal for me, because I have caught a few fish to filet or someone else has, so look for the bones. I swear, the way it was cooked, the way it was displayed on the plate, and the way it tasted, it was very good. Hat's off to the chef and I indicated so to the waitress.

As far as tentative service from the waitress, it was a little slow, but I know she was working the floor. As with most restaurants that I have been to, since March of 2020, it's a struggle with having enough waistaff and or cooks to deal with the volume of patrons.

All and all it's a very decent place to have dinner, especially on nights before a BOK event, and I will be going back with another friend that hasn't been there. I just hope they bring the Veggie Pot Pie back. The food is pretty good, at least from what I have had as well as what my dinner guests have had, the service is decent, and its a very good...

My husband had been suggesting we do lunch here for years as he has frequented the place for business lunches. The opportunity finally arose and we have it a go. When we sat down he let me know the service was slow, and possibly on purpose due to having a lot of business clients. We had two children in tow, so hoped that would be observed and possibly sped up. Our service was not just slow. It was incredibly slow, even by their standards. This is evidenced by the fact that the waitress told us the manager would be around in a bit to address our wait. He did come around, but merely asked how our food tasted. What? We honestly thought one meal would be comped at that point so we were surprised. Our waitress was tending bar and serving us so maybe that is why it took so long. Perhaps they were short-staffed because the place was far from crowded. Whatever the reason, our wait was horribly long and nothing was done about it. The food was pretty good, but the portions were all small, even the kids. I normally only eat half of restaurant portions but I ate all of this. For the quality of the food and the huge price tag I would have rather eaten at a nice restaurant and paid more, or eaten at a great (without the ambiance for me to refer to it as “nice”) restaurant like McNellie’s or some other option downtown, paid much less, and still gotten a good burger that I would have enjoyed for two meals. The kicker for me was when the waitress finally left the bar she was tending long enough to give us a check and a to go box, she only brought one box for our daughter’s grilled cheese and fruit cup. We weren’t leaving it for the price paid and we weren’t putting it together because that’s just nasty. I went and flagged down our waitress to ask for another box for the fruit and she handed me a to go coffee cup. While, no doubt, she admired her own ingenuity, it was semi insulting to me and I walked back to our table, dazed and confused. I also, instead of carrying two like-sized boxes, had to walk back to the pac parking garage carrying the two to go “boxes” rather awkwardly. I very likely will never eat here again. My husband was equally disgusted. While he cannot help if he has to go there for lunches he was far less...