The Vault Restaurant — Restaurant in Tulsa

I attended this restaurant for a private event (celebration of life), so this review will be regarding their private room primarily. First of all, the service was remarkably good. We had a dedicated bartender/ waitress who was phenomenal. The atmosphere was very well suited to the event except that the chairs were rather tightly spaced. The food was in 3 courses, a salad, a choice of entrée, and desert, and I'll address each separately. (Ceasar) Salad: The salad was pretty good, the lettuce was crisp and properly sized, the dressing was good and very well portioned. Entrée: My chosen entrée was the Clipper Ship chicken with whipped mashed potatoes and the spinach and carrots. This was my biggest complaint with the restaurant; even between mine and my girlfriend's (who was seated directly next to me and ordered the exact same dish) plate, the portion sizes were noticeably different and personally I didn't feel the portion was enough. It wasn't the stereotypical / joke that you go to a fancy restaurant and get 1 bite of food as an entree but definitely not the kind of meal for when you're super hungry after a long day's work. Now size aside, the chicken was good, not great, I didn't feel that the chicken itself was anything special, and it was entirely carried by the sauce, which was very good. The potatoes were pretty good, but again, I didn't feel that there were enough of them. The way they were plated, I also struggled to tell if it was the potatoes or the sauces, but they were almost too thin. The spinach and carrots were fine, nothing really noteworthy, either good or bad. Desert: The desert came in the form of a single chocolate dipped strawberry, a small (approximately 1.5 square inches) square of carrot cake, and a similarly sized square of keylime pie. The strawberry was nothing special to be quite blunt about it. The strawberry was not personally ripe but not horrible, and the chocolate was... chocolate. The carrot cake was not bad, a vast improvement over the strawberry, but again, the issue of portion sizes normally a piece the size of this would be 1 bite for me, but i stretched it into two in a failed attempt to savor it, so while I will say that it wasn't bad, i couldn't really taste enough of it to say it was great. Now, where the desert really and truly shined was the keylime pie. Now, to be totally honest, I had never had keylime pie before, so I don't have a comparison. That said, just wow, even though it was still a laughably small piece, it was packed with flavor, and the texture was amazing. Also, for context, this entire thing was $45 per person plus tip plus a cash bar if you wanted anything but water to drink(I personally didn't get anything else to drink but the prices were around $5-$10 per drink and those who did order drinks seemedto enjoy them), and while this isn't awful, considering that this was also in a private room I still feel that the portion sizes should have been bigger even 15-20% I think would have felt far more fitting of...

Have you taken a cocktail class before? If you have, I'm sure it wasn't as entertaining and curated as The Vault's. I partook in the class on Thursday (Sept. 26th, 2024). I purchased my ticket with a friend who convinced me to tag along. As someone who can enjoy simple, straightforward experiences, I found myself highly captivated and immediately fulfilled with my visit.

Though the offering is titled "cocktail class," no pens, paper or notes will be needed! The class presents as more of a show with a theme. As my first time (ever) in The Vault, I was shook by the instant allure of the design - large doors, tall glass windows, spacious seating area, ample natural lighting and modern fixtures. Upon entry, a host asks if I was here for the bartending class in which I was guided to a seat with my name affixed. Also at the seat was a short menu of the theme & drink menu. The bartender (from Virginia) was very attentive and nice the entire time. Upon being seated, I was immediately greeted and brought the gratuitous appetizer which was a skewered meats & vegetables, chocolate-covered strawberries, corn tortilla chips and chunky guacamole. I enjoyed all them individually and, as someone who normally does NOT eat guacamole, I thought it was delicious. The next bartender (Sylvia) was just as attentive and friendly.

THEN THE SHOW BEGINS. Roughly 15mins after the arrival time, themed-entry music begins and a curly-haired woman by the name of Libby (the owner) pops out at the front of the restaurant. She welcomed everyone to the class, explained the theme and then goes into the making of each cocktail. Since the theme of the night was Musicals, she provided history of each musical and how it was crafted into a cocktail. She owns the crowd as she educates and displays how to make each item. She was well-versed in her knowledge of liquors of all varieties. After the pours, shakes and stirs, she cheers the crowd and walks off to applause. A true thespian.

This cycle continued for the remainder of the evening. As the staff wearilessly fixed drinks and made orders, we were educated on Oklahoma!, Wicked, Hamilton and Mama Mia as we fell to the allure of ambiance, entertainment and intoxication. The owner was very involved in the production, presentation and service which was beyond impressive. I was overly delighted to have been apart of the experience. A mere $40 for four cocktails, entertainment and an appetizer is quite reasonable, it's no wonder why they sell out each show. I can't wait to visit again for lunch, dinner and especially another cocktail class. Plus, I'm always willing to support a...

We had reservations via Open Table, and were 15 minutes early, but were sat without issue. There were a number of larger parties that evening as there was a concert downtown. It took a few minutes for our server to come to us, but that's fine. Our real issue was with the food/kitchen, and clear lack of good management practices.

We started off with the Spinach & Heart of Palm Dip. It took 35 minutes to arrive. The toast points were literally red because of the amount of paprika they were dusted with. There's no mention of this on the menu, or else I would have asked for only the tortilla crisps, as I'm not a fan of paprika. Given the amount of time it took for us to even receive our appetizer, we did not mention this to our server. Secondly, this was mostly just a warm cream cheese dip, as there was limited spinach and even more limited hearts of palm.

My husband ordered chicken sandwich with fries for dinner, and I opted for the steak frites. About 10 minutes after placing our order, the server had to come back and inform us that they were out of fries. So, I opted for the mashed potatoes and my husband for a caesar salad. Another 10 minutes later, the server came back AGAIN to inform us that they were out of the flat iron steak. I instead opted for the filet. When our entrees finally arrived, they were...fine? My husband's "caesar" salad had no kale as mentioned on the menu, and had tomatoes added. Tomatoes are not included on the menu for the caesar. We had to ask for the caesar dressing, as there was none on the plate or the lettuce. I'm pretty sure my "filet/tenderloin" was actually a sirloin, but it is what it is.

We arrived at 6:45 and left at 8:20. The server attempted to pass off the issues as "they were busy because there was a big concert in town," which missed the marked considering we were also attending the concert.

Every restaurant has off nights, but management has some work to do - running out of french fries on a Saturday night when there is a known, sold-out, advertised event in town screams volumes about how the establishment is functioning. A server should be well aware of what the kitchen is low on, or run out of prior to getting to a table. The fact that the server/kitchen/management missed this mark TWICE and there were clear substitution of items compared to what is on the menu serves as the reasons we will...