Tulsa sits at a crossroads of barbecue traditions — Kansas City to the north, Texas to the south — and its own version borrows from both without committing to either. Beef and pork share the menu, and the sauce tends toward the sweet side.
Chicken-fried steak is the other staple, and the standard by which a Tulsa diner is judged: pounded, breaded, fried, and buried under cream gravy.
The city has a serious Art Deco downtown, built on oil money in the 1920s, and the surrounding Blue Dome and Brady districts have filled with independent restaurants over the last decade. Tulsa also has a well-established Mexican community on the east side, and the food there is the city’s best value.