Mickey Mantles Steakhouse is A Home Run

Last week Mr. Wonderful and I had our date night at Mickey Mantle’s Steakhouse.

How is it I’ve never been here before?  This place was absolutely fabulous!  Located across the street from the Bricktown Ballpark, we were pleased with the fact that in a downtown area that is a little challenging to park in, we had valet parkers greet us at the foot of the porch stairs.

From the moment we walked in we were treated like royalty.  We were met in the spacious lobby by the hostesses.

And we were introduced to Brittany Devero, the Director of Private Events, or the lady people refer to as “the face of Mickey Mantle’s”.

Brittany is energetic and knowledgable about many things concerning the eatery and let us know the following facts about Mickey Mantle’s Steakhouse:

– They are celebrating 10 years of business. In celebration of their 10 year anniversary, they will be bringing new features to the bar and restaurant.
– There are complimentary Limo Rides to and from all Thunder Games.
– They won the Wine Spectator Award of Excellence 2009 & 2010
– There is live Entertainment Friday & Saturday nights 7-11 pm.
– There is private dining available
– They are currently nominated for “Best Upscale Restaurant”, “Best Restaurant Downtown”, and; “Best Place to Impress Out-of-Towners”, by the OK Gazette’s Best Of OKC.
– They have Kirby’s locations in San Antonio, Houston, & Dallas.

We also got to visit with Scott Evans, the Assistant General Manager.

Scott was just the nicest guy all night and really accomodated anything we needed.

The food was delicious, the staff courteous and attentive and we thoroughly enjoyed our experience.  If you’re looking for a special place, this is it.  The decor is classy and there are some really nice touches like white tablecloths, fresh flowers and little details that just say “pampered” to a diner.

On to the food! Our waitress, Courtney, started out by letting us know that we would soon be receiving two appetizer dishes.  but first she brought us a half-bottle of this.

A lovely crisp Chardonnay.

that truly complemented our seafood appetizers.

 

And speaking of those….they were arriving as well.

The Maryland Style Crabcake.  Oh merciful heaven was this good! If you think of crabcakes as thin and mostly full of  breadcrumbs, this will rock your world in the best way!

 

We slid our fork into this tower of sweet crab that swam in a sea of buttery buerre blanc.  We were in heaven.

Go just for these, if nothing else…

But there is so much else to go for.

Like this other appetizer – Lobster Escargot.  In the round wells inside a typical escargot dish, rested lumps of lobster ( instead of snails), and a creamy garlic-cheese sauce floated over the entire dish.

This was just wonderful and we actually spread it on the freshly-baked bread that came out with both appetizers.

Next the soup and salad course arrived.

I had them place the salad in front of me because it was one of my favorite salads – Caprese Salad.

 

Fresh and creamy mozerella perched atop whole basil leaves and were overlapped with ripe, beautiful, juicy tomatoes on this large plate.  All were drizzled with just the right consistency of balsamic and olive oil.

Mr. Wonderful horded the Lobster Bisque in front of him but once he offered me a taste, it was a fight to the death…

Sadly, he won.

But seriously, this is hands down the best Lobster Bisque we’ve had of late.  It has an interesting spicy note that warms the back of your throat and constrasts nicely with the sweetness of the lobster and richness of the cream.

And then our entrees arrived.

Mr. Wonderful is a bleu cheese fan and his entree was the Roquefort Filet.

Nestled upon a sea of tangy, sharp, bleu cheese sauce and topped with crumbled Roquefort bleu cheese as well, you could have cut this tender filet with a dull spoon.  It was fabulous.

But Mr. Wonderful wasn’t the only one eating a fabulous entree.  I received a South African Lobster tail.

This cold-water, premier lobster tail that eminated sweetness came out with classic drawn butter and also a scampi drawn butter full of garlic.  But honestly, the flavor of this lobster was so pure and sweet, I didn’t want to mask its flavor with anything. What pure joy.

And there were side dishes.

First, a rectangular platter of whipped potatoes and grilled asparagus.

Delicious.  I appreciated the simplicity of the grilled asparagus in contrast to the other richness we’d tasted.

And oh my goodness…this glorious concoction.

In a world where everyone has a gourmet mac and cheese dish, this was one of the best I’ve had because doesn’t it really all come down to the cheese?  Topped with onions strings and full of a  mildly sharp but also creamy cheese (I think Brittany mentioned Boursin?) this was fabulous! (See what I mean about richness?)

But our meal didn’t end there…we still had dessert.

First we had Homemade Chocolate Cake a la Mode.

This warmed blend of chocolate, coffee and cinnamon, was  full of toasted walnuts drenched in chocolate ganache and capped off with creamy homemade vanilla bean ice cream.  Mr. Wonderful pretty much is the cake and ice cream fan in our family so after one luscious taste of the yummy cake, I moved on to this..

Bananas Foster Creme Brulee.  Silky creme brulee goodness  hidden under a layer of brown sugar and cinnamon bananas (did I detect rum?) and whipped cream that’s drizzled with a decadent caramel sauce.

Needless to say, at this point, we were very satisfied and could have used about a 2-mile stroll around Bricktown’s surrounding sites to wear off all the wonderful food we had consumed, but we opted (like I love to do) to visit the kitchen, or the place where it all happens.

Brad Jackson, the General Manager of Mickey Mantle’s had stopped by our table earlier.

We got to observe and talk with Brad and Scott while they managed the kitchen like a well-oiled machine.

We did catch some glimpses of Sous Chef Juan Torres in action.

And while we didn’t get to speak with him, we were in complete understanding as to why…

This place was hopping on a Tuesday evening in Bricktown!  Brad told us that there were currently 75 or so steaks going on the flaming grill (their steaks are not broiled -they’re grilled!).  And if you don’t believe me…

I think that pretty much dashed any thoughts I had of being a chef…seventy five at once?

And it was the end of our visit at Mickey Mantle’s Steakhouse.   We strolled back through the quaint elegant dining room amongst the throngs of diners and headed out for home.

Thoroughly satisfied with memories of a wonderful dining experience and fantastic food, we truly loved Mickey Mantle’s Steakhouse.

And you will too.