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Archive for March, 2017

Food Friday: Jim’s Diner

The NW 63rd and Meridian location is now closed as of October 2018, wonder why?

The whole purpose of my Food Friday’s on this blog is to introduce you to new local places and tell you what it’s like to eat there, that way you can make a decision if you would like to try it or not.  Most places are great and I don’t have many complaints but every once in a while I come across a restaurant that is just horrible.  Well that happened to me and Mae a few weeks ago when we stopped at Jim’s Diner on NW 63rd and Meridian.  I have wanted to try Jim’s Diner for years, the location at NW 39th Expressway and Council is always busy so it must be good, right?  Well maybe that location is because their new location on NW 63rd isn’t.

Let’s start this tale on a Saturday morning, I had to take Mae to Pender’s Music for some new clarinet reeds, while we were there I suggested Jim’s Diner for breakfast.  We were seated quickly and since it was around 10:30a, there weren’t many people left in the dining room.  So that’s why it was unusual to me that it took the waitress a while to get to us.  That should have been a red flag.  After she took our order, she brought our drinks and vanished.  I’m not joking about this, gone for almost 30 minutes.  27 minutes to be exact, that’s how long it took from placing our order to when she brought the order to us.  I was just about to leave, when she brought Mae’s pancakes and part of my order, the hash browns and bacon.  What was missing was my spinach and Swiss omelet.  She seemed surprised when I asked about it, and away she went again.   Took her 5 minutes to come back with this sorry excuse for an omelet.  First of all it was sitting in water, what’s up with that?  There were a couple leaves of spinach inside and on top were 2 slices of that cheap “Swiss” cheese that is really just white American cheese.  I managed to choke down this pathetic excuse for an omelet without anything to drink because the waitress didn’t refill our drinks.  After I finished, we sat there for another 20 minutes until the waitress brought the check.  At this point I asked for a to go box for Mae’s pancakes, long story short Mae got her own box because we didn’t see the waitress again.  I was going to pay the check with a card, but since she never came back I used cash.  Lucky for me I had exact change, because there was no way in hell I was leaving a tip.

This whole experience took about an hour and a half, easily the worst customer service I had dealt with in a long time.  So I’m not giving any strips of bacon.  In case you’re wondering, no the hash browns, bacon, and pancakes weren’t much better.  So if you’re looking for some place to have breakfast, skip Jim’s Diner on NW 63rd and Meridian.  Because of this experience I will not try the location on NW 39th Expressway, so if it’s better, I’ll never know.

Address: 6317 N Meridian, OKC.

Jim's Diner

 

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Food, Oklahoma, Oklahoma food

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Food Friday: Café 7

Cafe 7

If you are up around Quail Springs Mall and want a quick meal then stop by one of my favorites, Café 7.  This is one of my favorite places to stop for lunch and the food is better than what you can find in the mall.  Located in a strip mall to the west of Quail Springs Mall, this small restaurant does get full quick during the lunch rush.  Once you get in, grab one of the menu slips, you chose between pizza, pasta, sandwiches, and salads, put your name on it and select what you want from the menu slip (I really don’t have a better name for the slip of paper you fill out).  Place your order, then grab a seat.

I have my favorite- baked macaroni and cheese.  Listed on the pasta slip, it is mac and cheese with tomatoes and bacon mixed in, then baked with breadcrumbs on top.  Always served with garlic bread, this is easily the best thing on the menu.  Yes I have tried other pasta’s, a pizza and a couple of their sandwiches and it’s all been good but I always come back to the mac and cheese.  Of course that’s all that Mae will eat even if she doesn’t want the bacon (kid isn’t right in the head, hates bacon).

Only down side is that it is small and does fill up quickly.  The lunch crowd gets there around 11:30a but is gone by 1p.  The staff has always been friendly and everything has been clean.  This review is only for the Northwest OKC location, there is another downtown.  I do see on their website that the downtown location does have breakfast as well, so I might have to fight the traffic and try it sometime.  I’m giving it 5 strips of bacon, but try to avoid the crowds.

Address: Northwest OKC- 14101 N. May Ave.; Downtown OKC- 100 w. Main, Suite 105.

 

 

 

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Food, Oklahoma, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma food

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Museum of Osteology

Whale skeleton 2Museum of OsteologyA couple weeks ago we had a free day from school so we traveled to southeast Oklahoma City to the Museum of Osteology.  Located in a big building on south Sunnylane just short of SW 104th Street, this is really a cool place once you get over the fact that everything there is dead.

Ok, so I know the obvious question is what is a museum of osteology and why would you want to go there?  Let’s start with the what- osteology is the study of bones.  Yes like the ones under everyone’s skin, except for my cat Belle, who seems to be made out of Jello but that’s a different topic.  So this museum is full of bones.  From all different creatures such as cats, dogs, horses, whales, giraffes, and even humans.  Seriously, after you get over the eewww factor this is really an interesting place.  Now for the why- because it’s fascinating to see all of these skeletons and learn about the differences in each species.  They have a display with dog skulls so you can see the difference in the breeds, another has a display with cat skeletons where you can see the similarities between house cats with their larger cousins such as tigers and lions (Ok if house cats do have skeletons why is Belle just a bag of skin that meows?).  They even have a cute display with the creatures of Oklahoma, you know opossums, skunks, raccoons, beavers, and even a buffalo.  But the most striking displays are the ones in the open center of the building, nothing gets your attention like a huge whale hanging from the ceiling or a giraffe looking down on you.

Cat skeletons

Cat skeletons at the Museum of Osteology, 2017.

So a little history behind the museum, it was opened in 2010 by Jay Villemarette, who owns Skulls Unlimited International.  He opened the museum to showcase the skeletons he had collected over the years while in the business of preparing skeletons for schools, museums, and the entertainment industry.

This really is a cool place to go and spend a couple of hours.  Great place for adults and older kids, maybe 8 and up.  While we were there we encountered a field trip of mostly Kindergarten kids and I just don’t think they really understood why they were there or what they were looking at.  As long as you have an interest in anatomy, osteology, or just anything different this is the right place to be.  I highly recommend it.

Museum of Osteology- 10301 S. Sunnylane Rd, Oklahoma City.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Oklahoma, Oklahoma City

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