So we tried Whaling in Oklahoma on Saturday night, but just posting here as not sure it needs it’s own thread (though I’m happy to start a new thread if anyone is interested). As I posted last year, the name always put me off this place and we never tried it. We got a bluebird baby sitter at the last minute over the weekend and most places were very full due to graduation season, early Mother’s Day, etc. We had a tight window and didn’t want to wait for hours somewhere. This was one of the few places that had tables available online. They always seem to come up as having tables which is always a red flag for me, but it is generally the type of food I like so we decided to give it a try.
We sat at the bar as it was a bit cool for the patio and the dining room did not look that inviting upon our arrival. The food was pretty good; my wife liked it a bit more than me. There were some delicious bites for sure, but the entire meal didn’t stand out in a way that would make me rush back. Much of the food was a bit oily and heavy. I woke up feeling hung over the next day despite only having a bit of sake and splitting a beer. We tried:
- Yellowfin tuna crudo: Tasty if standard. The texture from the rice crackers was nice.
- Fried artichokes: These were very disappointing. I’m not sure if they were not fried hot enough, but they were soaked with oil. We didn’t finish this small dish.
- Charred Snap Peas: Very tasty if a bit greasy. The surface with the char was delicious, like scraping the bits off a cast iron pan after cooking.
- Mushroom yakatori: good, fine
- Udon with egg and seaweed: the broth was delicious with umami flavor but the noodles were too dense
- Omelette on sticky fried rice: This was the highlight dish. The eggs were light and fluffy and the rice was addictive.
The bartender was friendly and knowledgeable about the menu. There was a lot of talk about Tim Maslow, his background and how special each dish was. He got the vibe that perhaps we didn’t care much and curtailed that avenue of conversation. Though there seemed to be a lot of suburban downsizers at the bar new to the neighborhood who were eating that up. They’ve got to stop resting on the chef’s laurels as the bar and restaurant never reached capacity the entire evening.