Cattleman’s has had quite a roster of distinguished guests, not least George H.W. Bush who had a favorite dish there that has now been dubbed the Presidential Cut. It’s located right down in the national stockyards in Oklahoma City, so it’s garnered fame among people from all over the country who visit the stockyards for the bi-weekly cattle auctions. The stockyards do business to the tune of the hundreds of millions of dollars annually, so Cattleman’s seems likely to stay in business for a long time. They’ve been there a hundred years and it looks like they might be for another hundred.
This place is, obviously, pricier than some of the places I’ve been and quite a bit fancier, though still with a studied rural Western atmosphere. (That’s one of the pleasures of this journey; I’ve been everywhere from tiny hole-in-the-walls to expansive meticulously designed and decorated restaurants). Anyway, I tried the Lamb Fries; I was anxious to see if my experience at Pete’s Place had been an outlier or if I just wasn’t the kind of guy who liked to eat testicles. Well, maybe both those things are true in general, but the lamb fries here were far better than the ones at Pete’s. They had their own particular flavor and the meat was incredibly tender. Once again, the breading is a big draw and it was certainly better here than at Pete’s Place, but whereas the meat there could easily have been just about anything, it was evident here that I was having a very flavorful, tender cut of meat. I liked these a lot, though I still don’t know that I’d ever go out of my way to order the lamb fries anywhere. I’m glad I’ve tried them; it’s a cultural experience of a kind, I guess. But I’d give these a recommended only if you’re particularly interested. 3 stars.
tl;dr – historic restaurant gives lamb fries a good name, but still, I think I’d rather just have a steak. 3 stars.