R Bar and Grill...Gastropub Goodness

     
     R Bar is a Gastropub extraordinaire. The owner, Bill Grant, a top notch, kind, yet savvy Tulsa business man, knows how to run a great establishment. And when he's present, things run smooth.

     I've been going to R Bar since it opened and for the most part, it's been great. From the food, to the service, including the menu items and beer selections.  I would say the Old Fashions, of which I'm a huge fan of, are made too sweet for my taste.  The food is pretty good, usually...but on this particular day, they were off...from service, to food and just overall treatment. I didn't see Bill, which may have been a big part because usually, when he's there, it's always good.

     My brother and I ordered the Margarita Pizza and the Lamb Shank.  The Margarita came with cherry tomatoes, which should never be true to the recipe. They should come with thinly sliced roma tomatoes...always.  And should also come with fresh basil, which in this case, seems like it came with jarred pesto, sprinkled with some fresh and waaaay too much cheese. It was super oily too. The crust was pretty good...a little heavy, but all and all it tasted fairly decent, just not like a true Margarita Pizza.

Margarita Pizza

     The Lamb Shank entree should have come with red beans...RED BEANS. As you can see, that day, they came with pinto beans. Yes, foodie or not, anyone could see they were pinto beans and they were from a can, then sauteed in a pan to cover that up (eek).

Lamb Shank with eh hum, red beans? No, pinto beans today.

     Okay, the lamb was cooked B-E-A-utifully! For real. Look at it. It was falling off the bone, tender and flavorful. I wished they'd served it with red beans because red beans have so much more flavor than canned pinto beans. I will say that the chef did a good job of making those pintos savory...they just weren't deep enough.  I like R Bar because of the staff too. Today, there was a little old man on the patio moving people around, making room for the cover band (I'm not a fan of cover bands, sorry) as the World Cup games were wrapping up. Keep in mind, we had just ordered our food and this man was not asking, not apologizing for the inconvenience, but telling us we HAD to move to make room for this band. He was rude and I didn't appreciate it at all. So when we got our food, yes, I was less forgiving for this honest review of the Margarita Pizza being made overly cheesy and greasy with jarred pesto and cherry tomatoes rather than all fresh ingredients and lack of roma tomatoes and fresh basil. The lamb dish being served with canned beans rather than fresh red beans because it was hot outside and rudeness made it all worse. Now, having said that, I love Bill and the rest of his staff and bartenders so of course, I'll go back. But maybe I'll be rude to the man that was rude to us...okay, no I won't because my mom raised me to respect my elders, but still...gerrrr.