I never really go to Automobile Alley, so when I went down there to review Coffee Slinger’s last week, I was totally surprised at all of the new restaurants that have popped up in the area. One that really caught my attention was a huge new building called The Parlor.
After asking around, many of my friends gave The Parlor rave reviews. Several said it is one of their favorite new places in OKC, and one friend said it has become her new go-to spot for girl’s night out.
I don’t take these recommendations lightly, so as soon as I heard the praise I headed over to The Parlor to check it out for myself.
The setup of The Parlor is pretty much the exact same as The Collective. It’s a fancy food court except with local restaurants instead of chains. When I arrived at The Parlor, I was shocked at how large the space was. This place is easily larger than The Collective, with plenty of indoor and outdoor seating on two different levels. There’s also a spacious bar area.
I really liked The Parlor’s modern, sleek design, and, overall, this place has a really hip vibe, just like The Collective. I could totally see myself hanging out with a group of friends here on a Saturday night.
Just like with my Collective review, I’m going to focus on one specific food stall within The Parlor and perhaps return to try others in the future.
The Parlor has a huge variety of food stalls ranging from fried chicken, to pizza, to sushi. On this particular day, a Guatemalan food stall called El Guate caught my attention. Their menu had a variety of dishes such as tacos, tamales and empanadas. There were not many vegetarian options, but this stall only had about five entree options in total. If I were to go to a typical sit down restaurant, I would not be very happy if the menu was as limited as El Guate’s. However, I think the small menu makes sense due to the food stall setup and the relative newness of the restaurant, so I will give it a pass.
I ended up ordering some pupusas (dough stuffed with cheese) and tajin-seasoned potatoes.
It took a while for my food to be prepared, but when I finally received it, everything was very hot, and I could tell that it was freshly made. The warm pupusas were carb-filled and bursting with melted cheese, so they were pretty much my favorite thing on Earth. They were the absolute perfect comfort food for a cold day.
They were served alongside some sort of slaw. The slaw was fine, but the real star of the show was the pupusas.
My only complaint with this dish was that the portion sizes were too small for my liking.
However, the potatoes were warm, comforting and a great match for the cold weather outside. Admittedly, it’s hard for any sort of potato dish to disappoint me.
But these potatoes went above and beyond because they were so well-seasoned. The tajin was tangy and gave the dish a very interesting flavor. I will warn you if you’ve never had tajin before and you’re not a fan of sour/tangy things, then you may want to order a different side.
In many ways, The Parlor is identical to The Collective, so I would recommend it to the same group of people. I think concepts like these are awesome for group outings because they can accommodate so many different tastes and dietary restrictions. Because The Parlor is open pretty late and it has a bar, I also think this would be a cool place to hang on a Friday or Saturday night.
When it comes to El Guate specifically, I was super pleased with my experience. While I am excited to try some of the other stalls The Parlor offers, I just really want to go back to El Guate because it was so good! Before I never really would have equated Guatemalan food with comfort food, but everything I ate there was super comforting and delicious.
Overall, both The Parlor and El Guate are very strong recommendations from me, and I can’t wait to return!
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