A new restaurant opened in Tulsa a couple of weeks ago. It was a much bigger curiosity than it should have been simply because they built the new structure on what had previously been an empty lot off the southwest corner of 15th and Utica. Most new restaurants here are remodels of an old building, if they even bother at all to remodel.
Another curiosity was that it would serve "Asian cuisine", even though the building looks like a west coast craftsman. I don't know what sort of cuisine should be served out of a craftsman-style building, but I don't think that would have been my first, or even second, guess.
I had only driven by the place once during its construction, so had only caught a glimpse of the name of the soon-to-open establishment. Had to ask around at work to find out what, exactly, was the name of the place. Even then, no one really knew how to pronounce it. Called them up to find out if they would take a reservation (there are very few restaurants in Tulsa that do) and was anxious to find out how they'd say the name.
TeKei's (sounds like the letters 'T' and 'K') does in fact take a reservation. The girl on the phone seemed a little surprised that I was even asking. She could take a reservation for 5:30 or 8:30, or, she suggested, we could just come in and the wait would probably only be 20 mintes.
She has obviously just gotten off a boat from Not Here because the wait at most restaurants on a Friday night (even the not-good ones) is over an hour.
We show up at the restaurant just shy of our reservation to find a line out_the_door. I had to squeeze through the throngs of waiting patrons just to let the hostess know we had arrived. There were a number of people that were pissed that we had the gall to make reservations, people who would have to wait an hour and a half for a table.
The restaurant was pretty decent; certainly not what I'd call a five star restaurant - seemed they what they did best was make everything really hot. I ordered a salad, and even the salad was so spicy that I couldn't finish it.
The service was very good, the atmosphere very elegant, yet not so you felt like you had to dress up. I would definitely go back to try something else on the menu and maybe take folks from out of town there. TeKei's definitely gets bonus points, though, for taking reservations.
Oct.23.02 at 10:32 PM
AVERAGE JOE writes:
Gotta love Oklahoma.
This is precisely why restaurants in major metropolitan areas take reservations and you're screwed without them.
Show up at a restaurant in NYC, LA, SF without a reservation and you'll get laughed out of the place.
I keep holding out hope that we'll figure it out evenutally. That people will tire of waiting an hour for a table and demand that restaurants take reservations. But we're so conditioned around here to think we can come up with some half-ass plan 3 minutes before we hit the door and have it all come off without a hitch (and park right in front of the door).
Besides, it sounds so much more elegant to say to your dining companion, "I've got reservations at ___ for 7:00."
T o da Wes Staines Massiv writes:
TeKei's? aight - we cans definately go (if iz qualify as a folks from out of town) And habsoloogie take hadvantage o da resa'vation privys. I ear datz a bad wud der. Cuz all da indins. Respet.
Candace writes:
The word Tekei means special guest and oddly enough the letters that the word sound like (T and K) are the owners initials. Todd Kramer.
And the reason that most places around dont take reservations (as crappy as a reason as it is) is because they are either understaffed or that they want to make sure that they have a steady line of customers since they cant rely on the hopping business of places like NY. They dont want one big rush of reservations and everyone else calling ahead to find out that the restaurant is booked for the hour they want and call elsewhere. Restaurants want to have everyone show up and say "Well, I guess since we are already here..." It could even be a conspiracy against us. Lol.