Crushed Red on Cherry Street

[TulsaGoldenHurriCAN]

Location(s) Being Reviewed:  Crushed Red on Cherry Street
Date/Time of Visit: 9/29/17
Quality of Food (1-5): 2
Menu/Food Options (1-5): 3
Quality of Service (1-5): 4.5
Atmosphere (1-5): 4
Overall Rating (1-5): 2.5
Price ($-$$$$$): $$$

What makes this restaurant unique: They chop the salad up for you.

Tell us about your experience:

As soon as you walk in, a greeter hands you a menu and explains what to do, get in line in the cafeteria-style arrangement. Pizzas are very small and pricey for what you get (~$8-$12 for a small single-person flatbread-style pizza). The salads are pretty pricey for a salad also, ~$7 for a small, $8 for medium and $12 for a large. You can choose your greens or get a mix. You pick your ingredients and meats. I didn't realize getting any meat would be an extra $2+ or so each. They didn't tell me that when they asked if I wanted meat. I assumed the bacon bits would be included in the $12 price tag. They were very greedy with ingredients. I didn't ask for many but they would  barely sprinkle anything on there except the meat which was a good portion. Even after I asked for more cheese and other items they had held back on, it was difficult to taste most of the ingredients hidden behind the massive amounts of lettuce. The ranch was not great either. It tasted a bit vinegary, more like a creamy Italian rather than a homestyle ranch.

They take the ingredients and chop them up for you and put them in awkward-shaped bowls that are annoying to eat out of. It was quite a big commotion behind the counter. It felt like madness and disarray as they scrambled back and forth to find bowls and make the salads. Items weren't labeled and it took quite a while to identify which item we were asking about and what it was. Overall took far longer for them to make us salads than if we were at a salad bar. Felt like an annoying hassle I wouldn't want to go through just for a salad.

My wife and I split a pizza and each got a salad. She got the small which she finished about half of. I finished about half of the salad. To get a small salad, large salad (with 2 meats I didn't realize would cost so much) and pizza, it was $33 total. That was far more than I expected, especially after trying the food.

The pizza was really small and was mostly crust. It is about a 10" long by 4" wide pizza. The toppings only make up about a 2 to 3 inch strip so you're basically getting a crust with a small amount of toppings and they slice it into tiny slices. The sausage tasted like what they put on store-bought frozen pizzas and the crust was overly chewy, also reminiscent of frozen pizza. We will not get pizza there again. We were a bit regretful we didn't take the $33 over to Andollinis across the street (or Hideaway) and get an amazing lunch instead. By itself, the large salad would've been a full meal plus just enough extra to probably not be worth bringing home, but that was mostly because of the meat put in which was extra. If it weren't for the meat, the salad would've been tiny. We likely won't get salad there again either. I would rather spend $8 at Jason's Deli and get one of the best salad bars in town. Heck, I think I'd even rather spend $7 and get Mazzios just for the sake of getting my money's work.

As far as good things: the outside looks a lot more presentable than the previous incarnation of this building. The front windows really took a hit as they removed the classic facade and replaced it with modern windows, but overall it cleans up that corner and has a really nice ambiance at night with the dramatic lighting fixtures. The patio could be cool if they actually put tables on it and made it an option. Looks weird being empty.

[Conan71]

Sounds like a good place-holder waiting for a better concept.  Sounds like this will last about 6-12 months based on this review.

[heironymouspasparagus]

Sounds like a good place-holder waiting for a better concept.  Sounds like this will last about 6-12 months based on this review.

That sounds optimistic.  I won't even bother now.

[TulsaGoldenHurriCAN]

Sounds like a good place-holder waiting for a better concept.  Sounds like this will last about 6-12 months based on this review.

They obviously put a lot of money into the remodel so I'd expect them to stay open a while. There's a lot of competition for salad places around there now. Even Hideaway, Kilkennies and Andolinis have had good salads when I've gotten them. This place certainly doesn't beat the $9 large deluxe salads at Andolinis. It doesn't even come close to the bottomless pasta/pizza/salad lunch special at Andolinis.

It seems like a concept that would work well in a high cost of living/dense-urban area. While Cherry Street fits that (so they did their research there), there are just too many great local places right here with much higher quality for lower price points (how did they not see all the other pizza/salad places nearby). The one advantage Crushed Red might have is speed of cooking the flatbread. The salad part took awhile though, but potentially you could get your food quicker.