La Mansion Restaurant serves up potent margaritas and delicious food. It’s a little off the beaten path, in Catoosa OK, but well worth the trip.
For the past 4 years, I’ve run the Oklahoma City Memorial Half Marathon every April. It’s a fantastic race, with 25,000 total runners between the half and full marathons. After my first run in 2013, I treated myself to a week-long vacation to Playa del Carmen Mexico with my friends Jack & Betty. I said I would never do more than one half marathon a year, because of the training schedule and how busy I am during football season. In 2012 I tried running a half marathon in October, and that was a dumb idea. My time wasn’t horrible, but my training certainly was. Last year I registered for a half marathon in Stillwater in early June, but then my friends Reilly and Michele convinced me to go with them on a weekend trip to Las Vegas instead. Yes, I’m very easily swayed.
Six weeks ago, OSU was playing OU in baseball. Friday night’s game was in OKC; Saturday and Sunday were in Tulsa. I was going to the game in Tulsa on Saturday, and when I got online earlier in the week I saw that there was a half marathon in downtown Tulsa on Saturday morning. I was planning to run 10 miles that morning anyway, so I figured run 3 more and get a medal! By the reaction of my friends, I was the only one who thought that logic made any sense at all.
After the race, I headed out to Bob’s house to shower. Bob lives in Catoosa, a 20-minute drive from downtown Tulsa. I had never been to Catoosa until about a year ago, and other than a few shops and restaurants close to Bob’s house, I don’t know much else about it. Last year he took me to La Mansion, a Mexican restaurant about a mile from his house. It was delicious, but my pictures weren’t the best. So this was the perfect opportunity to fix that.
La Mansion is located in a strip mall. There is a patio out front that takes up the entire front face of the restaurant. The inside is full of vibrant colors and great music playing in the background. There is a large bar on the left as you enter, as well as seating in the bar area. The main dining room isn’t very large, with 8 booths and a few tables in the middle.
Almost immediately after being seated, chips and salsa came to the table
Bob had told me that the salsa is homemade. I didn’t take a picture, but it is delicious. It has a slight kick, but nothing overwhelming. On our last visit we also had the chorizo dip, which was fabulous. So of course we had to order that as well. Last time we had the small, and devoured it in record time; this time we got the large
The dip is served warm, and is full of chorizo. I said it before, and I’ll say it again: I could easily have eaten it all myself. The chorizo is spicy, but the queso tones it down quite a bit.
After running 13 miles, I knew that I deserved a margarita. I mean, I don’t need an excuse to drink one, but it kind of worked itself out.
I’m a big fan of the La Mansion margaritas, because they pack a serious punch. And they’re huge. I only had one though, and sipped it slowly throughout the meal.
Bob almost always orders the pollo loco. It is available on the weekday lunch menu, but since Bob is a regular, they make it for him whenever he requests it
I tried a bite, and it was fantastic. The chicken is incredibly tender, I’m sure in part because of the cheese sauce.
La Mansion has added a few new menu items since my last visit. I checked them all out, and kept going back to the Mariachi Especial. After some back and forth, I finally decided to try it out
This dish was absolutely fabulous. It came to the table screaming hot, and had so much flavor. I believe they use the same type of chicken as in the pollo loco, because it was super tender as well. The onions were grilled, and the peppers were cooked to a tender crisp. I tried a bite of the tortillas, mainly because they were there. They were good, but I knew they would fill me up. And I wanted to save every inch of space in my stomach for the entree. Besides, the dish comes with rice as well. Honestly, they could eliminate the tortillas and I don’t think you would miss them at all.
I don’t get to Catoosa very often, but when I do, La Mansion will be high on the list. I also saw that a new La Mansion location will be opening soon in Locust Grove OK, far east of Tulsa, close to the Arkansas border.
Mindy
Sunday 5th of June 2016
[* Shield plugin marked this comment as "trash". Reason: Failed GASP Bot Filter Test (comment token failure) *] Sounds delicious ! Nice blog and good pics ! Thanks for sharing
Karyl
Sunday 5th of June 2016
Thanks so much Mindy! I appreciate it