Best Things to Do in Oklahoma City

They’re known for their fried chicken and waffles, plus comfort-food favorites, but they’ve got a hearty chicken-fried steak too. 

Modern twists on Southern breakfast and lunch classics in a stylish industrial setting.

One of the first places to serve onion burgers and still one of the best doing it. Their vintage diner vibe seals the deal.

This place is known far and wide for its burgers. Get there early, though, because there are only 15 seats. And it’s cash only, so come prepared.

It stands for “Ends of the Earth,” and they specialize in small-batch beans from nearly inaccessible places. Coffee from a San Salvador volcano or Nicaraguan mountain is worth a sip.

A consistently popular local hangout, Elemental also roasts their own beans and serves breakfast and brunch. 

They might serve drip coffee from Guatemala, but they’re not above a sweet frozen caffe latte or caffe mocha. 

If you’ve ever wanted to see what an animal looked like without its skin, first of all, ew. Second of all, you’ll love this place. It has more than 350 skeletons from different animals, so you can compare the structures of whales, apes, birds, reptiles and more.

This immersive avant-garde experience looks to push limits and create collaborative art. Just look for the super-colorful building in Automobile Alley. For a more traditional gallery, go for the Oklahoma City Museum of Art.

All about the humble banjo’s history and influence on the worlds of bluegrass, folk and jazz. 

A 430-foot long, ever-changing art wall started by The Oklahoma Mural Syndicate in Plaza District. That’s more than a football-field worth of murals by local artists. 

This expansive sculpture by Paul Moore depicts 45 charging settlers and soldiers and commemorates the 1889 land runs.

Beneath the railroad underpasses west of Bricktown, you’ll find works like “Earth to Sky,” painted by two Native American artists (Chad “Nish” Earles and Rhiana Deck), and the vibrant “Abstract Passages.”

The place to be for anyone who dressed up as a cowboy for Halloween or “rode” a hobby horse around the house. It contains more than 28,000 artifacts and art pieces that depict the history and culture of the American Western frontier. 

Buy a pair of boots, a 10-gallon hat or even some cattle. This collection of shops and restaurants is ideal for anyone looking to take home a piece of the Wild West. There are weekly livestock auctions at the Oklahoma National Stockyards Co. and plenty of places to buy cowboy memorabilia, not to mention the iconic Cattlemen’s Steakhouse. 

In the 1920s, this place was only popular because it was the end of the trolley line. Now, it’s bursting at the seams with art, food and culture, like the Plaza Walls (see above), local craft beer taphouse Oak & Oar and the buzzy ramen concept Goro Ramen + Izakaya.

Just north of downtown, you’ll find OKC’s artistic epicenter, rife with galleries and studios that bump shoulders with cool eateries like Holey Rollers and Red Rooster and cozy cocktail lounges like The Other Room. 

Like many other former warehouse districts, this entertainment district gets creative with its space and offers some of the city’s best food and nightlife. TapWerks has more than 300 beers to get you going before hitting an upscale restaurant or hopping nightclub. 

One of the best pho spots in town. Plus, they serve meat platters, spring rolls, and other Vietnamese favorites. 

They also make a good bowl of pho, plus other traditional Vietnamese fare and some Chinese classics too. 

A nationally renowned, 20-seat, tasting-menu restaurant that creates dishes “inspired by the prairie, woodlands and regional farming,” and loaded with regionally sourced ingredients. And they pour spot-on wine pairings too. 

A new American eatery in the former Packard dealership building that serves an array of classic dishes for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

The antithesis to the country-Western vibe of Cattlemen’s, this is a sleek, modern steakhouse, but their cuts are just as hearty. The renovated 1911 building adds to the experience with 18-foot ceilings and skylights. 

A laid-back dive bar north of downtown that hosts primarily blues and jazz bands and has free pool tables. 

A historic theater that operated as a movie theater for most of its life, Tower closed in 1989 but reopened in 2017 as a live music venue that hosts local and national acts. 

One part 1960s lounge, one part funkadelic band poster, and one part Wes Anderson film, the Classen is a revitalized motel a mile from Route 66 that’s not short on color or style. It features local art and a superette with beer, wine and snacks.

Get your art fix and your shut-eye fix all in the same place. This chic hotel has a museum in-house, along with a spa, restaurant and bar. So, if you wake up in the middle of the night with the urge to admire some art, you can do that.