The beef carpaccio starter (upper left), the roasted shishito pepper starter (right) and a special watermelon arugula with wagyu lardons are seen at Momo’s Chophouse.
Two iconic American cities were the inspiration behind Momo’s Chophouse.
“Our original idea was to bring Vegas to Tulsa,” said Ben Oxford, one of the partners behind the new restaurant, which opened a few weeks ago in the Vineyard on Memorial center. “Whenever we would visit Las Vegas, we would go to these high-end steakhouses and know that we wanted to create something like that in Tulsa.”
The other inspiration was New Orleans — which also, Oxford said, explains the restaurant’s name.
The 36-ounce tomahawk steak at Momo's Chophouse is cold-smoked before being finished in the 900-degree broiler.
“Momo is Monique Martinez, who is the wife of one of the partners,” he said. “She’s the primary designer for the space. She worked with Eli Huff of Salt Food Group on the design, but much of the look of the place is her doing.
“She’s also from New Orleans originally, and once we decided we would be doing a steakhouse and were trying to think of what direction we wanted to take it, we decided to take some ideas from New Orleans cuisine, as a kind of nod to her heritage,” Oxford said.
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The Momo seafood tower comes with fresh crab, oysters, lobster tail and Gulf shrimp, along with a gin-spiked cocktail sauce, mignonette sauce and lemon wedges. The tower will include stone crab claws when they are in season.
That nod to New Orleans is evident in the presence of dishes such as the Acadiana gumbo and the redfish Pontchartrain on the Momo’s menu. And the interior of Momo’s Chophouse (which underwent a radical makeover from its previous incarnation as The Cardinal Club) is itself something of a gumbo, with touches of art deco opulence and Vegas-style glitz in a palette that focuses on deep greens and gold.
The space has been divided into four areas: the north dining room, which is the principal serving area; the bar, which leads out into a patio space; the south dining room, which can be used for private gatherings if needed; and an upper dining area, reached by a curving, lighted acrylic staircase that would not look out of place on a cruise ship, which is reserved for private functions.
The triple berry cheesecake is one of the desserts at Momo's Chophouse.
It’s also a place designed to be a little dark, which helps give it a cozy, more intimate atmosphere — which is also why the menus at Momo’s, which come in a conventional-looking ledger-sized form, light up when opened, to illuminate one’s choices.
“I’m at the age where, when I’m at a restaurant, I find myself trying to hold the menu so it can catch the light,” Oxford said, with a laugh. “But also, we really liked the whole ‘wow’ factor of a lighted menu. It’s not something we’ve seen here in Tulsa, and I think it helps to let people know they’re in for an experience where the food and service are going to be amazing.”
A Bordelaise sauce is one of the options available to top steaks such as the filet at Momo's Chophouse.
And that is a promise that Momo’s Chophouse fulfills.
We met with friends for a weeknight meal recently and were properly wowed by the sedate atmosphere and the illuminated menus, which present a succinct selection of appetizers, salads, steaks and other entrees, which range from a $26 wagyu steak burger to a 36-oz. porterhouse and a 36-oz. cold-smoked tomahawk rib-eye, each of which are $150 (we were able to sample the rib-eye during the photo shoot for this review, and the subtle smoke flavor elevated an already impressive cut of meat).
The decor at Momo’s Chophouse seeks to combine “the flair of Las Vegas with the sophistication of Tulsa” to serve as the proper backdrop to its menu of top-quality steaks, fine seafood and wines.
We started with two appetizers, the crab fritters ($18), and the Nueske’s bacon ($18), along with a serving of the Acadiana gumbo ($13) and the Tom Tom salad ($15).
The three fritters were slightly larger than golf balls, and loaded with crab — other than the breading of the crisp surface, it was difficult to find any filler in the mix. The sauce, made with yuzu and topped with dollops of Japanese mayonnaise, had a sharp, aggressive citrus punch that enlivened the crab.
Art deco-style wallpaper adorns the north dining room.
The thick strips of bacon had a gentle smoke flavor and were grilled to be fork-tender. They were paired with a dollop of Oklahoma-made Seikel’s mustard and an apple slaw that cut through the richness of the bacon.
The Tom Tom salad is a variation on the classic Caprese, with burrata in the place of the mozzarella, and with the additions of thin rings of fried shallots, and crispy fried black olives that were these surprising, yet enjoyable, almost charcoal-like bursts against the acidity of the heirloom tomatoes and the sweet balsamic reduction. The gumbo, studded with chunks of chicken and slices of sausage, had at its base a superb roux that gave the dish impressive flavor and body.
The Blackened Redfish Pontchartrain is offered at Momo's Chophouse.
After some discussion, our party chose as entrees the 6-oz. petite filet ($42); the steak frites ($36), which was a 10-oz. piece of American wagyu-style flat-iron steak; the blackened redfish Pontchartrain ($36); and the 12-oz. pork rib-eye ($35), to which we added the Gorgonzola crust ($6). We also included a side of the crispy potatoes Romanoff ($13).
One can also add a variety of sauces, including a Bordelaise sauce, a chimichurri and a marrow butter (all $5) to one’s steak, if desired.
Roasted shishito peppers with a Korean barbecue aioli is one of the appetizers at Momo's Chophouse.
In the case of the pork, a double-boned chop, the addition of the Gorgonzola cheese gave just the right touch of salty funkiness to the sweet and juicy pork, cooked exactly to medium. I tend to judge a steakhouse by its pork chops, and this one was without flaw, to the point that we ended up gnawing the last bits of meat from the bones, caveman fashion, without embarrassment.
The flat-iron steak came to the table already sliced and coated in a sauce of caramelized onions and herbs. It was meltingly tender and the sauce was delicious, but the real surprise were the fries that accompanied the dish. According to executive chef Travis Nelson, the fries are finished in beef tallow, rendered from the wagyu beef.
The beef carpaccio appetizer at Momo's Chophouse is seen.
“It was something we tried kind of on a whim, and it blew everyone away,” said Nelson, whose career in Tulsa has included working at Juniper and Lowood.
The filet was ordered medium rare and was perfectly cooked; my companion, who is extremely sensitive to salt, found the finishing salt sprinkled over the steak to be a little much for her taste, but the others who sampled the dish thought the salt level appropriate.
Ben Oxford, an owner of Momo’s Chophouse, poses for a photo on June 28. “Our original idea was to bring Vegas to Tulsa,” Oxford said.
The redfish was accompanied by shrimp and crab meat, with a Cajun mushroom sauce and smoked basmati rice. The spiced crust was blackened without imparting a burned taste, with the fish underneath flaky and tender.
Our server, Rebecca, paced and served the meal with grace and efficiency.
Oxford said Momo’s also offers a special bar menu, for those who “want to enjoy our food without spending a substantial amount of money.” The bar menu is available for dine-in only.
A bottle of wine on display at the bar inside Momo's Chophouse.
Oxford said he and his partners focused on locating their restaurant in south Tulsa because “there really isn’t anything like this in this part of town. There are a lot of great, small, local restaurants around here, as well as a lot of chain restaurants. But we thought there was a real need for a high-quality, high-end restaurant in south Tulsa.”
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