Mimi's Cafe

Restaurant: Mimi's Cafe

Location: 71st St, Tulsa, OK

Number and Size of Rings: 6 - 5 inchers or so
Cost: as a 99 cent upgrade on a side
Amazingly, Mimi's cafe offers onion rings as a side on their lunch menu. Also unexpected is how boring they are. I mean, normal packaged beer batter pub onion rings? Come on, Mimi's, you can do better than that! They are exactly the same as here and here and here and here. I guess onion rings are not very French? But maybe on Bourbon street in New Orlean's French Quarter they might have beer batter onion rings somewhere, although I've never seen them.

Red Robin onion ring tower

Restaurant: Red Robin

Location: 9810 Riverside Drive, Tulsa, OK 74137

Number and Size of Rings: 14 sorted by size
Cost: $7.99

This glorious whimsical Seussian tower of onion rings was sooo good. Especially with the campfire sauce, which tastes like mayo with bbq flavor in it. The rings are marvelous, but not quite as homemade tasting and flavorful as Biggs bbq (see two posts ago).

I was excited about ordering a burger with their "crispy onion straws", so I got the whiskey chicken burger that is supposed to look like this (according to their menu):

But, instead it looked like this with barely a single thread of soggy onion straw on it:Okay, so I got it for free because it was my birthday, but still, for $9.59? Come on, people. Someone at the restaurant could have at least said "Happy Birthday" once, or even greeted us within 10 minutes after seating us. But, the onion ring tower alone is keeping this restaurant alive.

Ted's Montana Grill, Kansas City

Restaurant: Ted's Montana Grill

Location: 1713 Village West Pkwy, Kansas City, KS

Number and Size of Rings: 10 rings
Cost: $6.00

These are called "Salt and Pepper" onion rings, but in my book they are fresh and delicious, almost like homemade. I don't think they actually have any more salt or pepper than any other onion ring I've had, but they had a great texture and crunch that makes me think they used a three-step process for breading them (flour, egg, breadcrumbs). I LOVE onion rings that are freshly made, not from a bag. I also love the conservation-minded restaurant concept of Ted's and their paper straws, etc. And any restaurant that will let you use buffalo on any sandwich on the menu is a winner. Above is the picture from the restaurant website. Below is the night vision picture I took with my cell phone when I ordered the rings as a side dish. I'm not having much luck remembering to take my camera out to eat lately.

IHOP

Restaurant: IHOP

Location: Glenpool, OK

Number and Size of Rings: 5 very large- up to 5 inches! And almost 3/4 inch in thickness.

Cost: as a side
I would call these onion rings very SUBSTANTIAL. They are just plain filling. They are almost meaty, a little overly juicy inside (overly juicy leading to slimy, but in this case more like they are stuffed with onion juice). They had a really "off" taste to them- they tasted like a thousand other ingredients combined. I left a note in the suggestion box that it may be time to change the frying oil. But they sure are pretty next to that equally as "off" tasting cheesesteak! Stick with the pancakes when you go to IHOP :).

Rib Crib

Restaurant: Rib Crib

Location: Sapulpa, OK

Number and Size of Rings: 6

Cost: $2.59 for a side order
Rib Crib's onion rings are especially good, I think, with their mustardy Carolina Honey BBQ sauce. Our server didn't think so, but she let us dip them in it anyway without making too many faces. They are big and have a crispy panko coating. It's a gentle, friendly panko that crumbles when its time to crumble, but holds the onion in like it should. My favorite thing about these onion rings is that they are probably one of the only things on the menu that don't contain MSG. Not kidding. Old-school Chinese food has nothing on the amount of MSG in Rib Crib's food. At this location, our server thought it was funny that we were asking for "Soda" instead of "Pop" and mentioned, "Y'all aren't from 'round here are ya?" Nope, but I'm enjoying my tour of Oklahoma's lovely abundance of onion rings!

Dick Clark's

Restaurant: Dick Clark's "American Bandstand" Grill

Location: Phoenix, AZ (Sky Harbor Airport)

Number and Size of Rings: 9

Cost: As a side with an $8.99 sandwich entree
These are beer batter onion rings, but not typical or gross or greasy at all. These were fabulously crispy, perfectly done, not too thick, and not too sweet.

Fleming's Prime Steak House

RESTAURANT: Fleming's Prime Steak House
LOCATION: Tulsa, OK
SIZE: side
NUMBER AND SIZE OF RINGS: TEN HUGE
COST: $9.50
This is what overpriced fine dining does with onion rings. Since they are so sheik, I posted two photos, one of them showing the smoked jalapeno aioli (which is basically mayo with chipotle). The sauce was overly smokey, not really spicey, but really good if mixed with ketchup. What amazed me was the uniformity of these HUGE onion rings. They are extra- extra LARGE and covered with panko. They are so big, in fact, that it takes two bites to get through each one width-wize. This would certainly be enough onion rings for four people. Even without the sauce, they themselves had a little bit of a red pepper type of spice kick to them. Our waiter says that he actually dreads when people order the onion rings because of the feat of daring it is to get them to the table perfectly stacked in this harringbone formation. My suggestion if you go to Flemings to try these is to order onion rings, and the chocolate lava cake because it would really go well with them.

Chilis Onion Strings

RESTAURANT: Chilis
LOCATION: Fort Worth, TX
SIZE: side
NUMBER AND SIZE OF RINGS: A deep plateful of thin-sliced rings
COST: as a side dish if you ask, not charged separately
Chilis- what has happened to you? I went there expecting an Awesome Blossom, and they have been discontinued! Someone told me that you were making mini- awesome blossoms now, but apparently not at the location I visited. Instead, NO onion rings listed on the menu except for "onion strings" mentioned as a side dish in certain specials. Luckily our server let our kiddo get them as a side in the children's menu. We hit the jackpot as he brought us these. The only problem was, they had NO FLAVOR. They didn't come with a dipping sauce (except the ketchup on our table) and they were bland, bland, bland! I do think they look lovely and had a great texture, but something was missing. So, Chilis menu designers: "Beep! try again!" I guess that's why they aren't exactly featured on the menu.

Outback Steakhouse Bloomin' Onion

RESTAURANT: Outback Steakhouse
LOCATION: Tucson, AZ
SIZE: One size
NUMBER AND SIZE OF RINGS: One big blossom
COST:$5.95
The Bloomin' onion is nothing new in the onion ring world and many restaurants call them by their own different names. I do think Outback has been rather cocky with theirs. I mean, look at this ugly thing. It's overdone, almost too peppery; it has many petals uncoated, and the coating is uneven and floury. But boy is it yummy with their spicy sauce, regardless. One thing about blooming onions is that you pull the petals off and are essentially eating half of the onion petal without breading every time. Then you are so tempted to eat the greasy floury mess left at the bottom. I suggest eating one of these with four people- that way you all get your fill without eating yourselves sick. I also think they cost less if you go eat one before 6PM on their early menu, which is weird because they are only open for dinner, so you only have a small window of opportunity.