Cafe Alley

Wow! Great food & service! Fried green beans were awesome! Cross-​cut sweet potato fries with marshmallow sauce were like a bite of heaven. SantaFe chicken was great too. Don’t even have words for the apple dumpling. Yum!
Great alternative to fast food if you’re traveling on I-​35.

Reliably excellent food and service. Never had anything that wasn’t delicious. Our favorites are the filets, smokeshack chicken, pollo pancetta, and the salmon (it’s the best salmon I’ve ever had in a restaurant). Only drawbacks are that it is very noisy and often has long waits.

Wow. Just. Wow! A couple of girlfriends and I met at a halfway point from where we live and this was a wonderful surprise! It was suggested by some people and we thought we would give it a go. I ordered the chicken fried steak which came with jalapeño gravy.
I’m pretty sure I saw the face of Christ in that gravy.
I am now a believer.
I live in Denton and it’s worth the drive, and is close to the best TJ Maxx ever.
Everything was superb. Cheesecake just topped off the entire meal. Will def be back to try more entrees.

For many years Ardmore Oklahoma has been a pit stop kind of town. I would pull off the highway only if I needed gas or a potty break. No more. Café Alley changed my perception.
Tonight I visited for dinner.
I ordered a filet cooked medium with cornbread and carrots (the vegetable of the day).
The filet came with choices of sauce. I chose the Worcestershire butter. The steak was cooked so tender I could cut it with my fork. The homemade butter had enough zing to compliment the meat.
My waiter Zack was one of the best I have ever had. He greeted me with a handshake, and checked on me six times without being intrusive.
He asked if I had been there before. I said I hadn’t, and he introduced me to the owner.
All this happened with every table full.
I am not sure I have ever had such great service.
I’ll continue to stop at exit 31a, but I’ll make sure my stomach is as empty as my gas tank.

Excellent service and food! Steak was cooked perfectly to order, and the cornbread was great. Definitely a repeater.

Normally I might start this with «For a small town «, but in this case it’s not needed. This place is great anywhere. Starting with the homemade chicken and sausage gumbo I was very impressed. For my entrée the chicken fried steak was perfectly seasoned and very tender. My guest had the Southern burger with pimento cheese and fried green tomatoes. His was cooked to a perfect medium rare and looked delicious. The only problem was being too full to order the peanut butter pie. I’ll definitely be back on a future trip to Oklahoma City.

This is a must if you are going through Ardmore, OK. The food is delicious! The owners are so friendly. The chef-​owner has worked in very high end restaurants throughout the nation. What a gem! I wish I lived closer, I would be there once a week!

Wouldn’t order the chicken melt again (dry/​bland: I’ve had better burgers/​chicken sandwiches at Braums). Service is sub-​par. The environment will keep me coming back.

I was surprised to see I haven’t reviewed Café Alley already. It is without a doubt the best restaurant in Ardmore, OK.
It is hard to find but worth the patience it takes to locate!
Good food, good service, nice atmosphere. I’ve eaten many of the menu items and all were good. Sandwiches, wraps, burgers and more.
If your stopping between Dallas and OKC or vice versa look up Café Alley, you’ll be pleasantly surprised!
They’re only open for dinner Saturday and Sunday.

Not perfect, but deserves 5 stars. Even though it’s in a smaller city, it would be successful in a big city as well. Mac and cheese was rich and creamy, but was a little bland. Chicken salad sandwich was very good. Not necessarily special, but solid and delicious. Cheesecake may have been the best I’ve ever had. I was very surprised at how delicious it was. Great restaurant

I didn’t know what to make of this place based on appearance alone but if I were to equate Café Alley to a woman, she would be the girl next door. She may not look like Jessica Simpson but she’s still cute with that spunky personality, friendly, and quirky at the same time.
I got the mustard prime pork chops and they were perfect. Juicy (most important to me), nice sear, lots of flavor. Just want I needed for lunch, and in a perfectly cooked pork chop. Sweet tea, sweet potato fries, all of it really hit the spot for me. So like the girl next door, this has been a very subjective review. But aren’t they all?

Came here on a weekend and the place was busy. We had to wait about 20 minutes to be able to get seated. The food was excellent and the service was a little slow. Our drinks sat empty for a bit twice but I could overlook this due to the packed house but there were employees huddle around the hostess table talking so I dont know. All around good food but bring your wallet.

We were driving through Ardmore and stopped here for lunch! We had an AMAZING experience! The hostess, Shan, was so kind and hospitable towards us. Our waitress was so sweet and patient and helpful. Not only was the service amazing, but the food was too! I absolutely recommend this restaurant!

This place blew me away! You MUST eat here when passing through Ardmore OK.
Order the sweet potato waffle fries with the marshmallow sauce! OH MY GARSH! It was so-​real :) All their food is real and cooked fresh daily! I met the owner Samantha! Super accommodating and her staff really take care of their guests!
I ordered the Maytag Blue Cheese Burger medium rare… If you love BLUE-​CHEESE this is a meal for you!!!

Found this place off Unilocal on our road trip from Fort Worth to Lincoln, NE. I have a cow dairy allergy and eat «mostly» pescatarian/​vegetarian. This place was awesome!
This is a family run establishment and it shows how much they care about their customers. We arrived around 7pm on a Thursday. Thankfully I thought to call and ask if there was a wait and they put us on the list because there was about a 35 min wait. This is a popular place and rightfully so!
We ended up eating at the bar so we were served a little faster than if we would have continued to wait for a table.
I asked about things that had dairy and the owner said her daughter has a food allergy so she takes this very seriously. They have a book that has every ingredient in it which is such a wonderful idea! Especially if the owners aren’t there the staff has the ability to look this up and give you an educated answer!
I had the slow smoked grilled salmon and it was delicious along with green beans and tomatoes and a salad that had sunflower seeds on it. My husband had the same salmon on a sandwich. They have a good wine selection. They could have more than one beer on tap (which was Stella) but it’s a small bar. Hmmm. Maybe they could even expand the bar and make that a destination all on its own ;).
Is located in a cool old building and seriously if it wasn’t for Unilocal I never would have known about this place.
It was a perfect reprieve from a long drive! This would be a regular destination if we lived closer.
We felt the price was a good value based on the quality and atmosphere. We had dinner and 2 glasses of wine and it was $ 60 plus tip. So not inexpensive but well worth it!
Highly recommend.

More like 3.5 stars.
Neat place in downtown Ardmore. We were driving from Tulsa to Fort Worth. This was pretty much midway and was the best rated for the area. Had to see what the fuss was about.
Venue and service was great but food was a bit off expectations.
My husband had the acclaimed chicken fried steak but it didn’t win him over. We shared the soup of the day: cream of broccoli. That was pretty good. I had an alley salad. It was ok. They used cornbread as the «croûton».
The sweet potatoes fries were awesome. Came with a cinnamon nutmeg marshmallow dip.
Too bad they didn’t have any carrot cake. It looked so good in the pictures

Such a GREAT PLACE! You must come here if passing through Ardmore… So delish! Best bartender EVER!

Absolutely delicious. The only bad thing about this place is that they only have one beer on draught. I had the special which in my case were St Louis style ribs with sautéed asparagus and beer battered fries. Everything was extraordinary. One of my colleagues had the corn bread as a side which appeared in a small cast iron frying pan. It was plenty for the four of us. Delcious and sweet.
The rib sauce had a nice sweet heat. We were too full for dessert but I can only imagine that it would be good. I will be coming back here.

Was in town for business for a couple of weeks and tried Café Alley a few times. Everything I ate was very tasty and just solid well-​made food. While I was there I tried the Santa Fe Chicken, Blackened Tillapia, and the Cheeseburger.
My favorite was by far the Santa Fe Chicken. With the bacon and cheese on top and barbecue sauce. Everything went well and the bacon and barbecue sauce was perfect salty/​sweet combo. I went with the Caesar salad on the side and it too tasted like something that I would get at a fine Italian place. On a side note, the sweet potato fries are amazing here too.
This is a great place with a good feel, but not pretentious like similar places in big cities. Kudos!

Kitschy but friendly. Interesting mash-​ups of traditional fare. Great flavors, great atmosphere.
The bartender is both knowledgable and swift in delivery.
If you don’t have reservations, then you can ‘sneak in’ to the bar… hey while you’re there go ahead and order!