Saj Lebanese (formerly Cultivar)

[Thomas Vu]

From the menu would you say its more like torchy's/velvet taco or more like big truck?

[sooner88]

From the menu would you say its more like torchy's/velvet taco or more like big truck?

Here's the menu from their website... Really doesn't seem like either one of them.

Our Menu ? Cultivar Mexican Kitchen

[Bits_Of_Real_Panther]

lovley the fresh made trotillas, but are u saying like $18 for 4 tacos?

hate to be the critic, but carnitas and barbacoa only show up in the 'burrito or bowl' section fo the menu, i always try stuff like thaat in my tacos.

this place will kill it

[Uptowner]

At the risk of detracting from the topic. Why can't there be a simple, honest, authentic, cheap taco joint somewhere near the core? Can I just get dos tacos con carnitas w/ un ladu de verde? Is there just no money in it? I'd even be okay with a torchy's if that's what it takes. Tacos San Pedros...bricktown????

[Pete]

^

Fuzzy's.

[sooner88]

lovley the fresh made trotillas, but are u saying like $18 for 4 tacos?

hate to be the critic, but carnitas and barbacoa only show up in the 'burrito or bowl' section fo the menu, i always try stuff like thaat in my tacos.

this place will kill it

They are also in the taco section.

[CCOKC]

I love the fact that there are several vegetarian options on the menu. It looks like with the size of those tacos I will only need one for a good meal. I am a small woman so take that as you will. I only get one taco at Big Truck when I go and it is plenty for me. So that makes a meal for $5 or less. I'm not complaining. Plus it is only a few blocks from my office. I am looking forward to going there next week for sure.

[Pete]

Went again last night and having now sampled a fair number of their menu items, I can tell you their food is excellent.

Due to slightly higher price points and the progressive nature of some of its dishes (duck and seared scallop tacos, for example) it won't be for everyone. But everything I've had is very fresh, tasty and at least slightly inventive.

The fried catfish tacos are perhaps my favorite. Perfectly and lightly battered and fried moist pieces of fish with complementary cabbage and sauce. A few dashes of the habanero sauce and that is a really nice dish.

And for a simple item, their chips are house made and really good; nice and thick and served with an excellent salsa or really good guacamole.

For desert they served this chocolate and banana quesadilla that was delicious.

I also really liked the house margarita and others liked their sangria. Look forward to trying more of their drink menu.


This is not a place where you get a monster burrito or a huge plate of tex-mex covered in cheese. The flavors are brighter, the portions are not necessarily massive and the place is gorgeous.

[Martin]

any impression as to whether or not this place will be call-in friendly? really want to ty this place out but tend to get my food to go at lunch. -M

[sooner88]

Went again last night and having now sampled a fair number of their menu items, I can tell you their food is excellent.

Due to slightly higher price points and the progressive nature of some of its dishes (duck and seared scallop tacos, for example) it won't be for everyone. But everything I've had is very fresh, tasty and at least slightly inventive.

The fried catfish tacos are perhaps my favorite. Perfectly and lightly battered and fried moist pieces of fish with complementary cabbage and sauce. A few dashes of the habanero sauce and that is a really nice dish.

And for a simple item, their chips are house made and really good; nice and thick and served with an excellent salsa or really good guacamole.

For desert they served this chocolate and banana quesadilla that was delicious.

I also really liked the house margarita and others liked their sangria. Look forward to trying more of their drink menu.


This is not a place where you get a monster burrito or a huge plate of tex-mex covered in cheese. The flavors are brighter, the portions are not necessarily massive and the place is gorgeous.

Did you try both the tacos and burritos? Which would you recommend trying first?

[Pete]

I did not try the burritos.

Reminder, they open today. This image is from designer Larry Pickering on Instagram... He did absolutely fantastic work throughout.

[Martin]

went for lunch today... they have kind of a weird setup where there's one line for tacos and another for everything else. seems to me that makes mixed orders difficult. the place was a little loud to the point that it was hard to hear what the person behind the counter was saying. i ordered a burrito since the line was shorter. the setup on the burrito side is very similar to many fast casual 'mexican' restaurants where you choose your ingredients like a sandwich shop. obviously, they're still ironing out some kinks so the process could have used a little refinement. first, choosing items seemed to be made unnecessarily complicated... on a burrito it had to be explained that you could get a protein and something like four other ingredients without any additional charge. vegetables, cheese, sour cream, salsa, etc. each count as an ingredient so it was a little confusing... and for a burrito that's a bit north of $8, you probably shouldn't have the additional hassle. the second thing was that there wasn't enough staging area next to the register to handle people's plates. it seemed that the payment process took a bit more time than the ordering process so the plates kind of stacked up so the person managing that ran out of room. that was caused by the payment process (imo) taking a bit longer than it probably should. the person at the register had to hand me a receipt to sign where i had to add a tip, etc. i'm not against tipping or anything but it seems like since this is counter service (where you even fill your own drink) you should probably not have to worry about signing anything... that would certainly speed up the process.

while i may seem like i'm griping alot, overall the experience was decent. the interior is really nice and the food was delicious. the ingredients were really tasty and seemed super fresh. the chicken in the burrito was good, but could have used more seasoning for my taste. the chips and queso were awesome... the chips were extra thick strips of corn tortilla that had been fried and seemed to be made in-house. the queso was really delicious, i can't identify the cheese but it had a nice tanginess to it that i enjoyed... it was way better than the mix that they serve at most places.

and to answer my own question above, they did provide a printed menu with a phone number and fax number so i'd guess that phone-in orders are welcome. however, there doesn't seem to be a way to skip to the register to just pay for what you ordered.

all-in-all, this place was really good especially for their first day. i think it's a great addition to the area and i can't wait to try them again. -M

[no1cub17]

Heckuva crowd there tonight - hope to see more reviews!

[sooner88]

I'm going tomorrow night... I expect it to be pretty packed, especially this first week. They've done a great job building the hype.

[Pete]

Okay, so I'm pretty in love with this place now.

Sat at the outside bar/window for several hours on this beautiful evening and met a lot of nice people, enjoyed the drinks and really like the food.

And it was packed right up until when I left at 10:30.

[Pete]

As I walked home after a great evening...

[soonerguru]

As would be rationally expected, there were borderline laughable service issues, but this is a great place. The margarita was very, very good, and the tacos I had were excellent: I tried the catfish, barbacoa and carnitas tacos. The house-made, bottled sauces (roja, verde, and habanero) were very good complements to the super-fresh farm ingredients comprising the scrumptious tacos. Despite the silly service issues, the vibe was relaxed and sophisticated without an ounce of pretension or stuffiness. The weather was ideal, and the open-air streetside bar -- as well as the opened garage doors ( which, strangely, weren't opened until about 9 pm) -- made for great ambiance.

[sooner88]

I went last night, and overall it was a great experience. We got there around 7:30 and while the place was packed, the line went quickly and we were able to immediately get a seat (although not outside). I had read about the line being confusing and even knowing that it took a second to make sure that I wasn't cutting half the people in line to get to the taco line. We ordered three tacos, chips, tortillas, salsa and queso (~$35). I had the carne asada and carnitas tacos, and while both were great the carne asada stood out as my clear favorite. The salsa and queso were both really good and I loved the thick corn chips. They had a few first week problems (i.e. running out of lime juice for margaritas which had to be squeezed by hand), but overall it ran as smoothly as I could have expected for their first week. I look forward to going back and trying more of their menu, and I think that if you decide there's one meat that you like the best, the burrito may be the best bang for your buck... they looked pretty big for ~$8.

[Pete]

^

That queso and those thick chips are enough to keep me coming back. Different and better than any other I've had.

I think they've been completely overwhelmed by the business. Not only are they brand new with an ambitious, complicated concept, they have been slammed since opening.

At first I was a little worried people would resist due to pricing, but once you figure things out and realize their food is incredibly fresh and pretty inventive (i.e. not just typically gloppy Tex-Mex) you recognize this is a pretty great place.

[Urbanized]

^^^^^^^
Not to mention that in the tacos they are pretty generous with the proteins, some of which are also pretty rich. I went last night (3rd time in 2 days ) and had tacos for the first time. Got four - which ran me around $20 - and was stuffed. Could have gotten by with three, or even two if I were eating light. I had duck confit, pork, shrimp and carne asada, and they were probably ranked in that order for me. The duck confit was ridiculously good.

On Moday at lunch, I had a burrito with chicken, black beans and jack cheese, and didn't care for the blandness, even with hot salsa. But the tacos I had last night were very flavorful, even though they lacked the outright spiciness that I usually hope for.

Regarding the line, I think part of the problem could be solved with some sort of divider and signage or some other method that clearly defines "burrito line" and "everything else line." Honestly, eventually I'm likely to only order straight from the bar, which is where I'll usually sit I'm thinking.

And as far as the bar is concerned, it will eventually sort itself out. I think right now they have some very inexperienced bartenders (and some experienced ones), combined with an ambitious cocktail menu. Combine that with lime juice issues and there have been some ridiculous waits. I plan to stick with beer for a while. Other than being behind people with fussy lime juice cocktails, popping a cap is quick. I've discovered the Laugunitas Lil Sumpin Sumpin is probably going to be my go-to.

The lime juice problem needs to be solved quickly. Both nights I have been in, multiple groups I knew were frustrated with cocktail turnaround times, and universally it was due to being out of fresh-squeezed lime juice. The problem was compounded by the fact that a bartender was doing nothing but squeezing limes, so effectively one less set of hands behind the bar. Admirable that they are doing the fresh-squeezed thing, but it can't be at the expense of everything else. I think if they persist with it they need to reevaluate their prep. Perhaps dedicate a kitchen or bar back type person to do nothing but prep lime juice during busy times.

[Pete]

^

Agree with all of that.

And to demonstrate how they are still learning as they go due to all the things they are trying to do, when I was there on Saturday night for the soft opening, Larry Pickering (the designer) said that as soon a everyone left he had to tear out the serving line for burritos and salads because they discovered it was a bit too high to see the food as you came through.

So, he was starting work late Saturday night and when I was in there for the Monday grand opening, I noticed the work had been completed.


I think OKC has arrived at the point where a lot of people don't mind paying a bit more when the food quality is very good and the operators have made a big investment in their space.

It's nice to have the cheap-with-huge-quantity places -- and we have a ton of them -- but this is different and there is plenty of room for that as well.

[Urban Pioneer]

So here now grabbing lunch. It's virtually across the street for me. People are piling in. Word has definitey gotten out.

Had a custom made burrito. Delicious and under $10.

Also had a glass of wine. There wasn't a drink menu although one was promised to be in the near future. The wine was $12.00 which was a bit more than I wanted to spend at lunch.

I think this is my new go to lunch spot minus drinkage.

Yes, some elements of the service were laughable. But they are just now finding their way. They need a full time ambassador for the first month or so to engage patrons as they come in and as they dine to answer questions. It is diverse and the arrangement is confusing. Best to just jump in with no preconceptions.

The bartender did say you can order directly from them if you don't want to stand in one of the lines.

[Paseofreak]

The spread of ingredients is absolutely gorgeous! But, the Subway ordering format makes it difficult to make an intelligent selection in the minute you have between first glance at fifty available items and moving on in the line. A labeled "map" of items on the line located to allow time for considered selection and labeling of the items on the actual line would be most helpful.

That said, this place is wonderful in so many respects, and provided they've done their math correctly, it will be a complete success for a long time to come.

[Urban Pioneer]

Couple other notes... By the time I had left just now, there was a line out the door, down the hall, and nearly to the sidewalk.

I saw several OKC Talk posters there with coworkers. Either they have really good marketing or OKC Talk works!

The Front of House manager told me that they will start taking the Keep it Local card soon. Good news.

[Pete]

^

Just to clarify the complex matrix of ordering options, you can indeed order from the bar but only 1) if you can get the crazed bartender's attention; 2) they remember to place the order after telling them; and 3) burritos and salads are excluded, as you have to go through the line to select your ingredients.