Breakfast at Natsukashii Tulsa
I‘ve written about Et Al.‘s Wednesday evening Dumpling Night before, so – like many other Tulsans – have been eager for the opening of Et Al.’s first restaurant concept, Natsukashii. As of this past weekend, the day has arrived, so naturally I wanted to take Joss ASAP. I opted for their breakfast service because their coffee bar looked very nice, and they had a couple of interesting looking pastries and signature drinks. So we headed downtown Wednesday morning to check it out!
Natsukashii is located at 14 N. Cheyenne Ave., close to Welltown Brewing. The restaurant serves breakfast from 8-11 a.m., Lunch from 11 a.m.-2 p.m., “Rascal Hour” from 3-5 p.m., and Dinner from 5-10 p.m. – Monday through Saturday.
Ordering breakfast
On Saturdays from 8 a.m.-2 p.m., you can order Japanese Breakfast, which is a set menu including items like Hapa Rice, Miso Soup, “pickled things,” and much more. However, as we visited on a weekday, we ordered off the pastry and onigiri menus.
Joss chose two types of onigiri (triangular rice balls with fillings). One was filled with salted salmon and lemon (his favorite), and the other was stuffed with soy pickled shiitake mushrooms.
Being a pastry person, I tried the Shiozake Danish (with cured salmon) and couldn’t resist the Milk Bread Donut, which was wonderfully ooze-y thanks to the milk tea creme diplomat hiding inside.
Picture not doing justice to how delicious this was! Such flaky pastry!
Natsukashii Beverage options
I had wanted to try their signature Black Sesame Latte because I think that would be a new flavor experience for me. However, they were out of the black sesame syrup after an understandably busy weekend, so I went with an iced matcha instead. It was delicious! They can do all of your basic espresso drinks, with various syrups as needed. And also have a strawberry matcha that I will have to go back for.
The drink menu naturally expands over the course of the day; at lunch you can order a number of housemade sodas (I’d probably get the Sancha Raba – ginger and lime soda + green tea), as well as an array of sake and wine. For dinner, don’t miss the cocktail section of their menu. I would absolutely opt for the “ooohh Big Stretch” – “crushable cream soda with butter-washed gin, orange cordial, milk.” I’d have no idea what to expect, but it sounds delicious!
In other news
This doesn’t have anything to do with the restaurant. But we parked on the street outside of Welltown Brewing, and I paid the postage meter for an hour. When I got back to the car, not only did I realize that I’d locked my keys inside, I also noticed a ticket! It had been placed on my windshield about 25 minutes before my meter time ran out – although it claimed I had overstayed my time.
Thankfully, AAA came out to the rescue. And even more thankfully, a very nice Natsukashii customer offered to let Joss use his coat when he went to the restaurant because it was a chilly morning and we had to wait for AAA to get there. In the meantime, I called Tulsa’s 311 number to ask about the ticket, and they helped out. In about an hour, I’d gotten it taken care of and removed from the record. Yay!
Still, it made for a weird morning. I’m just glad it had started out with a delicious breakfast at a new Tulsa restaurant!
