Memorial Road's Dinner Map Moved West This Year

On June 28, Opus Prime served its last steak at 800 W. Memorial Road after nearly 19 years. That same week, farther west at 3000 W. Memorial Rd., a new Korean restaurant was running a grand-opening prize wheel and setting pots of army stew on tabletop burners.

In 2026, the Memorial corridor near Quail Creek lost one long-running anchor on its eastern stretch. Meanwhile the openings bunched up around Quail Springs Mall, and three of the four most notable ones serve Korean, Japanese or Hawaiian food. If your "where should we eat?" debate still assumes last year's lineup, these are the places that have changed it.

The newcomers at a glance

The addresses tell the story. Opus Prime sat at 800 W. Memorial. Tamashii and Mr.Kimchi sit at 2701 and 3000 W. Memorial, near Quail Springs Mall, and Mo' Bettahs is just north on Rockwell. Everything new this year is clustered in one stretch, so a single parking lot decision now puts three cuisines within a short drive.

The table-cooked dinner: Mr.Kimchi Korean Bistro

The year's sit-down newcomer is Mr.Kimchi Korean Bistro at 3000 W. Memorial Rd. #105. Okie Almanac visited during the soft opening and described the dining room as "a little more polished than a quick strip-center stop," with stylish walls and gold-colored silverware and plateware.

The dish to order with a group is the Army Stew Soup. The same review says it arrives on its own tabletop burner and keeps cooking as you eat, packed with shrimp, meat, mushrooms and vegetables in a broth that "kept building as it simmered." The reviewer kept going back to the cucumbers topped with kimchi between the heavier bites. Edamame, dumplings and boneless fried chicken with dipping sauce rounded out the table.

The restaurant's own site also highlights Black Bean Noodles, Bibimbap and Chicken Cheese Rice Cake, and lists daily hours of 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Since it's open seven days, it works for a Sunday dinner when some of its neighbors are closed.

The ramen night with a shopping stop: Tamashii Ramen House

Just east of Mr.Kimchi at 2701 W. Memorial Rd., Tamashii Ramen House opened what The Journal Record reported would be its fourth Oklahoma City location, with an opening date of May 9. Husband and wife Matt and Wakana Sebacher founded the restaurant, and the menu centers on slow-simmered broths, handcrafted noodles and rice dishes. "Being from Japan, every dish we serve is rooted in tradition and made with intention," Wakana Sebacher told The Journal Record.

The Memorial location's menu includes tonkotsu ramen, chashu don, gyoza and the restaurant's garlic rice. The other reason to stop in is the grab-and-go market, stocked with imported Japanese snacks, ice cream, anime figures and collectible trading cards. If you have a kid who collects cards, you can turn a quick bowl of ramen into an errand they'll actually want to run.

Tamashii also stays open the latest of this year's newcomers. Its locations page lists 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, along with online ordering for the Memorial location. So a 10:30 p.m. Saturday bowl of tonkotsu is now an option on this stretch of Memorial.

The takeout plate lunch: Mo' Bettahs

Just north of the corridor, Mo' Bettahs Hawaiian Style Food announced its seventh Oklahoma restaurant at 14020 N. Rockwell Ave., with a Sept. 18 opening date. The Journal Record placed it "in the Quail Springs area near the Memorial Road corridor and the Edmond border."

The format is the Hawaiian plate lunch. You choose teriyaki chicken or steak, kalua pig, pulehu chicken or katsu chicken, and it comes with steamed rice, vegetables and macaroni salad. Dine-in, takeout and catering are all available. The Rockwell North store page lists 10:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

Mo' Bettahs is closed on Sundays, so the Sunday pick from this cluster is Mr.Kimchi or Tamashii. For feeding a team, a book club or a houseful of holiday guests, catering from a spot this close to Quail Creek is worth remembering.

The early run: Bojangles on Penn

The one newcomer that breaks the Asian and Pacific pattern is also the earliest. Bojangles opened at 13135 N. Pennsylvania Ave. on April 28. According to The Oklahoman, it was the first Bojangles in Oklahoma, and the opening drew a crowd that wanted a look inside the chain's "biscuit theater."

That makes the Penn corner the breakfast end of the year's openings. Everything else on this list is built around lunch and dinner.

Saying goodbye to Opus Prime

All of that new choice came in the same year the corridor lost a long-standing special-occasion dinner. The Oklahoman reported in July that Opus Prime, which the paper called a "beloved Oklahoma City steakhouse," closed at 800 W. Memorial Road because owner Bill Wilson decided to retire. The restaurant was Wilson's second career. He had retired once before, in the mid-1990s, as a U.S. Army colonel after more than three decades of service. The Oklahoman's summer roundup put the last day of service at June 28.

Opus Prime held its spot at 800 W. Memorial Road for nearly 19 years.

How the new lineup sorts by night of the week

Here is a simple way to keep the new options straight, based on the hours each restaurant lists:

• Sunday dinner: Mr.Kimchi, open daily until 9 p.m., or Tamashii, open until 10 p.m.
• Late Friday or Saturday: Tamashii, open until 11 p.m.
• Weeknight takeout for a crowd: Mo' Bettahs, which also caters, open until 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
• Birthday or group dinner where the table is the entertainment: Mr.Kimchi's army stew on its tabletop burner.
• Ramen plus a treat or trading cards for the kids: Tamashii's grab-and-go market.

At Leah & Whitney Real Estate, we live and work around this corridor too, and we keep track of what's opening near Quail Creek the same way you do. If you've tried one of these newcomers and found the dish everyone should order, or if you have questions about the neighborhood around Memorial Road, we'd love to hear from you. Contact Us.