Pelican’s gives dinner in Midwest City a touch of the waterfront without asking anyone to leave town. Its dining room has the playful, slightly transportive character of a fisherman’s wharf, a ship galley, and an old waterfront restaurant all rolled together.
Soft lighting and fitting background music help keep the room calm. Booths add a little privacy, making the meal feel pleasantly removed from the usual bustle of a casual dining room.
The restaurant has been around for decades, and that long local life shows up in its familiar, well-kept character. It is a place built for sitting down rather than rushing through: bread on the table, time to consider the menu, a soup or salad course, then a substantial seafood plate.
A menu that gives seafood some range
The seafood list runs well beyond a single signature fish fry. Scallops, clam strips, coconut shrimp, fried oysters, crab cakes, catfish, cod, salmon, and red snapper all appear among the choices, with fried, broiled, and grilled approaches in the mix.
For a diner who would rather sample than commit, the fisherman’s platter is an appealing route. It may bring together coconut shrimp, fried clam strips, a crab cake, broiled scallops, fried oysters, and fries—a full tour of the kitchen’s seafood side, and a generous plate to split if the table is already ordering starters and salad bar.
Daily seafood specials broaden the possibilities. Red snapper and Atlantic salmon have appeared as examples, so the special board is worth a look before settling on a regular-menu favorite.
Catfish gets a more modest option, too. A smaller portion has been satisfying as a meal without creating the familiar seafood-restaurant problem of leaving with half a platter boxed up.
Coconut shrimp and the pineapple sauce
The coconut-battered shrimp comes with pineapple dipping sauce, a bright companion to the sweet, crisp coating. The sauce has enough personality that it is easy to see why someone might keep it close for other items on the plate as well.
That small detail says something useful about Pelican’s menu: there is plenty of traditional seafood-house comfort food here, but not every plate is strictly beige and fried. A little pineapple sauce can go a long way toward waking up a large dinner.
The salad bar deserves its own stop
Many dinner entrees are paired with soup and access to the salad bar, and the bar is not an afterthought parked beside the main meal. It is broad, fresh, and kept in good shape, with numerous toppings and even fruit among the choices.
House-made dressings add another reason not to hurry past it. Raspberry dressing is one of the more distinctive options, particularly nice for someone who wants a lighter, slightly sweet counterpoint to fried oysters, clam strips, or a steak dinner.
French onion soup has a loyal following here. It makes a good first course on a cool evening, while the salad bar gives the meal an old-school steak-and-seafood-restaurant rhythm that has become increasingly hard to find.
The salad bar can also be added when the table is ordering appetizers instead of full entrees. That makes it possible to turn a round of shareables into a more complete lunch or lighter dinner.
Plenty for the table to share
The pick-three appetizer option is useful when nobody wants to make one unanimous decision. Fried clam strips, fried mushrooms, mozzarella sticks, calamari, and potato skins have all been included among the choices.
A trio like calamari, mushrooms, and mozzarella sticks suits a leisurely booth meal, especially if a seafood platter is coming later. Or go in a more coastal direction with the clam strips, then save room for the salad bar rather than ordering every fried option at once.
The pace works well for a date night because no one has to rush through the opening course. Servers are available to answer menu questions and tend to keep an eye on the table without hovering.
Steaks, pasta, and surf-and-turf
A seafood restaurant with a long menu is helpful when one person wants fish and the other has steak on the mind. Pelican’s also offers prime rib, ribeye, and chicken fettuccine, so a mixed group does not have to negotiate its way into a compromise meal.
The prime rib and lobster tail combination is a particularly fitting choice for a celebratory supper. It has the grand, slightly nostalgic appeal of a classic surf-and-turf order, especially with French onion soup ahead of it and a salad bar plate at the ready.
A room made for lingering
The booths are one of Pelican’s quieter pleasures. They suit a conversation that can wander along with the meal, and they help explain why the restaurant works for anniversaries, date nights, and dinners before an early evening outing.
The bar provides another place to sit and dine, while indoor seating is complemented by an outdoor patio or terrace. The main dining room remains the place to go for the full nautical mood, with its shipboard and waterfront-restaurant styling.
The setting has an older character, but it is clean and well maintained. Pelican’s does not need to be newly built to be comfortable; the point is the accumulated personality of a restaurant that knows what sort of evening it wants to offer.
Finish with lava cake
Dessert can end with a chocolate-bomb-style lava cake served with ice cream. After a seafood platter or prime rib dinner, it is an unabashedly rich choice, which is exactly the correct mood for a lingering supper.
There is a free parking lot with plentiful parking, a convenient detail for a restaurant meant for an unhurried meal. A lunch menu is also available, while dinner is the time when the soup-and-salad-bar tradition is most closely tied to the entrée experience.
Cash payments receive a small discount, while credit card payments carry a fee. It is a practical old-fashioned touch from a long-running local restaurant that still knows how to make a booth, a basket of bread, and a plate of seafood feel like a proper night out.