KD’s Slam Dunk With Southern Cuisine

By Greg Horton

Kd’s Southern Cuisine takes its name from the Oklahoma City Thunder’s NBA All-Star Kevin Durant. The restaurant features some of KD’s favorite foods, including traditional Southern cooking, as well as menu items familiar to fans of Oklahoma City’s favorite steakhouses.

Although there are televisions, Kd’s is a casual, fine dining restaurant, not a sports bar, even though you can find wings and “Thunder Sticks” on the appetizer menu.

Also on the appetizer menu are deviled eggs served with smoked trout. My mom never made them this way, but they are amazing. No restaurant can boast of Southern cooking without fried green tomatoes on the menu, and Kd’s has them.

The main menu features a delicious assortment of homecooking favorites, especially for people who grew up with chicken, beef, gravy, biscuits, cornbread, and grits, but several of the dishes have a delicious twist or two.

The fried chicken melt is served on toasted molasses bread, and served with Havarti and Swiss cheese, chipotle mayo, and a wonderfully tangy banana pepper relish. The combination of sweet, salty, creamy, and tangy makes a complex, multi-layered sandwich.

Kd’s has two salad choices: a Southern Fried Chicken salad and a classic Wedge salad. The fried chicken salad is served with cornbread croutons, candied pecans, and an orange marmalade maple vinaigrette dressing. You’ll want extra dressing, if only to dip your buttermilk biscuits or chipotle cornbread in.

The entrée menu features classic Southern dishes like chicken and waffles, meatloaf, fried catfish, and shrimp and grits. The smothered pork chop is a dry aged, bone-in chop served with caramelized onion and mushroom gravy, mashed potatoes, and one of the best sides available anywhere: smoked black-eyed peas.

There are two steaks (and one chicken fried steak!) on the main menu, but the best steak option is on the Baller Menu. Kd’s recently added a 28-ounce, Tomahawk bone-in Ribeye to the menu. The steak is prime Wagyu, a breed of Japanese cattle chosen for the quality of their beef and raised to exacting standards. The Tomahawk cut is a bone-in rib steak with the entire rib bone intact. It’s served with bleu cheese crumbles and onion strings.

Managing partner Joe Jungmann said new seafood options have recently been added to the Baller Menu, including a 15-ounce lobster tail, King Crab legs, and a fresh fish feature. Also, he said Kd’s just started offering brunch on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

The brunch menu features crabcake benedict, eggs benedict, chicken pot pie, and Southern quiche. Brunch is served from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., and since Kd’s opened their patio in early April, brunch can now be enjoyed outside.

As any good Southern cook knows, dessert is often the way cooks are judged, and no Southern menu is complete without pie and cobbler. Kd’s features a pie of the day, cobbler, red velvet cake, double chocolate cake, and, of course, cheesecake. Kd’s is a white chocolate cheesecake.

Kd’s also has an extensive wine list.
Jungmann said they have storage for 600 bottles, and there are dozens of bottle selections, as well as twelve by the glass options. A full bar is available with premium spirits and beer, as well.

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