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Buy for Less

3701 N. MacArthur Blvd.
Oklahoma City, OK
(405) 495-4330

This Buy for Less Grocery Store has a Mexican food counter inside

A current trend in many cities in the United States is for grocery stores that sell a large number of Mexican products to also operate a food counter serving cafeteria style Mexican food. This usually provides a cheap, fast, and authentic way to get the type of food that is popular in Mexico, and that is not altered to meet the expectations of Americans who have grown up with Tex-Mex and other modified versions of the cuisine.

Buy for Less is a local grocery store chain, but the one in the Oklahoma City suburb of Warr Acres is known for its selection of Mexican food products and the Mexican food counter inside (I read about it on the Internet). The food being served had a greater variety and was more authentic than I had expected, with some items that I am pretty sure are not available in any restaurant in the city.

The food here is not necessarily any cheaper than the city's restaurants, except that you only order what you want and there is none of the chips and salsa, queso, and sopaipillas for dessert included with most restaurant meals that I think do little more than jack up the price.

The food counter specializes in traditional Mexican food

Different items are displayed behind a glass counter so that customers can pick the ones they want. It is had to tell how long the food has been displayed, though, and I found some food items to be hot and fresh and others to be cooled off to the point that they had obviously been sitting in the display too long. Overall, though, Buy For Less did a better job of keeping the food warm than other similar cafeteria style restaurants I have tried.

Combination plates are available, and once I told the ladies what I wanted they seemed to do a good job of making suggestions for getting the maximum number of items for the special prices available on the plates. I think they have a two item combination plate and one with three items, and the substitution policy is very generous. One thing that always seems to be extra, though, is the drinks. The paper plates and forks are all disposable, and customers can eat at several tables that are provided.

Customers pick their own items cafeteria style

Nopal con puerco, rajas con queso, rice, and tamal

The item I found to be outstanding was the Tamal that looked and tasted like home made. The one I tried was green chile with chicken, but if I remember correctly other types of tamales are also available such as red chile. I had read on the Internet that this was one of the best places in town to get Christmas tamales. I think that even if these tamales were sold in El Paso, they would be popular.

Nopal (cactus) is a dish I had previously seen primarily in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, and interestingly enough it was served there in another cafeteria style restaurant that I used to visit. The one in Mexico was better than the one here, but that is probably to be expected. The red chile that came with the nopal dish, though, was quite good.

Rajas con Queso (green chiles) was a very spicy dish that I found to be better than expected. I had tried several in El Paso that were much too greasy, and the one here was comparatively very good. Maybe the fact that Oklahoma mainly has northern Mexico style food (from the Monterey area) explains why I liked this better than the Chihuahua style rajas I have tried.

The Melón (canteloupe) drink I ordered was authentic and good, but a little sweet (this is a matter more of taste than authenticity).

This turned out to be a great place to try Mexican food that was authentic and not too greasy. Some of it was quite hot (with chiles), and some was not hot enough (in temperature), but overall it was quite good and worth the price. I was given fair warning about the hot chiles, so there should be no surprises if you want to try something for the first time.