About Ted's Cafe Escondido | Oklahoma's Best Mexican Food Restaurant

our story

At the entrance of a residential neighborhood located on 68th St. in Oklahoma City, with a fondness for freshness and a made-from-scratch mentality, Ted’s Cafe Escondido was born. We’ve been bringing better Mexican food to Oklahoma since 1991, and nothing about that has changed (well, we don’t use pagers anymore). 

Sure, we’ve added a few more locations to the family. But we still believe in hospitality and good vibes. Handmade meals and happy guests. And that good isn’t good enough. Better Mexican food is.

October 3, 1991

Ted’s Cafe Escondido is born

Ted Curtis opens first Ted’s Cafe Escondido location on 68th St. in Oklahoma City.

October 3, 1991

Six months later

Summer of 1992

A sea of lawn chairs begins to flood the restaurant lawn each evening as Ted’s becomes an Oklahoma City go-to for Mexican food and the waitlist grows.

Six months later

Y’all like those tortillas

A lot. So we opened the Annex at the 68th St. location to keep up with the demand, and cut down on the need for lawn chairs.

1990s

Beep us

Our servers get tech savvy – and oh so hip. We introduce pagers to make service faster and more convenient, without sacrificing Ted’s quality. Time is tortillas, people.

1990s

June 2003

Rockin the suburbs

What to do about wait times? Give the people more Ted’s. Our Edmond location opens in June 2003.

June 2003

June 2004

Serving Southside

Location number three comes to southside Oklahoma City, serving up more made-from-scratch magic to the metro.

June 2004

March 2006

Better Mexican in Broken Arrow

Growth! Our fourth location opens with a 100-name wait list on day one.

March 2006

November 2007

College town bound

We move into Sooner territory and open the Norman location. 

November 2007

Spring 2013

More seats, more Setup

Tulsa Hills opens with the most seating to date. That’s 158 people and some serious tortilla math. 

Spring 2013

April 7, 2014

Full-service, at your service

Our Del City location opens with our first ever full-service, sit-down bar. 

April 7, 2014

November 2, 2014

Heading Southwest

New market. Same Ted’s. Our eighth restaurant opens in Lawton. 

November 2, 2014

December 14, 2015

Council Road

Christmas comes early off Council Road with another new location. The perfect spot after shopping at the Outlet Mall.  

December 14, 2015

March 18, 2017

Double Digits

We officially hit the big 1-0 with the opening of our North Penn location. 

March 18, 2017

April 9, 2018

Tacos 4 Teachers

10,000 to be exact. We partnered with Operation Freedom and the Oklahoma Education Association to provide meals and solidarity for demonstrators at the teacher strike.

April 9, 2018

September 2018

Ted’s on wheels

Our Taco Truck hits the road for the first time, offering catering on the move.

September 2018