The mere prospect of a fried pie is enough to make many mouths water in anticipation, and the Marionette’s news team found those expectations largely satisfied by their pies at Arbuckle Mountain Fried Pies, located near the corner of Portland and NW 50th street.

The pies fall into three main groups: dessert pies, meal pies and other miscellaneous pies. First, we will start with the fruits. Five people had fruit fried pies on our visit, and the overall consensus was that the fruit pies were great.

Both Isis Frazier and I came away with great impressions of the lemon pie, which still kept the familiar pop of the lemon while maintaining a good balance of tang and sweetness. The lemon went particularly well with the crumbly melt-in-your-mouth fried pie dough exterior, although we both hold the opinion that they would have been better warmed up.

Advisor Kelli Taylor had the peach pie, saying “there was a lot of cinnamon, which I like in my peach pie.” Although she also noted that “the crust was thicker than expected.”

For Taylor, the pie brought up nostalgic feelings.

“When I was a kid, my mom used to make fried pies. They were a favorite of my dad’s. I never ate them because I was a picky eater, but now I can say I’ve had one,” Taylor said. “While I enjoyed my first fried pie, it may be my last, as I really just prefer old-fashioned pie on a plate.”

Two mainstays of the traditional pie are cherry and apple, and don’t worry – they have these too – and these fried renditions definitely do their traditional counterparts justice. Kaitlyn Smith reported that the cherry pie “was really good – if you can manage to finish it,” and that she would happily get it again, although the filling was a bit too sweet for her taste.

Nikita Lewchuk had the apple pie, and said it “was pretty good” and that she “would like to go back.”

Camilla Gonzalez had the chocolate pie, and said that she remembered it being “extremely” good but found that she was “disappointed to find that it was just… okay.” According to Gonzalez, the chocolate doesn’t work well with fried pies because the taste and texture of chocolate filling is overpowering when there is too little fried dough to pair with it.

Lily Waswo and Frazier shared the pizza fried pie, and both found their expectations unmet by the quality of pie. “The pizza style was just okay. The crust had a soft crunch to it, which I liked, but the ingredients could be improved,” Frazier said.

Despite the enjoyment of the pies, the service was poorer than expected, and the building itself was rather broken down, with what appeared to be bullet holes in the windows.

“I wish I could have had a plate” Taylor said. The lack of cutlery and other eating utensils weighed heavily on the minds of those who had messier pies. I found the pie filling quite drippy at the beginning, and with nothing to hold it with except the thin bag, the filling fell onto the table more than once.

“When getting water, they just say ‘pick one’ (out of many different sizes) without telling you how much it costs until you purchase it,” Smith said.“I feel like they presented very poor service.”

Despite the poor service, the food was good and is certainly recommended.

Arbuckle Mountain Fried Pies is open daily from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. The original Arbuckle Mountain Fried Pies is located at Exit 51 on I-35 south of Oklahoma City.