The table at Sunnyside Diner filled up fast. Coffee first, then mimosas, then chicken-fried steak, an omelet, a parfait, a cinnamon roll, and a chicken-and-biscuit sandwich that looked like it had no interest in being polite.
That is about the right way to do Sunnyside.
We met friends at the original Sunnyside Diner near downtown Oklahoma City, the one at NW 6th Street and Classen Boulevard. It always seems busy, especially on weekends, but somehow we’ve never had much trouble getting in. That may be luck. It may be good diner rhythm. Either way, I’ll take it.
Sunnyside is a breakfast and brunch diner, but not in the high-pressure, dress-up-for-brunch way. It still feels like a place where you can sit down with people, drink coffee, order too much food, and let the morning stretch a little.
The original Sunnyside has a good OKC building story
The first Sunnyside Diner opened in June 2016 inside a former automotive repair garage near the western edge of downtown Oklahoma City.
That detail matters because the building still has some of that bones-showing utility to it. Big windows. Booths. Tables. An open kitchen. A real diner counter, which feels like a small but important decision. A diner without a counter is just a restaurant wearing a costume.
Founders Shannon Roper and Aly Cunningham started Happy Plate Concepts in 2015, and Sunnyside became one of the group’s early restaurant projects. The idea was straightforward: Sunday-morning comfort food without needing a reservation, a costume change, or a nap that ruins the rest of your day.
That old garage reuse also fits a bigger Oklahoma City pattern. Sunnyside did not have to be built from scratch to work. It took an existing corner building and gave it a second life as a neighborhood breakfast spot. Happy Plate Concepts has leaned into that idea over the years with other restaurants too, including Taqueria El Camino, Grill on the Hill, and the revived Classen Grill.
What we ordered
Our table made a strong case for breakfast as a group project.
The chicken-fried steak was the classic diner move, the kind of order that tells everyone you are not here to nibble. The omelet and parfait pulled things back toward reasonable, at least briefly.
Then the cinnamon roll showed up.
Sunnyside’s bakery side is not just a cute menu note. They bake breads, biscuits, cookies, and other items used across the restaurants, and that shows up in the breakfast plates. The cinnamon roll is big enough to become a table item, which is how I prefer cinnamon rolls anyway. Everybody says they only want a bite. Everybody is lying a little.
The chicken-and-biscuit sandwich was the one I kept looking back at. It comes with a hand-breaded chicken breast, American cheese, sweet-and-spicy pickles, and honey butter on a fresh biscuit. That is a lot of decisions stacked into one breakfast sandwich, but it works because the biscuit can actually hold up to the job.
Add coffee and a couple of mimosas, and the whole thing starts to explain why places like this survive even when brunch keeps trying to become an event.
Sunnyside also has more range than the heavy plates might suggest. Breakfast is served all day, with pancakes, French toast, Benedicts, burritos, biscuits and gravy, and omelets, plus a dedicated plant-based section with options like tofu scramble, plant-based chilaquiles, plant-based biscuits and gravy, and plant-based French toast.
That flexibility is part of the appeal. One person can order a parfait and coffee. Another can build a plate around chicken-fried steak, biscuits, and a cinnamon roll. Sunnyside does not seem especially bothered by either choice.
Why it still works
Sunnyside now has five metro-area locations: the original near downtown, South OKC, MacArthur and Britton, downtown Edmond, and Hefner and May.
Growth can make a place feel less personal if it loses the thing that made people show up in the first place. The original Sunnyside has held onto enough of its diner DNA that it still feels like the starting point, not just location number one on a website.
It is bright without being precious. Busy without feeling impossible. Casual without feeling careless.
For me, the best version of Sunnyside is exactly what we had: friends around a table, coffee getting refilled, plates competing for space, and at least one person pretending the cinnamon roll was ordered for everyone else.
Ten years after that old auto garage became a diner, the original Sunnyside is still doing the simple thing well. It gives you a place near downtown Oklahoma City where breakfast can feel like Sunday morning, even if the calendar has other plans.
Details
- Address: 916 NW 6th St, Oklahoma City, OK 73106
- Phone: 405-778-8861
- Hours: Daily, 6 a.m. to 2 p.m.
- Website: https://www.eatatsunnyside.com/
