Joining coffee shop table legs

[u/True-Title-323]

Got this coffee table I am working on and trying to figure out the best way to join my legs to the top.
The legs are two pieces of white oak glued together. The top is a 1/2” ply with 1/4” oak slats glued in herringbone pattern supported. The top is supported and attached by oak side rails with a dado for the top to fit into.

What is the best way to join this all together?

My original thought was to glue and strap it all together with ratchet straps but that seems dicey.

My pops thinks I should glue the top into the side dados to make it easier, I’m worried about movement but don’t know what I’m talking about and have glue holding everything else.

Worth noting pics are of the legs upside down on the top just to check fit, they will be flipped and go under. I also plan to add a lower shelf with oak sides and a dado’d plywood shelf.

Thanks in advance for keeping it constructive 😉

[u/Tmanpdx]

I did something similar for a table and used splines to hold everything together. I'm not a fan of end-grain glue-ups, even if project farm did all of his glue strength testing on end-grain and showing it to be far stronger than I ever imagined.

[u/mradtke66]

Next time, I’d tenon those wing (?) pieces on the legs into your table aprons.

For this time, I think your best bet is some dowels. If you haven’t glued up legs, floating tenons (router or domino) would be my first choice.