Kansas City Barbecue Pt. 1

These next few posts will deal with my (and most likely our collective) addiction to barbecue. Keep in mind that these picks are in no particular order, only emphasizing that these are must try places. Enjoy!

Gates Barbecue - HI MAY I HELP YOU!!!

Yes, yes you may. Have your order ready because they like to think that they're moving that line fast. A Kansas City institution... period. Hands down some of the best meat you'll experience in KC and sauces that are downright legendary. My only knock - even though they'll rush you through that order you're still gonna wait as they take their sweet time filling that order. I find that consistently aggravating.

Fiorella's Jack Stack Barbecue - Do you hear angels trumpeting?

OK, that's a bit much but it's close. Elegant barbeque? Yep, that fits. Hands down in the top five must have KC BBQ experiences. Sit down, cocktails, apps and sides, some of the BEST smoked meats in the area. A must try - the Crown Ribs - I do believe you'll hear angels trumpets when you lay into these.

Big T's Bar B Q - Excellent Kansas City BBQ

I'm kind of a BBQ snob, but in KC who isn't. Here's the real beauty of Kansas City BBQ - almost all of it's fantastic and the bulk of it all is simply the best in the nation. Big T's is absolutely in that bulk. Spot on meats, ribs and sides. Excellent sauces. Oh yeah, lunch portions get you leftovers for later.

Simply Breakfast

Good simple breakfast. Pretty quiet at 8 am on a Friday, but traffic began to pick up nicely by the time I was done (I sometimes forget that the Westport community and crowd rarely gets moving before 9 am). Very good eggs benedict, nicely excecuted and simply delicious. Hash browns like I like 'em, shredded and crispy, hot from the griddle. I really like how the coffee is included in the breakfast price. I challenge anyone to find eggs benedict done this well, hash browns and coffee for under $8. Regarding an unhealthy habit of Kansas Citians to be overly critical... not every place in Westport needs to cater to the trendy and pretentious. I realize McDonald's may be your staple but I can't even begin to see a comparison. Simply Breakfast is as the name implies, can't wait to take the wife and child and try the B & G.

Char House Barbeque & Fried Chicken

In a town where BBQ has to shine to make it, Char House has some sparkle. Lunch with my wife took a little longer than expected in that they had just run out of white meat chicken and were starting a fresh batch. The extra 20 minutes was well worth the wait, fantastic fried chicken, and I don't generally eat fried chicken. And the BBQ... spot on. I had the 12 oz dinner with pulled pork, burnt ends and sausage (a sweet italian variety with nice smoke), all tasty, smoky and hot to the order. The burnt ends were a little spotty and the pulled pork was delicious (but a little heavily sauced). A little reminder for the purists out there. Char House provides a slew of sauces on the table, but they sauce it in the kitchen also, which defeats the purpose of putting the different sauces at the table. I'm a sauce guy so it was all good, but if you sample or measure your sauce (or don't use it at all), ask for it with no sauce when you order.Char House also has burgers and wings, BBQ sandwiches and all the sides (black beans and rice reminded me of our Belize honeymoon), corn bread (yummy) and your favorite drinks (Coke products, beer and tea). Oh, the service was excellent considering our little extra wait and the busy lunch rush. We'll definitely be back.

Fusion Buffet

I usually avoid buffet restaurants like the plague, the promise of cheap sushi being the initial draw to Fusion. Oddly impressed. Good, well put together sushi, good Chinese staples, great selection of soups, excellent fish/seafood selections. Mongolian grill, salad bar, fried food station and dessert bar available if that's what your looking for. Lunch was very busy the times I've been there so the food is hot and quickly turning. Been to dinner once and the prime rib (?) was surprisingly tender and tasty.

My one pseudo-complaint is the crab legs offered at dinner are not regulated. I'd heard complaints from others and witness myself that 3-5 groups of people will post a guard and wait for the crab legs to be brought out, take them all, and keep watch for the next round. These folks will hang out for a couple of hours so essentially 15-20 people monopolize the crab legs, no one else gets any and the management does nothing to correct this.

Philos Grill

Great little convenience diner. I call it a convenience diner because you order and pay (cheap!) at the counter, grab your can or bottle out of the cooler behind you, find a seat, and they bring you your food on styrofoam plates with plastic utensils, you eat (yum) and bus your table... and the only thing I can think to call that is a convenience diner.

They do breakfast, lunch and dinner (classics) and have a short menu of "Greek" specialties. I'd more accurately describe these as Mediterranean but that's irrelevant, the spanikopita was fantastic, dare I say made in house(?)! My lunch also included a gyros Reuben, a classic Reuben with sliced gyros meat, which was AWESOME!!!! Sided with a sour pickle that stripped my mouth of any sensation (palette cleanser?) and an Orangina it was a fantastic lunch. Will definitely be back, cannot beat the price and the menu has piqued my interest.

West Chase Grille

We had such high hopes for the West Chase Grille, maybe to high. Consequently our disappointment was probably slightly more devastating than normal. Located in the space occupied by the much missed 40 Sardines, with chefs pushing a lot of street cred, and a menu that is truly drool inducing, what could possibly go wrong? It wasn't the location or decor, service was gracious and on point, but the food... the food was lacking.

Susan and I had gone for lunch since I was disturbingly excited about the Kobe beef burgers (which I know is not actual Kobe, it's Wagyu beef raised here in the States... to their credit, West Chase has amended their menu to show American Kobe but that's still cheating in my book). Our server was lovely and attentive and we soon ordered Classic French Onion soup and a house salad to start. The soup was fantastic, a perfect example of what this soup represents. The house salad was lovely with lots of goat cheese, walnuts, greens and sweet red onion. Honestly, splitting these starters could have easily afforded a couple a nice lunch, but I'm a greedy, gluttonous SOB and I was going to get a burger. And here is where it went downhill. Susan ordered the Truffled Crimini Burger and I needed the Balsamic Glazed Vidalia Onion Burger, we both ordered medium doneness accompanied by truffled french fries. When we received our beautiful burgers mine was a little over done (which is somewhat forgivable), but Susan's was borderline raw?!? Needless to say we sent hers back to the kitchen and snacked on my fries until the order came back. The fries (truffled?) were not particularly good, obviously a pre-cut frozen product, not necessarily fried to order. When Susan's burger came back it was very over done. Truly, absolutely disappointing. We made our concerns known to our server who apologized but was unable to get a manager as there apparently wasn't one there. We paid our bill and left.

When we got home I fired off an angry email to the owners. To our surprise, the reply was almost immediate. They apologized profusely, comped our entire meal and requested that if we ever came back, to please let them know so they could introduce themselves and apologize in person. We haven't been back... but man, that menu is tempting.

How are we doing?

Thank you, everyone, for the positive responses we've had so far with this blog. Our top ten was as fun to list and describe as it was difficult to refine but I think we're on the right track. I think we're going to try our hand at some disorganized reactions and reviews for a few posts, a few to keep your eye out for;

Nara
Lydia's Kansas City
WestChase Grille
Art of Pizza
Harry's Country Club
Jess & Jim's Steakhouse

Our real challenge will be keeping our upcoming BBQ joints list to a top five. As always, be liberal with your responses, let us know what your opinions are, and let us know what you like to eat Kansas City!!!