WINING AND DINING
Best Barbecue
The amazing thing about barbecue—for those of us who love it, anyway—is that even when it’s not great, it’s still pretty good. But when it is great? Oh, goodness. That’s one reason Ingram’s readers, voting with their dinner forks, have again bestowed Gold on Fiorella’s Jack Stack Barbecue. From its sinfully delicious crown ribs to heart-healthy options with fish, chicken, salads and sides, Jack Stack continues to set standards with its four area locations. Returning to its familiar Silver status is Oklahoma Joe’s Barbecue, whose appeal to meat lovers can be gauged by the length of the lines for lunch. The Bronze again goes to a long-time Kansas City tradition, Gates and Sons Bar-B-Q, dishing it out from six locations throughout the area.
Best Business Breakfast
First Watch knows breakfast. And with nearly a dozen locations in the region, early risers in Kansas City reward that knowledge with Gold-medal recognition. From the traditional eggs-and-sausage day-starter to something more rarified, like the carrot-cake pancakes, the menu is loaded with great ways to start your day. The Classic Cup Cafe on the Country Club Plaza serves up the Silver, both for its ample offerings—do try the pancakes—as well as the opportunity to enjoy breakfast and take in the morning air by dining outside. And Room 39, in the shadow of the sprawling University of Kansas Medical Center in Midtown as well as in suburban Leawood, takes the Bronze for breakfast, but serves up exceptional value at lunch and dinnertime, too.
Best Business Lunch
The setting at The Capital Grille, from the white tablecloths to the understated lighting, primes the pump for conversation, not strictly limited to the business kind. But there’s something about steak done right that sets the tone for fluid business deals, and that’s just one reason the Gold resides on Jefferson Street, in the heart of the Country Club Plaza. You can find the Silver just blocks away at Plaza III–The Steakhouse, another famed dinner venue that gets it right at midday, as well. M&S Grill serves up the Bronze, compelling us to point out that Kansas City does, indeed, have a lot to offer at lunch in locations other than the Plaza. But this one just happens to be sited there, as well, offering fresh and unique seafood in addition to more traditional Midwestern lunch fare.
Best Business Dinner
If you didn’t close that deal over lunch, there are multiple reasons to come back in for business dinner at The Capital Grille, which again claims Gold from our business-savvy readers. As deft with fish and poultry as they are with beef, The Capital Grille’s chefs serve up the perfect complements to a healthy wine list, all topped off with superior service. The Bristol Seafood Grill, serving both in the heart of KC’s business scene Downtown and near Town Center Plaza in Leawood, makes the case for seafood—tuna tartare, anyone?—and claims Silver in the process. And once again, Plaza III–The Steakhouse stakes its claim to business-dinner prominence with an expanded evening menu that elicits Bronze plaudits from readers.
Best Caterer
Whether it entails an intimate gathering of two or a corporate showcase for 6,000, Lon Lane’s Inspired Occasions delivers with selections that combine dining elegance with artistic flair, again nailing down the Gold honors. Fiorella’s Jack Stack Barbecue helped make white tablecloths and barbecue a combination that works, but its ample menu translates just as well to catered events away from the setting of a restaurant. Moxies Catering claims its first honors in this prestigious lineup by winning the Bronze this year; their commitment to quality starts with daily roasting of coffee beans and carries over to the rest of the menu.
Best Ethnic Restaurant
Leisure, camaraderie and good humor come together to make dining at La Bodega a Gold-medal experience, one where partaking of Spanish tapas means much more than just eating, and the experience is just as rich in suburban Leawood as it is at the Southwest Boulevard location on Downtown’s West Side. In the heart of the Westport neighborhood, Thai Place Restaurant serves it up authentic—try “Thai hot” if you want to know a new level of zestiness—and garners Silver this year. KC Korma Sutra, our Bronze star of Indian fare, is not to be confused with the literary allusion, but it does indeed incorporate the same level of appreciation for the sensual aspects of fine dining.
Best Grocery Store/Chain
Closing in on 90 years of meeting the appetites of hungry Kansas Citians, the Ball family does it under a pair of banners, and readers say each flag is top-tier. Garnering Gold this year is one line of groceries, Hen House, with a dozen area locations, while the ubiquitous Price Chopper banner (half of the area’s 32 stores are Balls Food Store operations; half are owned by the Cosentino family) produced a Silver finish. And bringing home the Bronze are the employees who own the area’s 25 Hy-Vee stores, part of a network of 230 locations in eight states.
Healthiest Restaurant Menu
Who knew healthy could be so darn delicious? The folks at Seasons 52, that’s who. And their patrons, of course, who made this newcomer on the Country Club Plaza our Gold medalist this year. Seasonal fare—the lobster and shrimp spring rolls are a great summertime example—is sumptuous, but don’t overlook the ample and varied wine menu. Serving in Leawood as well as Downtown and on the Plaza, (in*gre*di*ent) grabs the Silver for its flavorful range of pizzas, soups and custom salads. And tied for Bronze honors are Blue Bird Bistro, overlooking Downtown from the west and delivering organic, all-natural, sustainable and local offerings, and The Mixx, serving up flavor and healthiness from two Main Street locations, Downtown and on the Plaza.
Best Outdoor Dining
What’s the strongest appeal of outdoor dining—the open-air venue, or the people-watching you can do while eating? Hah: Trick question. Both are fine attributes, but the food is what made The Classic Cup Cafe this year’s winner—again—of the Gold in this category. Farther removed from the crowd, the designated patio at Aixois is the perfect place to take in both fine French cuisine and the slower pace of the Crestwood neighborhood. And our Bronze winner, Gram & Dun, bursts onto the scene with the “gastropub” concept, pairing foods with just the right drinks and a Ward Parkway Plaza vista that provides the perfect ambiance for both.
Best Place to Eat With a Group
Serving large groups involves a solid grasp of physics—managing space and time to produce just the right outcome. The four locations of Fiorella’s Jack Stack Barbecue have mastered it and thus have earned the Gold, according to our readers. Next is La Bodega, where the social aspects of dining are as vital to a good experience as top-notch victuals, a concept rewarded with Silver. And Brio Tuscan Grille, our Bronze winner, earns accolades for bringing the tastes and sensations of Tuscany to Nichols Drive on the Plaza.
Best Place to Take Out-of-Town Guests
If they’re visiting Kansas City, you’re pretty much required to take them for barbecue. Fiorella’s Jack Stack Barbecue—yes, it wins Gold in yet another category—is your ticket to showing those out-of-towners what KC cuisine is all about. But man does not live by meat alone, and Silver winner JJ’s, just west of the Plaza, amply demonstrates that with perhaps the finest assortment of wines and vintages in Kansas City, sufficient to earn this year’s Silver award. For Bronze, our readers turned to The American Restaurant, truly a Kansas City institution, to show them how we do it here.
Most Romantic Restaurant
From the impeccable white tablecloths to sparkling glasses filled with the perfect wines, from the succulent steaks, lamb, pork or chicken—the reasons are many and varied for The American Restaurant’s inclusion in Opinionated About Dining’s list of the Top 100 restaurants in America—and the only one from Kansas City. Nothing says romance like a premiere dining venue, which is why the American again earns our readers’ Gold votes. This year’s Silver belongs to the combination of food and atmosphere you find at bluestem, while further north, in Parkville and Briarcliff, Piropos delivers both intimacy and South American cuisine sufficient to earn Bronze honors.
Best Seafood
The bounty of the sea is on full display at Bristol Seafood Grill, which again snags the Gold in this category. Its two locations offer not just a wide variety of seafood, but deliver them to your table prepared to perfection. Hooking Silver with its own interpretation of fin and shell is McCormick & Schmick’s Seafood, which dazzles with its seafood selection, but absolutely seals the deal with its “Chocolate Bag,” so save room for that dessert treat. And Pearl’s Oyster Bar at Ameristar Casino comes in with Bronze for marrying Creole and Cajun styles to seafood, but the prime rib and pho-and-honey chicken are delicacies, as well.
Best Sports Bar/Grill
Coach’s Bar & Grill, which helped pioneer the sports-bar concept for Kansas City, operates two updated venues (on 135th Street in Overland Park and the original at 103rd and Wornall), settings that appeal to Tiger and Jayhawk alike. The chain earns Gold for its selection of game-day fare (particularly anything you can cram onto a bun) as well as its array of projection and high-definition screens. Johnny’s Tavern, another institution in its own right, earns Silver not just as a great place to catch the game, but an easy one to get to, with six area locations. And 810 Zone, in two locations—at Leawood Town Center and at Harrah’s North Kansas City—has a broad-based set of fans who delivered Bronze honors.
Best Steak
When you redefine excellence, it takes something special to knock you out of the top tier. Suffice to say, this year’s winners serve up excellence on their own terms, and all repeat in the same order we saw last year: The Capital Grille earns Gold with its world-class steaks. For nearly half a century, since beef first hit the grill at Plaza III –The Steakhouse, they’ve been hand-picking prime steaks and aging them in their own beef locker. Trust us: That commitment pays off. And Ruth’s Chris Steak House, famed for the sizzle as well as the steak, earns Bronze from the discriminating palates who vote for these winners.
Best Wine List
Really, now: when it comes to wine in Kansas City, is anybody else out there going to wrest the Gold title away from JJ’s? Jimmy Frantze’s connections to vintners and distributors around the world has yielded a list of more than 1,800 different wines, and we dare you to find a subpar glass. The American Restaurant, which treats sophisticated tastes to an award-winning list of vintages, claims Silver. Starker’s Restaurant has been delighting wine-lovers for nearly 40 years with its vast selection of more than 1,665 labels and a 12,000-bottle cellar, good enough for Bronze.
Best Service
Poor service is an in-your-face destroyer of the dining experience. Great service, by contrast, is a seamless complement to your breakfast, lunch or dinner—one you might not think about until you realize just how very much you enjoyed your meal. And nobody does it better than the staff at The American Restaurant, a repeat winner in this category. Readers also acknowledge the refined capabilities of the staff at The Capital Grille, turning in a Silver level of recognition there; Bronze goes to 801 Chophouse, whether you’re dining at the Town Center site in Leawood or in the Power & Light District.
Best New Restaurant
Great restaurants define themselves by their signature offerings. But what if you had four signatures—or more—every year? That’s the concept behind Seasons 52, which broke onto the Kansas City dining scene last fall with seasonally inspired dining choices, and the perfect wines to accompany each. It made a splash when it opened on the Plaza, one big enough to generate a wave of Gold in this category. There is indeed a story behind every meal—every ingredient, really—which inspired the name of Story, the Prairie Village restaurant that opened last spring, featuring American cuisine tinged with influences of Spain, France and Italy. Ingram’s readers say that story is Silver material. The Bronze goes to Gram & Dun, the Plaza gastropub that opened last fall.
Best Overall Restaurant
So many restaurants, so many experiences, so many choices—and so very little time to enjoy them all. Can there really be a “best” in this diverse lineup of culinary stars? Ingram’s discerning readers seem to think so, and when they ponder food, selection, service and ambiance, they come to one widely shared conclusion: The Capital Grille is indeed the best of what Kansas City dining has to offer, earning Gold. But not far behind is The American Restaurant, cited frequently on these pages and winner of this year’s Silver award; and bluestem, which turns in a repeat performance to earn the Bronze. 
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