Established in 1975, the Dragon Inn is very old school in decor and food. I enjoyed the dark red and gold dinning room, but was less excited with the food which I found bland. I had spicy chicken with peanuts and hot peppers. It was only $6.50 with egg drop soup, pork fried rice and the choice of an egg roll or crab Rangoon. L was equally unimpressed with the beef with green peppers, which was $6.75 with the same sides.

In the evening, L and I drove to south Overland Park to try Wil Jenny's restaurant, but when we pulled up to the front of the restaurant, we were met by a man who said they were closed because a water pipe had frozen. He apologized, thanked us for coming, and gave us free appetizer coupons for Wil Jenny's and for their sister restaurant, Nick and Jakes Bar and Grill, which is located just across the parking lot.

So we tried Nick & Jakes. Although it was fairly busy, we were able to be seated right away. Our server was very good - attentive and willing to provide good advice. We started with our free appetizer, an enormous serving of so-so spinach & artichoke dip made with 4 cheeses and accompanied by chips & salsa.

My full rack of baby back ribs ($20 with a large order of French fries) was good and large enough that I took about half of the ribs home. But I wish I had ordered the petite medallions which L ordered. They were served with  caramelized onions, tomatoes, asparagus, whipped potatoes and smoked gouda sauce for $15. One of the nicest meals I have sampled all month.

Nick and Jakes Bar & Grill

Eight of us followed the service with lunch at the Mad Greek Restaurant in Lawrence. Most of us had the Sunday brunch buffet and were quite pleased with it. The buffet is fairly small and included only two meats - gyro meat slices and and very good spicy chicken.

One problem with reviewing dim sum, is that I'm not positive what the names of my favorite dishes were.

I tried a hand pounded & breaded pork tenderloin and grilled veggies. The tenderloin was pretty tough, but the veggies were great.

It was a bit of a shock when someone lit a cigarette at the next table. I've grown accustomed to not having to deal with cigarette smoke when I am having a meal. 

The selection and food is comparable to several of the other nearby Chinese Restaurants. There is a  Mongolian BBQ section without a very large selection of meats and sauces - typical of the Mongolian BBQs that are included as part of larger buffets. When I took my selection to the chef to be cooked, he started complaining about how I had arranged it. He kept lecturing me the entire time he was preparing the food. I wasn't impressed with how he prepared the food or treated me.

Following supper, I toured several Christmas Light displays in metro Kansas City, which were recommended by visitors to this web site. The most impressive one was recommended by Sally Rulifson of Cerner Corporation. Dallas Hainline (who built the Vince & Associates display at 95th & Metcalf) has decorated 12 homes. This evening,  lightening had interfered with some of the animated lights, but the display was still very impressive and worth a special trip.

Just in time for Christmas, here is a new page devoted to the Hainline Family Christmas Light Display in Overland Park, Kansas.

 

Hainline Family Christmas Light Display

The noisy restaurant and bar is likely to appeal to fans of the Hard Rock Cafe or Planet Hollywood, but none of the food really stood out. My favorite items samples were the coleslaw and the house made sweet pickles with pickled red onions. My Singing the Blues Burger was covered with lots of blue cheese and tasty, despite being well done (I ordered medium).

There are only 4 BBQ items on the menu and we tried brisket, ribs and pulled pork. The brisket was my favorite of the bunch. I didn't care much for either of the house BBQ sauces, but preferred the standard, to the "fire." The baked beans had a good sweet flavor, but were a but mushy.

Other dishes sampled included green fried tomatoes (good), French fries (good) and chicken wings which had good flavor, but a soft skin texture that didn't satisfy.

Service was aggressively good. Our server apologized profusely the one time she failed to notice that our beverages were empty.

L had Crispy Sea Bass with melted leeks, celeriac whipped potatoes and grapefruit "Air" for her entree, while I had mesquite grilled South Texas antelope chop with green chili & cheese grits, onion jam, Swiss chard, and red eye gravy. The antelope had too much "char" flavor from the mesquite, it overpowered the flavor of the meat. But I really enjoyed the onion jam.

The simple menu includes 8 burgers, 2 salads, and four kinds of fries. They were out of the Black & Blue
Burger (blackening spice, Maytag blue cheese and granny smith apple chutney) which I wanted to try, so L had The Smoke Burger (apple wood smoked bacon, smoked gouda cheese and chipotle-cocoa ketchup) for $7.99, and I had The Classic (with Vermont cheddar & locally grown micro greens) for $6.99. Both were very enjoyable.

A bowl of Guinness Pork Chili ($4.50) was meaty and fairly mildly seasoned. We had both regular fries and sweet potato fries. They were cut very thin - which I thought worked better with the more flavorful sweet potato fries.

We followed up diner with a visit to the Howe Family animated Christmas light display, which is now added to the Lawrence Kansas Christmas Light Display Tour.

Howe Family Christmas light display

Korma Sutra is kid friendly and may be a better choice for someone trying Indian food for the first time.

The service was very good.

In the evening, two friends joined me to drive to Lawrence, Kansas, where we had supper at Local Burger. My meal was OK, but the food hasn't been special the last two times I have dined there.

We then scouted out two new homes for the Lawrence Christmas Light Display Tour. The first was the home of Lee Howe, who invited me to check out his animated sound and light display. It is a nice addition to a neighborhood that has several good Christmas displays

The second home is at the end of  dead end on Delaware Street. It is a large display with 17 inflatable yard decorations, but not very cohesive or easy to view.

Howe Family Christmas Display

We went on to Yardley Hall at Johnson County Community College for the University of Kansas Vespers, which was on the road for the first time in its 85th years. The large KU choir and symphony did a great job and we enjoyed the opportunity to sing along on a couple of the songs.

We concluded the evening by checking some additional Christmas displays. They included an interesting one in Overland Park where there is very nicely decorated home and the adjacent home has no Christmas decorations, but has an arrow pointing at the other house and the word "ditto." Also a neat Leawood, Kansas Christmas display with a runway and several flying Santas.

5 new listings were added to the Johnson County (Kansas City) Christmas light tour. The Christmas light tour is currently being view over 300 times a day!

Two Santas prepare to take off while another Santa lifts off in a balloon

I also liked both the red and green salsas that came with complimentary chips.

Friends joined me for supper at Chez Yasu, a French restaurant in Topeka, Kansas. Although the exterior wasn't encouraging, we all enjoyed the atmosphere and the surprisingly reasonably priced food. Dinner for four of us came to just under $100 without wine. A real bargain for this level of food and service. 

Big hits for the group were the squash soup, salmon in lemon butter sauce and the roasted rack of lamb.

We followed supper with a revisit of the decorated homes on the Topeka Christmas Display Tour. Only one home had to be removed from the listing from 2008, and we found three new homes to add to the holiday light tour. The biggest changes from last year were at 2931 SE Virginia Avenue, where they have added a large nativity and a life-sized moving Santa Claus on a throne.

Chez Yasu

Virginia Avenue Christmas display

This restaurant does a buffet at both lunch and supper. Lunch is a typical area Chinese buffet. It seems like most of these restaurants duplicate each other's buffet menu. But the food was above average - I particularly liked the hot and sour soup.

Supper was at the Longbranch Steakhouse Saloon in Lenexa, Kansas. I had tried several other items, but it was time to try their steak. Unfortunately, it was much over priced for a steak at a local bar, $25 with just one side dish. I can't justify spending that for something ordinary at a place without much atmosphere.

In the evening, I photographed Nottingham by the Green subdivision in Overland Park, where all of the trees have green lights on the trunks and red lights in their lower branches.