Kansas Travel Blog
Chronicling changes to KansasTravel.org and Keith's exploration & photographing Kansas restaurants, attractions, museums, festivals and art. Contact him.
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Tuesday - June 29, 2010: Linda joined me for my second visit to Korean Restaurant Sobahn on Shawnee Mission Parkway in north Overland Park, Kansas. A number of reviewers have raved about this restaurant, but I was unimpressed during my first visit.

Korean Restaurant Sobahn has an attractive dining room and the service was good, but I don't care as much for the food as I do at some of the other Korean Restaurants in Overland Park. 

Linda had the Sobahn Galbi Steak (thinly sliced beef marinated in sweet soy sauce for $15.99) and was surprised when she was brought large cooking tongs and kitchen sheers to cut the meat. I had the Nakgi Bokkeum (spicy stir fried octopus with vegetables for $13.99). We enjoyed the food well enough, but I wouldn't make a point of going again. Both dishes were less flavorful than I am used to at Korean restaurants.

My favorite item during the meal was the cabbage kimchi, which really was quite good. Other side dishes included with the meal were steamed rice, cucumber kimchi, thin sliced zucchini, fish cake and seaweed.

Added a new review of Idlewild Lake Waterfall near Waterville, Kansas..

 

Korean Restaurant Sobahn - Overland Park, Kansas Korean Restaurant Sobahn
 
 
 
 

Upper Idlewild Falls Waterville, Kansas
Upper Idlewild Falls

Sunday - June 27, 2010: I added a long detailed London and Paris trip report to mightymac.org. I you want to skip to the high point of the trip, this link goes to my proposal at the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

 

Saturday - June 26, 2010: Linda and I tried a new place today, Wild Bill's Steakhouse and Saloon in the Legend's Shopping Center in Kansas City, Kansas. The large bar and grill is operated by KC Hopps Ltd and is located across from the T-Rex Cafe.

Linda had the Buffalo Bill - Thin crust pizza topped with marinara, pepperoni, sausage, Canadian bacon, and fresh buffalo mozzarella cheese for $11.99. It is one of just 3 pizzas offered on the menu, but is the three meats she prefers. She was satisfied with the pizza, but I thought the crust was soggy/limp and the flavor wasn't very good.

I went with the BBQ Beef Ribs - Slow roasted beef ribs cooked until tender and glazed with BBQ sauce and served with fries, country slaw and beans for $18.99. The only side that I liked was the small piece of corn bread that came on top of the beans, but the beef ribs serving was generous and they tasted great.

 

Tuesday - June 22, 2010: Tonight we tried a Kansas City, Missouri restaurant - Cafe Trio on the Country Club Plaza. There was a wait for seating inside, so we let them seat us on the large patio where we had a few of the J.C. Nichols' Fountain on the Plaza. It was a hot humid evening, but between the breeze and the light mist being sprayed around us, we were comfortable.

We ordered the Calimari Classico (sautéed with white wine, garlic, tomato, capers, olives, red onions, fresh thyme and oregano) small plate as an appetizer, but the server messed up and brought us the Calimari Fritta with three dipping sauces instead. We didn't say anything and just started eating the deep fried Calimari, but the server realized his mistake and brought us the other dish as well.

My $28 Steak Gorgonzola (16 ounce KC strip topped with Gorgonzola cheese and a white wine, mushroom & artichoke sauce). Quite good and too much meat after my eating the majority of the two appetizers. I left happy but stuffed.

 

Cafe Trio - Kansas City, Kansas Cafe Trio
Sunday - June 20, 2010: Back in Topeka, several friends joined me for lunch at Blind Tiger Brewery and Restaurant. The large restaurant has main different sized dinning rooms scattered across different levels and interesting spaces. The service was good and I appreciated the free wifi.

Unfortunately, the food was not as interesting. The large had dipped onion rings were popular with some of our party, but the batter included a seasoning that didn't taste good to me. My bbq ribs tough and didn't have much flavor and the Buffalo wings that were pared with them tasted like something I could buy frozen and warm up.

 

Blind Tiger Brewery - Topeka, Kanss Blind Tiger Brewery
Saturday - June 19, 2010: I only had time for a few hours of exploring today. Thunderstorms were passing through the area and it wasn't the best day for being outdoors, but after a couple of months without much traveling, I was anxious to get out at all.

My first stop was at Alcove Springs Park, north of Blue Rapids, Kansas. They are continuing to develop the small park and I wanted to see what was new. It started raining hard just before I arrived at Alcove Springs. I waited 20 minutes for a break in the rain, but it never let up. I ended up doing little there and heading toward Blue Rapids to have lunch at the  Blue Valley Cafe.

As I drove toward town, I noticed that my cell phone service had stopped. Driving into town, there was fresh storm damage to the trees and when I arrived at the Blue Valley Cafe, it was closed due to a power failure.

The power was also out in Waterville, a few miles farther west. There were many more limbs and tree down and utility workers were working on downed power lines.

I came to Waterville to see a water fall which had been recommended by Scott Bean of Manhattan, Kansas. He had told me about a set of waterfalls at Lake Idlewild just outside of town, but I discovered that I had didn't have the directions with me. 

Spotting a man walking along the street in front of the historic Weaver Hotel, I stopped and asked for directions. Instead of giving me directions, he said "follow me" and led me in his car a mile and a half north of town along streets and roads that were sometimes nearly impassible due to newly fallen tree limbs.

Arriving at the small lake, we had to drive across a low water crossing that was fairly high with water from the thunderstorms. When we parked our cars, I could hear the waterfall through the woods and the man led me through fairly heavy brush (including poison ivy) and standing pools of water to the top of a ten foot waterfall.

The woods were so dense that I couldn't get very good pictures of this falls, but we fought our way through brush to the upper falls which is shown in the picture on the right. 

The Good Samaritan (who asked not to be identified) also gave me a lead on another waterfall which I will visit on another weekend.

The power was still out as I passed back through Waterville, so I turned the car south and drove to Manhattan, Kansas for a very late lunch on the patio at Coco Bolos. Although it was a hot afternoon, the shaded patio was comfortable. 

I ordered the Gulf Trio Mixed grill - Jamaican jerked chicken, Cajun BBQ pork loin and what was supposed to be bacon wrapped Caribbean shrimp. There wasn't any bacon, but all three meats were very good. There were served over sautéed vegetables and taters Las Cruces. The potatoes had meat, spices and cheese. They were the best potato dish that I have had in over a year.

We a softball tournament resuming that evening in Topeka, that was near the end of my exploring for the day, but I did make one more interesting stop - at Topeka's Bobo's Drive-in. It had been nearly two years since I last dined at the 62 year old restaurant.

I sat at the horseshoe shaped counter in the small dining room at the drive-in, having just a single cheeseburger and handmade onion rings. The burger was just OK, but the rings were still very good.

 


 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Weaver Hotel - Waterville, Kansas Weaver Hotel
 
 

Upper Idlewild Falls Waterville, Kansas
Upper Idlewild Falls
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Coco Bolos restaurant - Manhattan, Kansas Coco Bolos patio
 
 
 

Bobo's Drive-in  - Topeka, Kansas Bobo's Drive-in

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