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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Sunday
- February 1, 2015: We returned to Cozy's Cafe in Overland Park for
our annual visit. They continue to be very busy at lunch on Sundays and
the food was slow coming out, though not quite as bad as 2014 when it took
over an hour. The menu has been updated on our review.
Added
a new page devoted to El Pollo
Rey in the Armordale neighborhood of Kansas City, Kansas. They serve
only inexpensive grilled chicken meals and Buffalo wings.
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Cozy's Cafe |
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Monday
- February 2, 2015: Added a new page devoted to the Four
State Lookout & Wilbur Chapman Monument in White Cloud, Kansas.
The
Wilbur Chapman Monument is dedicated to an 11 year old boy who raised and
sold a pig to raise money to help lepers. His good deed inspired a nationwide
program to save money in piggy banks to combat leprosy.
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Four State Lookout |
Tuesday
- February 3, 2015: I paid a third visit to the new Sher-E-Punjab restaurant
in Olathe, which open in December. I had been disappointed with their buffet,
but with this being the first Indian restaurant in Olathe, I wanted to
try it again, ordering off the menu. It turned out that they were not operating
the buffet. Small numbers of customers had resulted in their throwing out
a lot of food.
The
chicken samosas and lamb vindaloo were both quite good, but much too expensive
for lunch. My meal came to $20 without a beverage. Until they add some
lunch time specials, I recommend dinning there for supper only.
Added
a new page devoted to the Cray
Historical Home Museum in Atchison. Although the museum was established
in 1978, it was closed for renovations during the years when I made repeated
trips to Atchison to visit all of its attractions. But it is open now.
The 25 room 1880 Victoria mansion is very ornate and nicely furnished.
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Sher-E-Punjab
Cray Historical Home Museum |
Thursday
- February 5, 2015: We had supper at Arris' Pizza, which just opened
in Lenexa, Kansas on Monday. This is the first location for the Greek pizza
restaurant change. The other locations are in Missouri. We tried the garlic
cheese bread, Buffalo chicken wings and a "Hercules" pizza (ground beef,
Canadian bacon, pepperoni, Greek sausage & bacon).
The
new restaurant still has some rough edges. The garlic cheese bread was
only slightly warm and the marinara sauce which came with it was cold.
The chicken wings were also only slightly warm and looked pretty ordinary
when served, but they did have some pretty good heat, which snuck up on
you with the second or third bite.
There
were four of us and we had different opinions on the thin crust pizza.
I didn't care much for the pizza, but some of us thought it was pretty
good. The thin crust reminded me of the flavor (but not texture) of saltine
crackers. The meats and cheese were OK. There was little sauce and it added
little flavor to the pizza.
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Greek pizza |
Friday
- February 6, 2015: It had been a couple of years since my last visit
to The Peanut on 127th Street in Overland Park. The chicken wings the restaurant
is known for take 20 minutes, but I called during the drive to the neighborhood
bar & grill and a three wing appetizer was ready just a few minutes
after I arrived. The $7.99 dish includes three large, complete wings as
well as fries and house made blue cheese dressing. The fries are nothing
special, but the wings are very good. The "appetizer" is a nice sized meal.
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3 wing appetizer |
Saturday
- February 7, 2015: As we continue to get caught up on this website,
we added a new page devoted to Three Corners
- the location of the Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska Tristate Point in the
Arikaree
Breaks.
We
had visited Cheyenne County and photographed Three Corners in September
of 2011.
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Linda standing in 3 states |
Sunday
- February 8, 2015: Added another page, this one devoted to a neat
small town museum which we visited during the same trip in 2011. The Fort
Wallace Museum in Wallace, Kansas is pretty impressive for the
size and quality of the museum in a town of only 56 people.
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Monday
- February 9, 2015: I revisited and updated the page devoted to Talk
of The Town Grill & Bar in Overland Park. It had been almost 2
years since the last time I was there and the menu had quite a few changes.
While some items were more or less the same price, several had gone up
about 20%.
The
country fried steak was very good, with a taste, crisp coating. The garlic
green beans were also good, with the large tossed salad and mashed potatoes
& gravy being less impressive. It was a lot of food for $12.
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Country fried steak |
Friday
- February 13, 2015: This evening Linda and I revisited Izumi Japanese
Steak & Sushi in Overland Park. We had a reservation and despite it
being the night before Valentine's Day, we were quickly seated at one of
the teppanyaki tables.
The
chef did a reasonably good, if not stylish job of the table side cooking,
with one big failure. When Linda ordered her steak cooked well done, he
made a joke about it being done tomorrow. Unfortunately he tried to make
that true. He cooked her stead far longer than needed, more than twice
as long as the other steaks, and served it tough and dry.
The
other food was mostly good, with my favorite dish being the spider roll.
The teriyaki salmon was also slightly over cooked.
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Izumi Japanese Steak & Sushi |
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Saturday
- February 14, 2015: We added a new review of the Joe's
Kansas City Bar-B-Que restaurant in Kansas City, Kansas. This popular
restaurant shares space with a gas station and convenience store and recently
changed its name from Oklahoma Joe's Barbecue.
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Sunday
- February 15, 2015: Long overdue, we have brought all of our Kansas
City BBQ restaurant reviews together on one page so they are easier
to find and compare. There are presently 20 reviews from both Kansas and
Missouri, plus five archived reviews of KC BBQ restaurants which have closed.
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Monday
- February 16, 2015: I drove to the Missouri State Line to have lunch
at Gates Bar-B-Q in Leawood.
I had not been there since 2013, but other than the prices creeping up,
it was unchanged from previous visits. All three meats sampled (brisket,
pork ribs & ham) were tender, moist and had a good flavor from the
smoking and dry rub. The thick fries were slightly under cooked for my
taste.
Gates
does not offer table service, but the woman busing the tables in the room
where I dined was quite helpful, wrapping up the meat I took away with
me and getting me a go cup of soda to take along.
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Tuesday
- February 17, 2015: We added a new page devoted to the Yesterday's
Museum in Topeka, which shares a neat old stone building with Henry's
Grill and Historic Harley-Davidson. The unusual private museum is devoted
to motorcycles.
The
free museum is open the same hours as the motorcycle dealership.
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Yesterday's Museum |
Friday
- February 20, 2015: I went to Downtown
Diner in Olathe at lunch, so that I could get photo of the new menu,
which has several new specialty burgers and some other changes. I had the
new burger which has become my favorite - the Sheboygan burger (burger,
Swiss cheese, Italian sausage, grilled onions, sauerkraut). It was every
bit as good as I remembered when they were testing it out last fall.
While
I was eating, the owner, Rich Caines brought out some ham that was just
off the smoker for me to try. It is a slow process, because the ham must
marinate in brine for several hours for each pound of meat.
Rich
explained that it was from a pig which they raised on a nearby farm, using
food which would have been waste at the restaurant for part of the feed.
They are now raising all of their pork products, which are butchered at
Steve's
Meats in De Soto. They intend to raise all of their beef by the end
of the year.
They
are looking for another firm to slaughter and butcher their animals for
a few weeks, because Steve's Meats had a fire earlier this week.
Added
a new review of the Museum
of Prairiefire in Overland Park.
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Downtown Diner
Steve's Meats |
Saturday
- February 21, 2015: We paid a second visit to Slap's BBQ in Kansas
City, Kansas and posted a review
of the 8 month old barbeque restaurant. This time we sampled many
of the other items on the menu. The brisket was dry and just OK. The person
carving the meat had added au jus to the pulled pork and it was much better.
The
sweet sauce went well with the smoked turkey, though that is the only meat
which I would use the sauce on. The baked beans were meaty, but a bit too
sweet for both of our tastes, but Slap's offers jalapeno pepper slices
if you have the beans and I thought the peppers made the beans very good.
The
ribs were still good this time, but could have used more rub in their preparation
(or a different sauce). The sausage was our favorite item, hands down.
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Slap's BBQ |
Sunday
-
February 22, 2015:
We had lunch at J. Alexander's to consider it for our Overland
Park Restaurant Guide. The restaurant's larger dining room was quite
attractive, dark with bright flood lights focused on the tables which gave
a feeling of privacy. The menu had many items which looked interesting
and the service was outstanding.
My
hamburger and Linda's steak were both cooked exactly as we ordered, but
other than the fabulous deviled eggs which were topped with candied bacon,
none of the dishes really came together in a way which we enjoyed. The
smoked salmon dip seemed more like salmon tartar. It didn't taste like
it had been smoked or cooked at all.
The
presentations were good, but the burger was on a hard roll rather than
a bun and its Kiawah Island dressing didn't work for me. The Madeira sauce
on the Steak Brazzo, wasn't a flavor which either of us liked. My shoestring
fries were well made, but I'm really not a fan of that style of fries.
Other
than the eggs, there was no item in the meal which we enjoyed enough to
finish.
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deviled eggs |
Monday
- February 23, 2015: Linda drove to Olathe to join me for lunch at
Foody's, a restaurant which opened about a month ago. They are a little
unusual in that they don't open until 10:30AM, but then offer breakfast
the rest of the day. The short menu is about 1/3 breakfast along with salads,
sandwiches and wraps.
Their
are two registers at the counters and orders are placed at the registers,
but brought to the tables. I ordered a $9.49 pork tenderloin sandwich with
French fries and was pleased to discover that the tenderloin was not breaded
and that the fries were fresh cut. It would be nice to note those things
on the menu.
Linda
had the 7 ounce burger, which came with a choice of 5 cheeses, 4 garnishes
and three sauces. It was $8.99 with one side. She chose the roasted potatoes
and added cinnamon apples. Those sides and several others are available
for only $1.49.
Of
all the things we sampled, the cinnamon apples were the only disappointment.
The rest of the items were all above average.
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Foody's hamburger |
Thursday
- February 26, 2015: Wanting to add another review to our Kansas
City Barbecue Guide, I had lunch at B.B.'s Lawnside BBQ in Kansas City,
Missouri. It had been several years since I last dined at B.B.'s.
B.B.'s
was busy and has mostly communal tables, but I lucked out and got the only
table for two, which happened to be next to the window where it would be
easier to photograph the food. Wanting to try some unfamiliar items, I
ordered the $19.25 BBQ Meat loaf with green beans and skillet fries, none
of which I have had before.
The
green beans were flavored with spices and parmesan cheese. The meat loaf
was a little disappointing after the meat loaf I have had at The Rub in
Olathe, but the skillet fries made it all up. They were the best side dish
which I have had at B.B.'s, crispy fresh cut, short wedges of potato which
were cooked in a skillet with a spicy seasoning.
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B.B.'s Lawnside BBQ |
Friday
- February 26, 2015: I had a second lunch at B.B.'s Lawnside BBQ. Today
I had the Yardbird Combo with a quarter smoked chicken and three pork ribs
served with battered fries. The fries were about as I remembered, less
done than I like, except for a few of the thinnest ones. I like the skillet
fries much more.
The
ribs were about average among KC BBQ restaurants. The chicken did not have
much flavor on its own and B.B.'s sweet sauce isn't the one I really wanted
to pair with it.
Service
was excellent during both visits.
Added
a new page for B.B.'s Lawnside
BBQ.
This
evening, we returned to Kansas City, Missouri to have supper at the original
Arthur Bryant's Barbeque at 18th & Brooklyn. It had been at least a
couple of years since we had been to this location and we had no photos
from the past 5 years. Linda had a short end of pork ribs, while I had
a sliced brisket & pork sandwich. It was a lot of meat.
The
ribs were good, but both sliced meats were dried out. At most KC BBQ restaurants
I add little or no sauce, but at Bryant's I add a lot. The fresh cut fries
could have used a few more minutes in the fryer. They took a lot of sauce
as well.
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Arthur Bryant's Barbeque |
Friday
- February 26, 2015: It is a snowy day, so we decided to visit Carmen's
Cocina in Merriam, Kansas. Carmen's has just six booths and I had read
that they are often crowded.
When
we arrived, it looked like they were closed, but I parked walked up to
check the doors. They were locked, but as I walked back toward the car,
a woman opened the door and asked what I wanted. I explained that we were
there for lunch and she told me to come on in. They had decided to clean
up and go home because the business had all ended about 1PM, but they went
ahead and fixed our lunch while they cleaned.
We
ordered at the counter. Going for a wide range of the small menu, Linda
got Kerry's Sampler (chicken enchilada, crispy ground beef taco and beef
gordita. I had chicken gordita, two beef tamales, fries with carnie asada
and an order of bacon jalapeno wraps.
They
brought us a basket of thick, tasty, cold chips and salsa while we waited.
My
favorite dish by far was the bacon wrapped jalapenos. The bacon on the
outside and cream cheese filling went well with the cooked peppers. I wouldn't
get the fries again. They were OK, but nothing special. All of the other
items were good, with the tamales the standouts.
Added
a new page for Arthur Bryant's
Barbeque.
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Carmen's Cocina
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