Food & Drink >>

• Best Saturday Morning Breakfast Spot
  Harry's Country Club
  With places such as Cascone's Grill and the City Diner, the River Market neighborhood has never been at a loss for Saturday breakfast joints. But the newest hangout is in many ways the most comfortable, and its hipness quotient is practically off the charts. Six months ago, the saloon's... More >>
• Best Sunday Brunch
  Cinzetti's Italian Market Restaurant
  Although the load-up-your-plate-from-the-buffet style of brunch has fallen out of favor over the past few years, some breakfast devotees still prefer to commit the sin of gluttony over dining discreetly on a simple plate of eggs and bacon. For Sunday-morning sinners with big appetites and a... More >>
• Best Healthy Drink
  Avocado Juice at Addis Aba
  Most of the menu items at Addis Aba taste immeasurably better than they look on paper. The drinks are no exception. Strawberry-banana smoothies are pretty standard fare, but avocado juice sounds like something to avoid unless it's part of a doctor-prescribed diet. Instead, it's smooth, fragrant... More >>
• Best Egg Drop Soup
  Max's Noodles & More
  A staple of Chinese-American restaurants, egg drop soup was originally a long-simmered pork stock flavored with ginger and accessorized at the last minute with a beaten egg. Lately, though, in most local Chinese restaurants it's become a slimy, tasteless, cornstarch-heavy broth brightened up... More >>
• Best Appetizers
  Frankie's on the Plaza
  Though they precede the main meal, appetizers usually seem like an afterthought, some generic deep-fried this or cheese-smothered that. Frankie's on the Plaza serves shrimp in a butter-garlic sauce so irresistible that even after the seafood disappears, smart diners will hold onto the plate... More >>
• Best Shrimp Cocktail
  Bar Natasha
  Shrimp cocktail is a classic nightclub dish. It was as much a staple of the first "celebrity" nightclubs in the 1940s and '50s -- think Ciro's, the Stork Club, the El Morocco -- as a martini, a Manhattan or an unfiltered cigarette. It's called a cocktail because the shrimp were often perched on... More >>
• Best Crab Cakes
  Pierpont's
  We consider ourselves connoisseurs of crab cakes. These appetizers are ubiquitous, and we've ordered them all over town. So we were nervous one Friday night, after we'd decided to live it up at Pierpont's in Union Station, when our charmingly gregarious waiter, Shawn O'Neal, said he felt... More >>
• Best Edible Spiders
  Spider Roll at Matsu
  Jay Sherman, the movie-bashing, Jon Lovitz-voiced titular character of the '90s animated series The Critic, loved his complimentary snacks. After addressing a clip from a horror film, he gorged himself on a studio-provided plate of ostensibly edible spiders, then watched the leftovers flee.... More >>
• Best Intimidating Entree
  Red Snapper at Red Snapper
  The descriptions of a full-body, head-and-all red snapper that takes up much of a table might sound like fish stories, but those of us who have visited Red Snapper know the truth -- this is the one that didn't get away. The enormous entrée works well as an edible centerpiece for a large... More >>
• Best Vegetarian Dish
  Tofu with Black Bean Sauce at Blue Koi
  The Blue Koi's tofu with black-bean sauce is so succulent that some vegetarians will have to double-check to make sure it's not chicken. No, it's not. The tofu really is that good. Crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, the tofu is glazed with a tangy black bean sauce. Served on a bed... More >>
• Best Vegetarian Meal Not on the Menu
  Benton's Steak & Chop House
  All vegetarians will face the inevitable: It's a friend's birthday or other special occasion, and that person is a meat eater with a hankerin' for steak. Traditionally, herbivores in this situation have gone along to the steakhouse and faked a smile while ordering the side salad and a dry baked... More >>
• Best Cow 'n' Chicken Combo
  Royal Red Robin at Red Robin
  The problem with regular bacon-lettuce-and-tomato sandwiches is that they're just too healthy; two of the three ingredients are from the garden. Adding a plump hamburger that oozes with moist, meaty goodness helps the cause, as does piling on slices of melted cheese. But for a truly filling... More >>
• Best Cheap Fried Chicken Dinner
  Galvin's Dinnerhouse
  No fried chicken truly compares to the luscious crispness of the pan-fried bird at Kansas City's legendary Stroud's. But for a real old-fashioned chicken supper that includes terrific side dishes, hot breads and extraordinary desserts, the 64-year-old Galvin's Dinnerhouse (where there are no... More >>
• Best Dinner Under $10
  The Hill Special at Garozzo's
  At Mike Garozzo's place, a frugal diner can make a decent meal from two excellent appetizers: a plate of the tender, sauce-drenched pork neckbones (when they're available) and a hunk of garlic bread for about $6. But the ultimate bargain meal has to be the Garozzo's tribute to a dish that's a... More >>
• Best Place for a Hot Date
  Korma Sutra
  Many Indian buffets play it safe with sauces, reasoning that if roughly half of the customers desire scalding heat and others prefer their meals meek and mild, meeting somewhere in the middle will make everyone happy. Korma Sutra isn't interested in compromise. Even at the buffet, chicken and... More >>
• Best Restaurant to Impress Square Future In-Laws
  The Governor's Meeting House
  There are certain places one just doesn't take uptight, conservative in-laws-to-be: Johnny Dare's, the Shady Lady Lounge and Hooters, to name three. For a quiet, tasteful evening that reflects well on your more sensible, dignified side, there's the Governor's Meeting House, a 154-year-old... More >>
• Best Bitched-About Restaurant We Really Like
  Sharp's 63rd Street Grill
  Sharp's has been a Brookside institution for more than a decade, and it's always packed on Saturday mornings. Still, not everyone loves the diner as much as its die-hard regulars, who manage to overlook the unattractive décor, the perfunctory service and the hit-or-miss quality of the... More >>
• Best Neighborhood Restaurant
  Cupini's
  Who would have thought that when pasta makers Franco and Eddie Cupini teamed up with pastry chef Andrew Rowland to create a version of an Italian salumeria, selling carry-out pastas, grilled panini sandwiches and decadent desserts, they would have tapped into a niche market just begging to be... More >>
• Best New Restaurant
  Bluestem
  Yes, Bluestem is on the expensive side. And yes, it's formal in style and service. But that's not why we selected the seven-month-old boutique restaurant as the city's best new dining venue. The ambience is attractive and the details memorable (expensive china and stemware and an amuse-bouche... More >>
• Best Window Into the Kitchen
  Charlemagne's
  Charlemagne's chef, Leroy Tobeck, wears a real, white chef's toque. And that's what you want to see in a place that's striving for the champagne-bistro feel in a quaint little day-trip getaway town. When Tobeck has a spare moment, he can poke his hatted head through a window to see how his... More >>
• Best Waiter
  David Aguiar, McCormick & Schmick's
  The best waiters know precisely when to be invisible or chatty, informative or reflective, coddling or hands-off. David Aguiar, a four-year veteran of the Plaza's busiest seafood restaurant, has so much of this sixth sense that he could be telling fortunes instead of suggesting wine vintages or... More >>
• Best Waitress
  Kathy Hahn, The Raphael Restaurant
  It probably can't hurt a waitress to be married to the restaurant's chef -- we imagine he's less likely to yell at her during stressful weekend nights. And in Kathy Hahn's case, being the spouse of the Raphael Restaurant's talented chef, Peter Hahn, gives her an insider's knowledge on the... More >>
• Best Chef
  Ray "Pete" Peterman, The Sour Octopus
  After working in some of Kansas City's best restaurants, Pete Peterman struck out on his own 16 months ago and turned a roughneck bar in the northland into a comfortable, unpretentious, dinner-only bistro that serves elegant (but not expensive) meals. Peterman's love of culinary creativity keeps... More >>
• Best Place to go Drinking and Not Have to Leave Your Clothes on the Porch Overnight
  Lawrence
  We hate to say it out loud. It costs us cred with our pierced and tattooed friends, and it goes against our libertarian tendencies. But man, are we happy that Lawrence went smoke-free. We are no longer tempted to light up while we're chatting up bartender Brent in the dark downstairs of the... More >>
• Best Place to Eat and Smoke
  City Tavern
  There are plenty of unglamorous joints in the metro area where lighting up a cigarette during dinner isn't a sin (or illegal -- yet), but it's harder to find a sophisticated spot where smokers aren't treated like public nuisances or puffing pariahs. At the City Tavern's granite-topped bar,... More >>
• Best Unhealthy Drink
  All-Nighter at Cup and Saucer
  Some people prefer coffee before a long stretch of club hopping; others spring to life after a strong martini. With the All-Nighter at Cup and Saucer, daring drinkers can do both. Pitting the eye-opening powers of caffeine against the system-slowing effects of alcohol, the All-Nighter works like... More >>
• Best Cherries
  Sienna Bistro
  "Better than sex" might be an overused form of food-praise, but when chef J.P. Cinotto at Sienna Bistro mixes sweet Italian dark cherries with a port wine reduction, then dribbles them over the lemon bars on the dessert menu, come on. The way they sort of half-explode, half-melt in your mouth... More >>
• Best Patio
  Frondizi's Ristorante
  Relishing one's freedom of speech is a rewarding part of being American. But sometimes, just watching good folks waving "No Blood for Oil" signs around the Plaza's J.C. Nichols fountain is satisfying enough. It's not as if being above it all means you're too good for the masses, but the outdoor... More >>
• Best Alcoholic Tapioca Balls
  Blue Koi
  Thank the beverage gods someone figured out how to make Taiwanese bubble tea with liquor. Not that it takes a real genius to add alcohol to anything, but for those of us who have equally strong hankerings for booze and dessert, the spiked bubble teas at Blue Koi are a five-star drinking... More >>
• Best Aphrodisiac at a Kansas City Restaurant
  Crabmeat and Apple Salad at Circe
  We all know what happened when Eve tempted Adam with a juicy red apple, but other biblical references suggest that the fruit of the agrestia poma has powers even greater than lust. "Comfort me with apples, for I am sick of love," goes the Song of Solomon. And what better comfort for a love-weary... More >>
• Best Seats for the Unofficial Drunk Olympics
  Kelly's Westport Inn
  Ahh, Kelly's -- Westport's temporary home for some of the hands-down most-impaired people ever to totter around without the aid of crutches. In actual fact, Kelly's is one bar where the wheelchair-bound are welcome, what with its multitude of ramps designed to screw with the inebriated. You can... More >>
• Best I Dream of Jeannie Booth
  Bobby Baker's Lounge
  Who didn't dream of living in Jeannie's bottle, with its Persian décor of throw pillows and curtains? Well, the front booth at Bobby Baker's Lounge reminds us of that magical bottle's interior. Um, but without the curtains. Or the throw pillows. Or any pink smoke that might transport us... More >>
• Best Place to be Formerly Misunderstood
  The Basement of the Point
  Basements are Midwestern getaways. Stodgy adults whose living rooms display all the most serious coffee-table books and the most breakable lamps equip their basements with pingpong or pool tables and occasionally even bars. Teenagers go downstairs to watch movies and listen to music while... More >>
• Best Excuses to Break Out the Brylcreem
  Rockabilly Prom and Rockabilly Luau
  Given the '50s style of rockabilly culture -- pencil skirts, Bettie Page bangs, western shirts and pompadours -- it's no surprise that local aficionados of the genre organized two theme events that showcased awesome bands as well as great people watching. In February, the Rockabilly Prom took... More >>
• Best Home of Ironic Hair
  The Brick
  You just can't take a mullet at face value anymore. Take the hair on Von Hodads frontwoman Shay Ving (aka Gayle Warning, aka Shay Estes). What do you say to that? Nice mullet? What if it's not on purpose? Is "nice mullet" the kind of backhanded compliment that sounds good at first but ends with... More >>
• Best Irish Bartender in a Not-So-Irish Bar
  Matthew Mooney at Harling's Upstairs
  There's a fabulous turnout on St. Paddy's Day, but despite all attempts, Harling's Upstairs doesn't really pull off the Irish image for which it strives. Though the cavernous bar boasts a healthy selection of ales, and musician Jonathon Ramsey fakes his accent to epic proportions, the place... More >>
• Best Political Eavesdropping
  The Levee
  Around the August 3 primary elections in Kansas City, the Levee was a wall-to-wall Democratic geekfest. Governor Bob Holden's unlucky supporters partied there during his debates against the eventually victorious challenger Claire McCaskill and screamed at the big-screen TVs mounted to the... More >>
• Best Place to Go on a Thursday If You Want to Wake Up in a Stranger's Bed Without Having Done Much Damage to Your Bank Account
  Mike's Tavern
  Thursday nights are not meant to be expensive. Barflies typically pinch pennies until Friday's payday -- or, worse, they try to figure out how the hell that cash is going to stretch through next week. The problem: People drink to relieve money-related stress, but martinis can wreak havoc on... More >>
• Best Free Wine
  Red X Wine Tasting
  Riverside's Red X might not be the classiest place for a wine-tasting, but it's certainly the most entertaining. What is the wackiness that is Red X? It's a liquor mart, an Ace Hardware and a grocery store all housed under one roof. Funhouse mirrors distort your reflection when you walk through... More >>
• Best Reason to Get Over the Apple Martini
  The Caipirinha
  Somewhere in Kansas City tonight, a bartender will have a nightmare about making an apple martini. The hideous jade bottle of apple-flavored Pucker will float before his eyes, and he'll realize it's empty and that the bar is out of Pucker. What will he tell this never-ending barful of... More >>
• Best Margarita
  Le Mother's Milk
  If we could lactate tequila, would we ever need to leave the house? Well, we still would need limes. And salt. And a nifty bartender like Jon Gerner to mix up amazing cocktails in Grand St. Café's cool glass martini shakers. So we might as well leave the house, lactation or no, and order... More >>
• Best Shot of Tequila
  Guadalajara Café
  Victor Esqueda, one partner in the Guadalajara Café, is firmly against alcohol abuse. "You order a cognac and Coke, I give you a glass of ice, a glass of cognac and a glass of coke. But you have to mix them. I can't do it." His opinions are similarly strong about shooting tequila. Good... More >>
• Best Cheap Shot
  $1 Keyhole Shooters at the Keyhole
  Admittedly, the $1 Keyhole shooter is not hard to make. It's just Sunny Delight and vodka; we could make it ourselves at home for less than $10 and get a whole hell of a lot more wasted. But really, we'd prefer to pay for the atmosphere of the Keyhole, which is a great little dive filled with... More >>
• Best Drinks on the Rocks
  Vivace
  Ordering drinks on the rocks is recommended at Vivace, because the cocktails can be pretty stiff. But in a larger sense, everything is on ice at this swanky River Market stop, at least for those fortunate enough to grab a stool at the ice-top bar. A wonder of modern refrigeration technology, the... More >>
• Best Mystery Martini
  Andy's Green Thing at Harry's Bar and Tables
  Andy's Green Thing, a blend of Stoli, Midori, pineapple juice, grenadine and sweet-and-sour mix, is dangerously tempting in a drink-three-in-half-an-hour-and-call-a-cab kind of way. The ingredients explain its candy-sweet appeal but don't account for why the Thing is green on top, then fades... More >>
• Best Fruity Drink
  Sangria Rosa at La Bodega
  Fruity drink is an umbrella term for umbrella drinks, but many of these sugary straw-sippers come by their sweet tooth artificially, using blends, flavorings or mixes instead of actual fruit. La Bodega's transcendent Sangria Rosa accentuates its stomped-grape base with other fruit juices. It... More >>
• Best Drink Special
  Dave's Stagecoach Inn
  It's common knowledge that dive bars are the places to go for cheap drinks. Therefore, it's no surprise when Dave's Stagecoach Inn took that concept a bit further with this handwritten sign behind the bar: "Mike's Hard Cranberry Lemonade: $1.50 O.B.O." Bartender John Yuelkenbeck says he resorted... More >>
• Best New Gay Bar
  The Starlet Lounge at Café Trio
  "But it's not a gay bar," insisted one of Café Trio's employees when she overheard someone using that term to describe the restaurant's tastefully illuminated bar, the Starlet Lounge. "It's just a friendly gathering place with a predominantly gay clientele." Huh? One habitué of the... More >>
• Best New Neighborhood Bar
  Lew's Grill and Bar
  What makes a good neighborhood bar? Well, in addition to the time it takes to attain regular status (when the bartender asks whether you want your drink of choice when you walk in the door), we'd say it takes a good number of TVs for watching the game, congenial bartenders and a laid-back crowd... More >>
• Best New Stylish Bar
  Bistro 303
  Style is like pornography -- we can't define it, but we know it when we see it. And we see plenty of it at Bistro 303, where the elements of style include the almost-square glasses, the abundant fresh flowers, the flatteringly dim lighting (paired with flickering votive candles), and the warm... More >>
• Best Extensive Drink Menu
  Bulldog
  If we didn't worry so much about the state of our livers (and of our wallets), we'd make it our life's goal to try every drink on Bulldog's impressive menu of "classic cocktails." Divided into historical eras -- "Before 1920," "The Time of the Speakeasy ... 1920-1933," "After the Repeal of the... More >>
• Best New Bar
  Harry's Country Club
  Over the past year, many stellar bars have opened in places that aren't Westport or the Plaza (Bar Natasha, Bistro 303 and Bulldog, to name a few). So it was especially hard to determine the Best New Bar in KC. After much deliberation, though, we had no choice but to go with Harry's Country... More >>