This place is no longer open.
Rating Detail:
Food: 3
Service: 2
Atmosphere: 2
Value: 2
Overall: 2
I haven't been going here long, but have heard the food and service has really declined over the years. The wait staff is always friendly and helpful, but I haven't been impressed with their meats. The brisket and burnt ends are fatty and doesn't have much flavor. The pulled pork was bland. One thing they do well, though, is an excellent sausage. A sausage sandwich and fries for lunch will run you about $12-14 though, so value-wise, its not so great. The place is usually only about 1/4 full when I hit it for lunch. I've never been there at suppertime.
Rating Detail:
Food: 3
Service: 3
Atmosphere: 2
Value: 2
Overall: 2
As far as BBQ goes, I'm done with BB's Lawnside BBQ. Even if it were slightly beyond mediocre I'd be reluctant to wait through their hellish service. Unless you're drinking some kind of booze, or have a party of 4 or more people, don't expect your drink to be refilled quickly. Also, do not dine out on the deck. Your server will in all likelihood, forget you're out there, especially if the music is going. I've had three separate servers who, when viewed from the deck, were just standing idly enjoying the music while I was dying of thirst, needing something to aid in choking down their tough ribs or their dry brisket.
I shouldn't be too harsh. The BBQ is hit and miss. I recall once having a brisket sandwich that wasn't offensive, and some short ends that were somewhat tender. The BBQ sauce is good as are their skillet fries. But BBQ shouldn’t be a gamble. Most of the time their ribs were tough and their meats were dry. I mean, meat isn't supposed to effortlessly fall of the bone, but I mean I was tearing at these ribs to get the meat off. I couldn't even taste the smoke the last few times I went.
Come here for the atmosphere sure. The music? Definitely. The booze? Okay. But don't expect to get good BBQ or attentive service here.
Rating Detail:
Food: 2
Service: 1
Atmosphere: 4
Value: 2
Overall: 2
It's got a nice location, lots of food choices, it's noisy but basicly it is a very uninspiring BBQ restaurant. I've been here several times with friends over the years (mainly because they wanted to go here ). I have never really been impressed with this place at all. The burnt ends are far from being great, the onion rings or Ok, the BBq sauce tastes does not have any zing to it. Maybe a lot of people like thsi place but compared to other BBQ places and meals I have had in the Kansas City area, this BBQ place does not have my vote for either a good restaurant,a BBQ place to eat, a restaurant where I want to eat with someone or a group, or has something new or different, or is memorable meal. Service is fine but when you are waiting for food that is not great, what's the hurry? And did I say the atmosphere sucks too?
Rating Detail:
Food: 2
Service: 3
Atmosphere: 2
Value: 2
Overall: 2
Amazingly unimpressive, at best. And I think that's on a good day. I tried the burnt ends -- chewy mumbles of salty meat that could have come from a bag marked "Kibbles and Bits." The sauce was perfect Dollar Store value brand, thick and gooey with too much molasses, brown sugar, fake smoke flavor, and ketchup. It was a perfect match for the pathetic burnt ends. Any better of a sauce would have been wasted on such a proletarian meal.
Rating Detail:
Food: 1
Service: 4
Atmosphere: 3
Value: 2
Overall: 2
I've done my round of KC BBQ. Yeah, I heard about Bryants long before I arrived in KC. Unfortunately, the reputation acquired by proper cooking of simple, affordable, honest food, a reputation built for decades by Arthur Bryant himself, seems to have died with Bryant died.
The restaurant isn't charming, or kitsch. It's a sloppy mess of grease slicked floors, flies crawling on the walls, dirty plates stacked to the roof in a greasy spoon/cafeteria atmosphere.
The food is consistently inconsistent. I'm always pleasantly surprised when I get my food hot. Maybe the idea of a hot plate or an oven hasn't yet reached Bryants, but here's a tip to the cooks: just leaving a hunk of brisket on a cold countertop isn't going to keep the heat in.
The most recent, and last time I will eat at Bryants, I ordered the sliced brisket. What I received: cold, chewey, gray slabs of flavorless meat that could have doubled as roast beef from a hospital cafeteria.
One saving grace is the pulled pork -- Bryant's is one of the few places in KC to actually serve a proper pulled pork. It's the only item on the menu that is consitently edible. The sausage is a greasy slop of thick-skinned meat studded with about a billion mustard seeds. The ribs are rubbery and chewy. The rib tips, which are always on "special" are little more than bony nuggets of oversauced jerky.
With a few weeks of power washing, a bath of muriatic acid, some ozone treatment, fly strips, the installation of a hot plate, and some food safety training for all employees, I think Bryant's has potential.
Until then, it's yet another overrated and overhyped KC meat outlet store.
Rating Detail:
Food: 2
Service: 3
Atmosphere: 1
Value: 2
Overall: 2
The Wall Street Journal recently said Arthur Bryant's is overrated. They were right. Oh, and watch out for the grease-covered floors, because you might bust your ass.
Rating Detail:
Food: 2
Service: 1
Atmosphere: 4
Value: 2
Overall: 2
Re: “RJ's Bob-Be-Que Shack”
No A/C and one of the specialities is sweet potato fries but they were so salty and almost burnt you could not eat them...
Turkey was ok but the sauce was so dang hot.
It was pretty sad tonight!! The owner worked for Plaza 111 and the biggest restaurants in New York. Invest in an A/C unit tight wad!!!!!