This restaurant has a great atmosphere but the food and service leave much to be desired. I have eaten here twice with different levels of service ranging from good to horrible. The food has never been good. I have had to send my entree back both times I was there. The tuna was a horrible cut and was inedible. The KC strip was served rare instead of medium well and was very balnd as if there was no seasoning what-so-ever. We did not recieve our appetizer and other people at our table did not recieve their side dishes. The menu is limited and overpriced.
Rating Detail:
Service: 1
Atmosphere: 3
Value: 1
Overall: 2
When were seated at 3 36" square wobbly tables, a for sure smell of something not so good.
30 min for drinks to arrive
look down & there is a cockroach on my beer glass. SO I do the smart thing, I smash it on the table with a splenda packet. So I get a hold of waitress attention, ask for manager.
He was happy to supply another beer, but other than that. His reply " what ya gonna do?" Well 98% of anyone would have just got up & left. I had been coming here to RC's since it opened.
Well lets just say when you have to find your waitress, then when you get up for a refill from the kitchen. Yourself.
Food was pretty much like it used to be, portions are smaller. If it were not for the food, I doubt I would even speak of the old place again.
Please for the love of apple butter, get rid of the dam carpet. Geeze, that is the same stuff from how long ago?
Clean, clean the heck out of the place. Refinish, redo, repaint.
All that being said, maybe a different waitress.. & No cockroach. Just an old memory, still better than any dam applebee's,chili's or any other of those dam yuppie joint's.
Rating Detail:
Service: 1
Atmosphere: 1
Value: 3
Overall: 2
Flea Market like. Prices were all over the board and I couldn't get much help when I wanted to purchase a large piece that needed to be unloaded.
Rating Detail:
Service: 1
Atmosphere: 2
Value: 2
Overall: 2
So the Karaoke Clique took a trip to celebrate a birthday at the Red Balloon Bar & Grill in Shawnee, Kansas. This bar is a hole-in-the-shopping-center joint off 75th Street and I-35. Typically these kind of places scream friendly, down-home fun, and after reading a few reviews on the net prior to the occasion, I was eager to see what this place had to offer.
Now the Red Balloon is strictly a karaoke bar that offers the joy of amateur singing 7 days a week, 365 days a year. It was even voted as the Pitch's Best of Kansas City 2006 for karaoke bars. You would think this would be the karaoke junkie's heaven! Well the clique and I agree that this is a place that any true karaoke fan should NOT go.
Is that harsh? Perhaps. But so is sitting at the back of a cramped little bar for 3 hours, watching people singing 3 and 4 times and never getting your chance to sing even once. Now I know there are people who just go to karaoke once in a while and enjoy letting loose and singing in front of everyone. However, there are those people who are diehard karaoke participants. They go weekly, sometimes daily and expect to be able to sing at least 2 or 3 songs during the course of an evening. The Karaoke Clique is obviously one of those that truly go to karaoke bars to sing while releasing some social butterflies and enjoying a few drinks. We do not go to a karaoke bar to sit and watch the regulars and the Johnson County yuppies who paid the KJ to move up on the song list sing repeatedly.
Now I will say that the wait staff was incredibly nice. They were prompt and friendly with our bar orders and interestingly enough, they do not get an hourly pay, but simply work for tips. I guess that might explain their kind nature. After hours of sitting and waiting to sing though, I asked our waitress why I have seen some people sing repeatedly and none of us have been called to sing even once. She informed me that the karaoke DJ (which in karaoke terms we call a KJ) allows singers to pay him in exchange for a quick move up the list. Now, I am not sure if the bar owns the karaoke system and the KJ works directly for them or if they hire a company to come in and handle the karaoke. It appears to me that the bar would own it because any respectable karaoke company would not allow such greedy practices to take place.
So for all you true karaoke lovers, the Karaoke Clique does not recommend taking a trip to Shawnee and investing in a rude KJ’s five-year plan. The crowd was diverse and the wait staff was friendly, but the behavior of the KJ makes it impossible for someone to come off the street and enjoy a night at the Red Balloon.
THE LOW DOWN
KJ: Rude & greedy
SONG CHOICE: Large selection
ALCOHOL PRICE: Average
WAIT STAFF/BAR STAFF: Friendly & prompt
ATMOSPHERE: Cramped
BATHROOMS: Tiny & dirty, though pleasantly scented and apparently there was a pair of panties tossed in the trash (those naughty JoCo girls)
FOOD: N/A – Grill had already closed
CROWD: Very diverse
www.MySpace.com/KaraokeClique
Rating Detail:
Service: 4
Atmosphere: 2
Value: 3
Overall: 2
wish i could say it was good, but i cannot.
service was good but food was not.
Rating Detail:
Food: 1
Service: 4
Atmosphere: 1
Value: 1
Overall: 2
I would like the $3.00 off my next meal.
Rating Detail:
Service: 2
Atmosphere: 3
Value: 3
Overall: 2
The Drop used to be a great place, but now after the Chef left for the Westport burger joint, the food has changed for the worse. The olive plate is not as diverse, and presentation no where close to that of the previous times. Also, the bruschetta is a big heavy handed now. The service is good however.
Rating Detail:
Food: 1
Service: 3
Atmosphere: 2
Value: 2
Overall: 2
i really wanted to like this place. the group of friends that went there last thursday meet once a month for drinks and dinner. there are varying numbers and so we always make reservations. it's apparently their policy not to seat those whose parties are not complete. even when you have reservations, even when their restaurant is empty and there is no discussing with the g.m. any variance from that policy. even when we're talking a party of 10-15 and there is no seating for these patrons at the bar.
one of our group needed to get in and get out in 45 minutes. we asked if perhaps he and another could get seated just for this reason. let the others get seated later. nothing doing. their g.m. doesn't have the skills required of a person in his position.
some of us left without being served and others stayed. apparently the wait staff was good but it's tough to make up for bad management.
my understanding is that tapas bars are intended to be a place that friends can come and go and share the time they have together. especially when your tapas bar stays mostly empty all night.
we went on to the bluestem and had great service and good food.
Rating Detail:
Service: 1
Atmosphere: 3
Value: 2
Overall: 2
9-24-2008: I just moved to KC and have been trying out the local eateries over the last couple months. I'm a huge fan of French bistro, but this did one did not satisfy my cravings. Overall, the food, service and ambiance were very average. No major complaints, just average.
I'm not sure if the reviewer and I made it to the same restaurant, but this place did not feel sexy…it felt every bit of 4,500 miles from Paris. I'm still eating my way around the city, but the best bistro fare I have had thus far has been at Le Frou Frog.
Rating Detail:
Food: 3
Service: 3
Atmosphere: 2
Value: 2
Overall: 2
New to the area I thought I would give this place a try, I was extremely disappointed with the small over priced portions we received. It's obvious that the owners just don't know who their clientel is. To fancy, to stuffy and uncomfortable atmosphere that makes you want to leave as soon as you walk in. I wouldn't go back if they were giving away the food....maybe a cocktail, but not the food.
Rating Detail:
Food: 1
Service: 2
Atmosphere: 2
Value: 1
Overall: 2
Absolutely horrible experience....we did about 1/2 our food correctly. They brought us $15 worth of food we didn't order and didn't offer to take it back or take it off our ticket. We got sat at a dirty table which they removed the glasses from, but dind't offer to clean. We were never offered silverware. Our server was horrible....the prices aren't horrible, but with sandwiches that range from $5-8 with no side it can get pricey. My sandwich was okay (pulled pork). The chicken fingers were good. We order the chips with cheese dip and salsa. I loved the salsa with big chunks of jalepenos.....but it will be not enough to bring us back. A $60-70+ ticket for dinner for 4 adults and 2 toddlers for sandwiches just wasn't really reasonable to us....especially when we didn't order $15 of the food.
Rating Detail:
Food: 3
Service: 1
Atmosphere: 5
Value: 3
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
I love Maker's Mark, the bourbon, so much that several years ago I convinced my college friends to pile in a car an make the trip down to Loretto from Mizzou to see its place of birth. Marker's Mark the restaurant, unfortunately, did not even begin to live up to the wonderful product that made the name famous. The menu was expensive and extremely boring. It was essentially TGI Friday's with a better designer, better (but more expensive) cocktails, and slightly higher food costs. You would think a restaurant named after one of the country's greatest whiskies might attempt to incorporate some in at least one recipe. Maybe a KC strip with a great whisky sauce or whisky braised short ribs. Unfortunately, nothing of the sort exists. Instead, the menu consisted largely of tired "nice" restaurant staples. That wouldn't be a bad thing really if everything was well executed. But to this reviewer's disappointment, that was far from the case.
I recently dined there with my wife and a friend who's love of Maker's Mark surpasses even my own. Everyone was disappointed. I had the cleverly named "duck squared," which was ok, but for $28 I was expecting something that had some more thought behind it. The breast was overcooked and the whole dish was, frankly, boring. Even worse was my appetizer, the "signature" onion loaf. Why someone thought baking onion rings all together in a loaf pan was a good idea, let alone a "signature dish," is completely beyond me. Imagine you purchased some wonderful onion rings from Sonic, put them in the fridge for a few hours, then smashed them together on a plate and micro-waved them for a couple of minutes. Sound like a good idea? Well, that is the best way I can think of to describe my experience eating "the loaf." It was a soggy, greasy mess. The rest of the table's food was similarly disappointing. The only bright spot was a very well-made Maker's Manhattan.
The atmosphere was, in a word, odd. The bar area was loud, but fun. The porch out under the KC Live canopy was great. The small room in which we were seated, however, was uncomfortably quiet and strangely bright. The place would be better served by seating everyone in the main bar area. Though, at least our server was relatively attentive.
With so many other restaurant choices in the downtown area, I cannot fathom ever eating at Maker's Mark Bourbon House and Lounge again. 1924 Main, Michael Smith, Le Fou Frog, Harry's Country Club, Phillip's Chop House, Bristol, and The Majestic all offer a much better dining experience for essentially the same price. Hell, I'd rather chomp down on one of Ted Turner's buffalo burgers or sip a wonderful milkshake at the fantastic, if a bit dirty, Town Topic before exposing myself to a place that considers the onion loaf a "signature dish" and then has the audacity to charge me to eat it.
I may go back to Maker's Mark, but I'll be drinking my dinner.
Rating Detail:
Food: 1
Service: 3
Atmosphere: 3
Value: 1
Overall: 2
I have no bad thing to say about the waitresses there!!! kudos to you girls!!! but i have a beef with the Owners Mr Chuck-T and Mr. Jose Romo.....When i first went to Jared Allens. i was stoked... they had ok food, sometimes to salty, depending on who the chef was at the time.. they have about 4 different guys working on your plate... the sautee dude, the fry guy, you have the sandwich guy, and the expo guy that looks at your plate before it leaves the kitchen.. he tries to make it look fancy. OK saying that you can imagine how many folks they have there... i looked up Jared Allens in the Better Business Bureau and guess what.. it was not listed... neither was the company that is said to pay their employees...Romo California, Inc,.. they are not listed either. SO is this a legitimate business or what.. i dont want my money funding some crazy underhanded organization. Not to mention that to my knowledge almost every person in the kitchen is a substance abuser of some sort weather it be alcohol or drugs. that says alot for the leadership of this establishment.. for what it is, it is to pricey.. located at the outskirts of downtown the prices should be a little less (they are not on the plaza).... and to boot... Mr. Chucky T loves to drink with his crew!!! not that there is something wrong with having a drink every so often.. but everyday.. he is promoting alcoholism in the workplace...and Mr. Romo, would like to get rid of the kitchen staff and employ illegals so that he can save a buck or to.. imagine to pay them for a 50 hour 250.00 dollars. that is an average of 5.00 an hour... what type of malarky is that!!!! honestly.. i am glad that he is facing difficulties with his establishment.. maybe if he would be a better leader his restaurant would flourish and he would be known for his efforts.... but at this rate... he sucks
Rating Detail:
Food: 2
Service: 3
Atmosphere: 2
Value: 1
Overall: 2
I have been a Cupinis fan since I moved to Westport three years ago. Correction, I was a Cupinis fan.
Two words, Sell Outs.
Ever since they expanded the food quality is horrible, the cooks that I used to know on a first name basis are no longer around, and on two seperate wedding occasions, catered by Cupinis, the food was unanimously disliked. They even showed up with entirely the wrong cake once, AND the cake was horrible.
This just sux. Cupinis, you can do better. Don't go here to eat.
Rating Detail:
Food: 1
Service: 2
Atmosphere: 3
Value: 1
Overall: 2
The restroom was dirty. The service was lousy. The
food was ok and the atmosphere was good. For the money
there are a lot of restaurants out three with a much
better dining experience
Rating Detail:
Food: 3
Service: 1
Atmosphere: 3
Value: 1
Overall: 2
My husband and I ate for the last time at the Overland Park, KS Garozzo's. Having lived downtown for years we ate at the original location about once every two weeks. After moving to Overland Park we tried their location several times with much disappointment. The Tortellini Gina (which my husband normally orders) is not the same you would get from the downtown location, not near as good. Though I can't pinpoint exactly what it is missing. I always order the Linguine Alla Frutti di Mare and with a price tag of $18.99 you would expect it to have some flavor. I was disappointed with the very soupy, bland sauce and unseasoned seafood. The scallops and shrimp tasted as if they had been boiled in unseasoned water, yuck!! I know why there was no waiting to be seated at 7pm on a Saturday night!! No waiting to be seated on a weekend is always a sign you shouldn't be eating at a restaurant.
Rating Detail:
Food: 1
Service: 3
Atmosphere: 2
Value: 1
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
Re: “Jardine's”
I went to Jardine's For my 18th birthday party with a group of 10.The food was pricey but well made and music was great. The server was very kind and on point. Everything went well until we were leaving, most of our party reached the car with an exception of two. Several minutes later they arrived at the car, informing us the bartender, not even our server followed them out of the restaurant complaing about the $10 tip we left. She said a 10 dollar tip is what you leave a waiter who didn't do well, when really thats all we could afford to give after spending $160. She kept on, asking if anybody in the party could give more... She ruined any chances of anybody in our party ever returning there, even though the music was beautifully done.
Rating Detail:
Food: 4
Service: 2
Atmosphere: 4
Value: 1
Overall: 2