The most famous barbecue joint in Kansas City isn't fancy. In fact, it looks pretty much like it did in 1946. But it's not the atmosphere that brings visitors to Arthur Bryant's; it's the tender beef brisket sandwiches, ribs and crispy, lard-fried potatoes. For barbecue fans, this is a mouthful of heaven. — Charles Ferruzza
Price: $
Payment Type: MasterCard, Visa, American Express, Discover, cash
Parking: Lot Available, Street
Reservations: Recommended for Large Parties
Attire: casual
Extra Info: serves beer only. smoking section available. parking lot holds 120 vehicles.
Showing 1-5 of 5
Sarah called me up amd I met her and John for dinner.
Rating Detail:
Food: 5
Service: 5
Atmosphere: 5
Value: 5
Overall: 5
You get what you pay for here. Huge sandwiches, great ribs, best burnt end dinner in the city. Huge piles of fries. This was the first TRUE KC BBQ that I ever went to. When I was about 12 yrs. old my brother stopped by there on the way back from the chiefs game. We got two beef sandwiches, two fries and two red cream sodas. I was instantly addicted to the sauce and the meat. The sauce is different from most KC BBQ sauces, its more tangy , not sweet, and gritty. Most ive talked to either love it or hate it. There is no middle ground. Try it for yourself, and see.
Rating Detail:
Food: 5
Service: 4
Atmosphere: 4
Value: 5
Overall: 5
The best damn que in the city. Perfect sauce, perfect pulled pork sandwich and burnt ends. Who cares if it's grimy, you're there for the food, and that's enough!
Rating Detail:
Food: 5
Service: 3
Atmosphere: 4
Value: 5
Overall: 5
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
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