Food >>

• Best Hot Lil' Doughnuts
  The Skillet Licker Café
  A good, hearty diner breakfast is always a comfort, but throw in a mound of fresh "hot lil' doughnuts," and it's heaven. At the Skillet Licker Café, owner Karen Allred and her son, Curtis, offer the bite-sized doughnuts as one of the featured choices on their breakfast menu. They're made... More >>
• Best New Breakfast Spot
  Happy Gillis Café & Hangout
  The guys at Happy Gillis are pleasers. One morning, when we couldn't choose between bacon and sausage for our "American Breakfast Sandwich," the men in the small open kitchen behind the cash register happily made, for a little extra dough, a monstrous sandwich stuffed with crisp slices of bacon,... More >>
• Best Reason to Get Out of Bed
  Between the Sheets ShakeratoBlack Coffee
  Sliding out from under the covers to start the day can be rough, especially for anyone who feels sexiest while rolling around in bed. The morning transition is a lot less harsh with the promise of a Between the Sheets at downtown's Black Coffee. The blend — dark chocolate, white chocolate,... More >>
• Best Hangover Brunch
  Blue Bird Bistro
  There's little debate among drunkologists that the moral guilt accompanying a hangover is inextricable from the physical symptoms — sometimes the former rages even stronger than the latter. For example, the effects of dehydration are nothing compared with the recollection of wearing... More >>
• Best Buffet
  Sung Son Vietnamese Bistro
  More than just the eighth wonder of the world, the all-you-can-eat buffet is as American as apple pie and as easy to come by as ranch dressing. But finding one that consistently serves up quantity and quality can be an elusive endeavor. Which is why the buffet at Sung Son in Westport is such a... More >>
• Best Indian Buffet
  Paradise India
  Hands across OP! Way out south, Paradise India offers a crave-satisfying buffet in a delightful atmosphere. The voyage begins tentatively with truck-stop chai-tea service (orange Igloo, Styrofoam cups) and a homely salad bar. But those missteps begin to feel miles away after a taste of... More >>
• Best Cheap Tacos
  Cancun Fiesta Fresh
  The versatility of the taco is a splendid thing. At any time in Kansas City, one can find tacos in KCK with cabeza (head) or lengua (tongue) inside, puffy tacos in the River Market, Choco Tacos on an ice-cream truck in Merriam, or pan-seared tuna tacos with jicama slaw and a pomegranate... More >>
• Best Designer Tacos
  Teocali
  When Enrique and Chela Gutierrez opened Teocali in August 2006, they wanted to stay true to their Mexican roots. They've since brought family recipes straight out of Teocaltiche, Jalisco, to dinner plates in Kansas City. That includes the staple known as the taco. And though we often have a hard... More >>
• Best Chili
  Texas Roadhouse
  We know Texas Roadhouse is a chain, but hear us out. We've eaten a lot of chili in this city, and we have yet to find a more satisfying bowl than Texas Roadhouse's Texas red chili. At least once a month, we drive up to Liberty or out to Olathe for the stuff. Every spoonful of Texas Roadhouse's... More >>
• Best Pizza
  Blue Grotto
  Blue Grotto's name comes from a sea cave on the coast of Italy where Roman emperors privately bathed. Thankfully, Brookside's new Blue Grotto isn't so exclusive, because everyone should be able to eat these pizzas. Blue Grotto cooks up nine hand-tossed pizzas baked in a brick oven, light on... More >>
• Best Spring Roll
  Vietnam Café
  With spring rolls, we sometimes wonder whether it's the sauce or the roll that makes the dish. Fortunately, dining at Vietnam Café in Columbus Park has helped us realize that the roll and the sauce are of equal importance. At Vietnam Café, the spring rolls are of the nonfried... More >>
• Best Baked Beans
  Danny Edwards Famous Kansas City Barbecue
  Good baked beans aren't easy. This king of barbecue side dishes doesn't come together by just dropping a bunch of stuff in a pot and cooking it for a while. You've got to simmer the beans low and slow, as Danny Edwards does. Here, the beans often spend 12 hours in the smoker before landing next... More >>
• Best Vegetarian Food
  New Café Tandoor
  Previously the home to the meatcentric Sidney's Diner, the New Café Tandoor casts a wide culinary net with the many selections on its Indian-Pakistani menu. The meat dishes, mostly Pakistani, are great (we've heard), but we're going to come right out and declare that the New Café... More >>
• Best Gluten-Free Option (1 Comment)
  Olivia's Oven
  Imagine not being able to eat birthday cake, pizza or macaroni and cheese. If you have celiac sprue, that's your reality. Celiac disease (severe gluten intolerance) produces symptoms ranging from mild (gas and bloating) to extreme (severe malnutrition and even death). The solution is to abstain... More >>
• Best Burger
  Blanc Burgers + Bottles
  Burgers are a big deal in meat-and-potato-lovin' KC. Barbecue and steaks may be this town's signature dishes, but a perfectly cooked all-beef patty evokes almost as much reverence. None of the beauties at the new restaurants in the Power & Light District has the incandescence of the "Classic... More >>
• Best Sliders
  Uncle Bill's Mini Cheeseburgers
  There are hamburger purists who won't accept the use of the word slider to describe just any miniburger. Essentially, their argument is correct. A miniature burger is just like a regular hamburger but shrunk down to not-quite-Lilliputian dimensions. A slider has to resemble the classic White... More >>
• Best Milkshake (1 Comment)
  Blanc Burgers + Bottles
  Like its burgers, Blanc's milkshakes are big, rich and intricately flavored. You can also order them spiked. Forget about vanilla. Grown-ups order such sophisticated shakes as the Sangria, the Crème Brûlée and the Gin and Tonic. Made with Foo's Fabulous Frozen Custard and... More >>
• Best Comfort Food
  O'Neill's Restaurant & Bar
  There's a reason that more restaurants are serving comfort foods: Who has time to be one of those happy homemakers wiping floury hands on an apron while fussing over a pot roast with homemade gravy, mashing freshly boiled potatoes and baking a bread pudding? It's so much more convenient to find... More >>
• Best Small-Plates Menu
  One80
  A wise man once said, "Never eat anything bigger than your head." As an alternative to the 3,000-calorie, bulk-sized entrées served at casual dining chains such as Applebee's, the small plate (or "Smaller Bites") menu at One80 offers variety, value and a spectrum of flavors — plus... More >>
• Best Kansas City Strip
  The Range Steakhouse
  No, you don't have to be a high roller to enjoy the meat at the dark, quiet steakhouse inside the bustling Harrah's Casino, although high rollers do often eat there — using their comp credits. For the nongambling contingent, the 16-ounce, traditional-cut Kansas City strip isn't just tender... More >>
• Best Barbecue — North
  Smokehouse Bar-B-Que
  Anyone remember that gorgeous stained-glass dome that was once the showpiece of the old Harry Starker's on the Country Club Plaza? The restaurant, now called Starker's Reserve, is still on the Plaza, but the dome is now in the Northland dining room of this locally owned barbecue chain. (Four... More >>
• Best Barbecue — South
  Fiorella's Jack Stack Barbecue
  This is the original location of restaurateur Jack Fiorella's increasingly beefy barbecue empire. Jack, the son of revered local barbecue operators Russell and Flora Fiorella, broke off from the family to create one of the metro's first upscale restaurants serving Kansas City's signature dish.... More >>
• Best Barbecue — East (1 Comment)
  Beauchamp's on the Rail
  Lee's Summit doesn't have a long tradition of barbecue greatness, but Joe Beauchamp and Brian Donigan's Beauchamp's on the Rail (the restaurant is close to railroad tracks) is putting suburban smoked meats on the map. A little more upscale than most area barbecue pits, the restaurant is both... More >>
• Best Barbecue — West
  Quick's Bar-B-Que & Catering Company
  It's getting harder to find a family-style barbecue joint that still feels as though a local family is running the operation. That's a big part of the charm of Quick's. It's been a Westside institution since 1964, when founder Earl Quick — who learned to smoke meats at Rosedale Barbecue... More >>
• Best Place to Dine Alone
  Bo Lings
  Single diners at Bo Lings in the City Market are treated as graciously as a table full of business executives. The cool stone dining room offers prime people-watching to go with classic and modern Chinese dishes. Diners can relax on the patio with dim sum, a book and a cigarette on a Sunday... More >>
• Best Sexy Food
  The Bristol Seafood Grill
  Love is a many-splendored thing. Sex is a completely different story. Love is usually limited to parties of two; when it comes to sex, any number can play. That's why it's perfectly reasonable that the sexiest dish in the city serves anywhere from two to five people. The Cold Seafood Platter at... More >>
• Best Restaurant for Breaking Up
  Piccadilly Cafeteria
  If you must break up, this is the first rule: Do it in a quiet setting with a sense of dignity. The second rule is to find a venue without the possibility of ever, ever running into someone you know; the only thing more embarrassing than kicking a relationship to the curb in public is having... More >>
• Best Meal in an Art Gallery
  Pi Gallery
  When Split Lip Rayfield played at the Crossroads Kansas City outdoor theater this past August, the whole 18th Street neighborhood resonated with the sound of bluegrass music. To pay culinary tribute to the band, Pi Gallery owner Jody Wilkins and chef Heather Hands created a special "art dinner"... More >>
• Best Place to Blow a Diet
  The Peppercorn Duck Club
  Walk into a bookstore, turn on the TV news, browse the Internet — there's almost always some new diet plan or weight-loss technique confronting both you and your guilt about not losing those annoying extra pounds. There are two ways to handle this stressful information: Either buy the... More >>
• Best Dinner Under $10
  Papa Lew's Soul Delicious
  It's neither the biggest soul-food buffet in town nor the fanciest, but Papa Lew's — named for the restaurant's late founder, Lewis Lyman Sr., who opened his original restaurant at 18th and Vine in 1982 — is definitely the best bargain in the city. For $9.99 (not including tax and... More >>
• Best Hole-in-the-Wall
  Teresa's Drive-In
  Unless one is a devotee of this unassuming, family-owned drive-in on the city's East Side, it's perfectly logical to whiz right past the charmless building. But the thick burgers are delicious and inexpensive, and because there isn't really a dining room here, it's hard to resist eating them in... More >>
• Best Midnight Menu
  The Cheesecake Factory4701 Wyandotte • 816-960-1919
  On weeknights, the Cheesecake Factory kitchen stops serving at 11 p.m. But on Friday and Saturday nights, customers can walk in as late as midnight for a moonlight nosh. At other restaurants, tired servers can barely disguise their loathing of late tables. But the staff at the Cheesecake Factory... More >>
• Best Dessert
  Mulberry Creamery
  Tiramisu and cheesecake are fine, but at the end of a meal, nothing sweet hits the spot like a good old-fashioned dessert made the good old-fashioned way. People hand-mix all of the ice cream served at Mulberry Creamery. The place also uses local ingredients from the Shatto Milk Company and the... More >>
• Best New Restaurant
  Mandarinism
  It takes a lot of guts to put a completely new spin on classic mandarin cuisine, which was adapted, decades ago, into the dishes we now think of as Chinese. But Scott Lin and his wife, Lian Sun, the young owners of this new contemporary Chinese restaurant, are up to the challenge. Lin, who... More >>