My wife and I celebrated our ninth anniversary with a fun, fancy dinner at Town Company and a stay at the adjoining Hotel Kansas City. Having heard of this spot since the early pandemic days, it's safe to say it's been high on our list for a while.For starters, they've dispelled the old trope that a hotel restaurant is never going to be all that good. This is quality, renowned chefs, and absolutely destination worthy no matter where it's located. If anything, the placement in the beautiful old Kansas City Club adds to the appeal.The atmosphere was ideal. It's much warmer and more inviting than some pictures led me to believe, and well decorated. It doesn't try to hard, and it's intimate without needing a flashlight to read the menu.I went in blind here, and barely even skimmed the menu. We went because of word of mouth, Yelp reviews, and sort of like a movie you know will be good, you just buckle up and go take it all in.For food, we tried an array of things and shared it all:-Hot Buns with carrot dip; well made and tasty, didn't really wow me but were good.-Cauliflower with harissa, pine nuts, prairie breeze cheddar; the most unique of all the dishes we tried, I enjoyed it. I don't know if I'd seek it out again but it was very flavorful.-Brussels sprouts; not finding this listed on their online menu so going off of memory, but they had some kind of aioli, apple, and crushed nuts on top. Maybe one of the best things we had, these were PHENOMENAL.-Potato dumplings wish mushrooms; they just transitioned to their fall menu and this had all the fall feels. This was the best thing we ate, the highlight of them all. It was like eating the feeling of warm coziness on the first real cold snap in November. I could eat this weekly in the fall/winter if my wallet would allow it.-Duck, grilled peaches, blistered shishito peppers; this was good and we ate it all, but not necessarily memorable. It's not that something was off, just that it felt like it was close to being really good but not quite there. -Lemon Cheesecake; blueberry, coconut, and macadamia. A bit of a surprise with the fall menu as this feels like a trip to the islands, but damn was it good. Very very small, but very very good.I was also blown away by how good my cocktail was. It's no longer listed and had equally tropical ingredients, but was not overly sweet at all and hit just perfectly. I don't drink much but this was up there as one of the best I've had in KC.Service was good, overall. Our server was very much someone who wanted to let us have our evening, which I appreciate. Nothing felt above and beyond, but nothing felt missed. So to sum it up, a very good meal with a few standouts. It wasn't all as mind-blowing as some dinners I've had, and felt a bit caught between the transition of the seasons (same, Town Co, same, it's been a warm fall). I would certainly go back, but with date nights being a rarity these days, we'll cycle through to some other KC highlights before returning.
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"Let me start with the bad. The host/hostess needs some training. We went to breakfast on Sunday 6/5/22 and she could not manage the wait time and was totally overwhelmed. There were tons of tables and she had us waiting for 35 minutes. That is the only negative comment I will make about the restaurant. (This could also be a management/staffing issue. Now for the good the waitress we had was totally personable and on top of everything. She was quick to take our orders, our order came out correctly and our drinks never ran out. For a chain the food was excellent the biscuits and gravy were great and the skillet I ordered was a good amount of food and tasty."
"There's a reason why Kansas City is called Cowtown. We have some of the best steaks in the cosmos. If there's flesh of a dead cow on a menu, I'm apt to order it before anything else. (Yes, even skrimps.)Case in point, Scratch Gourmet Kitchen's Steak au Pavé, which caused me--briefly--to step outside my body in foodie ecstasy this weekend. In fact, I think it might be the best preparation in town--complete with its garlic cream demi-glace and perfectly executed, thinly sliced potato pavé. How good was it? I'm writing an entire Yelp post about this dish, for God's sake. And you're reading it. If you haven't been to this tiny-but-mighty, upscale eatery in a while, it's time. I'll join you."
