El Pollo Rey

1101 Kansas Ave
Kansas City, KS 66105
(913) 371-4243

If you are wondering where to look for the best grilled chicken in Kansas City, El Pollo Rey is the place you are looking for.
This place is small, run by only two people (when I went there). They spoke little English, actually only one person (the cashier) who understood what I wanted. :)
I saw only few tables were set since the place is very small and right in the corner of S. 11th Street and Kansas Ave. It's right in front of Firestone Autocare. I didn't get a chance to take a picture of the restaurant, so the one on the right is taken from "Neal1960", who put the picture on his flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/neal1960/3543438471/).

No menu is necessary, because all they sell in there is grilled chicken. You either want it half or whole chicken. Half chicken costs $6.50 and whole is $12. They also do chicken wings with, I believe, their own creation of buffalo sauce. They accept CASH only. ;)

I did not order the chicken wings, so I won't comment on that.
However, the grilled chicken is absolutely delicious. It came with a small cup of Mexican rice, bean soup, salsa, tortillas, and sliced pickled red onion.
They know how to grill a perfect chicken, let's leave it at that.
It was smoky, tasty, and wonderful!

It actually reminded me of home. No, I wasn't born in South America. But, somehow the taste of the chicken was similar to the ones we have in South East Asia.
The tortillas that came with the chicken were different than what I would have gotten from chained restaurants. I may not be 100% in this, but I think they made their own tortillas or may be got them from an authentic Mexican supplier. It was freshly made!

Anyway, the Mexican rice was salty to my taste (because I only ate it like that). Until I put some chicken on the tortilla with the rice, red onion, and salsa. Absolutely delicious!!
I am not a big fan of pickled onion, so I did not eat a lot of them.
The bean soup was wonderful, as well. It had bacon in it and that made it different, I think. I could see the whole pinto beans, but they were very tender and tasty.

I loved just to eat the chicken and dip it in salsa. It's very addictive!
I could taste the sourness in the salsa, as well as the sweetness and not too overbearing spiciness. All in all, El Pollo Rey is now my number one favorite chicken place. You just can't get enough of them!

Pho KC Restaurant

315 Cherry Street
Kansas City, MO 64106
(816) 471-2224

Oh for the love of Pho! If you are looking for the best Pho in Kansas City, you have to go to Pho KC. Who would have thought that a small place lurking right there in the corner of 4th Street and Cherry Street served the best Pho in KC?

I first learned about Pho KC from my husband's hairstylist who was from Vietnam. I trusted her completely. A Vietnamese recommended authentic Vietnamese food? Hey, that's must be the real deal!

OK, let's talk Pho. I ordered a small bowl of Pho dac biet, the combination. It had eye of round, beef tripe, meatball, and some tendons. Their price was affordable. For a big bowl of Pho, combination or not, was only $6.39 plus tax. It's a huge bowl, complete with the fresh cilantro leaves and all the trimmings.
Their broth was simply "broth-taking"! Delicious! The broth was clear and you can really taste the beef flavor. I didn't have to add any hoisin sauce or any other additional sauce to enhance it. It tasted perfect to me. The noodle was thin, just the way I like it.

Other than that, I also had their appetizers, the Banh Tom Chien ( sweet potato shrimp fritter) and Fried quails.

Banh Tom Chien was alright. Their sweet potatoes were sweet, but I didn't think it was too special compared to any other Vietnamese restaurant out there. Price-wise, it was still cheaper than any other restaurants, though.
I do like their Fried Quails. The way they cooked them was interesting, I thought. I've had fried quails in Indonesia before. Of course it's totally different. The ones in Indonesia were way smaller than the ones in here (maybe because everything in Indonesia seemed smaller than here?). Anyway, the quails were very tasty. It had sweetness to it and very tender, too.

My husband ate their grilled pork with all the goodness. :)
That, too, was tasty. Although I still thought the Pho was their main star.

So, still looking for the best Pho in KC? Stop looking! Pho KC is the answer. Trust me! :)

Buffalo Wild Wings

Who would have thought buffalo have wings? :)

I fell in love with buffalo wings when I was in college. It was Mojo's wings from Lawrence, KS who captured my heart at first taste. Too bad they went out of business for a while now. Their "Red Code" (the hottest wings on their menu) was divine. But, I am not talking about Mojo's now. I'm talking about Buffalo Wild Wings.

I normally avoid reviewing chain restaurants, but since I love wings so much and theirs have a lot of varieties of sauces, heck, I wanted to talk about them.
My favorite sauces are Mango Habanero and Asian Zing.

Mango Habanero is more like sweet and spicy sauce. It has the sweetness of tropical mango and a whole lot of spiciness of chili pepper. Asian Zing is a lot milder that that and has ginger in it that made it Asian.
And yes, I have tried their Blazin' sauce. I tried it with their drumstick the first time (because of their drumstick special day). It was a HUGE mistake.
Never try Buffalo Wild Wings sauce on a drumstick. They called it 'wings sauce' for a reason.

For a daredevil and stomach hater, Blazin' is actually the perfect sauce for you. No, I'm just kidding here. :)
Blazin' is a really hot and tangy sauce. I really want to re-try eating it one day and have my picture on their wall for taking the Blazin' challenge. :)

For the appetizer section, I liked their Fried garlic Mushroom. The batter is garlicky and somewhat tasty. It goes perfectly well with the cool Ranch dipping sauce.
By the way, Do not order their Desert Heat! They did not taste good. Seriously, they shouldn't even put that on their menu. It's a good thing they only had it for a limited time only.

Oh, their Primo Margarita was also truly a Primo Uno! :)
Buffalo Wild Wings is a great place to go for late snacks or to watch the game.
(I hope someone from the Buffalo Wild Wings reads my blog and compensates me for advertising their restaurant for Free or give me a coupon for a Free margarita. Now, that will really make my day! :) )

A new update (8/25/09)
Brought home three wings with Blazin' sauce today. I wouldn't take chances of having stomach-ache after eating too much wings, so I thought three were enough.
As I mentioned before, the sauce is very very hot and tangy. Not too tangy like regular buffalo wild wings, but enough kick.
The first bite was hard on my tongue. I felt it burned my mouth, my tongue and the whole throat. Then I felt it on my stomach, the burning sensation. I almost cried!
But I kept on going, finishing all three wings with head held high and eyes all watery.
Oh I forgot to mention, I ate them with rice! Yes... rice helped toned down the heat. Forget the basket of fries, forget the Ranch dressings (I ordered the Ranch, though). Rice helped, period!

Hubby asked if I would order wings with Blazin' sauce again, I said I would. But probably not anytime soon. My lips are still burning while I'm typing this. Goodness!

PS: They even put a warning label on the box. Awesome!

Gaslight Grill

5020 W 137th St
Leawood, Kansas
(913) 897-3540
http://www.gaslightgrill.com

Our restaurant choice to have our first real date without the children was at The Gaslight Grill. We've been wanting to come here for several months. After a bit of disappointment with The Plaza 3 (former occupant), we were a bit of worried about the newcomer.

The place wasn't changed much. Apparently the new owner did not change the style, leaving the high ceiling and open space intact. He added a new Jazz room in the back room, though.

Upon our arrival, we were greeted warmly and immediately seated. It was Thursday night, a Jazz night. Since it was our first date, we wanted to be seated farther away from the Jazz room. It was surprisingly quiet, not many people were there. We were a little bit apprehensive. A server came with a basket of bread and two types of spread.

I was reading the drink menu and decided to try the Pomotini (pomegranate martini) since it's also $5 martini night, but no one came to take my order after sometimes. So I looked at the dinner menu and decided to try on the Smoked Scottish Salmon as our starters and 14 oz Maytag crusted Ribeye for my dinner. My husband chose 8 oz Fillet Mignon for his dinner.

After we munched our last bread, someone finally came and apologized for not coming in sooner. We were in a very good mood (for it was our first real date), so we let it go with a smile. :)
I got my Pomotini, but I honestly did not like the taste of it. The good waiter offered something different, a Fruitini, made of Champagne and Chambord (black Raspberry liquor). It tasted sweet and left a bitter after-taste. I couldn't get a Cosmopolitan, but this will do.

The smoked Scottish Salmon looked like a rose on a plate. It was beautiful! There was minted Crushed Red Potatoes on the bottom of the rose, Crème Fraiche and Black Caviar on top of the rose, and mint-basil sauce all around the plate. I wished they did not combine the red potatoes with the salmon because it tasted like a cold mashed potatoes and did not go well with smoked salmon at all. A simple crostini would have been perfect.
I ended up eating the salmon with the toasted sourdough from the bread basket. The Crème Fraiche and Black Caviar were great additions to the smoked salmon. Great starter!

My Maytag crusted Ribeye came out and it was yummy-licious! The steak was cooked according to my request. It was smokey and tasty. The Maytag bleu cheese was a little bit overpowering the meat, I thought. But it gave a distinct flavor to the meat. It would still be great without it, though. The bacon and chive mashed potatoes looked simple, but tasted very good. I substituted the green beans with grilled asparagus and I couldn't be happier with my choice. It went along perfectly with the steak and mashed potatoes. The grilled tomatoes were fresh addition to the hot meal.

My husband's 8 oz Fillet Mignon was a better choice than my 14 oz Ribeye. Not only the meat was a better cut, it was more tender and tastier than the Ribeye. His side dishes were similar to mine, with a slight difference in the regular mashed potatoes compared to my bacon and chive mashed potatoes.
Overall experience was great. The food was outstanding and the service was great.

While we were enjoying our dinner, the owner came and greeted all the patrons. He was warm and a very nice guy. The manager came to our table at one time and deeply apologized for the mixed-up (the long wait at the beginning) and gave us a Free appetizer and Free drinks.

Thank you Gaslight Grill for giving us a great time for our first real night out.
What a great night! :)

Torreon Mexican Restaurant

9129 Elmhurst Dr
Shawnee Mission, KS 66212-3896
(913) 648-9582
http://www.torreoncantina.com

After reading a review of a fellow foodie about this place, I decided to go there myself and gave it a try. The restaurant was featured on the August 2007 Table Hopping for Tastebud Magazine. It claimed to be the home of original fish bowl margarita (that's my hot button right there!).

So I invited a good friend of mine to join me in this little adventure to their famous gorditas and a sip of margarita (well, that one was actually just for me).

The place was small and somewhat nice, tucked nicely behind a gas station, which blocked the noise from the 87th street. They have a really nice outdoor patio, decorated with beautiful flowers all around the patio, creating what I would call an oasis for the tired workers after a long hours at work.
There were not many tables at Torreon, and the space between each table was very narrow. No wonder, people prefer the outdoor tables.

After we were seated, I immediately ordered their original fishbowl margarita. Gorditas were what I after for dinner. Thus, I chose two beef gorditas and one chicken with Mexican angel hair pasta and refried bean.

I honestly was shocked to see the color of the margarita. I have not seen a margarita that green before. It was so green, that I thought they put some kind of green coloring on it. Seriously!
With high expectation, my first sip actually disappointed me. It was not as good as I thought it would be. I've had my share of good margaritas before and this one was way below my expectation.
Original margarita is supposed to be sour (from the lime or lemon), sweet (from the triple-sec), and have a little kick of liquor (from the tequila). With Torreon's, I felt like they put water on it, diluting all those flavors.

Alright, moving on to the gorditas. I've never had gorditas before, but as far as I know it was basically a puff fried tortilla (seen on Food TV Network, if not then blame them!).
My good friend had a very good gorditas in New Mexico and she was very excited when I told her Torreon has gorditas.
Gorditas are made of 3 masa biscuits, stuffed with choice of meats, beans, onion, lettuce, cheese, salsa and Pico de Gallo. They came with sides, such as refried beans, salad, and Mexican angel hair pasta (I tossed out the regular Mexican rice for this).

I thought they looked like a burger. :)
Although the masa biscuit was not fluffy or even puffy, I thought the whole thing was good. The beef was definitely a better choice than the bland chicken. I loved the angel hair pasta. Whoever thought about making a Mexican angel hair pasta was a genius! It was so delicious, it should have its own menu! Muy Bueno!
It had a kick of spiciness to it and sweetness of tomatoes. Believe me, it was worth a try!

My husband chose Caballero, which consisted of two Enchiladas (Cheese and Onion), two Tacos and one Nacho. The cheese and onion Enchilada was good, but that's all there is to it, just cheese and onion.

Oh, I was very and deeply (notice how depressed I was here) disappointed at their chips and salsa. Their chips was tasteless and the salsa was bland. I thought they were out of salt.
Gosh! The first bowl of chips and salsa was free, then they'll start charging for the next one after that. Oh come on! I got better chips and salsa at On the Borders for FREE.

Overall experience was not good. I expected this place to be a true and good Mexican restaurant with outstanding Mexican food, way above the chain Mexican restaurants out there. However, as much as I wanted to support local businesses, I probably won't come back here. Or maybe I'll give it another try, if they upgrade the cooks (or just to buy the angel hair pasta).

Sunday Brunch

In honor of Sunday, I would like to list several places in town, which serve the best food for breakfast/brunch.

1. Santa Fe Cafe
9946 W 87th St
Overland Park, KS 66212-4768

My favorite is "The Farmer", chicken fried steak with gravy and served with two eggs, hash browns and toast. Oh their hash brown is divine!
This place is a mom-and-pop place where the servers are friendly and know the food. It a small place for breakfast, but it's very comfortable.

2. Pine and Bamboo
http://www.pineandbamboo.com/
10915 W 63RD St
Shawnee Mission, KS 66203

Dim Sum on Sunday and then some. :)
Dim Sum (literally meaning "a bit of heart") is the name for a Chinese cuisine which involves a wide range of light dishes served alongside Chinese tea.
My daughter loves their 'cheong fun' (fun roll). She called it noodle with the sauce on top. :)

3. First Watch
Various locations

Being a chain restaurant doesn't mean a bad place to eat. Well First Watch has been our favorite place to eat brunch before we found out about a local Santa Fe Cafe. My favorite is the breakfast scrambler. Hubby prefers The Works, maybe it's a guy thing. :)

4. Bo Ling's
http://www.bolings.com/main/home.html

There are only two Bo Ling's restaurant that serve Dim Sum a la carte. The one at the Plaza and Metcalf. However if you live close to downtown area, they have Dim Sum daily on their menu.
However, go to the one at Plaza for a complete Dim Sum dishes. I guarantee you'll be satisfied.

5. Granite City
15085 119th St.
Olathe, KS 66062

Granite City has a good breakfast buffet. It's a little pricey, but once in a while it's alright to try. :)

These are the places we used to go for a Sunday brunch. Once I try different place, I'll surely update the post.

Lawrence on the go

Encore Cafe
1007 Massachusetts
Lawrence, KS

We've never went to Encore before. But we've heard about their bubble teas selection and their Asian fusion food, and we just had to try it.
Of course, since it was raining and the kids were tired, we bought the food to go.

I ordered chocolate milk tea with boba (bubble tea) and mango milk tea for the kids. The chocolate milk tea was bitter for my taste. Also the chocolate flavor was not strong enough. Blah!
The mango milk tea, however, was awesome! The mango flavor was strong and sweet. I had to fight with the kids just to try it. I felt like in a tropical country with that mango drink. :)

We also ordered Beef chow fun and chicken fried rice. The server said the beef chow fun is their best seller.
Well.. since I took them home, the taste was a little bit different than when served immediately after cooking. But I could still smell the smoky flavor and that intrigued me. The beef was tender and the seasonings were sweet and tasty.

The fried rice was ordinary, I guessed. The chicken was tender, but the rice was a little bit tough. The color did not look good, I thought they needed to put more soy sauce for the color. But overall the taste was good.

The place was not too big, but the atmosphere was good. The servers looked like they knew what they were doing. The variety of the menu was great as well. And, the price was not expensive. For me, that's a plus!
I would definitely come back to this place again and maybe order the lychee milk tea next time.

Lawrence: right on the Memory Lane

We went to Lawrence, KS this afternoon right after harvesting corns right in the field (story about that later).
I met my husband there during my college years. Therefore, Lawrence is always going to be a very special place for us.

We went to our favorite place in downtown Lawrence (well, it used to be), The Orient at 1006 Massachusetts Lawrence, KS 66044. The owner, Nancy Nguyen, is a Vietnamese.
The food at The Orient is a blend of Vietnamese and Chinese food. It's a small place that most people sometimes forgot.
However, they have moved to the place next door and the former is a seafood place now, owned by her daughter.

We ordered our old favorites to go: Chicken Phad Thai and Pork Chop over rice.
Phad Thai at a Vietnamese restaurant? Don't be surprised. I always thought their Phad Thai was the best in Lawrence. Of course I've had a good share of delicious Phad Thai at Thai restaurant in Kansas City, but this was our memory being repeated and how much we loved this dish during our college years.
The Orient's Chicken Phad Thai was spicy, but sweet at the same time. It had shredded carrots and cabbages, then sauteed together with the Phad Thai noodle (rice noodle). The chicken were cubed and there were minced meats in there as well.
However, the peanut (as a staple ingredient in Phad Thai) was missing from the dish. I guessed they forgot about it.
No complains here, though. I still liked it a lot!

My husband always loved their Pork Chop over rice. This one was different though. They used to grill the pork chop with amazing marinate. This time I thought they pan-fried it. The seasonings were different, too. It had a spicy kick to it. My husband said it's still good, although not as good as the old one. :)

Granny's Chicken Ranch

1340 Village West Parkway
Kansas City, KS 66111
http://www.grannyschickenranch.com

June 6th was the National day of daughters (not official, I guessed). So after my daughter got a make over as a princess in The Legends shopping mall, she suggested fried chicken for dinner.
I saw an ad for Granny's Chicken Ranch in the Restaurant Guide of Kansas City (http://www.kcrestaurantguide.com/). I thought it was worth a try.

The restaurant was clean and the greeters were very nice. We were seated in the "family room" which was farther from the bar. I liked the idea that they sit all the families in one place. That way the kids will not bother the other patrons who just wanted a nice quiet dinner.

The menu had a lot of varieties, but I decided to choose the fried chicken with its ALL you can eat side dishes. :) My husband chose chicken fried steak.
By the way, side dishes included green beans, biscuits, chicken gravy, mashed potatoes, salad, and cinnamon rolls with sweet butter.

The fried chicken was crispy and very tasty. My daughter was very happy with it, too. The chicken was tender and the seasonings were perfect.
The chicken fried steak was good, too. However, I preferred the fried chicken than the chicken fried steak.

OK let's talk about the side dishes. The salad came with our choice of Ranch dressing, which I thought was great. The green beans were ordinary, needed more salt, though. The biscuits were warm and tasted good, especially with the sweet butter. The mashed potatoes were great, no complains there.
The one thing I really liked about the gravy was its richness. It went well with the chicken or the mashed potatoes.
The last thing that came out was the cinnamon rolls. They were warm and sweet. Although I thought they could have done better with the dough. They were not as soft as I thought they would be.

Overall experience at Granny's was great. They beat the other competitor in town, Stroud's fried chicken. I will surely come back there again. :)

PS: My husband said the sweet butter was great!

Serb Fest!

St. George Serbian Orthodox Church
11001 Greenwood Street
Lenexa, Kansas

We passed through the sign of Serb Fest happening at this church the other day. We decided to check it out, since we’ve never been to Serbia, nor eaten any kind of their food.

We came in right before dinner to avoid the crowd. Based on their church website, they are having this fest annually. So, they must be good!
Anyway, we signed up at the door and greeted by very nice ladies. The church itself was beautiful. They have set up tables inside the gym, laid with nice colorful faux tablecloths. Then we saw two tables filled with Serbian items, from traditional clothes to flags to ornaments. They even had Serbian cookbooks, which unfortunately I did not buy. :(

When we got into the bigger gym, we were greeted by Serbian music and the smell of food. We were immediately got into the line while talking about what we should get. We decided to get “Cevapcici” (Serbian sausage make with pork, beef and spices), “Raznjici” (Pork tenderloin shis-ke-bob), “Lepinja” (Serbian flat bread), “Burek” (Meat pita made of ground chuck, onions, and spices layered in “Kora” (homemade phyllo dough)), “Gibanica” (cheese pita), and Spinach pita. At the end of the food line, they provided mild and hot roasted peppers for us.

They took our orders professionally and the line was not overwhelming. We got all our orders right after we paid them. Then we chose several desserts, such as “Palacinke” (Serbian crepe filled with fruit preserves or chocolate), “Baklava”, “Pohance” (a light, crisp, batter-fried cookie, dusted with powdered sugar), and a mini pie with some kinds of nuts in it (I forgot the name!:( ).

Now, let’s talk about the food first. We both loved the meats. They were delicious! The sausages were tasty and moist. The pork was amazingly tender. Eating them with hot roasted peppers was a great decision. The peppers actually added more flavor to the meats.
I personally loved the meat pita. The cheese pita tasted more like regular quiche without the bacon. The spinach pita was very similar to “spanakopita” (Greek spinach pie), but softer. My husband thought the three pitas tasted good, though. :)

We both thought the desserts were OK. Nothing really stood out from the taste. The crepes were ordinary, nothing special about it. My kids liked the “Pohance” because of the powdered sugar on top.

There, we have eaten Serbian food without having to go to Serbia.:)
We loved these kinds of festivals. Since our expectation was not set high on this one, we thought this experience was actually a little higher than our original expectation. So we would love to come back next year (or before) if they are having it again. Who would have thought we can eat Serbian food right here in town?

Chosun Korean BBQ

12611 Metcalf Ave
Overland Park, KS 66213
www.chosunkoreanbbq.com

What can I say about Chosun? It's absolutely the best Korean restaurant in KC Metro!
After a long disappointment with the other Korean restaurant (a.k.a Choga), I was in absolute delight to find Chosun.
They provided great services, warm-welcomed servers, and great ambiance.
Unlike the other competitions, Chosun delivered the food with dignity and pride. Their meats were fresh. The side dishes were outstanding. I can always ask for more kimchi or any other side dishes without being charged or the owner/servers complaining.

During my second pregnancy, I've always come to Chosun almost every Friday. The prices were reasonable and competitive. I always felt warm and happy everytime I entered the building.

Anyway, they offered a huge varietiy of meats to be grilled on table. From appetizers to desserts, they were written in detailed and some even had pictures. Thus, for someone who never had Korean food before will know what to expect.

I always ordered "dolsot bibimbap" (served in a hot bowl consisted of warm white rice topped with "namul" (sautéed and seasoned vegetables) and "gochujang" (chili pepper paste). A raw egg and sliced meat (usually beef) are common additions. The ingredients are mixed together thoroughly just before eating.), "galbi" (marinated beef short ribs), "mandoo" (potstickers), and sometimes "soon tofu soup".

Galbi has always been our favorites. Never ever go to a Korean restaurant without ordering galbi (unless they don't offer it). It'll be a HUGE mistake. :)
Chosun's galbi was tender and sweet. The seasoning was perfectly balanced in a soy-based sauce.

In short, nothing can go wrong when you go to Chosun. Everything was delicious!