Kansas City BBQ Tour Review

I heart bar-be-que.  I think most people do, and there's many places in Texas for good bar-be-que.  I have lived in Texas all of my life, but with the dawn of The Food Network and shows like Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives and other travel/review food shows, it makes one curious about the food featured on those shows.  Enter Kansas City bar-be-que.  Kansas City, MO or Kansas City, Kansas?  YES!



My husband and I had a few free days back in June of 2017 and we decided to use those days to fill our bellies with glorious, Kansas bar-be-que.  The star of the show on this tour; burnt ends.  Meat candy. If you've never had a burnt end, I suggest you try one immediately!  Basically a burnt end is pieces of the 'fat cap' of the brisket cubed and smoked twice!  Seriously delicious.  We tried four different Kansas City bar-be-que restaurants and here they are ranked in order of favorite to least favorite:

1. Joe's KC BBQ- We visited the original location still inside a gas station where you can pump gas and then go inside and get some of their delicious bbq.  They opened that location in 1996 and it doesn't show any signs of slowing down.  The line was ridiculously long at 2:00 PM.    Definitely worth the wait.  If you ever get to visit Joe's, be sure and order their world famous sandwich, The Z-Man.  Delish.

2. Q39- This was our first stop on the unofficial bbq tour and, man, it did not disappoint.  The brisket was on point; it was juicy and flavorful and smokey.  Did I mention delicious?  They're also known for their onion rings, so of course I ordered some of those.  Out of this world.  Their assortment of bar-be-que sauces were amazing, but with meat that good, you didn't even need (or want)

the sauce. 

3. Third on the list is Smokehouse Barbeque.  We went there late one night, right before closing.  The staff was extremely friendly and attentive.  The brisket was good and so were the sweet potato fries.  There wasn't anything horrible about the place, but there wasn't anything that stood out to me, either.  I'm not a food critic, so take my opinion with a grain of salt as you choose, but this place was just good, not great.

4. Jack Stack BBQ was last on my list.  I am a brisket girl (obviously) and their brisket left a little to be desired.  The meat seemed like it had been sitting for a bit, not because it was cold, it was just stale. 


We stayed in a quaint little bed and breakfast place a little off the beaten path.  We traveled in the middle of the week, so one of the nights we stayed, we actually had the entire place to ourselves, which was amazing.  I gave it five star review on TripAdvisor, so that means it was a special place.  The Inn on Crescent Lakes was the name of it and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves there.  You should go!


Last but not least was our trip to the WWI museum located in Kansas City, MO.  It was more wonderful than I could have ever hoped for.  I'm not a history buff by any means, but this museum made me WANT to be one.  Never having really studied WWI, it seems that would have put me at a disadvantage, but the way they presented the information and the artifacts made it really easy to follow the progression of the war.  Now I'm hooked on learning about the war and history in general.  Now that's a good museum! 

I hope you've enjoyed our virtual trip around Kansas City together.  Now, get off your butt and GO there!  You'll be glad you did!