Food >>

• Best Pastries
  Andre's Confiserie Suisse
  The Kansas Andre's, which opened in 2002, is just as popular as its soeur location in Missouri, which Andre Bollier opened in 1955. At either location, it's almost impossible to decide: Will it be the roll of soft white cake filled with lemon butter cream and sheathed in a delicate citrus... More >>
• Best Sticky Bun
  Chacko's Bakery & Catering
  The secret to the perfect sticky bun is butter. Not just for spreading on each 4-inch tall, caramel-lacquered sweet roll, sprinkled with fat pecans but as a primary ingredient in the dough. The Chacko's sticky bun is baked and sold at the tiny bakery only on Thursday, Friday and Saturday... More >>
• Best Hair of the Dog Brunch
  Horizons Buffet, Ameristar Hotel and Casino
  Dear Horizons Buffet Sunday Server Lady: We want to apologize for our friends' and our behavior every time we come to the all-you-can-eat brunch at Horizons. We smoke cigarettes and say "fuck" a lot. We can tell that you disapprove, especially because we usually show up at 2:30 in the afternoon,... More >>
• Best Soup
  Lemon Chicken and
  Artichoke at Souperman
  Since January, when Rob Dalzell opened Souperman a spoon's throw from 1924 Main (where he's owner and executive chef), we've heard regulars swearing by the Thai coconut-chicken soup and the Moroccan lamb and lentil. But one of Dalzell's creations stands out so much that we figure it must be... More >>
• Best Lunch Buffet
  Bangkok Pavilion
  The metro's oldest Thai joint was looking a bit tired and forlorn when it burned to the ground after a lightning strike in 2005. But when the Bangkok Pavilion reopened last year, the new dining room was shiny and immaculate; the reconstructed restaurant had even created a separate room just for... More >>
• Best Fast Food
  Habashi House
  Carnivores, take heed: It doesn't matter that there's no meat in the Habashi House's falafel sandwich. It's just as substantial as anything that once chewed cud, and afterward you can strut around like a big shot, telling everyone you had a vegetarian lunch. This City Market mainstay serves rice... More >>
• Best Hot Dog Vendor
  Kenny Kayhill
  On the corner of 12th Street and Locust downtown, just between City Hall and the Jackson County Courthouse, Kenny Kayhill's refrain is familiar: "That'll be $4 for the boss. Whatever you leave the cook is always appreciated." Kayhill, 49, has been cooking hot dogs and Polish sausages under a... More >>
• Best Gyro Sandwiches (1 Comment)
  Olympic Village
  Greek-born Anastasio Rodopoulos tells his customers at Olympic Village that gyro meat should only be served the way he prepares it: on a toasted round of pita bread, brushed with extra-virgin olive oil and served with salty crumbles of feta cheese and creamy tsatsiki sauce. For gyro maniacs who... More >>
• Best Pupusas
  Sabor Centro Americano
  November 13 is National Pupusa Day in El Salvador, but any day is perfectly suited to stop by Sabor Centro Americano, where owner Fredy Rios serves up many varieties of the snack for just $1.50 apiece. Pupusas are coaster-sized, thin, fried corn tortillas stuffed with different fillings that are... More >>
• Best Milkshake
  Town Topic
  We can't stop craving Town Topic's chocolate milkshakes. Middle of the day, middle of the night, whenever. Our minds say no, but $3.50 is so worth the cool, chocolaty concoction. A hint of guilt hits us every time the old lady behind the counter is forced to satisfy our latest craving. Once, she... More >>
• Best Burger (1 Comment)
  12 Baltimore, Hotel Phillips
  There's a secret to 12 Baltimore's $10 burger. It's not on the menu, and the servers don't brag about the mystery ingredient, but chef Marshall Roth is happy to reveal what it is: duck fat. "Most hamburgers are an 80-20 blend of lean beef and fat," he notes. "I only use 10 percent of beef fat... More >>
• Best Healthy Burger
  Local Burger
  Hilary Brown opened her popular Local Burger in Lawrence in 2005. Now her place has a following of fans who prefer local grass-fed beef (without added antibiotics or hormones), buffalo meat, elk meat or an all-natural turkey patty served on an organic bakery bun and topped with Kansas-made... More >>
• Best Fake Burger
  Room 39
  The veggie burger was invented to satisfy three simple requirements for vegetarians: Give them an appropriate side order for their fries, provide a delivery matrix for ketchup and mustard on a thick bun, and make their tablemates feel bad about their mad-cow ways. But there are four problems... More >>
• Best Sliders
  Tower Tavern's Deluxe Sliders
  White Castle might have made the mini-hamburgers known as sliders famous, but the originals aren't as tasty as the Deluxe Tower Sliders at Tower Tavern. They come three to an order, topped with tangy roasted-garlic cream cheese, caramelized onions and crumbled bacon. Scarfing down an order of... More >>
• Best Chili
  Nara
  Downtown's Nara, which opened last fall, gets our vote for its innovative and delicious spin on an old standard. Nara's chili was created by chef Terry Barkley, who said sayonara to the Asian-fusion venue last January but was good enough to leave his recipe behind. Tim Brady, the current... More >>
• Best Comfort Food (1 Comment)
  The Mango Room
  Thelma Oliver and her partner, chef Ian Hockenberg, were anything but comfortable early this summer, when downtown construction made it so tough to get to their restaurant that many diners assumed that the place was closed. But devotees of the two-year-old Mango Room made enough of a racket that... More >>
• Best Pizza (1 Comment)
  Jerry's Bait Shop
  With its vaguely tropical décor and many tanned patrons, Jerry's Bait Shop seems the kind of place Jimmy Buffet would enjoy. If he did, he wouldn't use the mic to sing about cheeseburgers. This bar, grill and concert venue, with locations in Lee's Summit and Lenexa, serves pizza that goes... More >>
• Best Cheap Dinner Date
  Tienda Casa Paloma
  A dinner date requires a certain amount of élan and thoughtfulness even when one's wallet is, sadly, leaner than usual. Fast-food joints are out, unless one cares absolutely nothing about making a good impression. Full-service restaurants are more impressive, but prices are higher. The... More >>
• Best Free Food
  KCAI Crossroads Gallery
  No one really thinks First Friday is all about the art. With so many people crowding the galleries with their bodies and chatter, it's hard to even see the art, much less contemplate its meaning. We're under no illusions: First Friday is for partying. And parties usually include snacks. The... More >>
• Best Hotel Dining Room (4 Comments)
  OP1906 Bar & Grill
  Johnson County hotels have never had a reputation for fine dining. But because the Sheraton Overland Park is part of that city's Convention Center complex, the Starwood Hotel chain decided to up the ante and give the game-themed OP1906 Bar & Grill a little more panache than its contemporaries in... More >>
• Best Kansas City Strip
  Plaza III
  When the Haddad Restaurant Group decided to open a satellite branch of the iconic Plaza III steakhouse in southern Johnson County last October, it also exported the fine service and USDA prime beef that made the original venue on the Plaza so famous. And as at the Missouri Plaza III, the dinner... More >>
• Best Deal on Japanese Food
  Friends Sushi
  At Friends, a cozy Japanese eatery on 39th Street's restaurant row, the waitstaff's uniforms remind us of the restaurant where Zach Braff worked in Garden State. But we get better service — even when the place is extra busy from 5 to 9 p.m. Mondays and from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays.... More >>
• Best Really Big Food
  Hash House A Go Go
  The late filmmaker Orson Welles, who had a legendary appetite, was once heard to complain, "My doctor told me to stop having intimate dinners for four. Unless there are three other people." Similarly, single diners who confront the giant platters at the Hash House A Go Go might start looking for... More >>
• Best Place to Blow a Diet
  Johnny Cascone's
  There are good carbs and bad carbs, and sometimes the bad ones are so alluring, it's too difficult not to give in to temptation and flip the metaphorical finger to those good-for-you fruits and vegetables. That same finger can be used to pick up a slice of the crusty Roma bread and butter at... More >>
• Best Gelato
  Argento Italian Gelato
  The gelato at Argento hints at a bygone purity, as though the dairy and flora were from 1804. If Lewis and Clark paddled ashore today and explored the City Market, a couple of scoops of Argento's coconut gelato might be enough to make them hock their gear, fire their crew and find a loft within... More >>
• Best Place to Have a Spot o' Tea
  Governor's Meeting House
  There's some debate as to when the British turned the afternoon tea into an actual meal. The apocryphal version is that, in the early 19th century, the Duchess of Bedford was having "sinking feelings" during the period between the hearty English breakfast and the evening meal (then served at 8... More >>
• Best Sexy Food (2 Comments)
  Chosun Korean BBQ
  We love it when dinner is foreplay — we order something hot and eat it with our fingers. This year, we got off doing that over one of the fiery gas grills embedded in the tables at the Chosun Korean BBQ. Owner Keun-Bae Jeon and his staff happily show their customers how to grill beef short... More >>
• Best New Restaurant, Kan. (2 Comments)
  One Bite Japanese Grill
  After Yokohama-born Erika Koike graduated from Central Missouri State University, she decided that, rather than return to the Land of the Rising Sun, she'd bring a bit of it to the Sunflower State. Late last year, Koike opened One Bite Japanese Grill, a sleek little izakaya — Japanese for... More >>
• Best New Restaurant, Mo
  Seven
  Restaurateur Victor Fontana's life and career have had more acts than Broadway. He opened Fanny's, Kansas City's first combination dining room and disco, in the 1970s and has spent the past three decades trying to top himself. Seven, which Fontana opened in the spring with partner Bill George,... More >>
• Best Bar Food (1 Comment)
  Boozefish
  Conventional wisdom suggests that, when it comes to paint, stomachs and bar food, the more coats, the better. Breading, barbecue sauce, cheese — the number of layers slathered over what's in the basket on your table is inversely proportionate to how much clothing the person you want to... More >>