Restaurant Week 2015

For those of you unaware- Coach and I like to eat. It's kind of our thing. So Restaurant Week is one of our highlights. As a culinary arts teacher (part of my FCS job donchaknow!), I'm automatically a member of the Missouri Restaurant Association which means I get the dates for Restaurant Week MONTHS ahead of time. And you better bet I put it on the calendar.

So for some it seems pretty easy- pick a restaurant from the list, go, enjoy. For foodies like us it takes planning and strategy. The week runs Friday to the next Sunday. So you have a full week and 2 full weekends to enjoy. This year I ruined half our fun by leaving town the second week. So we really had to make ours last.

Step 1: Pick your restaurant. We usually take this as our opportunity to try someplace new. We chose '37 Steak- the new steakhouse at our favorite casino- and Michael Forbes Grill. If we'd had the 2 weekends, we would have added EBT and/or Jess & Jim's. Maybe next year!

Step 2: Make your reservations. I like to book as early as possible. It's easier to adjust a reservation later than it is to get in on a crowded night.

Step 3: Put on your stretchy pants. The menus are never small and it's almost always delicious.

This year's winner was for sure '37. While Michael Forbes was good, it wasn't the best steak (or in Coach's case- catfish) that I've ever had. '37 had a unique menu with the classics and everything was perfectly cooked. The service was phenomenal (we had a complementary dessert served to us simply because we raved about the bacon in my husband's cocktail. Yes he had a drink with bacon in it, and yes we had bacon for dessert).

Now since one of our restaurants was at the casino, we went ahead and booked a room to make a night of it. It was the perfect start to our 3 day weekend and a great time with our friends. The best part is that even the basic room at the hotel has great big huge soaking tubs. I love to soak in a hot bath but we don't have a good tub at our house. So I spent a good 45 minutes avoiding drowning and loving every minute of it.

Now for the food details!

At '37 I ordered the chicken and crab wellington off the restaurant week menu. Chicken breast, prosciutto, spinach, crab, and a creamy sauce inside a flaky pastry. Coach had the filet and both entrees were cooked to perfection. The sides are family style so our table split The Hashbrown (yes, it's so good it earns the "the"), sweet corn, and asparagus. We all had salads (my Caesar was yummy), and we all split my chocolate tower cake dessert that came as part of the restaurant week deal. The specialty drink that night was an old-fashioned with a jalapeno and brown-sugar peppered bacon. We raved, they brought us a cup of bacon, we had meat for dessert (and that's not the first time).

Michael Forbes is a much larger menu. Here's my thing- when a menu serves steak, lasagna, burgers, and tacos, you kind of wonder what they're good at it. My experience is that it's never all of them. Since I didn't have steak at '37 I went ahead and ordered the filet. It was edible and cooked right but just not as good as the nicer steakhouses. My side was the potatoes au gratin which was really diced roasted potatoes with cheddar melted on top. Good, but nothing I can't (and do) make at home. Coach ordered the fried catfish which is deboned table side so that was fun. And they bring you home style rolls right out of the pan and they were delightful. All in all though I found the menu very similar to chain menus (especially 54th Street) and I didn't find the food significantly higher in quality. It was still yummy though and it's always nice to try someplace new. Since they are on our Passport Dining list we'll probably be back.

So that was our go at Restaurant Week 2015, Week by previous year's but 2 in one weekend isn't bad :). If I wasn't leaving Wednesday then we'd sneak in a mid-week one too at one of the more casual places. If you're ever going to visit Kansas City, Restaurant Week is a good time to be in town!