Who Has The Best BBQ in Kansas City?

One of the joys of traveling all the time is finding truly good meals. I had some ample opportunities to do so in the Kansas City, MO area. Barbeque, apparently, is king around here. But which restaurant would have the best BBQ in Kansas City? I would find out.


The first place we tried was Arthur Bryant's Barbeque on Brooklyn Avenue (yeah New York!) in downtown Kansas City. Interestingly enough, if you do a Google search for "the best bbq in Kansas city" their Website is the top choice. The place opened in the 1920s and is a nationally known restaurant.

The place had a simple interior, as clearly it's reputation is based on the food alone. The decor has not stopped famous people like former presidents Carter and Truman, as well as filmmakers like Steven Spielberg from eating there.

For dinner I had a pound of meat on a plate. It included chicken, ribs, and sausage. I had four different choices of BBQ sauces, all of which were good. The ribs were disappointing as they were dry and hard to eat. The chicken was good and the sausage phenomenal. The sausage was so good I wished that I just had a pound of that alone.

All in all, the sausage and the sauce -- as well as a very friendly staff -- made this a place worth visiting. Plus, who often do you get to eat off a metal plate?

My second try was the Smokehouse Bar-B-Que, which got negative reviews from my coworkers. The service was below average (try getting a napkin in the place, it took me until my meal was over. I would have complained to the manager but it was the manager that was taking so long).

The food quality was very good though. Smokehouse featured meat-falling-off-the-bones good ribs. The sauce was OK, but the meat was prepared perfectly and beat out Arthur Bryants in that area. If it was ribs vs. ribs, this place would have won it, but Bryant's sausage beat out anything I ate here.

Next up was Fiorella's Jack Stack Barbecue, which won this competition hands down. I had a spectacular meal there. The Crown Prime Beef Short Ribs was some of the best prepared meat I've ever had. It was so perfectly prepared that you could cut it with a butter knife and it seemed to have the texture of pudding.

It was amazing. The chicken wings there were solid. As you can see from the photo, there was little left of the meat when I was done. The meal was so good, I kept eating after I was full. I'd go there again in a heartbeat. If I lived in Kansas City, I'd probably gain 100 pounds.

Next we tried KC Masterpiece Barbecue & Grill, located in nearby Overland Park, KS. It just could not compare to the others in terms of service and food quality, although it was not bad (except for the baby back ribs, which were too dry and overcooked to eat).

We had the meat sampler and it was just OK. I will say this for the place, they had awesome beans. Unfortunately, that's not enough when compared to the other places.

My rankings:
1. Fiorella's
2. Arthur Bryant's
3. Smokehouse
4. KC Masterpiece

To be fair, I did not check out Oklahoma Joe's BBQ & Catering or Gates & Sons Bar-b-q, both of which came highly recommended. Unfortunately, I only had so much time in the city and so much room in my stomach.

RELATED LINKS:
Citysearch: the best BBQ in Kansas City 2003

Citysearch: The best BBQ in Kansas City 2005