24 March 2013
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Lunch at Rye in Kansas City
While in Kansas City, we met a friend for lunch at Rye, a restaurant in Johnson County that is an offshoot of the well-regarded bluestem restaurant by award-winning husband and wife team Colby and Megan Garrelts. (My blog entry about a 2009 dinner there.)
Located in a newer retail/residential development near I-435, Rye has a welcoming atmosphere and a menu designed to celebrate Midwestern cuisine. It was busy when we arrived right in the middle of lunchtime, but we were seated after only a ten-minute wait. Service was friendly although, to my taste, a tad overfamiliar.
The restaurant has an extensive list of wines that are available in 6-ounce, 8-ounce, and 24-ounce servings, which translates into quarter, third, and whole bottles. (Which isn’t quite right because a standard 750ml wine bottle is 25.4 ounces.) Confusingly, sometimes it is cheaper to buy a bottle and other times, it is cheaper to buy four 6-ounce servings of the same wine. When I pointed this out to the server, who then introduced me to the person who manages the restaurant’s wine selection, I received a murky explanation that led me to suspect that nobody had ever noticed this pricing discrepancy.
That oddity aside, the wine list is a nice one and they deserve kudos for making more wines available by the glass, which encourages exploration and horizon-broadening.
The menu could be described as rustic but with a bit of panache. It celebrates Midwestern classics – chicken salad, pulled pork sandwich, and dumplings feature on the menu – but presented in a way that is a bit lighter, a bit more seasonal, and a bit more sophisticated than might come from your grandmother’s kitchen.
I ordered a two-piece fried chicken plate with a side of mashed potatoes. The breading was crisp and well-seasoned. The chicken inside was juicy but, like a lot of American chicken, the meat wasn’t very flavorful. American chicken (and pork, for that matter) is bred for blandness, much to my sorrow. The potatoes were nice and the mixed greens kept the dish reasonably light.
Curious, I also ordered a side of creamy mac and cheese. On one level, this serves as a good benchmark dish because so many restaurants serve it and it is so often the same-old, same-old. In this case, there wasn’t anything to fault with this mac and cheese, but there also wasn’t anything that raised it above similar dishes at other restaurants.
Tawn had a roasted salmon dish served on Indian rice with a lemon dressing and greens. This was a tad more elevated than the “fish and rice” dish you might find as the more healthful option on typical Midwestern menus. The fish tasted like it might be farmed – for the price, that wouldn’t be a surprise – and was a bit drier than I like, although Tawn prefers his fish that way. The lemon dressing was refreshing and the Indian rice was toothsome, although I couldn’t figure out if they were referencing Native American rice or South Asian rice!
Our friend had the house salad, grilled salmon added, with a sherry vinaigrette. While I didn’t try it, she seemed pleased with the dish. The greens were a nice mixture of types, so it certainly was a step up from a plate of iceberg lettuce. Of course, if a James Beard award-winning chef served a plate of iceberg in anything other than a wedge salad with Maytag dressing, I would be disappointed.
Nearing fullness, we ordered a single slice of pie, banana cream, for dessert. While I love pie, banana isn’t my favorite so I let Tawn do most of the eating. It was a nice enough pie although I found the crust a little tough. The pudding was nicely made, creamy and smooth.
All in all, Rye seems like a decent restaurant, providing familiar food with a slight twist at reasonable prices. While I don’t return to KC very often, I would keep Rye on my list of places to stop for a meal.
Comments (14)
Looks mouth watering.
You are much kinder than I would be. It would not be a stop for me after reading your review.
It’s always nice to return to a restaurant and find that it’s still worth coming back to. The fish and rice looks pretty good.
My grandma never made mac n cheese or fried chicken.
My first introduction to Mac n Cheese was the Kraft dinner.
Will keep this in mind next time we visit K .now I’ll go check the other post. We will probably go to K.C this summer so better start compiling the list. Thanks!
Typical Midwestern cuisine, I suppose? The salmon dish looks good! Now I’m salavating for some fried chicken, I know just a place near me with the best in LA. Next time when you’re in town we can give it a try!
I think Tawn had the best deal! Looks a lot like Cheddar’s Restaurant… The service is the thing that brings me back – prompt, courteous, friendly, and above all attentive.
Damned with faint praise…
I’ve been meaning to get back to KC one of these days and visit the Plaza, among other things. This isn’t the sort of fare I prefer to get when dining out, but I’ll have to keep it in mind in case I ever do.
The banana cream pie looked quite moist and tasty. My youngest son is here from Oregon and he got our outside grill out of storage and is bbqign salmon this afternoon in the side yard of the apt complex where we live. Hubby loves bbqed salmon and youngest son is a bbq master<:)
You and Tawn have a wonderful week that got her way to fast. Sun is shining and today is a good day.
did you have room for dessert?
A lot of wild rice dishes mix in cultivated rice. In Asia you are likely to spot natural red rice but I don’t know if they also have some rice similar to “wild” rice.
@Fatcat723 - @Inciteful - I suppose I should have provided more context. Didn’t intend to damn it with faint praise. Given that so many restaurant in suburban KC are chain restaurants or essentially serve chain restaurant food, Rye was better than most. That said, it wasn’t spectacular and so there are a few other restaurants that would rank higher on my to-visit list. Wouldn’t suggest you drive to KC to go to this place but if you happen to find yourself there, it wouldn’t be a bad place to stop.
@Texasjillcarmel - Just a bite of that slice of pie.
@Grannys_Place - Thanks for the recommendation. Nothing better than grilled salmon. I remember visiting Pike Place Market in Seattle and bringing back two large fish to the Bay Area, calling all my friends together the next day so we could grill and eat it.
@n_e_i_l - @awoolham - When you make it back to KC, I would suggest Lidia’s and Oklahoma Joe’s as first stops. Would also suggest Celina Tio’s Julian and Debbie Gold’s The American.
@murisopsis - Service, and what we consider “good” service, is an interesting thing. For example, here in Thailand I can get attentive service but it tends to be completely impersonal. There is only a single server at any of the restaurants we go to regularly who I know by name. In the US, you seem to run across servers who have at least more distinct personality, but I can find it offputting when they are too familiar.
@CurryPuffy - Great place in SF called Little Skillet… will write about their chicken soon.
@ElusiveWords - Yeah, I guess many of my friends’ grandmothers never cooked food like this. Ethnocentric of me. =P
@armnatmom - It sure looked that way. Wish it had been a little more successful in the taste department, but what can you do?
you look like you might have had a doggie bag to take home.lol
i would have enjoyed that mac n cheese, with a side of pulled pork sandwich