Friday, October 25, 2013

Holiday Inn Express & Suites Kansas City KU Medical Center




Written by Matt Rosenfeld
The Holiday Inn Express & Suites Kansas City KU Medical Center is a very clean and modern hotel.  During our stay, the staff was very friendly and willing to give suggestions of places to go and things to see in the city.

The breakfast was very good and consisted of cinnamon buns, bagels, sausage, eggs, cereal, pancakes, etc. There was plenty of parking available in their lot.  The hotel was within a 10-15 minute drive of basically everything in the Kansas City area.

Housekeeping didn't clean our room the first day, which was disappointing, but after pointing this out to the front desk, someone came to take care of it that night.  Apparently if you have a "Do Not Disturb" sign up before 8:30 a.m., housekeeping takes this to mean you shouldn't clean all day.  They need to re-train their housekeeping to re-check these rooms in the afternoon as some people do sleep in past 8:30 a.m., especially on weekends.

We also found that if you get a corner room above the gym area, you may feel the vibrations from people running on the treadmills and elliptical machines.  The shower in the room is also very tight and may be problematic for people of larger sizes.

Overall, we do recommend this hotel to visitors of Kansas City, as the pricing is much better than those downtown.  However, the hotel has a few areas to work on in housekeeping scheduling as noted above.

Address: 3932 Rainbow Blvd., Kansas City, KS
Wifi: Free
Parking: Free
Restaurant: No
Bar/Lounge: No
Smoking: Non-smoking
Hidden Fees: None
Breakfast: Free
In-room safe: No

Thursday, October 24, 2013

Hallmark Visitors Center



Written by Matt Rosenfeld
Right in the center of Kansas City, MO, the Hallmark Visitors Center gives people a chance to see the history and some of the inner workings of the company.  You can even see how certain cards are made and get some free keepsake items.

A great point of interest is seeing some of the Christmas ornaments that have been designed through the years by collection and by artist. Also, be sure to stop by the printer to watch the process of making Hallmark cards and take a look at what the cards what look like at various stages of printing. Just beyond that, you can see what cards look like for the holidays in various languages and for other countries.

It takes about 30 minutes to go through the entire center, and it is free of charge.  Definitely worth your time if you're in the Kansas City area.

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Gates and Sons Bar-B-Q





Written by Leann Pettit
One of the barbecue joints in Kansas City that was highly recommended to us was Gates and Sons Bar-B-Q, which has six locations in Kansas City.

We ate at the Main and Linwood location, the restaurant located at 4621 Paseo in Kansas City is the main restaurant.

One thing that makes Gates stand out compared to their neighbors is the order takers asking each diner, "Hi, may I help you?" And, while we found this warm and kitchy, we also had an issue while ordering. The counter worker misunderstood our order, which took slightly longer and wasted the cook's time.

In the end, we ordered the mix plate, which came with beef, ham, ribs, and fries. Gates was the only joint that we ate at that pre-sauced their meats before serving, which didn't give us the option to sauce it ourself or try the other sauces by Gates.

Of the meats, the ham was very juicy, and the beef was tender, and both were cut thin. However, the meats were just all right in comparison to other Kansas City barbecue restaurants.

The ribs served were spare ribs, and the short ends are not included on the mix plate. The ribs we got on our plate had a lot of fat on them and not a lot of meat.

We also ordered onion rings, which were fried fresh, but definitely had a heavy taste of fryer oil.

After Gates and Sons being recommended by a local, we had high hopes for this place. I hope that the issues and disappointment we encountered are site specific and not a true representation of Gates.

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Arthur Bryant's Barbeque




Written by Leann Pettit
One of those staples (and giants) of Kansas City barbecue is Arthur Bryant's, on Brooklyn Ave. in Kansas City, MO (there's also locations at the Ameristar Casino and at the Kansas Speedway).

We ordered the pulled pork open faced sandwich and the burnt ends open faced sandwich, both of which came pre-sauced and were huge (three slices of bread for an open faced sandwich, and meat piled on).

The pulled pork was very tender and the sauce was on the sweeter side, a perfect compliment to the savory, smokey pork. The burnt ends were mega moist, but because of the sauce on them, lacked that crunchy exterior. The classic sauce was used on the burnt ends sandwich and, again, a perfect, succulent combination of savory, smokey and sweet.


Monday, October 21, 2013

RJ's Bob-Be-Que Shack



Written by Leann Pettit
A laid back joint in Mission, KS, is RJ's Bob-Be-Que Shack

We ordered a half rack of baby back ribs to share between two people (about 3 ribs per person). The ribs were incredibly meaty and super, fall-off-the-bone tender. The ribs had a lot of meat on them and the meat pulled right off the bone, and there was a fantastic smoke ring on the edges of the meat.

The atmosphere at RJ's is very laid back, especially in comparison to Kansas City's more popular joints. The menu is plentiful and diners get table service (as opposed to counter service). 

Plenty of televisions around the restaurant play whatever game is on, and on Sundays during football games, there are food and drinks specials.

Sunday, October 20, 2013

National Cafe




Written by Leann Pettit
Restaurants in Moose Jaw offering Chinese and Canadian cuisine (or other combinations of cuisines) were surprising at first, but we realized it was the norm in the southern Saskatchewan town.

We chose to eat at National Cafe, next door to the Tunnels of Moose Jaw.

We ordered some of the cafe's sandwiches, a ham and cheese toasted sandwich and a turkey club sandwich. On the side, we ordered mashed potatoes and original poutine.

The sandwiches were good, well made and simple. The mashed potatoes were under seasoned and needed a lot of butter, salt and pepper to boost the flavor from boiled smashed potatoes to tasty mashed potatoes

The poutine was very good. The fries were previously frozen, but the beef gravy rescued the dish.