Zarda's clearly does good business and even satisfies enough people to do a nice catering trade on the side. But for real, people, you know what the food reminded me of?
Arby's.
We're talking really thinly-sliced meat. That's not a bad thing in and of itself but it really takes the texture element out of eating BBQ. And like that other place, Zarda's meat has very little smoke flavor. I have eaten both the pork and beef brisket, and was not impressed. The food is not poor quality, it's just not good BBQ. The texture of a soft hoagie bun (blasphemy) and a pile of shaved meat is pleasant, but you might as well be eating a sandwich from Hy-Vee with barbeque sauce on it. Mediocre sauce.
I visited the Lenexa location a couple times, and I understand they have others. The decor is pretty woodsy in a convincing manner, except for the light-up menu signs which make the service counter look a little like Micky D's. At lunch, they get really busy, but the service is quick as hell, and I got my food in less than 5 minutes. The restaurant is frequented almost entirely by 40-ish polo-shirt-wearing JoCo douche bags, taking a break from whatever irresponsible bullshit they sell to participate in a KC tradition without having to interact with black people. I think my gut reaction to the clientele is largely what accounts for this particularly un-sunny review. They are what I used to call yuppies, but they're really not. Yuppies were people who lived in cities, made a lot of money in cutthroat fashion, wore suspenders and drank good coffee. The new breed are people who live in suburbs or ex-urbs and live their lives as if there were no consequences. The world's problems pale in comparison to their own financial and familial ups and downs. Thank God they are too self-absorbed to vote.
Anyway, Zarda's seems to have been around for a while, and is clearly well-liked. The prices are a little higher than normal. You will spend ten bucks on lunch easily. Just another reason why I'm not going to re-visit for a while, since there is better to be had elsewhere.
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3 comments:
Love the review. I couldn't have said the part about JoCo douche bags better myself. You pretty much got everything correct that I can't stand about them. Especially the no consequence lives.
I always stick with Bryant's. People try to tell me that good bbq isn't about the sauce but that's BS. In Kansas City the only thing matters is the sauce.
The only thing that matters is the sauce... but that's personal preference. I'm not crazy about Zarda original, but have you tried the bold or the classic? There is another sweet one, but it's too sweet. Didn't realize there were so many JoCo types eating there -- always looks like hard working construction types when I'm there. Bryant's is so fatty, and not in a good tasting way.
I'll beg to disagree about the smokiness of the meat, at least at the Blue Springs location. A sliced pork sandwich to go was so smoky, I was belching hickory until tomorrow. Also, love the fries, ala Gates, Haywards. And I find Zarda's original sauce far more interesting than the dark, sweet "quasi-KC Masterpiece" sauce that Oklahoma Joes and so many others proffer. The original sauce is similar to Rosedale's, which is redder, thinner, and pleasantly spicy. And if you ask for the spicy sauce, you'll get plenty of heat for the asking.
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