Branding Iron BBQ — Restaurant in Harrisonville

My wife and I shared The Pit Master - four ribs and our two optional meats were sliced brisket and burnt ends. The tab with two sodas, tax, and tip ran $44. The burnt ends were very good - from the point end of the brisket as they should be and well smoked. I would have wished for more rib rub. The sliced brisket (from the flat end) was very good. It "bridged and laced" in a way most BBQ judges would approve of. There was a generous helping of the brisket. The ribs were from the short end of the slab. The last (smallest) rib was very tough - dry and over-cooked. The other ribs were very tasty. Again, more rib rub please! Fries and fried okra on the side were more than adequate. I have not spit out a bite of food since I started wearing long pants. I took one bite of the Texas toast and ejected it immediately. Later in the meal, my wife tried a bite of the toast and dispatched it just as I had. The toast appeared to be slathered in some wretched bath of dollar store margarine and imitation garlic salt. Horrific. Branding Iron has two sauces - regular and spicy, both appear to be homemade. The spicy version was a dreadful malaise of tomato sauce, some vinegar, and red pepper flakes. The regular sauce was pitifully generic. So all told, Branding Iron deserves probably 3.5 stars. I give it a solid 2 stars because I am sick to damn death of servers who persist in saying "we" (instead of "you") (e.g. "Have we decided what we are going to have for our dinner?") EVEN AFTER I MAKE IT CLEAR TO THEM HOW ANNOYING THEY ARE. Our server just couldn't gather her wits long enough to use appropriate pronouns. So sad to be a middle-aged waitress and you're not even good at that. I'm sure Branding Iron is popular in Harrisonville. Not worth a 30 minute drive... again. ... Reply to Owner's reply... You don't "talk funny", you speak poorly. Ask your Grammar,...

Surprisingly good

The prices are a bit high, but the quality of food is excellent. I had the medium size burnt ends, beef. They arrived very quickly, and without any sauce at all, which is exactly how I would prefer them. They were tender and juicy with a great smoke flavor. Perfect. The regular sauce applied to the burnt ends was also very good. The sauce itself was not the best, but also not the worst. It looked like less than half a pound of burnt ends and the menu price was over $18.00 with 2 sides.

The toast that came with it had a touch of butter and garlic, which was a pleasant surprise. The BBQ beans were quite good as well, with a bit of a spicy smoke flavor that I enjoyed. Lastly, the corn nuggets were also exactly as I was expecting them, tasty.

The service was excellent. The place was clean and tastefully decorated and well lit. I did not use a rest room, so I can't comment on that. Parking was plentiful.

Covid-19 precautions that I was able to observe included tables spaced apart and paper menus. I was not required to wear a mask to enter, and the wait staff was not wearing masks or gloves. Also, there were condiments on the tables. Very different from the Kansas City restaurants where everyone is assumed to be actively transmitting communicable diseases. I did not feel like I was more at risk here, but I'm also not medically qualified to assess measurable risk.

In all, surprisingly good food, great service, but...

We pre-ordered food for a dinner for 25 people and we admit up front the food was good, BUT, it took THREE trips back to the restaurant to get what we ordered. Again the food tasted good, BUT, if you order for a large party...make them take EVERYTHING out of the bags to make sure you get what you ordered, while you are in the restaurant. That part of their service was very poor, they forgot to give us our ribs and promised foil pans and upon returning home we discovered they forgot our burnt ends...thus another drive to restaurant. They also gave us like 12 little styrofoam containers of the hash brown casserole instead of one large container. We asked for everything to be put in foil pans to make it easy for us to put in the oven to keep warm before serving and they did not do that. After going back inside again to get the foil pans it was a pain to come home and get all the food transferred while to get into the oven. It didn't seem like too much to ask and it was heartily agreed to. The previous week we got a small pack to sample the different meats and they did not give us what we ordered. Maybe they aren't used to large orders but they need to work on that aspect of the business. We choose to support a local business and we wish we hadn't. It was a special night and it was an...