Arthur Bryant's Barbeque — Restaurant in Kansas City

Rude staff. Dirty facility. Mediocre BBQ. The Turkey was a bit dry. The Brisket was just okay. The fries were fine. The ham was actually EXCELENT! It was strongly recommended to me to try the ham before my visit, and now I know why. It was juicy with a rich ham flavor. Worthy of a Christmas dinner. If the staff wasn’t so rude and the place so filthy, I might go back just for the ham. The original BBQ sauce is like an East coast mustard base. Not at all my cup of tea, or the traditional KC flavor. Their “Sweet & Spicy” Sauce wasn’t bad. It was like the seasoned ketchup sauces more familiar to KC. They had a 3rd option that I didn’t notice until we were leaving called “Sweet & Hot” It looked red like ketchup also. It was busy when we showed up, like you’d expect any good BBQ joint to be on a Saturday night. We stood in line for a while, moving slowly through a serpentine on our way to 3 windows where they take your order. When we finally reached next in line, I began watching the gentleman from the first window preparing the order for the two elderly women in front of us. Then one of the elderly women told me that they were trying to take my order at one of the other windows. I didn’t hear anybody, but it was noisy. I thanked her and walked up to the 2nd window where another party was still ordering; so, I went to the 3rd window, but it was vacant when I got up to it. I waited a few seconds and then asked the guy in the 2nd window if I was in the right place to order. He told me I can order at any of the windows, but I had to go through line first. Clearly, he did not realize that I was already next in line. So, I went back to my place in line, which was next to order. When he called next, I came up to order and he was super rude to me. He called me skipper and rolled his eyes at me. Apparently, he was not very observant and missed the fact that I had already waited in line the whole time, and the fact that I had walked up to his window from the serpentine first before going to the 3rd window, and the fact that I was with my wife the whole time, because he didn’t seem to mind taking her order at all. He got her order ready quick. Then when we went to the register to pay, we waited a long time for my order to be filled. It sure felt like he was purposely ignoring it because he MISTAKENLY thought I skipped the line. Now my wife has a bad back and I have a bum ankle, so, it was already taxing to stand in line and now frustrating to wait even longer at the register. Eventually, my order came up. They gave us our drinks. We asked for a Fanta and a Coke, both no ice. We got two Fanta with ice. My wife was in enough pain that she didn’t want to wait even longer for them to correct it. So, we took what they gave us. The line lets out to a dining area with another one adjacent through an open door. The first dining room was completely full. So, we took the first seat in the adjoining room. Then a very friendly gentleman came up to us and politely informed us that this room was for reserved events and that we could not sit there. We told him the other dining room was full. He popped his head back in the other room and said that we could stay there. Told us to take our time, it was fine. Then 2 minutes later a woman comes up to us and barks at us to leave. We told her that the other guy said it was okay. She was very crass and said that she didn't care, we can't be there, we had to leave. Told us there were tables in the entrance area where we ordered. Turns out there were tables open out there, but they were all dirty. We chose the least dirty table of all the tables available. Shortly before we left, somebody came out to start cleaning the tables. I want to be clear that the gentleman in the first window seemed very polite and professional and the person who first told us about the reserved dining room was very polite and friendly. Unfortunately, the other two people we delt with were so rude that we will not be returning...

This was my first time having KC BBQ and I didn’t do a lot of research before coming.

It is a very low key place, it’s a locals place. It’s a little rough around the edges. I read some reviews after I ate to see how my experience compared to others.

First, when I ordered, everyone in the window was friendly and polite. The cashiers are efficient, and not there to be your friend and they aren’t making you feel warm and fuzzy while taking your money. They did a good job of keeping the line moving. They weren’t rude or aloof. They are working.

I was surprised at the pricing in a good way.

I ordered the 4 bone rib special for $11 and had a $2.Xx French fry.

The fries are great. The ribs were average in my opinion, but definitely not great. The sauce is legendary. When the original sauce first hit my mouth it was one of the better sauces I’ve tried on most food. It was just that good. It’s bold.

You might have better luck getting the whole rack, or a half rack. The ribs weren’t that big. The value is there though. It’s priced competitively with a value meal at most fast food restaurants. I took a bite of the bread, but I wouldn’t consider finishing it. I always considered bread on bbq for soaking up grease and sauce.

I’m a huge bbq fan and made sure I came hungry. I’ve heard great things about burnt ends and saw the special sandwich.

It was a huge portion, but I can’t say it was very good. After looking at other pictures of the burnt end sandwiches, I think I got the shaft on this one. Mine doesn’t look like the others.

I strongly prefer traditional brisket, but I’m glad I tried it. The onion ring was perfect.

Again, the sauce stole the show here and kind of saved the day. I tried a few bites in each sauce, settled on one I liked and put it down.

I was having serious fomo at some of the other sandwiches I saw. By the time I finished my sandwich, went back to the window to order a sliced pork to go, they were out. So I got a pulled pork and it just didn’t have the same eye appeal the sliced meat sandwiches had on other tables.

After 3-4 hours, I tried a bite. The flavor is there! I’ll eat it tomorrow

From what I saw though, the sliced sandwiches are the definite way to go.

If i lived in KC, I could definitely see myself stopping here once a week for a sandwich and fries.

Huge portions, and fairly priced.

I walked the half mile to Gates Bbq up the road. This might be a better choice for a family of tourists. Jazz music was playing outside, they had a few tables under umbrellas, a lounge and a larger seating area.

There are a ton of BBQ options to choose, and if you can only try one, I would probably go with another choice. However, this is still a good choice with good food....

If I could, I would actually give this place no stars. My fiancé and I just happen to be in town for some business and had seen videos of this place and heard how good it was so we thought we would go ahead and drop by while we had a chance. We waited in line for about 30 minutes before we got up to the front to order and the very first thing that the gentleman asked us was have you ordered yet or have you been saved? We didn’t really know what that meant so my fiancé answered whatever I need to do to get some food. He was just joking and the gentleman at the window said either way you’ll get some food. Have you ordered or not? in a rude tone. We had literally just walked up to the window, so it was clear that we had not ordered yet. My fiancé orders his meal and I’m more of a vegetarian and so I just ordered all but two sides. I read each side off to him and he said what and then I said pretty much just every side except for these two and he said OK and then yelled out to other people in the back saying that’s what I had ordered. Then my fiancé further down the line, but not quite to check out yet says to another guy that he would like to add more to our order, and the guy was very nice and asked what he would like, and the same guy that we had placed our first order with came back and Yelled at the guy that was helping us, that he had already taken our order. The guy tried to explain that we were adding some stuff, and the original guy said exasperatedly that he had already taken our order. The original guy ended up being the one to give us our meal and he was able to put my fiancé‘s add-on sandwich on there, But just when I thought it was time for me to grab my tray, he put a full slab of ribs on it for the guy behind me. Well, I had ordered six sides I received literally not one. We get to check out and pay about $40 for my fiancé’s two combos. At this point, I didn’t want to say that I hadn’t received my food because that gentleman had yelled at his coworker and I certainly do not want to be yelled at when I’m just trying to get good food so I ended up just eating some of the fries off of my fiancé’s plate. All of the food was lukewarm at best, and the onion rings were soggy, the fries were just like any old french fries, they had no seasoning on them whatsoever, and my fiancé almost broke his tooth on a bone inside of the burnt end sandwich. Even if this food was offered to us for free, we would not accept it because it is that awful especially when paired with the...