Bacaro Primo — Restaurant in Kansas City

My wife and I are huge fans of Earl's Premier and have been eager to try Bacaro Primo, a relatively new Italian spot in Brookside from the same ownership. Last night we finally were able to join some friends there and had a stellar dinner. Some highlights:

We had both the Arancini and Polpetti (meatballs) as an appetizer. While both were delicious, the meatballs were the winner for sure. Moist and flavorful without being overly dense, they were accompanied by a touch of roasted tomato and a beautifully creamy soft ricotta.

If I had to provide one "must order" item for anyone dining here, it would be the Paccheri. I wasn't familiar with this particular pasta going in, but it was a smooth tubular pasta a bit larger than rigatoni. But let's be real, the star of this dish wasn't the pasta, it was the stunning bolognese that surrounded it. Rich and hearty with a nearly melt-in-your mouth texture, it was one of those bites that had everyone in our group giving that "You have got to be kidding me" look (you know the one).

The seemingly oddball item that I'm so glad we ordered was the potato chips. We figured there had to be a good reason they were on the menu, and we learned that reason as we neared the end our entrees. These crispy, light and airy chips were the perfect receptacle for scraping up last bits of sauce and cheese from our plates and delivering them to our mouths. A clean up crew worth every little bit of the $4 required to add them to the meal.

The place itself is small but comfortable, and staff was incredibly friendly and accommodating. Though there were numerous tables that lingered after the restaurant's official closing time on a Tuesday night, they weren't pressuring people to leave and allowed everyone to savor the last bit of their time there. Wonderful food, wonderful humans, wonderful experience. Will be...

This was a disappointing experience. I made reservations two months out for a very special occasion and we were extremely excited to finally try the place everyone had been talking about. But the service really ruined it for us. We ordered appetizers but wanted to take our time before ordering the next course, to which the server replied “ok but just so you know some of our main dishes take a long time to prepare”. So I asked about the pork shank and the server said “yeah that one takes about 30 minutes”, so my girlfriend and I thought it would be best to order then. About four minutes after we got our carpaccio app, the server walks up with our entrees and without hesitating slides my side plate out of the way with my entree dish. When we looked surprised, he just said “these came out faster than I thought” and walked away. My girlfriend and I are big into wine pairings and we still had mostly full cocktails when the entrees came about 25 minutes earlier than they were supposed to. That was annoying and unprofessional, but it didn’t stop there. Later, while we were still eating our entrees, a busser came by and grabbed my plate to take it away while I was holding my fork. There was still food on my plate. When I said I wasn’t finished, she replied “I wasn’t trying to take your food away from you”… so why did you grab my plate?? So awkward and uncomfortable. Long story short, we had been looking forward to that dinner for almost two months, but I ended up spending $200+ dollars on a really bad experience, which is an absolute shame because the food was very, very good. Ultimately, this is yet another KC restaurant that has some unbelievable talent in the kitchen that is sunk by worse service than you get at your local dive bar. We both agreed that we wouldn’t...

Me and my wife went for our anniversary. Believe it or not the water actually ruined most of the meal. They gave us tiny little cups to try to hide that they were scooping it out of the toilet or brush creek or something. I've never had water that's tasted so bad. If the tap water is that bad then bring in bottled water or something. Can't believe I'm actually complaining about water. Ordered the olive fritte. 2 marble sized fried olives for $6. Tasted better than my chicken parm, but so small. The mussels were good, but a bit overcooked so the meat had shriveled up and the crostini was burnt. The entrees were ok. I only finished 1/3 of mine because I was so disgusted by the water. I've worked in restaurants for over 20 years and I hate stupid complaints, but believe it or not WATER of all things ruined our lunch. ???? Luckily I had some wine, but my pregnant wife just had to suffer. Didn't really like that our waitress turned over our table to another server half way through the service and then started taking other tables....