Barbacoa — Restaurant in Kansas City

Ok, just YUM! We tried Barbacoa last night because we'd heard good things about their cocktail menu, and we left as big fans of everything from the molé to the martinis. 👏👏

First, you must get the taquitos here. They might just have been my favorite bite all night: stuffed with brisket and dipped in garlic crema and a salsa, with a bite of pickled onion. I don't even like taquitos (or didn't think so), but whoa.

Others at the table argue that the Queso Fundido was even better than the taquitos. Brian argues that we should have dipped the taquitos IN the queso for a mind blowing bite. 😂

We ordered 4 of the 5 entrees: Turkey Molé was my fave. I can't believe how tender and juicy the turkey was, crusted with a rub that features a lil coffee flavor, then smothered in a 3-day molé that is fantastic. Brian had more than his 1/4 of the pork carnitas (in chewy perfect @yolitortilleria) and as promised, the sweet potato torta was a layered tower of flavors. My other fave, though, was the Chicken Tinga tostada: crunchy, crispy, spicy, creamy, & fresh. Yum!

The menu is pretty small, but everything we had was a winner. I'd rather a place nail 5 entrees and 4 appetizers than add anything underwhelming to the list.

We didn't have room for dessert but got it anyway: Arroz con Leche was divine (sweet crispy rice? Yes.) And they make their own chocolate in house if you need something a bit more bite-sized.

Oh... And the drinks! Everything we had was fresh, well balanced, unique and delicious! We liked the Mexican Mule best (with cilantro-infused vodka) but the 104 (rum, coconut water, almond bitters) was also a table fave.

Great service and the make good use of the space by prioritizing tables over decor.

We will definitely be back. We'll be craving the...

Every time we go, I tell myself to leave a review. And even though I know better, I think I’ve been trying to keep this for myself because I never end up writing one. But that’s not fair - and I’m foregoing selfish for sharing. Starting now.

You guys have to try this place.

It’s not just elevated Mexican food good. It’s Kansas City barbecue good. If you ever see suadero, that’s the easy choice. Hands down the evolution of KC barbecue I’ve always needed in my soul. But it’s also every single dish. I cleaned the plate on a mole blanco carrot dish. Carrots. Yeah - I said carrots. A co-worker offered me a bite of her leftover fish dish the next day at lunch and it was still incredible the next day. Yeah - I said fish. Mole the way mole ought to be, but with an amazing smoked chicken under it. Birria that will test your ability to forget you’re civilized and drink the consommé from the bowl.

Eat every app. Eat every main. I’ll have to update the review if, in some distant future, we make it to dessert.

Every picture you see here is going to look Insta perfect - every dish we’ve ever had hit the table is cookbook worthy. So instead, I’ll add a drink menu. Always the same classical bones in the choices - with something for everyone, plus an inspirational exploration of the tequila and mezcal genres - but with a different twist each time. It’s just enough to make you consider expanding your own home bar. Again.

I’m sharing now. This is...

Review time 👏 this restaurant was recommended to me by one of my coworkers. Thanks Jill 🤍 Let me just start off by saying this establishment is beautiful, I love the decor and the ambience. I love that even that staff has a “uniform” but not your typical boring uniform. It’s giving demure🤍 and the staff was amazing, super friendly and really took the time to explain everything to you. So that right off the bat is 10/10.

Now the food. For an appetizer, I got the ceviche which was delicious. I didn’t take a picture of it because well I just dig right in. It was amazing definitely recommend. For the main entrée I got the smoked carnitas and Suadero and both of those dishes came with tortillas. Both plates were definitely delicious but there’s two things you should know, both entrées still had a lot of oil running from the meats which is understandable but fair wait and I will say the meats did taste a tab bit salty but nothing off putting. Nevertheless both dishes were great and I love the focus on the plates that they have. I can’t wait to see what’s next. PS the cocktails were amazing I can’t remember the names but one of them was this watermelon flavor and the other one was something with piña...