Gates Bar-B-Q — Restaurant in Kansas City

BBQ has Evolved Gates Bar-B-Q has not. I read the reviews before I ordered, I was not taken off guard because someone yelled at me. The staff were actually all very nice, I didn’t feel rushed at all. No my issue is directly with the BBQ itself from price to quality to the quantity to the grease to the white sandwich bread with a corner missing that it was served on. Gates I’m a Christian Man but you must be out of your GD mind if you think this is acceptable Bar-B-Q. After eating about half of the small portion I was given I had to stop because I was sick to my stomach. It was terrible, I tried to cover it up with BBQ Sauce (which was honestly pretty great BBQ Sauce) but there was no coming back from this disaster. I literally had a pile charged fat and grease on my plate that I could not finish. Look I love BBQ, I am a great BBQ’er myself, I understand cuts of meat and quality of the meat. I know garbage when it’s served to me. If Gates is going to serve this type of BBQ they need to literally charge people half of what they charge. Lunch cost us every every bit as much as Char Bar or Jacks Stacks or Joe’s or Even Q39 yet it was NOT EVEN CLOSE TO THE QUALITY, FLAVOR, OR ENJOYABLENESS OF THOSE PLACES. So why would anyone ever go to Gates? Look I get that there are some old school traditions and good ole’ ways that people eat BBQ and they may read this and not agree because it all they know or can’t let go of the past. I honestly mean no disrespect, I just can’t understand paying that kind of money for that kind of quality, and small portions. my wife and I paid a over $30 for fat and grease and tiny little sides. Look at the pictures I will include, and see for yourself. You want me to pay $9.10 for wonder bread come on really, $8 for a sampler cup full of beans or slaw, really... reallly.... no seriously reellllyy!?!? Nope I will not ever do it again. If you are going to serve third or fourth Tier BBQ on white bread and cheap hot dog/ hamburger buns stuffed with fat covered in BBQ sauce the charge me $1.99 and $.50 for sides and maybe when I’m drunk (I don’t really drink) I’ll come get a sandwich, but BBQ has evolved into a wonderful experience of flavor and quality and high quality product and Gates has not!

P.S. oh and here is the worse part we ate in the restaurant and since we couldn’t even finish the food we couldn’t have been there more than 30min. But as soon as we left my wife started saying we stink like BBQ smoke... and my response was no it was just strong in the restaurant. But I was wrong and she was right. Our clothes smelt as though we had spent 12 hours standing over an open pit doing the bbq ourselves. I have never in my life had the residue of smoke attach to me this fast and this strong. We literally had to take showers and scrub our skin before we could do anything else that day. I don’t even know how it’s possible but I promise you that smokey charred smell stuck to us in only a few minutes. I think we had to wash our clothes 2 times before we could completely get that smell out. And people I love bbq I love the smell taste and if I’m doing the cooking I don’t run in and take a shower when I’m done. We are not ultra sensitive to smell and have to smell wonderful all the time. We are reasonable people who DO NOT OVERREACT TO SITUATIONS, this was a very unexpected situation that had to be handled and a remainder that Gates was not good, over priced, and stuck with you longer then you would like it to...

P.S.S. The first two pictures are of our meals before we tried to eat them look at the quality and quantity they give you for over $30. Then the other three pictures are what we could not eat because it was fat and grease and literally got thrown in the garbage....

You must need to be from Kansas City downtown to appreciate it. There are so much better places.

I get the “what do you want” as a gimmick, but really... over and over... if you insist on eating there, look up the menu online. I took a minute to let my son look, and she just kept bellowing about what we want. Same with the guy behind us, and she was taking orders from us, the party behind us, and the party behind them. I didn’t even know if I was being yelled at like a bad puppy, or if it was someone else.

The second problem is the sign next to the register that says two side to make a meal for $2. So in the middle of the yelling at us, I figured out she wanted to know if I wanted a couple sides. I thought why not.... besides being yelled at means you should decide quick.... no time for decisions because she was taking my order and the others at the same time. Order while you have her attention.

Then it rang up at more then I expected, so I asked for a receipt. She gave me the credit card printout, but all that gives in the total. I was told that she is not allowed to print a copy of the receipt for me. Really? She honestly refused to print a receipt. Finally someone else heard me complaining and brought me a copy of the the receipt.

I sure wish the lady that brought the receipt had hung around so I could ask, but she didn’t and I didn’t need yelled at again. I still don’t know why my two sides were full price and so cost me over ten bucks instead of two.

Then the final insult was the burnt ends. Myself and my two boys spent sixty bucks for three of us to eat, me to drink water (that is hidden self serve thing because they can’t get you a water), and the boys to have a pop each. My burnt ends at this expensive dinner looked more like a ground beef or something. I have never seen burnt ends that look like these, so not sure what I even got for my dinner.

The flagship of KC BBQ really stinks... I guess good marketing does mean a lot, because the in store experience is not good.

I will try to post a picture of my ‘burnt ends” that looked like...

I reached out to gates 2nd week of April to asked can we have the larges room on Friday, April 28th at 6:00 pm for a wedding party "meet & greet" of 40 to 60 people. They said 1st come 1st serve but they will accommodate us. The groom & best man went at 4:30 & they placed them in bar area that only holds about 15 to 20 people. Our guest were standing & the manager kept talking about we couldn't move because of the NFL draft. Well, my wedding is SOOO MUCH MORE IMPORTANT than the draft..especially when we paid over 800.00 in food trays alone. That's not even including drinks. This server (black woman with straight hair, wish i got her name) was soooo unprofessional, rude & just plain ole nasty. She argued with my cousin for getting fries off the tray that we paid for. Then she told 4 people in our wedding party they had to go back to bar area because we can't switch rooms. I told her, "but you said 1st come, 1st serve. It's only 5 people in the front large area so we can move. She started arguing with me & she throws her hands up & walks off. We started ordering more trays & she would not bring them to our room, but took them in the bar area. I told her we paid for the trays & anyone can eat off our trays. She hunched her shoulder & walks off again. Now, I'm more angry & went to a cashier to ask for manager. I hear this rude voice saying, "I HEAR HER. SHE GOTTA WAIT". when she finally came out, it was much to my surprise it was our angry, evilene, nasty server. We talked about her making guest move & her nasty disposition. She threw her hands up & said, "Ooo...People" & there she went...walking off again. Then, she acted as bartender & soooo many complaints. I will NEVER go to this gates. My fiance & best man regretted tipping her ahead of time, but it was before she showed her...