HomeGrown Kansas City - Brookside — Restaurant in Kansas City

We had above-and-beyond service from Alex today. She was very gracious to our group of eight. We had a variety of coffee and juice drinks - some with and without alcohol. Everyone loved their drinks. I thought it was weird they don't have gin, which is how I prefer my Bloody Mary's so I missed the chance to try one of those although they looked great. The coffee cake was also a hit. After that, things go from great to good. The biggest problem is the acoustics in this place. It was very busy, the wait was just over 2 1/2 hours. You can get on a wait list via an app, which we did since there were eight of us. We simply could not enjoy ourselves because it was so loud. Even talking to the person next to you was a challenge. The blueberry poptart had a great filling in it, but overall the poptart was way too sweet (divided by eight). The cinnamon poptart had a weird texture, the filling was very hard. I had the turkey avocado eggs Benedict. The eggs were prepared perfectly and the hollandaise is great. The turkey was scant. None of us who got Benedicts liked the English muffin itself. It was slightly toasted but it was not crispy or chewy which I think are the trademark traits. The rosemary potatoes are delicious. I regretted not getting bacon after I saw other tables' servings. I would go back and give it another try. The eggs, potatoes and coffee cake definitely are stars.

There is a small parking lot at the end of the strip mall where this restaurant is located. There's a lot of street parking nearby, but there does tend to be a lot of business and resident parking so give yourself some time to park if you're meeting a group. There's not really much handicapped parking available. The entrance and restrooms are not accessible without help. The restrooms are gender specific but are individual stalls so it wouldn't be a problem to use either. There is a bar you can sit at first come/first serve but I'd recommend you use the app to put your name on the wait list ahead of time. There is a children's menu here. There's a lot of locally-sourced ingredients here and freshly squeezed juices. In addition to adding gin to the menu, I'd have loved it if they had freshly squeezed...

This was our second time at a Home Grown restaurant, and our first time for breakfast, after having had lunch at the Liberty location the day before.

Our server was Adam and he was attentive, but not hovering. A very good waiter in my opinion.

I had the West Coast Wake Up as a scramble, which was served in an oblong bowl, potatoes, English muffin, a pop, half of a blueberry pop tart, and half of a brown sugar cinnamon pop tart.

I felt the eggs were overcooked and serving them in a bowl instead of a plate made them difficult to eat. I finally dumped them on my plate which made it a lot easier.

We had given a ride to a friend so he could have breakfast with his daughter and they ate at the bar. The wife and I finished before they did and as we were his ride, I went to let him know we were going window shopping. His daughter had ordered the same breakfast I had and while I noticed her eggs were overcooked, they weren't as overcooked as mine.

The potatoes were not salted enough to my liking so I salted them, but I overdid it because my wife asked me for a bite and she said they were salty.

Growing up, we had Wolferman's english muffins and my dad would tear them apart as opposed to cutting them. The ones at Home Grown were cut which downgraded them in my eyes. I guess this is why I didn't eat them then and took them home.

Some people drink coffee, but I drink pop. I drink so much that I can tell when the taste is off which it was this day.

The blueberry was the better of the pop tarts, but it had a little too much frosting.

The wife had the baked oatmeal with a mimosa. She found the baked oatmeal too sweet while the mimosa was very good.

Despite the issues, we would give Home Grown at this location...

The server started out nice and did a good job with drink orders. I love that she placed two carafes of water on the table. The water, however, had a weird smell and taste. Like sulfur (to be more exact, and a little crass, it tasted like a fart). This is part of my 3 stars for food. She did replace them, and it tasted much better but still a little off. Obviously not her fault, just giving y'all a heads up.

There were 6 of us, and when the food came, we had to do pass-the-plates. I think they sat every single dish at the wrong spot. One person had food, but no silverware, for far too long, and one had French toast but no syrup. We asked for everything at once so as not to be the "and one more thing" table, but she kept forgetting things, so we'd have to ask again. She seemed to get annoyed, as if we WERE asking for things one at a time. So that was off-putting and reflected in her tip.

I ordered classic Eggs Benedict. One of my eggs was cooked all the way thru, and the other ran just a little. I wanted to send it back, but I was afraid they'd send out raw eggs if I did. The hollandaise was delicious, but it wasn't very hot by the time it got to me, and there were a couple of weird pieces in the meat. With all of that, it was still yummy because of the English muffin, the hollandaise, and the potatoes.

The cinnamon roll French toast and the croissant French toast were both very good. They also let me order bubbles and brought a small cup of OJ so I could make my mimosas they way I like them, so that was a plus!

All in all, I miiiight give it another try because of the location, but there are way too many great brunch spots in KC to go to a...