Kobi Q — Restaurant in Kansas City

KC Has Finally Gotten a Good Korean BBQ Restaurant.

As of this review, Kobi Q is a relatively new restaurant in a prime downtown location, just south of the Sprint center and Power & Light. Kobi Q must be owned and operated by a local family because our server turned out to be a friend, who stopped by for a bite, and was roped in to help serve because they were busier than expected at 8:00 pm. Our server and her four-year old helper/son were awesome. This place is good for families, dates, business lunches--anything for a good lunch or dinner.

My date and I started with a couple beers--she got a Sapporo and I tried the Hitachino Nest White Ale ($8), another beer imported from Japan. It poured cloudy into a glass (no complaints) and had bits of settlement (yeast) on the bottom of the glass when I finished it (again, no complaints), and it resembled a good wheat beer. A good, but not great, beer.

For our entrees, I ordered the Spicy BBQ and Rice Cakes dish ($18), which was spicy grilled pork or squid (I got pork) with chewy rice cakes and a house made red pepper paste. The flavors were tremendous--I loved it. The spice was high enough to awaken my tongue and taste buds to accept all the flavors of their sauce, but definitely not overpowering and sweat-inducing. It'll be hard to get anything else when I go back. My date ordered the Japchae Glass Noodles ($14), a sweet potato starch noodles (gluten free) with veggies and beef. It was a big portion and she couldn't finish it. When our server came at the end of our meal, she was genuinely concerned my date didn't like her entrée because about half of it was left, but I assured her it was because my date was stuffed. The only enhancement I would make to both dishes would be to add more veggies.

As I mentioned above, they were busy and I loved that the hostess seated us immediately and let us know that it may take a while to get service. Little things like that make a dining experience way more enjoyable, because it shows they care and gives patrons a heads-up of what to expect. While it took a while to get our food, it was worth the wait! As they work out the kinks in their operations and get a feel for how popular they will get at peak times, this place will become the go-to place...

It's not a huge spot; it's not super fancy. But the food is solid, and it has a kind of gritty-local vibe. Is it Korean? Japanese? Chinese? A Midwest amorphous blend of KBQ and crab Rangoon- certainly. This is not K-town in Los Angeles. It's also not a grill your own Korean BBQ thing. It is decisely KCMO.

Our second time coming here, the mama's chicken was just as good as we remembered it. It is their most popular serving and questionable in its regional origins. We have also had the wings - a solid choice. The menu also includes some tofu options and pescaterian options, if that's your thing. Given that it is downtown, you have to find parking, but there are meters around the corner that take cards and quarters. It is somewhat conveniently close to the Tmobile arena and a few other spots. Prices are reasonable for downtown. There's also a nice selection of drinks including some Japanese Whiskey selections. And it's in an old bank building with a vault, which is kinda cool.

This is a solid, hip spot for good food. Not pretentious. Just good. I imagine some art bro headed to first Friday's at Crossroads will try to impress some gal with his culinary prowess by taking her to authentic KBQ here. This is not that. But she...

Had been looking forward to checking this place out for some time.

My girlfriend and I love Korean food but there are not very many locations throughout the city. We decided to give this a try.

Initial impressions of the place were very good. I enjoyed the vibe and atmosphere. Our waitress was very kind.

We decided to order the Korean BBQ Beef, KFC (Korean Fried Chicken), as well as an order of dumplings.

I asked the waitress if she thought the Korean BBQ Beef was a sizeable amount of food for 2 people and she seemed to think so. Unfortunately, it was not enough food for us even with the dumplings and KFC. I can really put some food down when I want to and would have been happy to pay 22 dollars for the Korean BBQ Beef it came with twice as much. The taste was just OK but I didn't think it was anything to call my mother about.

The KFC was tasty but didn't think the quality of the chicken wings was very good as there seemed to be minimal meat on them.

Overall, I would give the food a rating of 3.75 / 5. The value of the meals is where I found they could use some work, rating it a 2.5 / 5.

Shouldn't have to order 2 full entries for myself to get my fill, ended up going to Constantino's and getting more food...