Ponak's Mexican Kitchen & Bar — Restaurant in Kansas City

A Mixed Experience - Some Potential, but Lacking in Key Areas

I recently visited Ponak’s Mexican Kitchen & Bar and had a somewhat mixed experience. There are a few redeeming qualities, but overall, it left a lot to be desired.

Food Quality (4/10): The food was just okay. While the chips and Quaso had decent flavor, but for $9 and some change it lost any appeal it had. It wasn't a disaster, but I was definitely expecting more given the reputation. To be noted, in all fairness this is all I ordered. Due to the fact I was way to over stimulated!

Service (6/10): The service was somewhat the highlight of the evening. The staff was somewhat attentive. She appeared to be rushed, which is okay! She was busy!

Cleanliness (5/10): Cleanliness was Ope, could do better. The dining area floor needed a few sweeps, maybe the host could have been doing that, or helping the busy waitress.

Ambiance (0/10): Unfortunately, the ambiance was severely lacking. Dirty KC Bar Vibes. Which is great if you are into that. I am not.

Menu Variety (5/10): The menu had a decent range of options, but nothing particularly stood out. There were many items missing that you usually find at authentic Mexican restaurants.

Drink Quality (5/10): The Lime Marg on the rocks was average. What I mean by average, I have had worse. If you are looking for a good Marg. I mean this for my marg people, this is not the place.

Price to Value (2/10): This was where the restaurant really faltered. The food and drink prices didn't seem justified for the quality provided. It felt like I was paying more than what the experience was worth.

Presentation (5/10): It was thrown together. I would like to add I am not one to ding on this, but to make it a fair rating system. I have to include this.

Accessibility (3/10): this is kind of an unfair one, because If you know KC, you just know.

Consistency (5/10): From what I gathered during this visit, there was nothing notably inconsistent, but it didn’t leave me confident that the experience would be reliably better on a second visit.

Overall Rating: 4/10

In summary, this restaurant has a few redeeming qualities, such as friendly service and average drinks, but it falls short in areas like ambiance, food quality, and...

I think people go here for nostalgia and because it feels a little hole-in-the-wall authentic. It's been around for years (45+ if the Cuervo sign is to be trusted). There are goods and bads.

Goods:

1. The vibe here is great. It's a loud, chaotic, sports vibe meets Amerimex deal. Margs look solid. Full bar. On a Saturday night, we saw several first date types.

2. Service was excellent once we were seated. Arriving at 6:30 pm on a Saturday, it took more than 30 minutes to get a table.

3. Portions are grande. Guacamole is fresh if a little plain.

4. The chips and salsa were on point and kept coming. The roja was ooook, but the verde was lovely.

Bads:

1. This spot caters to the Midwest interpretation of Mexican cuisine, complete with "white kay-so" (queso blanco). The crunchy tacos and tostada shells are pre-made and not fresh. It's a lot of cheese/lettuce/tomatoes on meat without anything that really screams 'Comida de mi abuelita'. If you are good with that, great. It's not really my thing, coming from the West Coast.

2. Parking - a nightmare

3. Wait time - for what it is, I wouldn't wait that long

4. Noise - this goes both ways. If you want the vibe, it's perfect. But it's really loud for a family dinner.

For how busy this place gets, I was impressed by the service. Our drinks never went dry and we had more chips and salsa than we knew what to do with. The menu has some vegetarian options, and there is a lot of variety. I regretted not getting the street tacos my daughter ordered, as they looked solid compared to the taco/burrito/tostada (#2) donner plate I ordered. My wife ordered the fajita quesadilla, which was also great.

In summary, I can see why this place is popular with the white kay-so crowd in Kansas City. It's just gritty enough to feel a bit exclusive, like you're in the know. But overall, it felt over-hyped for the lackluster food. There are better options for comida authentica in the KC area that don't have the same wait times or...

This is a typical Mexican restaurant, and if you like that, you’ll enjoy your food here. We got the queso dip, and it had a good flavor. The chips were good. They had non-alcohol beer which we appreciated. My partner had pulled pork enchiladas, and they were what you’d expect from any typical Mexican restaurant. I got the fish tacos which sadly are the worst fish tacos EVER. Crispy corn tortilla with a large slab of fish in it that was dry and tasted previously frozen. It was topped with plain, dry shredded cabbage like what you buy at the store to make coleslaw. But there was no sauce on it. That was it. A slab of fish and dry shredded cabbage. It did come with a side of some kind of thick, cold tartar sauce that was horrible and some tasteless Pico de gallo that was also on the side in a plastic cup. Didn’t taste at all fresh. No juice or flavor at all. There’s no love or freshness or taste layers in the fish taco at all. Honestly I don’t mean to be overly critical, but I would NEVER serve this dish. They should take it off the menu. If I had to do it over, I would’ve asked them to take it away and take it off my bill because it was just awful. I felt that it was fairly unconscionable for them to serve this as a menu item. Regarding the atmosphere, it felt kind of like a country bar because they played country music. I will say that the server did a great job, and she was very pleasant. Excellent service and average food, but the fish tacos drop my...