Red Door Woodfired Grill — Restaurant in Kansas City

Update 8/18/24 - Following our visit, I sent the Managing Partner an email as he asked in response to the original review. He was very apologetic and kind. Offered to send us something for us to come back and give them a 2nd chance, unfortunately to date I haven't received anything, so we haven't returned yet.

Well, this was our first time to Red Door Woodfired Grill. Wife, myself and 2 teens.

We ordered a couple appetizers (the fried pickles and pretzel bites were very good) and eventually our entrees. The food comes, but mine is nowhere to be found. No worries, stuff doesn't always come out together. 5 minutes goes by, nothing. My waiter stops by to ask if I would like another beer and I said no thanks and asked if he had any update on my food. It was the first he had noticed that anything was missing and didn't even realize when asking about the beer until I said something. He looks at his handheld tablet and says, I'm pretty sure I put it in and heads off to the kitchen comes back in about 5 minutes, not sure what happened, but they are going to make a new one on the fly.

Another 15+ minutes goes by with him walking by a couple times and saying "oh, they still haven't brought it?". At this point, I'm like don't worry about it anymore, everyone else was done eating and looking for a box. He said, oh, it should be anytime. So 25 minutes after everyone got their food, have finished eating and don't know what to say about the situation, he says the manager will come over. A few minutes later, manager walks over, sits the sandwich on the table and says "Thanks for waiting.", and asks if we need anything. Just boxes for everyone else, which he tells the waiter to get. No sorry, our bad, we messed up, oopsie, nothing, just thanks for waiting, like I had a choice. We got the bill and there was the French Dip like nothing happened. No discount, no apology, nothing. The waiter comes with the boxes and asks if the manager explained what happened? I said nope, he just said thanks for waiting.

Managers make and break businesses with their leadership and this was a customer service failure on an incident that happens all day within the food service industry but how it's handled determines if those customers will ever come back.

As we left, I decided to let the manager know about the situation and explain how it was handled was frustrating and why my family declared we wouldn't go back. My waiter saw me standing at the front and I asked if I could speak to the manager again. He said sure. The manager came to the front area from the other side of the restaurant, the waiter taps him and says that I would like to speak with him. He glances at me, proceeds to get some silverware stuff and a plate and says I'll be with you in a bit and walks off (he could have had any of the food runners standing there take it). With my family, whom all sat around waiting on me to eat, were now in the car waiting on me again, so I didn't have another 25 minutes to wait for the guy who didn't have time for me the first time.

Very frustrating and disappointing first visit to a new place for us, not even the food issue as that stuff happens, but the response was horrible, mainly from...

First off, the food is great! But… 3 out of the 4 times we went we had something negative happen. The first time, our waitress wouldn’t engaged with us, we wanted to ask questions but she would just walk away as soon as she had a chance. She hardly made eye contact and had one worded responses. The second time, was GREAT! The third time, the restaurant wasn’t busy, I asked our waiter about the half priced wine and he said that it was from 3pm to 6pm, SWEET!!! Except… it wasn’t.. after looking at the menu I noticed it’s only on Sundays and it was Saturday. I mentioned this to him and he was shocked and apologized but instead of just making it half off from the check he asked if I still wanted it for full price or if he should just take it. I told him to take it and they dumped it down the drain.. on that same visit they also took 23 minutes to make our ONE ORDER of the powdered donuts. The fourth visit, we made reservations and we were seated at a booth, when our appetizers came, so did our main courses.. What?! Why?! Also, they didn’t have silverware cleaned and we had to wait for that.. same for our napkins…

Overall, food is awesome.. but the service isn’t great and I have no idea how they could flop so hard. These are basic things that should be taught and implemented.

Edit: Just had lunch here 04/15/22 and was sat at a table with old food still on it and given plates with old food on them as well. Posting pictures.

Edit 2: 06/14/2024 Reserved a spot for 7:45pm, they decided to seat us at a very high table even though we had 2 small children with us. One of which needs a booster seat. What would happen if she fell from that height? We requested a booth, our hostess said “I don’t think there are any” and just stared at me… So I decided to look around and saw maybe 5 or 6 that were dirty.. and I said “Ok, well, can we sit outside?” She said “Oh sure!” Like, she couldn’t think to give us another option? All of the hostesses looked too young.. & ignorant. Just brain dead and not engaging with customers. I looked at maybe 3 of them and no one made eye contact with me for a good two minutes.

The patio was hot so we requested to move to the seats outside where there was a breeze. Perfect, no problem. I ordered the Friday whiskey soaked prime rib before anything else. Once we ordered everything, the food started coming out, first the appetizers and then the main courses. Our server comes back and says “Are you ready for the check?”.. I never got my prime rib..

I said “I never got my food..” she apologized over and over and said she swore she put it in. She came back and said it got “lost in the mix up” whatever that...

Stopped in today (04/05/21) with my Mother who lives in the area, as I had driven by many times before during COVID, and had put it on my list.

They have an assortment of daily specials, and today was "Burger Day" (Monday). Grabbed a Classic (medium rare) w/ fries, and my Mom had the Classic (medium bun-less in a lettuce wrap) w/ sweet potato fries.

The food came out quick, and the fries were crispy and hot; always a good sign! The burgers were a little under-cooked, as mine was more rare than medium rare, and hers was more medium rare than medium. Both were still good, and we enjoyed our food.

The waitress was very nice, courteous, and expeditious. Everyone we encountered was very nice, hospitable, and wearing masks in accordance with local city requirements during these hard times of public safety.

The only knock was the undercooked burgers, other than that it was a very good lunch experience, and I will be coming back to try their jalapeno dipped fried chicken special on Thursday before I leave town.

Edit 04/11/21:

Let me preface this by saying I'm NOT a brunch person, never have been. If I was planning on drinking & eating at 11am on a Sunday it would involve a sports bar, beer, cheap tacos/nachos, and NFL Football.

Now with that in mind, after my Monday visit, I had missed the jalapeño fried chicken special on Thursday. I was hoping to find it on their menu for lunch today, and was directed to their brunch menu online from 10a-2p. I didn't think much of it till I read 3 words...Prime Rib Hash...okay, you've got my full, and undivided attention!

I've got to say, this place knows how to do delicious! Of course I got the hash, and it was AMAZING!! No knocks here. I haven't had a good hash like this since the last time I was in Ohio in 2016. The eggs were cooked to perfection, and breaking that yolk to mix with the delicious prime rib, peppers, and potatoes below was heaven in a bowl. To finish it off, you get 2 half slices of toast to soak up that wonderful au jus gravy and drippings left behind. Pure bliss!

I even got the chance to speak with Brian, the general manager after he had reached out on my original review, and it was a very pleasant experience. He's a very down to earth guy that loves to interact with his clientele. Even speaking with our waitress, you can tell everyone here takes pride in the product their customers receive. She was also very nice, knowledgeable, and pleasant. From service, to food, you can't go wrong here.

See you guys tomorrow for burger day, and in the future every time I come back to visit KC! Thanks for the...