Rye Plaza — Restaurant in Kansas City

Over priced, stunning environment, just under excellent food - except the fried chicken. 5 star fried chicken, quite possibly the best I've ever had. Terrible appetizers, good shrimp & grits. Rediculously priced sides. Detailed Review: While the food was thoughtfully curratedin a kitchen that is obviously run with tactful culinary expectation, from a voice of modern southern cuisine, some items didn't quite hit the mark. Terrible appetizer, cold breads, and absurdly priced sides.

An app, two short pour glasses of the cheapest red and white wine, two entrees and two sides was $101 dollars. While a nice restaurant- not quite impressive enough for that price.

App: Fried gizzards and livers. Needed salt desperately. No amount of table salt post-fry could save them. Gizzards are admittantly difficult to make well due, but Rye did not rise to the challenge. They were painfully under seasoned and chewy, not burnt but over Cooked. Perhaps they were Cooked in the same fry as the livers? They needed different cook times. The livers were fine as far as cook, but again severely under seasoned. The gravy that came with it was fine and forgetable, but together with the spicy house sauce was interesting and complex; thin, sweet, with heat at the end, the only way to make the gizzards somewhat palettable. My husband swore the house sauce tasted like like canned tobacco, but I never did find that note.

Free rolls and cornbread: Came room temp which was dissapointing. How do you spread cold butter on a room temp item? Nothing special. Average sweet corn bread muffin and and fluffy dinner roll. No better than jiffy corn muffin and cafeteria diner roll. While a free table item, an important token of credibility for a restaurant of southern cuisine; so, negatively impactful on the overall experience and opinion.

Fried chicken Rediculously moist. Five stars. This was obviously brined extensively and Lord knows what other techniques to retain the moisture. Seasoned well with a thick extra crispy, but not burnt, coating. My husband also very much enjoyed the lightly pickeld house pickles that came with the chicken as a garnish. Highly recommend. Appropriately priced for what was served.

Shrimp and grits This is my dish of choice at any southern oriented restaurant, constantly looking to beat my favorite dish from a restaurant in Louisiana (Restaurant Cotton: Monroe, La) This is the closest I have found in Kansas City. Well seasoned, Small grain grits with a sweet / savory, gravy like broth. Hints of Worcestershire and tomato and perhaps a dab of their house bbq sauce or straight sugar. Slightly too sweet for my taste, and wishing for just a dash more savory complexity - but I'm looking for things to pick at. The shrimp were surprisingly sizeable, but the SHORTEST amount over cooked as there was the slightest bit more 'chew' than desired or expected. But none the less, I would recommend and would order again.

Sides: 9 dollars for a side. Absurdly over priced. 9 dollars for a bake potato no different than any loaded potato from a chain steak house. The mac and cheese was delicious, the bacon and crumb coating added the perfect amount of texture and the sophistication. The bechamel sauce was smooth. Would recommend the Mac and cheese, except the price. With $40 KC Strips on the menu (that even the waiter didn't recommend ), you would think they were obtaining plenty of menu profit to not charge 500%...

I will start by saying the decor is super cute. We picked this location to celebrate my Mom's birthday. Checked out the menu prior to visiting and was excited to see a Tomahawk Ribeye on the menu. We arrived and there was no one at the hostess desk. We stood there for a few mins before anyone walked up. We got to our seat and our server Lauren showed up not too long after we sat down which was great and at first she was friendly and super bubbly but that changed later. After we ordered our drinks and we decided on appetizers. The sheep's milk cheese fritters were okay and the hot chicken wings were good. There was a gentleman that may have been the manager and he was simply amazing the entire time he came to our table. We had a guest that showed up late but in the meantime Lauren would check to make sure we were okay. When it was time to order, my brother wanted to try the roasted chicken but they were out which was disappointing being that it was a little after 6. While waiting on our food not sure what happend but Lauren stopped being so tentative, my mom never received a refill on her drink. I think she may have been frustrated because my sister changed her mind on here order after she placed it as well being a little demanding but that doesn't mean you act as if you do not want to come back to our table. We received our food and she never came back to make sure everything looked good, if we need anything else, NOTHING. Not only was my steak cooked wrong, my asparagus was burned. The steak was seasoned really well it was just not the correct temperature. The tips of the asparagus tasted nothing like burned grill with a mix of lemon. I ordered the Tomahawk Ribeye and ordered it medium rare. Now no matter where I go, I always order medium rare so I know what color the meat should look like. Received my steak and it was not medium rare at all. Some pieces were medium and some pieces were medium-well. For you all to be charging $115.25 for a steak we expect to have it cooked correctly. Had it not been a 45 min wait for the steak we would've sent it back and had it cooked correctly. We were done eating and it took forever for Lauren to come back and ask if we needed boxes, she didnt ask if we wanted dessert. When we wanted to do the checks, she took forever. It was so frustrating how the service from her went down being that she started off so bubbly and tentative. I really wish I knew the name of the guy who came over to our table because he was so amazing, tentative and when my mom asked about the cognac glass that she could possibly purchase, he gave her two and cookie as well as wished her a happy birthday and thanked us for coming. I was really looking forward to eating here and now that I have, I doubt if I come back to this location. Maybe...

Been to the Rye twice now and both times there were serious issues. 6 months ago I came here with a friend for brunch and was excited as the place looks very nice on the inside and the menu items looked good. We ordered our meal at the same time, and my dish came out about 20 minutes later but my friend's was not quite ready. They assured us that it would only be a few minutes and that was fine. I ended up finishing my meal entirely before my friends dish arrived. The bar tender was very apologetic and nice and ended up comping the entire meal. On 9/12 I brought my mom here who lives out of town and we found a seat at the bar no problem. There were some people there but I wouldn't say they were packed by any means. It took quite a long time for the bartender to acknowledge us since he was busy with some friends at the end of the bar and was tending to their needs. He came and took our drink orders and he informed me that the wine I had chosen was not available, that was fine and he recommended a different wine and it came right up. When they dropped of the drinks we then ordered an appetizer (blue crab cakes) I think, and nothing really stood out with them. They came with a spicy ranch type of sauce that I felt did not go well with them and they might have been under cooked. The bar tender recommended using their house made BBQ sauce and it was excellent. We finished our appetizer after about 15 minutes and waited for our entrees to arrive. About 45 minutes go by and we ask what is taking so long and if they forgot to put our order in. He said they were plating our food right now and that the kitchen was backed up. About 10 minutes later the food came up so I doubt it was being plated as it took so long. The person who dropped off the food said it was some 50% off night for plaza residents and that was why the wait was so long. We never really got a sincere apology and were never offered anything to make up for the hour wait it took to receive the entrees. I was also never offered a 2nd glass of wine and one would think that at $15 a glass that they would be pushing to pour you another glass. Typically you would ask someone if they would like another glass when it just gets a little low. I had the steak and while it was excellent, it does not make up for the long wait and lack of trying to take care of the situation. I understand stuff happens, but your in the customer service industry and failed terribly. I won't be coming back and it's too bad since the food is good but service and timing are just too much of a risk. I was also surprised that a manager didn't bring the food out personally or come by and apologize for the long wait as I feel this is customary in...