The Antler Room — Restaurant in Kansas City

Dinner was EXQUISITELY SUBLIME!. Husband and wife Nicholas and Leslie Goellner and the team of the The Antler Room delivered a powerful multi sensory experience where each course progressively took my tastebuds into a titillating ride full of delicious unexpected detours and details! Each dish crafted with such mastery, refinement,elegance and thoughtfulness, made for an exceptional evening; an endless night of foreplay. 😈 We ordered ever dish on the menu except for the mushrooms and the tortellini (that’s because we really really wanted dessert)😜#eatlikealadyshould

FOR DRINKS I HAD THE:

A refreshing elixir of Tequilla , grapefruit, sage syrup, lime.

A smoky potion of Mezcal, gentian liquor, citron syrup, lime.

FOR DINNER WE HAD:

Roasted Squash Succulent, sweet, nutty squash in a luxurious butter sauce with Chinese sausage, XO crunch sauce and five spice pecans and squash mochi.

Carrot Fritters Golden cubes impersonating porc belly perfectly fried then drizzled with a carrot & serrano hot sauce, served over whipped garlic, garnished with fried shallot and scallions.

Beet ricotta toast A slice of pillowy Japanese Shokupan bread dressed with house lemon ricotta, and accessorized by marinated and roasted beets, topped with almonds dukkah rounding up the flavors with notes of warm fennel , coriander, peppercorn with a hint of thyme.

Dumpling Soft, plump, succulent soft, stretchy, white pouches generously filled with deliciously flavored Icelandic Lamb, Beef, and Pork Georgian served in chili oil topped with chives.

Celery & Kale Salad Fresh, crispy celery with earthy kale tossed with avocado, jalapeno, candied cashews, dressed with nam jim dressing, and topped with fried shallot.

Fried Japanese sweet potatoes Crispy wedges of Japanese sweet potato served with a smoked chili pepper aioli, black sesame seeds and chives.

Fried Cauliflower slightly crunchy yet creamy cauliflower flavored by Korean gochujang served over a creamy and spicy avocado/wasabi puree, accompanied by pickled vegetables and quinoa furikake.

Grilled Broccoli* Expertly grilled broccoli, shishito peppers, tonnato sauce, potato chips, cured egg yolk.

Scallops* Plump, tender, juicy expertly grilled scallops served with grilled onions, grilled kale bathing in a caramelized onion broth, and topped by a vail of pine nut mousse.

Cappellacci Hat shaped pasta filled with in a cioppino broth, shrimp, crawfish, squid, crispy anchovies, dill vinegar.

Rigatoni Short wide tube shaped pasta wth ridges that captured every bit of the goan curry with blue crab, tobiko and fennel.

Pork Chop Tender, juicy Berkshire Pork Chop with braised escarole tossed in a red wine vinaigrette accentuated by bits of fried anchovy and fried capers.

FOR DESSERTS WE HAD:

Madeleines Seashell shaped mini cakes served with matcha ice cream, drizzle with green peppercorn sauce and garnished by candied citrus.

Vanilla Vacherin A decadent frozen treat made with meringue, sorbet covered with frozen chantilly topped with toasted almond. Hot caramel is poured over it right before consumption.

Kulfi* AKA Indian ice cream. Chocolate kulfi perfumed by delicate floral saffron, and piney/fruity cardamom, topped with spiced creme fraiche and pistachio.

Affogato Corretto vanilla ice cream,drown in...

I had heard ALOT about this place by many friends and others on reddit and such over the last year or so, and so I finally decided to book a reservation for my wife and I for our 5th anniversary.

To start, my experience with The Antler Room started with us calling them and letting them know we would be 5 minutes late. The front of house staff was incredibly polite and generous. Here was the A+ moment for the staff though: I had made a mistake and accidentally reserved bar seating, and the problem was we had our 4 month old in a car seat so we couldnt sit at the bar. The host did not say "tough luck, sorry" like so many other restaurants would have, but found a solution to a mistake that I made. Impeccable service.

Then the drinks. The cocktails on the list are pricey but WORTH EVERY PENNY. Well balanced drinks that were clearly made by people who know how to mix drinks well, and using good quality ingredients to craft an excellent experience. A+ here as well.

So your probably wondering why this isn't a 5 star review? The food and the vibes, but its not what you think:

The food is phenomenal! Pretty much every small plate we ordered was great, with complex textures, flavors, and well balanced and well seasoned fresh ingredients. This to say (going back to my initial sentence) this place got alot of hype in my mind and weve been to many restaurants in KC. And while the food was phenomenal, it was not "blow your mind, life changing experience" like many have touted. On top of that, you factor in the price (3 cocktails, 5 small plates and 1 dessert was $201 before tip). The worst part: We didnt really feel full after the entire meal, and that was after we ordered 5 small plates (the waitress recommended 4 plates). We really wanted more, but didnt want to pay 18-20 for another plate.

Finally, the vibes: Were about what you would expect from newish KC restaurant in a neighborhood: Hipster, fun, and loud, with alot of unique characteristics (neighborhood setting, garage door leading into the dining room, etc). That said, this is more of a "celebrate a new promotion or "I want to spend alot of money on a good meal on a friday night with my SO" versus a "super fancy and romantic anniversary dinner". The tables were a little too close for comfort, and while we did enjoy talking with someone next to us, it would have been nice to have a bit more space and intimacy to celebrate our special day. That said: that vibe is probably not what the owner is going for clearly. Just expect a very loud and hipster environment that serves awesome (and a little overpriced) food experiences.

Hate to give such an awesome restaurant 4 stars but the hype and expectations walking in were so high and I dont think they met them. I get you want to keep the whole neighborhood hipster vibe, but a couple of suggestions: 1: make the portions slightly larger. I know i sound like a typical american wanting bigger portions, but i promise that this comes from a good place: We did not leave by any means full from that experience despite us eating many different things. 2: Tone down the music a bit, it is so dang loud!! 3: Somehow someway, more space between tables and it was a little tight.

Keep that awesome front of house staff and bartenders, they are...

Tl;dr - almost 4 stars - great servers, some excellent dishes and flavors, good wine, but inconsistent dishes, miscommunications and noise soured the experience. Will be back to try again but not a great first impression.

I’ll preface with we dined on Valentine’s Day, notoriously stressful and chaotic, so we understood we needed to be more patient with the experience.

We arrived 5 minutes early to our 9:30 reservation (last reservation time slot for the night) and checked in, 2 parties ahead of us. Was told it would be any minute. Party 1 gets seated and 5 minutes go by and party 2 gets seated, the hostess tells us we can sit at the bar if we want to. The bar area was super loud and I didn’t want bar seats when I made a reservation for dining room. We waited for 15 minutes with no update on what was happening, busy night, we get it. Mostly concerned we were cutting it close to kitchen close.

We get seated, our server comes right over to get drinks and break the bad news that they are out of 2 dishes on the limited menu, and one surprise dish off menu is available. No big deal. Except the 2 dishes that were out were some of the primary vegetarian options available. Half our party was vegetarian and the other options had to be modified to become vegetarian. Again, chaotic day, limited ingredients, we understand. We order 2 dishes to be modified to vegetarian and 2 as is. We appreciate the kitchen making the changes for us. The dining room was fairly loud but nothing extreme. We could hear every detail of the convo next to us though.

Food arrives fairly quickly but it’s well past 10 at this point. First two dishes arrive and were good, although the salad had some competing flavors that didn’t settle well for us. The modified Campanelle was good, just a bit spicier than communicated and the scallops were less in quantity than expected and extremely heavy on kale and onion which almost overpowered the scallops. We attempted to order an additional dish and the server went to put it in and came back and said the kitchen was closed for savory dishes. Wish that had been communicated at the time of seating or original order.

Ordered two sweet dishes which were the piece de resistance of the whole meal. Absolutely were on point and balanced out some of the flavors that didn’t sit well earlier. Madelines were heavenly. Our server was fantastic and attentive and definitely tried to make our night wonderful.

Overall it was just ok, but didn’t line up with expectations established from reading reviews or prices of dishes. Will return for a second time on a non-holiday night to give it a fair shake. Thanks to the severs and kitchen staff who worked hard to make the...