Plate Italiano Moderno - Leawood — Restaurant in Leawood

What a great improvement from what was once recently a California Pizza Kitchen. Plate Leawood, the sister restaurant to Plate Brookside, brings high class and thoughtful Italian further south. The atmosphere is as modern as the cuisine and a well laid out floorplan.

We had the pre fixe pasta course: arancini, cesar salads, rigatoni e gamberi, arrabbiata, and the seven layer chocolate cake for dessert. Also opted to add the truffle garlic bread.

Truffle bread: very plentiful. Enough for four people, probably even five. Sometimes truffle can be overwhelming but it was subtle and served on the side, so it's up to the diner. The bread was doughy and less dense than it looks at first.

Aranaci was fine. Not bad mind you, but on par with arancini I think you can find at most good Italian places

Cesad salad: delicious and maybe even the best item we had? The lettuce was crisp and perfect, the dressing was the perfect consistency, and the cheese crisp was delicious. My one issue was there was a little too much dressing, but that's just a preference.

Rigatoni e gamberi: perfect noodle size and texture. My wife thought it was slightly oversalted but I thought it was great. Too many times pasta with shrimp dishes they skimp on the shrimp, but not with this dish. You do have to like tomatoes for this dish.

Arrabbiata: excellent level of spice. Enough that you get the tingle but not so much it makes the dish unenjoyable. The fresh mozzarella was great as well, there was enough inside the dish that you could part and parcel it and not just taking big bites of it by itself. It did end up a little stringy and tough to bite through at times because it didn't quite melt enough.

Seven layer cake: incredible. Slice was large and obviously a lot of chocolate. At the bottom of the dish was a superb raspberry jelly. An odd combination it would seem but paired well with the cake and made it mandatory for each bite because it was so good. A large portion size too, and while yes it was after we already had three courses, we couldn't finish it.

Overall a great spot, on par with the other great Italian spots around town like Ragazza, Farina, etc. The vibe is a little more upscale at Plate, fitting closer to a high end dining than those. Yet, the price isn't expensive like you'd expect it to be given the menu...

Showed up a few minutes late for our reservation - that was on us. Our table “was ready, but they couldn’t seat us. The kitchen was behind.” Again - post Covid. Totally acceptable. We ordered cocktails at the bar which were quite good - the place so far is doing well in our minds. We get to our table about 25 minutes behind, and no one sees us or brings water for about 20 minutes. The person that does says “I’m not your server, just bringing water.” About 10 minutes later a woman shows up and softly speaks to the end of the table - party of 6. The rest of us can barely hear her and she asks if we want garlic bread. Sure - we grab some $14 garlic bread which ends up just being bread with garlicy butter. Moments later another man comes to the table to ask what we need. He welcomes us, tells us about the menu, introduces himself . Good service, albeit late. We put in our order with him right away since the kitchen is backed up and we are hungry. I asked him if he was our server or the other person, and he said everyone is helping everyone. About ten minutes later the female server comes back and asks if we knew what we wanted - we tell her we placed our order with Juan. She abruptly storms away, visibly irritated. We then see Juan getting spoken to by someone in a suit. Food comes in a decent time - we got gnocchi, Three carbonara, and two arrabia. The gnocchi was decent. The rest was damn near inedible. No flavor, no spice, no zest, nothing. Chef Boyardee had more character in its pasta. Not to mention the food was somehow both ovefcooked (after the server told us it’s all al dente), and Luke-warm at best. As a military person, I never leave a plate with food but this I could not bring myself to eat. All of this terrible food was so bad it distracted from the ambience - which don’t get me wrong, the restaurant is BEAUTIFUL inside, but far too bright and the tables too close together. It’s new - I will try again in a few months and retract this if better but man....

Plate is a lovely dining experience. The service is good, attentive and interested in your dining experience. I forgot photos this time but everything is carefully plated. The garlic bread, a braided loaf, is extraordinary. Made/baked on site and it is actually like a great challah, but with a more delicate exterior.

Everything is fresh with a subtle sophistication. We got aronchini, which was delish, but a bit too rich for me to eat more than one out of the four that it comes with. We also got focaccia, and it is delish but also a bit richer than I could eat, so it's great for sharing.

My chopped salad was fresh, and the smoked mozzarella was a nice touch. The viniagarette was the perfect amount of dressing - I hate a salad swimming in dressing. My dining compaion got truffle fries with the beef sandwhich and loved it. I don't care for truffle oil myself, but the fries were hot & crispy.

We shared bomboloni & pistachio cake for dessert. The bomboloni we delish - hot & sweet, with lemon curd - and again a bit rich for me, so one was enough. With 5 on the plate, it's a great sharing dessert.

And the pistachio cake, served chiled, is a refreshingly sweet cleansing bite after a rich meal.

I've enjoyed plate in Leawood both times I've been there, and the salads are so well put together. The pasta tastes fresh and the sauce is the perfect accompionament to it, though I only had a bit of a friends.

They've done a great job helping guests forget this used to be California Pizza Kitchen. The dining atmosphere is calm, elegant, and nicely understated so you can focus on the food and your own experience.

Lastly, we sat at a booth, and both of us noticed the table was the perfect height, and the benches were a great distance from the table, making getting in and out easy, and not to far or close to the table for eating....