Jack Stack Barbecue - Lenexa — Restaurant in Lenexa

Edit: They told me to email them and they will "make it right." I emailed and got no response. Now they are down to 1 star.

It’s hard to figure out how many stars to give this place. The food is quite good, but the staff are not. I guess that’s why I gave it 3 stars. My wife and decided last night, after a long day of home renovations gone wrong, to go out for a nice quiet dinner. It was 4:30 so none of the good places were full yet. We chose this place. We had been there twice before, and the food was exactly like the other locations. Can’t lose, right? When we walked in the door the hostess asked how many, we told her, then she led us to a table. In the bar. I loudly announced that we didn’t want to sit in the bar. The hostess turned and left. The bartenders did their best not to laugh. They all pretended I didn’t say anything. After a few minutes someone came and shoved a happy hour menu at us. We ignored it because we were there for dinner. I ordered a beer and told him we needed time to look at the menu. He left and came back with the beer, then again tried to get us to order happy hour items. We gave him our orders for dinners and my wife ordered a glass of wine. They must get a commission for the happy hour menu, because he was visibly disappointed that we ordered dinner. Within 5 minutes of ordering we had our dinner. It was exactly what we expected it to be. No complaints about the food. When we were done eating he came back to take our plates. He asked me if I wanted another beer. Since my beer was still half full I said no. My wife, on the other hand, had an empty wine glass. Did he ask her if she wanted another? No. He immediately ran off with the plates and returned with the check. Well, I guess that’s the end of dinner then. Never mind that we weren’t ready to leave and that she wanted another drink.

Seeing as how that was our third time there, our third time being stuck at the bar (same table every time), and we were clearly not wanted there, I decided to ask the hostess on our way out what it was about us that made us undeserving of a meal in the dining room. I wanted to fix the problem for next time. She told us that the people who came in before us were seated in the dining room, so to “even it out” we were seated in the bar. “I put you at a table, what’s the problem?” I told her that if we wanted to eat dinner in front of the tv in a loud room we would have taken the food to go. We were there for a quiet dinner, not happy hour. She then proceeded to tell me that if I didn’t want to sit at the bar I should have said something. I pointed out that I did. She had no response to that.

Bottom line, I don’t know what kind of customers they want, but we apparently aren’t it. I don’t know if the bartender/waiter we had doesn’t like women or just wanted us gone, but completely ignoring my wife was pretty rude. I believe we will think long and hard before going back to...

So, I am from Texas, and from the moment I’ve been down here everyone down here in Kansas has been raving about how good kansas bbq is. So the other day I went to a place called the Rub and was let down so bad I was convinced everyone here is delusional. But I figure I’d give it another try before I just gave up. I kept hearing about this Jack Stack place and decided to give it a try tonight, boy am I glad I did. First off walking up to the restaurant it’s a beautiful place from the giant bull statue out front to the low lighting ambiance. From the moment I walk in the service was great, host was polite and all. I went and sat down at the bar and was greeted by a bartender named Matt. Matt’s knowledge of the menu and preparation of the different items offered was awesome, made selecting food very easy. I went with his recommendation of the three meat platter, and went with his recommendation on the choices of meats. I got the lamb ribs, and I had to try the burnt ends, then of course the brisket. I was offered three different sauces with my selection, then got into the food. The lamb ribs were 100% THE best lamb I have ever had in my entire existence, you MUST try them that’s all I will say. The brisket was great, juicy fresh well seasoned and cooked very tender, and the burnt ends were phenomenal, these are also a must try. Overall my compliments to the chef, management overall staff and Matt behind the bar! Service was top tier and will definitely recommend to anybody that’s curious about kansas bbq...

I was visiting from New Orleans and knew that if I wanted a safe bet for some good KC BBQ after an exciting football game, we could hit Jack Stack. I've never been to this specific location prior to this visit. We tried to save a spot in line via their website, but it said nothing was likely open until 8:45p, and we knew we could get there by 7:30p, so we plugged in the reservation anyway, just in case, expecting to get in quicker by arriving so much earlier. Boy, were we wrong. The wait was quoted to us as "about 30 minutes." We barely beat the 8:45 online time due to the sheer number of customers. The negative side was that my buddy was becoming catatonic with hanger. Watching the staff, though, I could see how amazingly they were handling the rush and the unavoidable frustrated "what about me?" Customers. Once seated, our server was flawless. I kick myself for not recalling her name, but she made up for all the waiting and the fact that they had run out of pulled pork. All the food was terrific, as expected, but we never wanted for anything... drinks were replaced just as we were about to finish the previous glass, and the appetizer literally arrived 5 min after she put the order in. It was a fantastic experience, even now looking back over a week afterward. I don't know how Jack Stack vets its employees, but the crew working the evening of Nov 9th was terrific. Maybe I'm more easily impressed coming from a city where customer service is a lost art, but this was great service on an...