Jonathan's BBQ Seafood Soul food Cajun Creole — Restaurant in Overland Park

Just recently discovered this place. The outside decor with signs everywhere and seats with umbrellas made me think for a moment I was dining at a local beach side eatery on the Gulf Coast. The smells were amazing! Inside it was a bit dark. There were several different menus on the wall and behind the front counter. I came when it wasn't busy. The staff helped explain the menu to me. As I taste and compare/contrast lots of BBQ, I ordered the 2 meat plate and several sides. The Good: The ribs were good. Cooked well with good flavor (sauce on the side as I like it). Well seasoned and tender. The fries were good. They were just skinny crinkle cut fries but the seasoning on them was really good. The BBQ Baked Beans were frickin' amaze-balls! They have little chunks of pineapple in them and somehow they TASTE LIKE CAKE! This should be on the dessert menu. The OK: The fried mac & cheese bites were pretty average. The fried okra had a nice flavor, but were really thick and filling. It tasted like they were breaded in cornbread. The potato salad was pretty average. Nothing special. Not bad. Not good. Just decent. The Bad: The Burnt Ends. I was disappointed when they said they were pork burnt ends. As a BBQ purist, I want the burnt ends off of a beef brisket. I've have lots of imitation burnt ends (like cubed brisket or pork before), so at least I was prepared when they told me. Unfortunately, they burnt ends were dry. In the pile of burnt ends on my plate only 2 were moist and flavorful. The rest of them were dry. A couple took more effort to chew than they were worth. One was so hard that I eventually gave up. I brought home the leftovers, poured BBQ sauce all over them, heated them up and put them on white bread for sandwiches. That made them edible. I have heard good things about them from others, so I imagine I just got a bad batch.

Overall, I liked the ribs and LOVED the Baked Beans. I would avoid the burnt ends. The staff continually checked in on me and even gave me some free fries. There is much more on the menu to try and I plan on returning some day just to try the seafood. I've only had a seafood boil once in my life and that was at a chain restaurant, so I plan to return to try that! #KCFoodie #CulinaryAdventures #ExploreYourCity #OlatheKS #HappyEating...

My family decided to take me here for my birthday. After looking at kiosk we decided to go for the soul food buffet $25 per person. On the buffet was a selection of fried wings and fish along with coleslaw, green beans, macaroni and cheese, greens, corn chowder, bow pasta and dinner rolls. The desert was a cookie and a drink was water or a fountain drink.

In America we just have lost our taste buds. The more we pay for food the more we say awesome and we leave crazy tips for food that no one even took our order and then served the food or checked on us throughout our meal as we dined in.

Jonathan's buffet was just cans of mushy items ( greens and green beans, sweet potatoes and corn). Also on the buffet was just 2 fried meats. The chowder was just neglected and left in pot to steam away . The Mac and cheese I think someone accidentally put the sweet potato in with that and coleslaw and pasta was sweet as well.

My taste buds just could not get with the food here, fish too crispy on the outside but mush in the inside and the fried wings were just fried wings. Rolls were soggy or dry or hard.

What was served here was mush and after thought never say soul if you don't put forth the effort.

I noted that instead of switching out pans on buffet you just added to it which is a disaster, never add must replace with fresh food. And the staff waited on someone to take the last dried piece of fish or chicken. Before adding new meats.

Terrible dessert selection for buffet, store bought cookies yuck not soul food.

No one from your staff ever looked at the water down chowder pot.

And your fountain drink machine had no fizz. Again just sweet stuff all around. Even lemonade was bad

Everything on your buffet had a sweet flavor to it. Unsure why.

The band was nice and charming small environment to listen to music.

Finally these reviews are for other patrons to make a decision about restaurants, nothing more, so when a business tries to insult or degrade a review, I know there not listening to what needs to be improved so they're business can succeed.

If I see a negative comment from ownership I know they will not change and there business is telling us not to come back a again. How many customers can a business afford to loose? Answer Not...

I took my mother on mother's day because we wanted to try this place. Our 1st time experience is numbered below..

I made reservations on the website for two with a special note stating "will need handicap accessible area." When we arrived we would told to have a seat anywhere even after I advised we have a reservation. My mother didn't like were sat so when I brought it to attention. We then told we could move to our computer reservation area ( why we wasn't escorted there at first is beyond me). Nonetheless, my mother had to walk over to another area when my goal was to have her walk as little as possible. The floors needed sweeping and the menus needed wiping because they had food on them. I brought this to attention and the young lady came to clean it up. When given our water and ready to order we were told we had to order at a Kiosk. I reminded them how my mother needs to do little walking. I was then told to walk up to the cash register since I'm paying with cash and they will take my order at the register. Even then they had a hard time breaking a $100 bill. This eventually cause the owner to come and yell out "We usually don't take bills over $50, but I'll go ahead and bust it down for you." My mother and I looked at each other and shook our heads. When given our food, I ask the young man who was that yelling and I was advised "my dad." The food was more so focus on the spices than flavor(jambalaya). However, my mother had the catfish(no flavor), they ran out of yams but the greens and green beans was a bit vinegary to tasteless and none of the food was hot but rather lukewarm. From what we could hear, the band was entertaining. The group next to us were very loud so we couldn't enjoy it like we wanted to nor move to far away considering the size of he restaurant.

The experience in whole made us leave early. I gave service 4 stars because of the young gentlemen and the young lady but everything else could really use some evaluating...