McLain's Market Overland Park — Restaurant in Overland Park

We stopped by McLain’s Market in Leawood, Kansas for lunch. McLain’s Market occupies the space of a former gas station and the décor is industrial chic…heavy tables, unupholstered seating, cement floors and a large garage door dominating one side of the eating area (not really appreciated on a day in the mid-teens). There is an outdoor seating area when weather allows. Due to the décor, the place is rather buzzy. The other end of the establishment houses a bakery and, while the pastries looked and smelled divine, self-imposed, post-holiday dietary restrictions kept us from tasting the offerings. McLain's Market is designed for the customer to stand on line to order; the day's menu and prices are prominently featured on chalkboards behind the counter, and the staff delivers selections to the table. I ordered the lunch special, (Pesto Steak Flat Bread a round flat bread crust with a pesto base covered with cheddar cheese, fresh pear slices, diced fresh cremini mushrooms and strips of sirloin steak, $9.00) and my partner the Cobb Salad. (A classic presentation of mixed greens, croutons, eggs, bacon, Monterey Jack cheese, tomato and avocado served with a creamy Italian dressing on the side {house-made?}, $8.50). The flat bread, while nicely presented was, well, flat in terms of taste. None of the stated ingredients seemed to compliment on another and the cremini mushrooms would have been better sliced so as to better enjoy their earthy flavor. The steak was sliced in strips radiating for the center to the edge of the fat bread and, as sirloin is rarely the most tender of cuts, this made eating the flat bread in the style of pizza near impossible without having the entire slice of meat slapping one on the chin. I found a salt shaker in order to enhance the rather bland taste only to find flaked salt. While flaked salt is a nice touch, it does not do well in shakers designed for table salt. The Cobb Salad was nicely presented and the ingredients were both ample and fresh while the creamy Italian dressing seemed rather fat in flavor.

McLain's Market offers an impressive array of coffees, teas, beer, wine and soft drinks. While our first experience was not great, we intend to give McClain's Market another go and try some of the menu standards as well as some of those lovely looking (and...

After finding out that Dean & DeLuca closed, I went down the road to give McLain's a try. It looks like they remodeled an old QuikTrip which looked really nice and fits right in for the Johnson county area. This was my first time here. The woman taking my order was quite helpful in explaining the size of their breakfast sandwiches and had patience with me in trying to figure out my options. I tried the Pepperjack Burrito which actually had some heat to it. I like spicy food, but for some reason I just wasn't in the mood first thing in the morning. I did better after finding some water since hot coffee wasn't a good pairing. I also tried the Plain and Simple sandwich, which looked fantastic, but unfortunately the name described the flavor. The sandwiches weren't bad, just not as nice as expected. I got a couple of cookies. For my wife, I got her a gluten free monster cookie that she ended up tossing since it was really dry. I also got her a gluten free chocolate cookie with chocolate chips and she really enjoyed it. For myself, I got an iced cookie and it was also very dry. I'm a little disappointed in the baked goods considering they are a bakery. As for the coffee, they had a couple of local brands available, but I tried one that I haven't heard of before called Post. Fantastic! I would like to give McLain's credit for offering such wonderful coffee and the next time I'm in the area, I would totally stop in for a cup and maybe give another cookie a try if they are fresh. On a follow-up visit, while in the area, I purposely stopped in for a cup of Post coffee, but disappointlying found out that they don't carry Post anymore and are only offering their own brand of coffee. I found myself driving to Post in Lee's Summit. My star rating didn't change since I didn't try anything on this...

We recently made our first visit to McClain's. We chose the drive through for lunch because we were on our way out of town. Unfortunately, the building was never built with a drive-through in mind, so if you have a pickup, best avoid it. The main problem was that folks who run McClain's seem to be going for a "chinatown back alley" look for their drive through. The drive through was lined with junk. It gave us a very bad impression. We almost backed out without ordering but decided to push though. I've included a pic in my review of the junk that greeted us. Not cool.

The print on the drive through menu is so small that I (the driver) was the only one who could read it which made ordering tricky and frustrating. The selection is rather limited so navigating the options and potential changes was difficult. I ordered the chicken salad sandwich which was absolutely amazing. My wife ordered a turkey sandwich and it was pretty underwhelming. The chips were excellent. Unfortunately our bag did not come with napkins so the whole convenience of the drive through was ruined by a required trip inside.

Three stars because of the back of the building. I seriously doubt the organization and cleanliness of their kitchen because of their back alley shenanigans. It put me off enough it'll be a while before we give them...