The Wooden Spoon — Restaurant in Overland Park

I’ve thought about doing this review off and on for months. But I more so want to hopefully inspire others and even this business to have better customer service. My mom and I came here from the recommendation of my dad who works nearby. It was early 2025. Cute little restaurant, the elderly man who served us was very friendly. I thought prices were decent and food was just ok….except for my hot chocolate. I order hot chocolate almost everywhere I go as I do not drink/like coffee. Whipped Cream?…absolutely! So I have had many different kinds of whipped cream over the years. I was pleasantly surprised on the generous mug they served my hot cocoa in and had my whipped cream on top. I also happened to take a pic because of the size of the mug (more hot cocoa!) I took a bite of the cream, and I kind of just paused for a moment as it wasn’t your normal whipped cream. I swallowed, and was trying to figure out the taste with bewilderment. I took another small bite thinking is this maybe just their whipped cream and some sort of weird spice they put on it? It had tiny little spices on it but then I was like NO… this is nasty. I told my mom either they put a weird spice on this or something is wrong. I was worried if I complained then I would insult them if this is actually just their recipe. She tried a small bite and was right away put off from it and we both concluded that we thought it was actually rancid. I decided to just scoop it off and try just to drink the hot cocoa as I hate confrontation/making a scene, but that almost was worse as now all my nose could smell when taking a sip was the rotten cream on the sides of the cup. I had to say something. I still stupidly felt BAD that I was going to have to point this out. I was the one being served sour whipped cream but that’s just how I am. We called our elderly man server over and quietly told him something is off with the whipped cream and we think it is rancid. He told me she had just made it that morning (almost as if in dismay). So we said well the cream had to have been old then or something. We even told him, just sniff the inside of this mug! He goes to talk to her. My mom swears she could see that the woman looked upset (angry that we accused this) but stayed professional. A bit later she comes over and gives me another hot chocolate with whipped cream and said she just made a new batch. No acknowledgement of rancid whipped cream, no apologies, no discounts offered. We couldn’t believe it. We were still friendly tho but just knew we’d never be back. That is not a way to run business. I ate a bite of rancid, old whipped cream that you served … our meal should have been free in my opinion with many apologies. I couldn’t imagine the horror if I served a customer rancid food. I own my own business and offer discounts or freebees if I mess up. I gave my niece, on accident, a pickle that was a little expired from my fridge one time and she said it tasted funny. I tried it and then looked at the date on the jar and yeah it was expired and I apologized profusely to her. I felt so bad and she was not a paying customer. I hope they learned to check dates and or taste their products before serving from then on and this never happens again to anyone. If it does, as a business, you apologize and offer a discount or the meal...

It pains me to do this, but I write reviews to help others and to let owners know where they can improve and I'd be doing a disservice if I didn't leave my honest feelings. We will never, ever go back. Reasons: The place smelled like sewage, which is almost certainly the property manager's fault rather than the restaurant owner's fault, but that smell affects the taste of the food. Maybe the slowest breakfast for the smallest number of customers I've ever seen. We walked in when only about 1/2 the tables were being used - maybe less - and it took a solid 30 minutes for our food to arrive. I'm not expecting fast food, but breakfast food simply doesn't take that long. The food was... fine. The best was the French toast. The bacon and pancakes were good, though my wife didn't care for the bacon. But the sausage patties were just ok flavor-wise and they were incredibly gristly. I've never had more meat stuck in my teeth after sausage than this breakfast, and that is saying something! The worst were the biscuits and gravy. The biscuits were boring and the gravy was gritty, which is just poor form. If that's intentional.... why? Someone who appeared to be the manager was working on a laptop near us and more than once he would say something that sort of sounded like it was directed at us, but wasn't. "Oh, that's funny." What was? You didn't have a headset on. You weren't on the phone. Nothing else was happening, so I guess you were watching something without sound and commenting on it? I've had coworkers that do this. It's weird, but I have to deal with it. I don't have to pay to put myself in that situation though. That happened at least three times during our wait for food.

Given the absolute glut of breakfast restaurants in the area, you have to do a lot better than this to...

09:25 arrival & appears that there are no customers; not a good sign in spite of the really good reviews. However, I'm looking forward to the hash that people seem to be raving about on this my 1st visit.

Two guys were dining when I entered, and I was "greeted" with a mumble with a look that said I'd rather be anywhere else. Pair that with the comment, "I have other stuff to do," when I mentioned it wasn't too busy to sit outside and we're not off to a good start. In fact, I almost got up and left but decided to give the food a go.

Coffee was really good, but that's to be expected when it's from The Roasterie. Thanks for serving it from a carafe so as not to continue cooking it on a burner. I prefer a bolder roast, but this one didn't mask the flavor of the food, so that's good. But, $3.50 for a cup of coffee? Bottomless cup or not, that's ridiculous!

The food arrived after an appropriate wait. Immediate reaction: Portion size is quite disappointing, in light of the price. Maybe throw in some more hash browns; potatoes are cheap. Eggs were ordered over easy & were cooked perfectly. However, they appeared to be steamed or poached, which was not how I ordered them, as there was a distinct taste of water in my food. The corned beef by itself was fantastic! Unfortunately, the jalapeños strongly resembled green peppers, but that's the typical range of spiciness for jalapeños.

The sourdough toast I ordered was beautiful to look at but was so soaked in butter/oil from the grill that it had a slight bitter taste.

Condiments were not offered nor on the table.

The ambiance was "meh," and the outside dining area needed a sweep & some decor.

Bottom line: Better food can be had with bigger portions with better ambiance with better service & at a...