April 2024:Stayed at the Marriott and grabbed dinner at the bar. The chicken Caesar salad was very tasty. A lot of chicken. I ordered the dressing on the side because I don't like my salad flooded.Local draft beer ? options were decent. I had a nice local IPA.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Serenity Vaughn
I'll start this with, I know the bar was busy last night- but one specific individual working went out of her way to just make it harder. Rachel. We really did try to make this easy. I first tried to order by phoning in an order. No call ins to the bar. I tried to call room service to order, but because I want ONE ITEM that was bar specific (seriously, same kitchen but if I want the pretzel bites I have to physically order it from the bar). We go downstairs. We patiently wait behind another couple. They get served, we move forward and again, patiently wait. I speak server. I saw they were overwhelmed. I let her make her drinks and when she finally acknowledged us, to say it'd be another few minutes, "no problem". Alright, when she comes she's already disappointed that we want to order food. Tells us the kitchen is backed up 45 minutes. We acknowledge and accept it, and she instantly looks put out. She rings us out, missing my dessert, but I don't even know that because she didn't give us our receipt. They are obviously busy, servers everywhere. We didn't want to take up more space, so we asked if she could call the room when it's ready. No. You HAVE to wait down here. Sure. So we go get drinks from the market, take them to our room. It's been 30/45 minutes. We head back down. We wait our turn to ask if it's ready. She checks, and no. We wait by the wall for about 5 minutes, but again, it's busy and we're in the way. We sit at a table that opens up. Now the server is annoyed we're taking up real estate. He asks what we want and then gets huffy saying our food will be 90 minutes probably. We sit and wait. 1 hour now. 2 burgers. One order of pretzel sticks. A to-go order gets brought out, we go up to check. No. Repeat all of this again, another 10 minutes later. Another bag comes out. We go up to check. Rachel snatches the food up from in front of us and moves it to the side area. Clearly not our food, right? We sit there and watch that bag of food sit. We make eye contact, multiple times. Another server comes up, asks what our order was. She says "I just bagged that a while ago". Goes to check behind the bar and GUESS WHAT? That's our food. She hands it to us and the bartender SMIRKS. I just don't get it. We were polite, understanding and she just had to be rude and disrespectful. You're not the one cooking our meal, Rachel. All you had to do was punch it in. Instead, you made everyone's night harder. You knew it was our food, and for whatever reason, decided to play your power trip. It was paid for. You saw us waiting. And you outright denied us. You decided that we were annoyong for whatever reason, and chose to not only punish us, but also the servers that could have turned that table and made some more money. Also disrespectful of the server, that busted her buns to get it out there, only for you to withhold it and let it get cold. Why? To teach us a lesson, to not get stuck ordering food from a busy kitchen? Enjoy the little happiness you apparently have in your life, Rachel. You apparently don't work for tips. Food was good, except for it missing the side of ranch that I paid for. And was supposed to have tots, not fries. Oh, and the missed dessert. But I was just grateful to eat after working my 14 hour day.
Food: 4
Service: 1
Travis K
The food was good and the service. The prices are a little high for the working man, but it is a hotel bar and grill. It’s not a fast food place, thank God. Bottom line, it’s good food.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Crispy Fried Tots
Nikola Ranick
Honestly, I had pretty low expectations from other reviews, but this was a good time! The Restaurant Week Special was incredibly generous, food was tasty, and staff were incredibly kind. You could tell it was kind of a wild environment, but staff were working hard, relatable, and really repping the business. I plan on coming again!
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 5
Jake Forbeck
The environment is nice, food is subpar, especially for the quality and amount. I understand it is a Marriott in downtown KC, but I was expecting more. I ordered the jalapeno bacon flatbread and it was not a flatbread, it was a tortilla with some cream cheese smeared on it with a few pieces of artichoke and red onion. Mixed drinks were priced reasonably, beer was another story. Service was great.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 3
Service: 5
Jake F.
The environment is nice, food is subpar, especially for the quality and amount. I understand it is a Marriott in downtown KC, but I was expecting more. I ordered the jalapeno bacon flatbread and it was not a flatbread, it was a tortilla with some cream cheese smeared on it with a few pieces of artichoke and red onion. Mixed drinks were priced reasonably, beer was another story. Service was great.
Randy O.
Bartenders come and go, but Lewis is awesome and funny, so if he's working, sit at the bar.The bar is a comfortable and inviting space, the largest bar TV I've seen and a great crème brûlée. The hazy IPA was good enough and paired well with the brûlée. (That's just how I roll because an IPA with dessert is an awesome combo, a balance between bitter and sweet when I don't feel like coffee, the coffee's bad or I need a drink.)
Autumn T.
I'm surprised the # of ratings are so limited and not higher. Every time I stay at this hotel (4-6x/yr) the bar is packed and tons of people are eating. I guess people don't always think to rate a hotel bar/restaurant. Anyways, I love this place. They always have great bartenders - super friendly and they really go out of their way to get familiar with the people that stay over several nights & returning guests. I saw one review saying they're slow - I've seen nothing but all of them busting their butts on the regular. This place gets SLAMMED during conventions. I will say I wish mgmt would staff them better during those times. 2 people running that bar/lounge area when it's busy is crazy pants. Food wise everything I've had has been fantastic (over the course of several years). Of course I've had their burger (several times), it's freakin fabulous, as well as their tenders, nachos, pretzel, chicken sandwich & fries/tots. All solid food options if you don't feel like leaving the hotel. Burger is my favorite of course but dang.. their nachos are amazing and HUGE.. definitely enough to share. Tenders are a quick basic option - great breading & juicy.
Grizz Erickson
One of worst Old Fashions I’ve had and it was $18. Didn’t even finish it.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 3
Service: 3
Scott E.
Waited too long for the bartender. It was more important for him to talk about his tattoos with a patron for 12 minutes instead of assisting me. Others arrived after me and were then served first. Then the drink tastes nasty. $4 cheaper for the same drink across the street and tasted 100% better. Wouldn't recommend.
The Pitch Burger Week Review Price $11.25 (not on the regular menu) This burger was actually bangin' however, the rest of BarCentral's atmosphere was just lukewarm and the normal day to day menu doesn't really excite me. However, the flavors of this special burger were too beautifully developed to ignore, from sweet to savory to spicy this burger has range! Ordering it to go on a Saturday evening was definitely the move since the BarCentral seemed to be teeming with anxious hotel guests and the staff appeared to be overworked and just as anxious...to get off work. Anyways, I took a seat at the bar to wait and even though I had to ask for a glass of water and the subsequent refill from the bartender, which was sort of annoying, the burger came out in fantastic timing. Also, the smell on this thing was so succulently sensational I couldn't wait to dig in so, I took a quick bite before I left. And I was not left disappointed the flavors of this burger sang to me a symphony of perfectly layered notes of savory chorizo, sweet glazed pork belly and mild white melty cheese. Overall this burger was a winner even if BarCentral may not make it in the tournament so, what I'm saying is take my review with a grain of salt unless, it happens to be burger week because this bad boy of burger isn't on the regular menu...though *hint hint* it probably should be.
Robye Lumb
Our Bartender was knowledgeable and pours a wonderful Martini and Negroni ??
Shawn
It's really understaffed if your intention is to sit and enjoy food and cocktail with friends or family, often only 2 servers and they do not have anyone to assist with seating. Service at the bar is always top notch.I sat down at a table and after 30 minutes of not even being acknowledged I went up to the bar and ordered food and drinks, even after placing my order the server still never came over, I saw 3 tables get up who also were not acknowledged. There are no signed explaining if certain tables belong to bar service or table service. The atmosphere is warm but that service is cold and for that the atmosphere gets a 1 out of 10.The food if it's served hot would have received an 8 or 9 out of 10 but since I had placed my order at the bar it was placed on a shelf with no warming light. After about an hour I asked the bartender if my food was close to done when she noticed that my food had been up for a while behind her. No apology no let me see if they can warm up your cold food.I ordered the burnt end Mac n cheese and again while it tasted great and was quite flavorful it was less pleasing cold. Give it a 4 out of 10. I ordered chicken and fries the fries were still warm and seasoned really well give them a 9 out of 10. The chicken was cold and dry a 1 out of 10.I also ordered there creme brule for dessert. Again. This dish is usually a chilled custard with a warm candied shell on top the whole thing was Luke warm. Had it been the right tempature an easy 10 but because of the lack of Temps a 6 out of 10.They were out of a lot of there alcohols and couldn't make many of the drinks. I did order a pink lemonade they compared it it to a long Island iced tea and it was sweet and tasted good. I give it a 7 out of 10. Would I visit them again yes but maybe not on a weekend night.
Devan D.
TLDR - DO NOT GO HERE. If Yelp! did not require me to select a star rating, I would not have. My lone dining experience here has been so awful that not only will I not be back, but I feel compelled to ask others not to even try it. I attended during KC Restaurant Week this year on Tuesday night before attending a traveling Broadway show ("Hadestown") at the Music Hall across the block. It seems many had the same idea. Despite it being both KC Restaurant Week (where they had an advertised special) and a show night, this massive hotel bar had but one bartender and one server for the entire bar. The line-up that night? It was a trio of appetizers that should not have taken long to prepare. And that's where the problems persisted - the time. We sat down over 2 hours before a show that we were a block away from. Our drink order (the house old-fashioned and a pint of beer) took nearly 30 minutes to arrive at our table. When the cocktail did arrive it was extremely watered down. I was genuinely shocked to see the price tag on a low-grade cocktail. When we ordered a second round (just beers), they took over 30 minutes each. Our server was so over-extended she could not check on us. We had placed our KCRW order almost immediately. The small appetizer, the brisket poutine, took over an hour to arrive. It was actually very good but tiny and the wait was annoying. It took another 30 minutes for our pig wings (overcooked and super chewy / inedible) and tostadas (stale shells and dried out beef) to arrive. The dessert was nice but we had to scarf it down. All said, we arrived over 2 hours before the show for what should have been a nice relaxing meal but 4 total drinks and 2 KCRW meal deals had us at a point where we were leaving for our show 10 minutes before curtain. Thankfully we only had a block to walk because we were, somehow, able to get to our seats just as things began. It's a shame. I would love to go here before every single Muni / Music Hall event due to the location but it is a horrendous experience that I would not wish upon my greatest enemy. How hard is it to staff accordingly when you are widely advertising a dining special? How hard is it to check the event schedule for the venue across the street and take that into consideration when staffing? Apparently, it's super difficult. This place sucks and I will never return.
J Williams
Service was really, really lacking. At Marriott hotel prices, it really is unacceptable. Waited, and waited. And waited. Not a good impression for a Marriot property.
April 2024:Stayed at the Marriott and grabbed dinner at the bar. The chicken Caesar salad was very tasty. A lot of chicken. I ordered the dressing on the side because I don't like my salad flooded.Local draft beer ? options were decent. I had a nice local IPA.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
I'll start this with, I know the bar was busy last night- but one specific individual working went out of her way to just make it harder. Rachel. We really did try to make this easy. I first tried to order by phoning in an order. No call ins to the bar. I tried to call room service to order, but because I want ONE ITEM that was bar specific (seriously, same kitchen but if I want the pretzel bites I have to physically order it from the bar). We go downstairs. We patiently wait behind another couple. They get served, we move forward and again, patiently wait. I speak server. I saw they were overwhelmed. I let her make her drinks and when she finally acknowledged us, to say it'd be another few minutes, "no problem". Alright, when she comes she's already disappointed that we want to order food. Tells us the kitchen is backed up 45 minutes. We acknowledge and accept it, and she instantly looks put out. She rings us out, missing my dessert, but I don't even know that because she didn't give us our receipt. They are obviously busy, servers everywhere. We didn't want to take up more space, so we asked if she could call the room when it's ready. No. You HAVE to wait down here. Sure. So we go get drinks from the market, take them to our room. It's been 30/45 minutes. We head back down. We wait our turn to ask if it's ready. She checks, and no. We wait by the wall for about 5 minutes, but again, it's busy and we're in the way. We sit at a table that opens up. Now the server is annoyed we're taking up real estate. He asks what we want and then gets huffy saying our food will be 90 minutes probably. We sit and wait. 1 hour now. 2 burgers. One order of pretzel sticks. A to-go order gets brought out, we go up to check. No. Repeat all of this again, another 10 minutes later. Another bag comes out. We go up to check. Rachel snatches the food up from in front of us and moves it to the side area. Clearly not our food, right? We sit there and watch that bag of food sit. We make eye contact, multiple times. Another server comes up, asks what our order was. She says "I just bagged that a while ago". Goes to check behind the bar and GUESS WHAT? That's our food. She hands it to us and the bartender SMIRKS. I just don't get it. We were polite, understanding and she just had to be rude and disrespectful. You're not the one cooking our meal, Rachel. All you had to do was punch it in. Instead, you made everyone's night harder. You knew it was our food, and for whatever reason, decided to play your power trip. It was paid for. You saw us waiting. And you outright denied us. You decided that we were annoyong for whatever reason, and chose to not only punish us, but also the servers that could have turned that table and made some more money. Also disrespectful of the server, that busted her buns to get it out there, only for you to withhold it and let it get cold. Why? To teach us a lesson, to not get stuck ordering food from a busy kitchen? Enjoy the little happiness you apparently have in your life, Rachel. You apparently don't work for tips. Food was good, except for it missing the side of ranch that I paid for. And was supposed to have tots, not fries. Oh, and the missed dessert. But I was just grateful to eat after working my 14 hour day.
Food: 4
Service: 1
The food was good and the service. The prices are a little high for the working man, but it is a hotel bar and grill. It’s not a fast food place, thank God. Bottom line, it’s good food.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Crispy Fried Tots
Honestly, I had pretty low expectations from other reviews, but this was a good time! The Restaurant Week Special was incredibly generous, food was tasty, and staff were incredibly kind. You could tell it was kind of a wild environment, but staff were working hard, relatable, and really repping the business. I plan on coming again!
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 5
The environment is nice, food is subpar, especially for the quality and amount. I understand it is a Marriott in downtown KC, but I was expecting more. I ordered the jalapeno bacon flatbread and it was not a flatbread, it was a tortilla with some cream cheese smeared on it with a few pieces of artichoke and red onion. Mixed drinks were priced reasonably, beer was another story. Service was great.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 3
Service: 5
The environment is nice, food is subpar, especially for the quality and amount. I understand it is a Marriott in downtown KC, but I was expecting more. I ordered the jalapeno bacon flatbread and it was not a flatbread, it was a tortilla with some cream cheese smeared on it with a few pieces of artichoke and red onion. Mixed drinks were priced reasonably, beer was another story. Service was great.
Bartenders come and go, but Lewis is awesome and funny, so if he's working, sit at the bar.The bar is a comfortable and inviting space, the largest bar TV I've seen and a great crème brûlée. The hazy IPA was good enough and paired well with the brûlée. (That's just how I roll because an IPA with dessert is an awesome combo, a balance between bitter and sweet when I don't feel like coffee, the coffee's bad or I need a drink.)
I'm surprised the # of ratings are so limited and not higher. Every time I stay at this hotel (4-6x/yr) the bar is packed and tons of people are eating. I guess people don't always think to rate a hotel bar/restaurant. Anyways, I love this place. They always have great bartenders - super friendly and they really go out of their way to get familiar with the people that stay over several nights & returning guests. I saw one review saying they're slow - I've seen nothing but all of them busting their butts on the regular. This place gets SLAMMED during conventions. I will say I wish mgmt would staff them better during those times. 2 people running that bar/lounge area when it's busy is crazy pants. Food wise everything I've had has been fantastic (over the course of several years). Of course I've had their burger (several times), it's freakin fabulous, as well as their tenders, nachos, pretzel, chicken sandwich & fries/tots. All solid food options if you don't feel like leaving the hotel. Burger is my favorite of course but dang.. their nachos are amazing and HUGE.. definitely enough to share. Tenders are a quick basic option - great breading & juicy.
One of worst Old Fashions I’ve had and it was $18. Didn’t even finish it.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 3
Service: 3
Waited too long for the bartender. It was more important for him to talk about his tattoos with a patron for 12 minutes instead of assisting me. Others arrived after me and were then served first. Then the drink tastes nasty. $4 cheaper for the same drink across the street and tasted 100% better. Wouldn't recommend.
Restaurantji Recommends
The Pitch Burger Week Review Price $11.25 (not on the regular menu) This burger was actually bangin' however, the rest of BarCentral's atmosphere was just lukewarm and the normal day to day menu doesn't really excite me. However, the flavors of this special burger were too beautifully developed to ignore, from sweet to savory to spicy this burger has range! Ordering it to go on a Saturday evening was definitely the move since the BarCentral seemed to be teeming with anxious hotel guests and the staff appeared to be overworked and just as anxious...to get off work. Anyways, I took a seat at the bar to wait and even though I had to ask for a glass of water and the subsequent refill from the bartender, which was sort of annoying, the burger came out in fantastic timing. Also, the smell on this thing was so succulently sensational I couldn't wait to dig in so, I took a quick bite before I left. And I was not left disappointed the flavors of this burger sang to me a symphony of perfectly layered notes of savory chorizo, sweet glazed pork belly and mild white melty cheese. Overall this burger was a winner even if BarCentral may not make it in the tournament so, what I'm saying is take my review with a grain of salt unless, it happens to be burger week because this bad boy of burger isn't on the regular menu...though *hint hint* it probably should be.
Our Bartender was knowledgeable and pours a wonderful Martini and Negroni ??
It's really understaffed if your intention is to sit and enjoy food and cocktail with friends or family, often only 2 servers and they do not have anyone to assist with seating. Service at the bar is always top notch.I sat down at a table and after 30 minutes of not even being acknowledged I went up to the bar and ordered food and drinks, even after placing my order the server still never came over, I saw 3 tables get up who also were not acknowledged. There are no signed explaining if certain tables belong to bar service or table service. The atmosphere is warm but that service is cold and for that the atmosphere gets a 1 out of 10.The food if it's served hot would have received an 8 or 9 out of 10 but since I had placed my order at the bar it was placed on a shelf with no warming light. After about an hour I asked the bartender if my food was close to done when she noticed that my food had been up for a while behind her. No apology no let me see if they can warm up your cold food.I ordered the burnt end Mac n cheese and again while it tasted great and was quite flavorful it was less pleasing cold. Give it a 4 out of 10. I ordered chicken and fries the fries were still warm and seasoned really well give them a 9 out of 10. The chicken was cold and dry a 1 out of 10.I also ordered there creme brule for dessert. Again. This dish is usually a chilled custard with a warm candied shell on top the whole thing was Luke warm. Had it been the right tempature an easy 10 but because of the lack of Temps a 6 out of 10.They were out of a lot of there alcohols and couldn't make many of the drinks. I did order a pink lemonade they compared it it to a long Island iced tea and it was sweet and tasted good. I give it a 7 out of 10. Would I visit them again yes but maybe not on a weekend night.
TLDR - DO NOT GO HERE. If Yelp! did not require me to select a star rating, I would not have. My lone dining experience here has been so awful that not only will I not be back, but I feel compelled to ask others not to even try it. I attended during KC Restaurant Week this year on Tuesday night before attending a traveling Broadway show ("Hadestown") at the Music Hall across the block. It seems many had the same idea. Despite it being both KC Restaurant Week (where they had an advertised special) and a show night, this massive hotel bar had but one bartender and one server for the entire bar. The line-up that night? It was a trio of appetizers that should not have taken long to prepare. And that's where the problems persisted - the time. We sat down over 2 hours before a show that we were a block away from. Our drink order (the house old-fashioned and a pint of beer) took nearly 30 minutes to arrive at our table. When the cocktail did arrive it was extremely watered down. I was genuinely shocked to see the price tag on a low-grade cocktail. When we ordered a second round (just beers), they took over 30 minutes each. Our server was so over-extended she could not check on us. We had placed our KCRW order almost immediately. The small appetizer, the brisket poutine, took over an hour to arrive. It was actually very good but tiny and the wait was annoying. It took another 30 minutes for our pig wings (overcooked and super chewy / inedible) and tostadas (stale shells and dried out beef) to arrive. The dessert was nice but we had to scarf it down. All said, we arrived over 2 hours before the show for what should have been a nice relaxing meal but 4 total drinks and 2 KCRW meal deals had us at a point where we were leaving for our show 10 minutes before curtain. Thankfully we only had a block to walk because we were, somehow, able to get to our seats just as things began. It's a shame. I would love to go here before every single Muni / Music Hall event due to the location but it is a horrendous experience that I would not wish upon my greatest enemy. How hard is it to staff accordingly when you are widely advertising a dining special? How hard is it to check the event schedule for the venue across the street and take that into consideration when staffing? Apparently, it's super difficult. This place sucks and I will never return.
Service was really, really lacking. At Marriott hotel prices, it really is unacceptable. Waited, and waited. And waited. Not a good impression for a Marriot property.