Anthony's on Grand ~ Kansas City, Missouri

Latest visit: Oct 2023

First visit: Sep 2009

We had some of our best thrifting in Topeka, and we finally arrived in Kansas City. We wanted to try "living in downtown", so I rented a two bed, two bath high rise condo for three nights in the Power & Light District via Airbnb. To cut to the chase, we'll conclude that it's "not for us". But we certainly took advantage of the location, as these next posts will suggest.

As noted in the Tiki Taco Shack entry, we passed through this part of the country in 2009. And we spent one night in Kansas City (not in downtown). Of course I was way too lazy to document that trip on the RJG, though fortunately I at least made note of when and where we ate. As you can see, we dined here, when it was known as Anthony's Restaurant & Lounge. For this visit, we only had to walk seven minutes to get here. Perfect. The ambience is great, complete with a vintage cigarette machine. It's old school Italian. On the surface...

In the end though, we were disappointed. I recall it being better. My voice text notes stated that the salad was "boring". The dressing was pretty much just olive oil. The bread, however, was delicious. Beer list was perfunctory, which is crazy for Kansas City. As for the main course, I ordered the chicken parm. I've had better, though I did like their sugo sauce, which is a slightly sweet tomato based recipe.  The chicken wasn't oven baked, that's for sure. Mrs. RJG went with the Chicken Spiedini, which read perfect, but in reality was too tough and lemony. Worst of all is they don't have spaghetti or any noodle close to it. Linguini or shell pasta are the options. Both heavy pastas. We each went for the latter, but it wasn't al dente and too doughy. It's just filler really - like eating more fries than hamburger. In addition, Anthony's is way too expensive. That's what happens when you replace "& Lounge" with "On Grand". They haven't even updated their website logos yet. Probably have to pay just to look at it ha!

I'm making it sound like it was terrible. It wasn't at all that. But it has to be awesome, and it was more "the needful". Not acceptable at these prices. Besides we're both discovering that Italian food is way better at places that don't specialize in it. Witness some of my recent business trips to Phoenix and Atlanta. And we had our own experience like that on this trip too - more on that later.

9/12/09; 10/1/23 (new entry)