Em Chamas

I have always wanted to go to a Brazilian restaurant, a churrascaria. The concept was intriguing.
So when Em Chamas came to Kansas City - and to the Northland even! - I knew we had our chance!

Have you ever been to a churrascaria? Here's the basic set up. When you get there, you receive a little round card. As long as you have it facing up they will bring you all sorts of different types of rotisserie meat, still on their skewers. They shave a little piece of it off for you and you get a little sampling of everything you want. When you scream uncle and can take no more, you flip your round card over and they take mercy on you. Scott was pretty excited at taking this restaurant on!

You don't just get meat here. There is also a "gourmet bar" that you can visit as many times as you would like. I actually liked this more than the meat! There were some things there that I've never seen on a salad bar before. Lots of seafood and vegetables done so perfectly.

Would I go again? This place falls under the category of "we'd go if another couple asked us to go there with them." What do I call that?? And if we did go, I'd probably just get the gourmet bar.

This place is a little pricey but you get a TON of food for your money - if you want. If you aren't hungry, don't bother! And if you don't have elastic pants.

Cafe Cedar

We wanted to keep our Valentine's dinner low key. I'm not a huge fan of going out to dinner Valentine's night - the food isn't usually as good I think. So, we went to Cafe Cedar. I don't think this building was always a restaurant. I know before it was Cafe Cedar it was The Skillet. And I'm pretty sure some of The Skillet's fixtures are still there. For example, there's a little red convertible in the middle of the dining room. With serving dishes in it. We're guessing that it came with the place, and no one wants to put the effort into getting it out.
The food was great! We got a combination appetizer plate that had hummus, falafil, baba ghonouj, stuffed grape leaves, spinach pie and tabbouleh, served with warm pita bread. Neither of us had tried any of that before, except the hummus. Everything was so good on there. My favorite was the falafil. Scott loved the hummus.
For dinner I had the Sultan Chicken. It had pieces of chicken, potatoes, almonds, pine nuts, and raisins baked in phyllo dough. The flavors were great, but it was a little dry. Scott had a beef ka bob which was cooked perfectly.
I would definitely go back there again. Soon. I'm craving that falafil right now. Yum!

The Cafe at Briarcliffe

My sweet husband asked me to breakfast on Valentine's Day. What a guy!
We decided to try something new and went for The Cafe at Briarcliffe.
It felt like I was at a hotel restaurant. A nice hotel, but a hotel nonetheless. And instead of hotel guests, I would guess that their typical diner lives in Briarcliffe and just rides on down the hill to eat.
The food was fine, the service was s l o w. I know what you're going to say. It was Valentine's Day - what did I expect? Well, I would expect slow service on Valentine's Day. If the restaurant was full. That was definitely not the case.
The breakfast menu had the usual fare. Pancakes. Waffles. Eggs. The usual. I had a waffle and Scott had pancakes. My waffle was fine, nothing extraordinary. But the syrup was really good. The bacon that came with my waffle was... odd. I had one piece, but there were three or four pieces stuck together on the bottom. It was pretty much inedible.
Dinner and lunch however look must more unique. There were things on there that I'm very excited to go back to try.
So, would I go back? Yep, just not for breakfast. And not unless I had a lot of time, just in case they're moving at turtle-speed again.

Pot Pie

I first learned about Pot Pie from Check Please, a new show on PBS showcasing local restaurants and 3 diners' takes on them.

This place makes me feel like I'm hanging out in a friend's loft. It's dimly lit. Very cozy. Everyone was there to get truly good food, but didn't want to analyze why it was so good. They just knew it was. I didn't detect one food snob in the place.
I had plans to go to this gem only for dessert. When my friend and I got there, our table wasn't ready. We sat at the bar and chatted with a very friendly bartender, tried a new wine, and learned a little bit about the place.
We saw someone eating a yummy looking bowl of mussels. Had to. So, before dessert I had mussel broth all over my hands. And it was well worth it!

Dessert. I have to say I wasn't all that excited about going to Pot Pie for dessert. I checked out their menu online before heading there and I wasn't all that thrilled with my choices. If it's not covered in chocolate, it's typically not a dessert for me. Well, one of the people on Check Please mentioned that they normally didn't like bread pudding but really enjoyed the bread pudding at Pot Pie. I'm not a fan of bread pudding. I don't do mushy foods. But, I decided to go for it.

It smelled like chocolate chip cookies baking in the oven. It was warm. Gooey. Comforting. Delicious.

I can't wait to go back and try the rest of their menu. Everything sounded so good. I will be back!