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angela c. bond
best of kc 2015
KIN LIN CHINESE RESTAURANT
Authentic Chinese from Traditional to Adventurous Vegetarian & Vegan Available
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Top 3 Chinese Restaurants Best of KC 2015 Thanks for Voting KC!
We
r e v i l e D 314 E 51 ST. Kansas City, MO
816.561.4334
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the pitch
BEST OF KANSAS CITY 2015
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the business is long gone) because pizza isn’t an angry food. It’s a happy food. It’s the most happy food. And, really, how can you certify the quality or authenticity of a food when the main metric for it is how happy it makes you? Still, Erik Borger is all about certification. His first Il Lazzarone, in St. Joseph, was quick to earn the imprimatur of the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana, a distinction that his City Market outpost seems likely to pick up, too. Good for him, but for what it’s worth, we’d like simply to certify here that his thincrust, handsomely charred, tomato-loving pizza this year made us happier than anyone else’s. Which is saying something in a town where very little of the pizza is, you know, fraudulent. In fact, it’s even better than that rage-topped pie we ate in New York.
Best Instant neIghBorhood ClassIC
Il lazzarone 412 Delaware • 816-541-3695 • illazzarone.org
Since Erik Borger opened the second location of his seriously Neapolitan pizzeria in the City Market, he has been waiting for the woodfired pizza he serves KC to be endorsed by the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana. (Borger’s St. Joseph original already has the nod.) As we went to press, the newer of his two Lazzarones hadn’t yet made things official, but that hardly matters to fans of the pizza here. It’s as close to the old country as you can get on the Great Plains: brilliantly flavorful, delicate, built with excellent ingredients, baked in a Naples-manufactured Acunto Mario Forni oven. The food has style, and so does the space: The pies emerge from a conspicuously pretty open kitchen and come to you in the hands of appealing staff members (service that has begun to overcome some early bumps). Accompanied by expertly engineered drinks (sharp cocktails, a smartly chosen beer list, affordable wines), your meal takes place in a high-ceilinged and wood-
Jax: slurp heavy dining room or in a low-key back room that’s centered on a long, beautiful bar. The food is rustic, but the setting is urban — a mix that gets us every time.
Best seafood
Jax FIsh house & oyster Bar 4814 Roanoke Parkway • 816-437-7940 jaxfishouse.com/kansas-city
The year-old Jax Fish House, the first Midwestern satellite of a Colorado company, might have been yet another corporate intruder setting up shop on the chain-heavy Country Club Plaza. But this restaurant, with talented young chef Bobby Bowman and a well-trained serving staff, has been anything but disappointing. It earns high marks for its imaginative preparation of fresh fish entrées and starters, among other dishes — especially the oysters. We love to sit at the busy bar and let Bowman and his crew work their magic. We like the mussels in panang curry sauce. And we like the large sampler platter heaped with crab and lobster. The latter is for bigger spenders than we are, most days. But when we want to feel big time, this is how we do it.
Best CraB Cakes
r Bar & PatIo 610 Florida, Lawrence • 785-856-6969
This Lawrence saloon was known for years as the Jet Lag Lounge. When owner James Shaffer took it over, four years ago, he changed the name. This year, he made an even bigger change: bringing in Brian Reeves as a minority partner to oversee a major overhaul of the venue, including a new kitchen. Reeves decided to take the bar menu up several notches, installing a smoker to cook full-joint chicken