On Wednesday, Mitch and I were talking on my way home from work
and he reminded me that Guy Fieri's restaurant was opening the next night and
he wanted to take me, on that night. We didn't know about the VIP at that time,
or he would have gotten the tickets for that. I can say without a doubt that
this man loves me so much. We knew it would be busy so we went early. Wow.
Busy, that was an understatement.
I'm glad it wasn't colder than
it was. We was able to get in line around 5:30PM and we finally made it inside
around 7:20PM. Then we waited in line to order our food until 8:15PM
and the food came so fast we was done eating around 8:30PM and we left around
9PM. This will not always be the case, so please don't let the lines keep you
from going. Remember this was the first night they were open.
The restaurant is called Guy Fieri's Dive and Taco Joint. This is located down in the Power & Light District, 1333 Walnut Street, Kansas City, MO. To quote Guy, this food is "funkalicious." He is known for his colorful and funny quotes on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. He is the one that started the Flavortown, he is the Mayor of Flavortown, after all.
This is a dive bar, neon signs
everywhere, live music, the ceiling fans had neon lights on them, and a full
bar. He definitely shows his collector side. The open shelving over the bar,
that looks like a cage to me (pictures below) it was full of mason jars filled
with (looked like) white lighting (moonshine) on the top shelf and different
liqueurs on the bottom shelf, and the TVs were on sport channels. We loved
reading all the neon signs, if you have a wonderful sense of humor you will
love this. They also had a patio with glass accordion doors this gives a nice
flow between the inside and the patio. The other side looked like garage doors
that they can roll open on a nice evening.
The menu is a simple one, it's a bar. Love me some bar food.
Especially tacos. Who doesn't love a good taco? These are what I call street
tacos, with soft shells. I was impressed of how fast our food came out. You
order at the bar, and give your name, you go sit down enjoy your cocktail,
a waitress will come yelling your name you let her know where you are and she
will deliver your food.
You get 3 tacos to an
order, the con is you can't mix and match. All the tacos are $10. Three for 10.
Mitch thought the portions were small especially for the price. I do see his
point, however this is a bar, and everyone is used to restaurants with big
portions on over feeding us. I thought the portions were just right, we were
full, not stuffed. We ordered two different types of tacos and a quesadilla
with pork, off the signature bites portion of the menu. This was around $31
without drinks.
We ordered the Fajita Rajas Taco, the Diablo Shrimp Taco and the Real
Cheesy Quesadilla with a small up-charge to add pork. The Fajita Rajas Taco is
a grilled chicken, poblano rajas, jack cheese, pico de gallo, crispy onions, and
salsa rojo. The chicken was cooked perfect and this was the spicier taco.
Just enough bite that you knew the heat was there, but not call the Fire Department
hot.
The Diablo Shrimp Taco
this is grilled tequila-lime shrimp, avocado, pico de gallo, chipotle-aioli.
This was less spicy than the Fajita Rajos Taco. I was little surprised with
that being other places the word Diablo being in the food description means
it's usually spicy. This was amazing. The shrimp was grilled to perfection. It
was juicy and not rubbery, like an eraser when shrimp is overcooked. The
avocado provided a nice creaminess that it was needing. Maybe this is why it
wasn't so hot. Every bite was like a party in Flavortown. I was surprised
that Mitch ate two of these, since it had avocado in them. Mitch had a good
point, each ingredient is needed to add that bust of flavor in each bite. The
Real Cheesy Quesadilla (with pork) was just as good as Jazzy B's quesadillas. (I
have eaten there several times and will do a review also.) This had cheddar,
Oaxaco cheese, Cotija, some super melty cheese. The pork was an up-charge of
$2, you also can add chicken if you want. This also came with slaw and
guacamole. The quesadilla was extremely cheesy and gooey that you would want if
it was real cheesy. The pork was a nice touch, I didn't think it was needed,
but Mitch is a meat eater. :) The slaw was creamy and wonderful. I was able to
sneak one bite. The guacamole to me was bland. I'm extremely picky with my
guacamole. I never liked it before until I made it homemade. Maybe I'm partial
to mine, well not maybe, I am. It could have at least had some salt and a
squeeze of a lime to help with the blandness.
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| Fajita Rajas Taco |
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| The Diablo Shrimp Taco |
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| Real Cheesy Quesadilla with added Pork |
I have checked Yelp.
There is a lot of mixed reviews already. I would definitely recommend this
place. I will be going back to try other things, like the Cheeseburger Tacos,
Carne Asada Tacos, Trash Can Nachos and the Carne Asada Fries and to try the
cocktails, since I didn't get anything from the bar that night.
I'm thinking that this
has mixed reviews because people think it should be one thing and when it's not that way, they are disappointed with what they see and/or taste. You have to remember to
always keep in open mind about trying new places. Everyone's opinion is
different, what taste good to one will not taste good to the next person. We have to remember this is Guy Fieri, a big time chef. He will have unusual foods with big time flavors, and he will combine ingredients that we won't think of. That is what I love. He states in every Triple D episode, if it's funky, he will find it. This place is just that. This is exactly what I would expect his dive would be.
Please leave any comments,
especially if you go try these places. Pro or con, I love to hear what others think. In
closing I'm quoting Guy Fieri “Peace, love and Taco grease!"
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| My cat Bella who co-authored this.:) |
