Local Flavor: the best places to eat and drink in Kansas City

01.06.2024 - 14:19 / lonelyplanet.com / Travis Kelce

Kansas City is synonymous with barbecue, but if you’re visiting just for the burnt ends, you’re missing out on the ever-expanding, diverse menu of flavors that KC dishes up daily – so save room.

Kansas City has been my oyster – or whatever the landlocked Midwestern equivalent is – since I moved here in 2022. I grew up in Kansas, about 200 miles southwest of KC, and visited Kansas City several times a year as a kid. After college, I moved to Europe, spending a year in Germany and a decade in London. But now that I’m back, it feels like I’ve arrived just in time – Kansas City is certainly on the cusp of something big.

It’s important for visitors to know their place in Kansas City – after all, the city confusingly straddles two states: Missouri and Kansas. Downtown Kansas City is on the Missouri side (KCMO), unless of course you’re talking about downtown KCK (Kansas City, Kansas). Suburbs sprawl in every direction beyond the downtown core, and while Kansas City became the first US city to offer free public transportation in 2020, you’ll want a car to get around if you’re short on time or heading to the suburbs.

Ready to get your glutton on? These are my favorite places to eat and drink in Kansas City on both sides of the state line.

I’m a natural early bird, which comes in handy for some breakfast spots in Kansas City that close early or shut up shop when they sell out. On Troost Ave, Blackhole Bakery is best known for its mochi donuts, which come in so many flavors – grapefruit rosemary, chili mango, birthday cake – that you’ll have to visit more than once to try them all. The smoked salmon on roasted garlic from Meshuggah Bagels on 39th St is fast becoming a weekend staple. Both of these spots are small, and Meshuggah has just a few seats (Blackhole is carry-out only), so get your order to go and head to a nearby park.

It’s dangerously easy for me to walk to Succotash from my apartment, which I often do on Friday mornings before the weekend crowds descend. If I’m feeling indulgent, I order the Burrito of Love: scrambled eggs, bacon and cheese wrapped burrito-style in a buttermilk pancake. Travis Kelce, tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs and Taylor Swift’s boyfriend, loves this place too – he says Succotash’s French toast is "magical."

The Midwest is the land of wheat and meat, and ordering biscuits and gravy is often a good way to judge a restaurant’s breakfast caliber. Happy Gillis in the Columbus Park neighborhood is a top contender for the city’s best. District Biskuits in North Kansas City also serves B&G, but its fluffy, crumbly biscuits truly shine in its sandwiches. The Cure, a large biscuit stuffed with soft scrambled eggs, American cheese and bacon jam, fixes everything.

I’m the WFH type, which