What’s the best barbecue spot in Kansas City? This list mixes in some newcomers

Joyce Smith
·2 min read
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Eater, a food news and dining guide website, has published “The 14 Best Barbecue Joints in Kansas City.”

While there are the mainstays — such as Gates Bar-B-Q, Q39, Joe’s Kansas City Bar-B-Que and LC’s Bar-B-Q — there are some new names that are just starting to get such national attention.

Slap’s BBQ in Kansas City, Kansas, led the list, “thanks to its solid combo plates and classic feel.” It’s also a good place to try less-popular meats such as Polish sausage and thin-sliced turkey — some of the best in the city, Eater says.

Chef J BBQ in the West Bottoms has “fall-apart slices of beef brisket and tender ribs with a bold bark, but the sandwiches are just as good (try the Tennessee Dip).”

Night Goat Barbecue by chef and butcher Vaughn Good is a barbecue brunch spot with “fun drinks and top-notch sides, like a caramelized onion and chile cornbread or a smoked jalapeno slaw.” Eater also recommends the house-cured ham and pork belly and its “queen-sized breakfast burrito.” It takes over Good’s West Side Fox & Pearl restaurant on Sundays.

Night Goat Barbecue is a Sunday pop-up in Fox & Pearl restaurant on the city’s West Side.
Night Goat Barbecue is a Sunday pop-up in Fox & Pearl restaurant on the city’s West Side.

Eater put Harp Barbecue in Raytown on the list for its “incredibly rich sausages and thick slices of fat-marbled, perfectly smoked brisket.”

At newcomer Buck Tui BBQ in Overland Park, Eater recommends the smoked butterscotch wings. “Order the two-meat plate to score a link of pork sausage, fragrant with lemongrass and makrut lime, and a tangle of sweet-and-sour smoked pork.”

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Other mainstays noted by area writer Liz Cook:

▪ Arthur Bryant’s Barbeque: “no one makes a sauce like Bryant’s.”

▪ Jones Bar-B-Q in Kansas City, Kansas: For “exceptional ribs.”

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▪ Fiorella’s Jack Stack Barbecue (multiple locations): For “crown prime beef ribs and cheesy corn.”

Ribs cook on a smoker carousel at the Freight House location of Fiorella’s Jack Stack Barbecue in Kansas City.
Ribs cook on a smoker carousel at the Freight House location of Fiorella’s Jack Stack Barbecue in Kansas City.

▪ Big T’s Bar B Q (two locations on KC’s East Side): “The wood-fired meats coming out of Timothy Jones’s brick pit are consistently great.“

▪ Danny Edwards Blvd Barbecue on Southwest Boulevard: For the “Big D brisket on rye with Swiss cheese and a crunchy crown of onion rings.”

Kansas City area barbecue guide: Restaurants from A (Arthur Bryant’s) to Z (Zarda)