a weekend in kansas city

Recently my husband and I made a trip to Kansas City to see some friends, and as always, we managed to sneak in a few meals out. First was a late dinner at Café Trio, located in the heart of Westport, right across from the Uptown Theater. Now this was my third visit to Trio, and obviously there is a reason I keep coming back—mostly for the excellent food and the sophisticated, yet unpretentious, vibe.

Maybe the third time isn’t a charm in the case of restaurants. Granted, it was Halloween night, they were having a costume contest, it was packed, etc. We didn’t know they were going all Halloweened-out when we made reservations, but when we read about it on the website, we were excited to get dressed up (plus they were offering unlimited “witches brew” and a $20 gift card to anyone wearing a costume). So we went.

First of all, the service was dismal. The same person who seated us was also our waiter, though he obviously had his hands full with a multitude of other responsibilities. We were rushed to place an order right away, and when we weren’t ready, we waited almost 30 minutes (though in fairness we did order an appetizer in the meantime—only after tracking the guy down).

The olive and cheese plate, which I had ordered twice previously, looked like a mish-mash of cheeses that had been sitting out for a couple of hours. The various crackers and breads were good, but placed haphazardly on the plate. Of course no explanation of the cheeses by our waiter.

Oh, and the “unlimited” witches brew? Tasted kind of like a watered-down Cape Cod. Apparently someone was back in the kitchen continuously making batches, but he or she couldn’t keep up, because our glasses were always empty. We did pay $5 for it, but that’s probably all we drank anyway because we rarely received refills of our tiny glasses.

So probably an hour or so after we sat down, our food came out. I ordered the 6 oz. filet mignon, gorgonzola-style, and it was delicious. The steak was cooked very well and the creamy melted gorgonzola cheese topped with white wine sauce was just what I needed after a disappointing beginning. The garlic mashed potatoes were also quite good, as was the sautéed asparagus.

If only my fellow diners were as happy with their meals.

My husband ordered the Mac Daddy, allegedly the best mac-n-cheese in KC. If that’s true, restaurants across Kansas City must be whipping up some pretty despicable macaroni. Trio’s sounded good, with bacon, green onion, bell pepper cherry tomatoes and Be Paese, Fontina and Romano cheeses. But it came out as a hard, crusty cold mess that my husband just kind of picked at disappointingly.

My friend ordered the Scallops Praline, which we knew would be good because I had ordered it on our first visit and it was divine. This time? Not so much. The scallops were waayyy overcooked—and you cannot overcook scallops. The sauce was still tasty, sweet, but not syrupy, but it did not cover up those rubbery scallops.

After sitting at that table for two and a half hours, we skipped dessert.

I don’t want to be too hard on Café Trio. After all, I had two excellent experiences there. I still love the big city atmosphere that almost transports you to New York or Chicago. I’ll chalk it up to Halloween tricks and leave it at that, but I probably won’t be back for awhile. Oh, and we did not get our gift cards after going to the trouble of dressing up. And we didn’t care.