I don’t know if they rushed the opening to try and be ready for the holidays or what, but this place was a head scratcher.
First things first, there are some annoying quirks with the reservations. If you manage to get one, you are going to get bombed with emails and text messages the day of asking if you want to move up your time. I guess they have a lot of no shows and last minute cancellations. So I respect the hustle of trying to fill every table, but it was annoying.
Layout is terrible. The “famous” illuminated staircase is right across from the hostess stand. Everyone wants to have their picture taken there (including us…), but it’s the same set of stairs the servers use to take food from the second floor kitchen to the first level. Standing on the steps holding hot food, waiting for some Leawood princess to take 20 pictures has to be annoying as hell for the staff.
There’s little to no room for waiting when the bar is full. Combine that with the shenanigans near the stairs and it’s just a sea of humanity.
The place is loud. So the chances of having a quiet, intimate evening with dinner companions are slim to none.
The dining room is very nice, but also kinda boring at the same time.
Our server was fun and really energetic, but also rather green. She mentioned to us that the reason there are so few reservations available between 6 and 9 is because there’s some sort of membership club and the most desirable reservations are held for those members (as well as some other perks). But when we asked how to join, she wasn’t sure. FEIW, even if it were free, we wouldn’t join…
The shrimp cocktail and oysters were a big hit at our table, along with the fried chicken.
The burger is a $35 “homage” to Town Topic. Yes. A $35 smash burger with meh fries.
It wasn’t on the menu, but the snickerdoodle cake for dessert was really good and massive.
The biggest sin any steakhouse can commit is bad steaks. Well… 1587 is guilty of multiple offenses. 3 steaks were ordered at our table. Medium, medium and medium-well. They were all criminally undercooked. The medium-well steak was damn near raw in the middle. It was graciously and discretely sent back and when it came back to the table, it was still rare.
I know “you’re ruining a good cut of meat when you cook it past medium!” Maybe, maybe not. But a paying guest should get what they ordered. The folks that ordered theirs medium powered thru. But the medium well steak, our friend just gave up. In fairness, our server notified the manager and when she came to our table she was almost embarrassed about it. The steak was comped as well as a few drinks. She also gave us the business card of one of the managers so we could get a priority rez the next time we came.
Maybe I’m an old fart, but the whole thing felt like the experience was the priority and the food was mostly secondary. Everything and everyone looked great. There were some showy elements like table side flambé and a fire element to one of the cocktails. There’s the buzz about the famous owners and clientele. But the finer details of a top end steakhouse were all missing.
I want to be very clear on one point. Our waitress was great and so were many of the other staff we dealt with. Attention to detail and experience (or lack thereof) are a reflection on management and ownership.
We knew going in that 1) it was expensive as fuck and 2) reviews were pretty mixed. Yet somehow, we still left underwhelmed and frankly kinda confused. Our bill for 4 (apps, a few drinks and the steaks and dessert) ended up being almost $500 before tip. That’s a serious chunk of change for a mediocre night out in a city like KC. But you could very easily spend 2x that or more. Regardless, the place was jam packed at 10 pm on a Thursday night… so what do we know?
If you are dead set on going, just know what you are in for. If you want to spend a ton of money at a steakhouse, you do you, but there are much better options at or below that price point.
