River's Bend Restaurant and Bar: Wednesday Night Steak Night

Deal: 11.99 KC Strip and 2 sides on Wednesday Night.  

I went out in search of BBQ last night, yet ended up inadvertently stumbling upon a steak night.  I took that as a sign from God telling me to post my first review.  I am not tone to deny divine inspiration, especially when it says eat steak! 

I was on my way to Smokin' Guns BBQ up off of Swift Ave. in North Kansas City. Unfortunately, I arrived and it was closed.  If you're from Kansas City and you have BBQ on your mind it is hard to move forward without some smokey delicious meat drenched in the finest condiment the world has ever known: Bar-b-que Sauce.

Note: Kansas City North and North Kansas City are not the same thing. North Kansas City is a quaint area of town (that used to be its own independent municipality) directly north of the River in Kansas City, Kansas City North the entire region North of Missouri River in Kansas City. 
 
Not knowing the restaurants well in NKC well I decided to get out my generally trusty Urban Spoon app.  I looked for BBQ restaurants nearby.  Sadly I couldn't find any BBQ that sounded enticing and close.  But there was a place I had never heard of in Parkville called River's Bend.  It was listed under the BBQ section and my dining companion and I decided it'd been forever since either of us had been to Parkville, so we hopped on Hwy 9 and drove over to Parkville.  It is a short 7 minute drive from North Kansas City (about 12 minutes from Downtown).    

River's Bend is located right on Main Street in downtown Parkville.  It is a picturesque setting.  The Restaurant overlooks the river and the park.  I was quite disappointed to find out that the Restaurant was not a BBQ joint.  But as fate would have it we walked up there was a large sign out front beckoning "STEAK NIGHT."  It was time to end the BBQ hunt and start the steak night reviews.

We got inside and were seated.  The place has excellent ambiance.  It is an old power plant for Park College so it has tons of great industrial detailing.  On some evenings and weekends they are set up to have bands play. There is a patio out front to relax and have a beer on while watching trains pass by all with the Missouri River rolling behind.   

 I'll get better at taking these as time goes on.

They have an excellent happy hour and have their own brew.  The brew is called the "Choo-Choo" Brew.  It is a tasty American style lager, but it has more hops added for an extra bite that really made the beer taste great.  At happy hour the Choo-Choo is only a dollar per glass.  They also have bud light and other domestic draws and well drinks for two bucks during happy hour.  I love American Style Lagers, which makes me persona non-Grata around my beer snob friends, but I love the crisp refreshing taste.  I very much enjoyed the spin they put on the Lager by adding more hops to the Choo-Choo Brew.  

Onto the steak.  They had a fairly reasonable deal for $11.99 you get a KC strip and 2 sides.  I ordered mine medium rare as I will always do to make a fair comparison.  The steak did not have a lot of crusting on it and wasn't a superb cut of beef.  I'm not expecting Prime Dry-Aged meat at any of these steak nights, but if it happens I'm not going to complain.  All in all the steak tasted like a steak would at any bar and grill, nothing special about it, but nothing awful either.  The marbling was ok, it would be a stretch to even call it a choice cut of beef.  It was also pretty thin, not even an inch thick.  I personally am partial the 1.5-2 inch thick cuts, but again we're at steak night not the Golden Ox (my personal favorite steakhouse). 

What amazed me about the River's Bend was the sides that accompanied the steak.  The mashed potatoes you see pictured above had just enough garlic flavor and sour cream to be awesome.  My partner and I both agreed they were some of the better mashed potatoes we'd had in a while.  Unfortunately for you readers the green beans I ordered were forgotten at the time the picture was taken, but they were amazing.  They were home-style so cooked with bacon and white onions.  They also had an additional sweet flavor that I'm fairly certain was brown sugar. All in all they were excellent.  If the green beans were from a can they are from the best canning place I've ever tried. The stalks were still bright green and longer than your traditional canned beans, which makes me think they must have been either frozen pre-cut or fresh cut. The sweet brown sugar flavor mixed with the bacon and onion sent these green beans over the top.

They were a bit understaffed that evening so the service was slow, but I never mind enjoying a slightly longer meal.  We got tag teamed a bit by the manager and server/bartender (only employees working) but it was a slow night so it was understandable why the owners wouldn't staff up.  I have a feeling many of the steak nights will be like this because few places will give a great deal on a night they expect lots of people.  But the staff was always friendly.   

So to sum it up:

• Deal - Wednesday, $11.99, steak and two sides
• Location: 2 Main Street  Parkville, MO 64152
• Atmosphere - Fun
• Food:
• Steak - Decent 
• Mashed Potatoes - Awesome 
• Green Beans - Awesome 
• Choo Choo Brew - Tasty if you like American Style Lagers 

http://www.riversbendrestaurant.com/ 

If you're in Parkville on a Wednesday Night & want a steak this is a fun place to get on