Harpo's: Wednesday Steak Night

Deal: $8.95 10 oz "KC Strip" with a side

I'm making an effort to keep this regularly updated (approximately weekly). Plus I do have to eat while studying for the bar so I decided that I would go out for a Kansas City Steak Night. I had some trouble finding a dining companion at the last minute. When it seemed hope for finding a last minute dinner companion was fading a highly respected and well loved member of my family stopped by to return my portable grill and wanted to go to dinner. The KC steak night adventure was on! He picked up the tab as well, making this the most cost effective steak night thus far (not to mention this is also the lowest cost steak night I have been to yet).

I did my due diligence and found out that Harpo's has a Wednesday steak night. You get a 10 oz. KC strip and a side for $8.95. If you time it right you can also take advantage of some great drink specials. Unfortunately, I missed them all because I arrived at 7:30 p.m. They have $2 well drinks after 9 p.m. and happy hour from 3-6 p.m. They also have a "craft beer courtyard" during the summer, which is $3.50 per pint. But don't be fooled by their website when it says "craft beer courtyard," which implies that it's all day, because the deal does not start 'til 9 p.m.

It was a very pleasant evening in Westport, and we sat on the patio.  If you haven't been to Harpo's in a while (or have forgotten) they have one of the best patio's in town. When we arrived we had some trouble getting a server. There appeared to be some confusion about who would be our server between the two (very cute) servers working the patio. But, once it was sorted out service was excellent. I started off the evening with a nice Pale Ale, which came in one of the enormous cups that they have.  They brought us menus, but my dining companion and I both knew we wanted the steak night deal.

We both ordered our steaks medium rare with a side of sweet potato fries. You have a few side options here: salad, pasta salad, fries, cottage cheese and the aforementioned sweet potato fries.

My dining companion and I sat chatting and listening to the faux-intellectual hipster types poorly discuss the issues of the day with a great deal of self-righteousness*.  Before we could get lost in hipster mediocrity, the steaks arrived, and very promptly I might add. *Note: I do realize the irony of my own self-righteous condemnation of the self-righteous hipsters here. 

Onto the steak!

This steak looked very promising when it came out. Excellent grill marks, with the quarter turn done for the visual cross lines. Plus there was a mountain of sweet potato fries accompanying.  

I cut into the steak and it was cooked to a perfect medium rare.  This is the first place to actually nail medium-rare. I took my first bite and the outside of the steak had a wonderful salt and pepper crust. But as I continued to eat the steak proved to be very fatty, and not in a good way. I would not call this a KC Strip, as it was it was very low quality. However, it still tasted like a steak so it wasn't all that bad. (Steak is never that bad when cooked with the skill that this steak had been cooked with.)


The sweet potato fries were great.  Nice and crusty on the outside, and not overly seasoned. Overall this was a pretty good steak night, even if the cut of meat wasn't the best.

To sum up this KC Steak Night adventure:

• Restaurant: Harpo's 
• Location: Westport - 4109 Pennsylvania, Kansas City, MO 64111 
• Phone Number - (816) 573-3434 
• Ambiance - One of the best outdoor patio's in town 
• Steak - Superb job by the chef, bad job by the person in charge of ordering beef 
• Service - good once they decided who would take our table 

If you're out on a Wednesday and want a steak before you start drinking this is the place to go.