BBQ: Oklahoma Joe’s

Oklahoma Joe’s

11950 South Strang Line Road, Olathe, KS 66062 | Website

Melissa’s Take:

I'd already eaten the pickles

This delicious melt in your mouth food was a pulled pork and brisket sandwich with onion rings.  The meat was juicy and tender, the bbq sauce was smooth and tangy, and the onion rings were crispy and most importantly, the onion did not fall out of the ring.  I have to give Atmosphere a 5 just because that’s what inspired this whole challenge-that’s some atmosphere.  They also served my personal favorite part of any meal-RESTAURANT PICKLES.

Main Course: 10/10, SSS 4.5/5, AS 5/5.  Total 19.5/20

Okay, I'm not the greatest photographer, but trust me it tastes good.

Jason’s Take:

Okay, I’ll admit it Oklahoma Joe’s is one of my favorite BBQ places ever so other places are gonna have to try pretty hard to dethron it in my culinary hall of fame.

Main Course: I had the Z-man which was utterly delicious. For those of you haven’t been enlightened this is a few bites of heaven. It is a brisket sandwich smuthered in Oklahoma Joe’s delicious Cowton BBQ sauce toped with provolone chese and what the hell an onion ring.

9.5/10 points

Sides, Suds & Stuff: For my sides I got the french fries and baked beans. Oklahoma Joe’s fries are salty, crispy and like any self respecting BBQ joint they give you way too many of them. The baked beans are about the right amount of spicy and finished off a few chunks of pork for good measure. OK Joes also has a  wide assortment of sauces from the spicy Night of the Living Bar B-Q, the aformentioned Cowtown and the new Bubba’s Vinegar Sauce. They are all excellent.

5/5 points

Atmosphere & Service: With a line out the door I felt like a Russian peasant standing line for his daily bread ration. If that ration was a serving of Oklahoma Joe’s then sign me up for communism. As soon as you’re lucky enough to make in in the door your nostrils are assaulted by the tasty smells of slow smoked bbq. Along the walls on your snails crawl to the ordering counter the walls are lined with countless awards, magazine articles and trophies for thier award winning BBQ.

4/5 points

Total: 18.5

The KC Food Fight Manifesto!

One day while visiting one of my favorite BBQ eateries with my girlfriend I noticed a plauqe on the wall that looked something like a March Madness basketball bracket. Upon further inspection I found that it was not basketball but a grand food fight of four different types of casual food local locals  to determain what was the champion of Kansas City. This local establishment was the winner of this bracket. After a tasty meal, Melissa (the girlfriend) and myself  wondered if this bracket was indeed true so we decided to take this 64 establishment challenge for ourselves.

The tournament is broken down into 4 divisions (BBQ, Pizza, Tacos and Burgers). Each restraunt is matched up against another in its respective bracket until the final 4 where the winner of each bracket goes toe to delicious toe. In each matchup the two restraunts will be visited within 2 weeks of each other before moving onto the next matchup. We will total up our opinions of each place and the winner will move onto the next round. This will continue until every restraunt is visited. After the matchups for each bracket are decied the final four restraunts will be revisited to for the final food fight.

How each fight is determined

1. Main Course (10 possible points) – Of course the most important part of any meal is the main course. Each restraunt gets a total of 10 points to be awarded just to the main course. Taste, presentation and any other crieteria we want to use will applied to it.

2. Sides, Sudds and Stuff (5 possible points) – Lots of places have specialty sides, appetizers, and beverages that they are well known for and will be included in the scoring. 

3.  Atmosphere & Service (5 possible points) – A cute booth?  Great service?  This is where we are counting the points for that.

Wild Card – Both Melissa and I get 2 wild cards (worth 5 points) each to apply to sway the vote in the direction we want to. Two wild cards can’t be used on the same place twice and no wild cards can be used in the final four.

Let the Kansas City Food Fight begin!