This story was first published in KCUR's Adventure newsletter. You can sign up to receive stories like this in your inbox every Tuesday.
Southern food is all about big tables, oversized portions, and flavors refined over generations. A mix of Native American, African American, and European influences, Southern dishes have stirred the American melting pot.
Typically, Southern comfort food is made with fresh herbs and vegetables, slow-cooked meats, and available grains such as corn and hominy. Many of these dishes are made from scratch, contain simple but robust flavors, and have a way of making you feel loved.
It’s the food that brings you back to pleasant times and great conversations: Biscuits with a stout sausage gravy, meatloaf with mashed potatoes, or a chicken pot pie served with corn muffins that hit the spot on a cold day.
Kansas City has a great selection of restaurants to choose from when you need to feel the love of Southern cooking — and note that these are just a few to start with, not a complete list of Southern and soul restaurants in the metro.
Take a step back from your stressful day, dress cozy, and arrive hungry.
Stroud's
Originally started in 1933 at 85th and Troost, Stroud’s is a Kansas City icon. Guy and Helen Stroud opened the restaurant as a BBQ joint, but due to beef rationing in World War II, they switched to chicken and haven’t looked back.
Stroud’s holds itself out as the “home of pan fried chicken.” It’s a simple process of deep frying breaded chicken in a cast iron pan, and the results are anything but ordinary, with crisp skin hiding an unbelievably moist chicken inside.
Everything at Stroud’s is served family style, which means they put large plates of food on the table and everyone helps themselves. Even when it’s dinner for one, big bowls of green beans and mashed potatoes come out.
The green beans contain ham and bacon slow-cooked right into the dish. The mashed potatoes are whipped-cream light, and nothing beats their homemade pan gravy. Pour it over the mashed potatoes or drench everything on your plate, there’s really no wrong way to eat it.
One menu item that deserves special notice is their homemade chicken noodle soup. Made in-house, the noodles are a quarter-inch wide and buttery. Shredded bits of pan-fried chicken swim throughout the soup so that every spoonful is hearty. It’s the broth that steals the show, though, with a deep richness. It’s the perfect cup of soup on a crisp fall night with a blanket and your favorite book.
Winners of a James Beard Award (in the category of America’s Classics) and the Zagat Award for Best Restaurant, Stroud’s has two locations now in Overland Park and Oak Ridge Manor in North Kansas City. Their Oak Ridge Manor location is housed in an 1829 log cabin and farmhouse.
- Overland Park: 8301 W 135th St, Overland Park, KS 66223
- North Kansas City: 5410 NE Oak Ridge Dr, Kansas City, MO 64119
PeachTree Cafeteria
“Soul food is Southern food,” said Chef James, the head chef of PeachTree Cafeteria. “We make everything from scratch, nothing pre-made. That’s how we do it here.”
Started in 2014 by Vera and Lavell Willis, PeachTree originally began as a buffet, but eventually grew into a cafeteria-style restaurant. The owners brought with them the Southern family recipes that they grew up on.
Often busy enough that you have to search for a parking spot, PeachTree Cafeteria sees a lot of families come in after a morning of worship — and the food is just as heavenly.
The menu can change during the week, but you can expect meatloaf, smothered pork chops, fried catfish, neckbones, collard greens, and a whole host of other classics.
And a special shoutout to their cornbread muffins. Like everything else, it’s made from scratch. Dense enough to carry a bit of weight and with an underlying sweetness to them, it’s the type of cornbread meant for mopping up gravy from your smothered pork chops.
You’ll also find chicken and waffles, a dish that dates back to Dutch immigrants in the 1600s but became popular at the Wells Supper Club in Harlem, New York in 1938.
- 6800 Eastwood Trafficway, Kansas City, MO 64129
- 2128 E 12th St, Kansas City, MO 64127
Lula Southern Cookhouse
When you walk into Lula Southern Cookhouse in the Crossroads, you are greeted by a portrait of Lula herself mounted behind the cashier — the grandmother of Bradley Gilmore, one of the restaurant’s founders. Next to the picture hangs a 24-inch wide cast iron skillet, one that she actually used herself in North Carolina.
Bradley and Brittany Gilmore opened the restaurant in 2021 with partner Brandy West, and the whole place feels like you are walking into a grandparent’s home. Lula’s personal Corningware is above the bar, high backed Victorian chairs sit at the front of the dining room, and shelves with decorative knick-knacks hang on the wall.
One standout is their fried green tomatoes, which have a flavorful crust that doesn’t overpower the warm delicacy inside. Served with ranch dressing that has a sprinkle of paprika, there’s just enough kick that each piece is worth multiple dips.
Their menus feature buttermilk biscuits, homemade donuts, shrimp and grits, and blackened catfish. Lula also serves a hardy gumbo, which starts with a richly seasoned, mahogany brown roux, and includes beef, chicken, sausage, and okra. By the time you get to the bottom of the bowl, you’ll notice the snow crab claw, which you should use to mop up the rest of the roux.
As you leave Lula Southern Cookhouse, do them one last favor. Cross-stitched and framed at the register is a message: “Call your grandmother.” It’s solid advice.
- 1617 Main St., Suite 100, Kansas City, MO 64108
Rye KC
Rye KC opened on the Country Club Plaza in 2012 and has been winning awards ever since. Founders and chefs Colby Garrelts won the James Beard Award for Best Chef Midwest and nominated multiple other times, and Megan Garrelts was a semifinalist for Outstanding Pastry Chef.
Colby’s family has lived in Kansas for generations, and Megan is from just outside of Chicago.
Their menu is chock full of the foods that their families cooked, but be aware that some of the items can be seasonal, such as their fried green tomatoes. Rye’s also revolves around fried chicken, which comes with ham gravy and homemade pickles.
Other Southern favorites make their way onto the menu, as well such as chicken liver and gizzards that are served with a housemade hot sauce and gravy. Also, Rye’s serves the classic dish chicken and dumplings, which has an interesting history in colonial America — it first appeared in one of the very first Southern cookbooks, “The Virginia Housewife” by Mary Randolf from 1824.
For dessert, treat yourself and have the Dutch apple pie. It’s at least two inches thick with a crumbled cinnamon and butter top with the apple sliced paper thin. Served with a side of whipped cream, the crust melts into the filling with each bite.
- Leawood: 10551 Mission Rd, Leawood, KS 66206
- Country Club Plaza: 4646 Mill Creek Pkwy, Kansas City, MO 64112
The Corner Cafe
The sweet smell from the bakery is the first thing you notice when you enter The Corner Cafe. Homemade cinnamon rolls and pies are constantly being baked, so even if you have to wait for a table, it’s worth it.
Ed and Kathi Rule opened the Corner Cafe’s first restaurant in 1983 in Riverside, in a building that had been a beloved cafe of its own. The couple turned the 40-seat restaurant into its own institution, cooking up family recipes that they loved, before outgrowing their space.
Today, those same favorites are offered across three different locations. Jason Rule, Ed and Kathi’s son, still runs the business with his family. One of the fun parts of visiting The Corner Cafe is that you can read their entire history in framed pictures on the walls.
“Comfort is nostalgic,” Jason Rule told me as he went into the bakery to cut up a piece of Banana Split Pie. Made with a crushed pecan crust and full chunks of fruit in a banana cream, it’s a dessert meant to be savored. While he cut up the pie, another employee ladled icing over a cinnamon roll that was only slightly smaller than a dinner plate.
Heads up—they plan to start making mini cinnamon rolls sometime around Thanksgiving.
Corner Cafe’s biscuits and sausage gravy is the perfect comfort food for when you have a long workday ahead of you (or behind you). The biscuits have just enough density to not become soggy, and the sausage gravy practically sticks to your fork.
- Riverside: 4541 NW Gateway Ave., Riverside, MO 64150
- Northland/Liberty: 8301 N Flintlock Rd, Kansas City, MO 64158
- Independence: 4215 S Little Blue Pkwy, Independence, MO 64057
Niecie's Restaurant
Denise Ward says she didn’t have much else going on in 1985, so why not open a restaurant? Niecie’s Restaurant, run with her husband Perry Ward, is still going strong on Troost Avenue nearly 40 years later. (Niecie is Denise’s nickname.)
Ward, a Kansas City native, grew up on these recipes, and many dishes started with her grandmother who grew up in Arkansas. Her motto: “Good food served right.”
You can expect some of your Southern favorites cooked to perfection: T-bone steak and eggs, meatloaf, and even a pig ear sandwich. Niecie’s menu is the type that you have to explore over multiple visits and you’ll still find something you haven’t tried before. Or you can mix up old favorites with different sides such as black-eyed peas, cornbread dressing, or fried green beans.
One of their standouts is a simple dish that every Southerner knows: grits, perfectly creamy and served with a dollop of butter. If Niecie’s can do grits this well, that should give you comfort about what you can expect from the rest of their menu.
- 6441 Troost Ave., Kansas City, MO 64131
Other great Southern restaurants
Kansas City has a rich selection of Southern comfort food, and there is still a lot of adventure to go. Here are some other often-mentioned restaurants to try:
- Charlie D’s
- 600 E 99th St, Kansas City, MO 64131
- 5111 Ararat Dr, Kansas City, MO 64129
- 12323 E US Hwy 40, Independence, MO 64055
- District Biskuits
- 504 Armour Rd, North Kansas City, MO 64116
- Luna’s Chicken and Seafood
- 8793 Blue Ridge Blvd Suite B, Kansas City, MO 64138
- 3708 State Ave, Kansas City, KS 66102
- 7901 Troost Ave, Kansas City, MO 64131
- J’s Fish & Chicken
- 2831 Prospect Ave, Kansas City, MO 64128
- 5412 Prospect Ave, Kansas City, MO 64130
- 1330 West 23rd St S, Independence, MO 64050
- 3012 N 27th St, Kansas City, KS 66104
- The Brass Onion
- 5501 W 135th St, Overland Park, KS 66224
- Homesteader
- 100 E 7 St, Kansas City, MO 64106
- Jazz A Louisiana Kitchen
- 1823 W 39th St, Kansas City, MO 64111
- Mudbug Cajun Po'Boys
- 3524 NE Vivion Road, Kansas City, MO 64119
- Rise Southern Biscuits and Righteous Chicken
- 6947 Tomahawk Rd, Prairie Village, KS 66208
- 7060 W 135th St, Overland Park, KS 66223
- Gus’s World Famous Fried Chicken
- 7935 W 151st St, Overland Park, KS 66223
- 2816 W 47th Ave, Kansas City, KS 66103
- 638 NE M 291, Lee's Summit, MO 64086
