Restaurant Review: La Bodega, Kansas City, MO

Restaurant Review, La Bodega, Kansas City, MO - dinner on June 2, 2018

After we stocked up on our artisanal chocolates, clutching those elegant carrier bags from Christopher Elbow like 6 Gollums with the Precious, we made our way to La Bodega, Mel’s go-to for tapas. We arrived deliberately on the early side for dinner, partly because one of us had to leave a little early and partly to take advantage of the happy hour special of half-off on the happy hour menu of a select number of tapas.

La Bodega was an interesting restaurant with artistic décor, its walls fully painted, depicting various scenes. It wasn’t too crowded when we arrived and we were able to order a wide variety and number of tapas which were delivered fairly quickly. If you’ve never had tapas before, think of them as the Spanish equivalent of dim sum: small plates with appetizer-sized food in a variety of flavors. The key is variety. The advantage of tapas is you can order a wide assortment, try all sorts of different things and not limit yourself to one particular, “normal”-sized entrée. 

Sangria

Tapas are meant for small bites, sharing and trying new dishes without weighing you down by eating too much of any one thing. In theory, anyway, because if you liked a particular dish, you could certainly put in another order for it.

Albondigas Caseras (meatballs in a spicy garlic cream sauce)

Las Pelotas Estofadas (meatballs in red wine-bravas sauce)

There were 6 of us and that was a good number to try a number of different tapas dishes, just enough that everyone could have at least 1 bite of everything, possibly more if you liked something more than someone else. The nice thing about going to a tapas place with a group is the more you could order and the wider the variety since we all had different preferences. I favored the meatball tapas plates (carnivore) while other friends liked the mushrooms and the cheeses.

Croqueta de Pollo (Chicken Croquettes - delicious)

The downside of enjoying tapas is, similar to dim sum, you tend to consume more because there are so many different things to try. “Just a bite” of 12 different tapas plates tends to add up and you (*I*) end up full before I know it. And there are likely more plates I just have to try. Still, it’s a small price to pay for an occasional indulgence. It’s not every day I’m in Kansas City at a delicious tapas place with awesome friends.

Champinones a la Plancha (Roasted Mushrooms)

I can’t remember all of the specific dishes we tried but there weren’t any I didn’t like. Service was great, our tapas dishes were delivered promptly, even when we did a second round of orders and the wait staff was very nice. Prices were reasonable, even more so at 50% off. 

Montaditos del Carne de Cerdo (pulled pork)

Jamon Iberico

Solomillo con Cobrales (grilled beef tenderloin with Spanish bleu cheese)

Some of the dessert choices were expected in that, in keeping with the Spanish theme, there were churros and flan. A little more mainstream were the cheesecake and chocolate cake. A slight disappointment on my part that tres leches cake wasn’t on the menu. And surprising was the offering of a s’mores cake. It was a warm chocolate cake with fudge sauce, buried under a toasted marshmallow covering. I’m not a big fan of marshmallows but my friend Jen was and I could get down with the warm chocolate cake part so it was an easy choice to make. 

S'mores Cake

The s’mores dessert was pretty good, although I admit to being full enough that I could only manage a few bites. It was definitely a decadent capper to a delicious meal. So far, Mel hadn’t steered us wrong yet on great places to eat in Kansas City.

Christopher Elbow Artisanal Chocolate, Kansas City, MO

Christopher Elbow Artisanal Chocolate, Kansas City, MO - visited June 2, 2018

This is going to be one of those posts that is very picture-heavy. One glance through the pictures and you'll understand why. The good news is viewing them doesn't actually make you gain weight. Just have a kleenex handy to catch any drool.

Still eating our way through Kansas City. Saturday night, we had dinner plans to go to a Spanish tapas place (next post) but we left a little early so we had time to go to Mel’s favorite chocolatier, Christopher Elbow. She had bought a box of dark chocolate sea salt turtles to spoil us with when we arrived but we all wanted to go to the shop ourselves and buy gifts to bring home. Okay, and more chocolate for ourselves.

I was a little familiar with Christopher Elbow Chocolates since Mel had given me a box of artisanal chocolates when I had last visited but this was my first time in the actual shop. It’s definitely worth seeing in person and I’m so glad I got the opportunity to do so. The chocolates were literally a work of art, every single piece. I had to snap pictures of nearly every display as they were so beautiful. I’m in awe of the vision to create each kind of chocolate; they were quite artistic.

Some of the flavors were also rather exotic. This is where my plain taste buds don’t necessarily come up to scratch to the artistry and more sophisticated palate probably needed to fully appreciate artisanal chocolate but I found enough to satisfy not just my eyes but also my taste buds.

You can buy the chocolates by the piece and either go for a 4-box, 9-box or 16-box. Or, if you don’t want chocolates in those numbers, you can buy any amount you wish to put in a bag but then you end up paying the individual chocolate price, $4 each. It’s slightly cheaper to buy the pre-fixed amounts in the different-size boxes.

I liked the turtles Mel had us try at her house but I went for a box of the milk chocolate ones instead of the dark chocolate. I’m a milk chocolate imbiber. Then I had to get 4 of the pretty chocolates because you know, chocolate. My “impulse” purchase was a milk chocolate hazelnut praline from a display of individually wrapped ones conveniently near the cash register, meant to target weak-willed chocoholics like me. I obliged.

If you want to know prices, the box of 6 milk chocolate fleur de sel pecan turtles was $22, the 4-box chocolates were $10, and the milk chocolate hazelnut patty were $4. So it was not a cheap indulgence but worth it.

I managed to keep myself from eating any of it until I was on my way home the next morning. The milk chocolate hazelnut patty ended up being my breakfast as I caught a 6 am flight out of Kansas City the next day. I held out until we were landing for my connecting flight. Took one bite and cursed myself for only getting one of these. It was freaking amazingly delicious. WHY did I only get one?? What was I thinking??

By the second bite, I was already thinking I needed to go to the Christopher Elbow shop that the Kansas City folks told me was in San Francisco. San Francisco! Not close but not as far as KC. Seriously, the praline patty was amazing. I had thought it would be hard like a chocolate-covered toffee but it wasn’t. It was slightly more firm than the chewy caramel of the sea salt turtle but not hard like toffee. I can’t describe it very well. I think I need to go get another one to refresh my memory and be more descriptive.

Best Hazelnut Praline Ever

For the 4 individual chocolates, I got a variation of a caramel flavor for each one. The insides were the soft, flowy caramel, my favorite kind. I don’t mind the chewy caramel but the flowy, oozy kind is best. After you bring yourself to break through the gorgeous chocolate shell, you encounter the smoothness of the best caramel. Each flavor was subtle with just the right balance of flavor and sweetness. If you’re a chocolate connoisseur, you have to give Christopher Elbow chocolates a try.

Coconut Caramel

Vanilla Bean Caramel

Milk Chocolate Turtle with Sea Salt

LaMars Donuts, Kansas City, MO

LaMar's Donuts, Kansas City, MO - June 2, 2018

As part of our weekend of eating, I mean, getting together, Mel had donuts from LaMars waiting for us when we arrived on Friday afternoon and evening, in addition to the red velvet cake from Donnell Chambers and the planned dinner on Friday night at Thai Spice. While we each had a piece of the red velvet close to midnight on that Friday night (given we were already full from dinner, ha), we didn’t get to the donuts until the next day.

Glazed Doughnut

We had an impromptu donut tasting party on Saturday morning after we returned from the dance class at Mel’s gym that she had pre-arranged with her favorite instructor, Angie. Had to work off some calories in advance before we ate some more, ha.

Red Velvet Cake Doughnut

Chocolate Cake Doughnut

As everyone knows, donuts tend to have a short shelf life. Mel had gotten us a variety of cake and raised donuts in different flavors. There were red velvet cake and chocolate cake donuts, original raised/glazed donuts, boston cream pie donuts and raspberry (?) raised donuts.

Raspberry-filled raised doughnut

I’m sure the donuts would’ve been more delicious had we eaten them shortly after purchase. As it was, a day later, the cake donuts didn’t fare well to survive the next day. The flavor was there but they were a little dry to my finicky taste buds. The raised donuts were fine though and fared better. The Boston cream pie was the overall favorite, both because it retained the most freshness and because the cream inside, which helped with the freshness factor, was also delicious. 

Boston Cream Pie Doughnut

Since I’m not a donut person, I’m probably not the best judge and I also have local loyalties to Stan’s Donuts but I can appreciate how LaMars Donuts has withstood the test of time in the Kansas City area and am impressed by their longevity in the business. Next time I go back, I’d love to visit their shop in person.