Pot.Stir

Last night, we planned on visiting FüD, a newly opened vegan restaurant run by a rather, um, interesting character. Unfortunately we discovered that FüD is not actually open on Sundays, so we’ll have to save that review for another time. Instead, we strolled down the street to Westside Local, a restaurant both D and I have been to a handful of times.

As evinced by its name, Westside Local places heavy emphasis on local, organic ingredients*; beer pairings are listed on the menu beneath each main course. The food is slightly pricey but not nearly as insufferable as it could be, considering its local/organic designation; small plates range from $6 – 10, and big plates from $13-$26. There’s an odd little item in the small plates listing called “soupish” which we asked our waiter about (“is this for when you want soup but not really?”), which turned out to be a tasting of the soup of the day.

Anyway, on to the food we actually ordered. Photos below were taken after we had already commenced attacking our dinners, whoopsies!

Not pictured, because we forgot: a plate of deviled eggs, which (I think) is D’s favorite offering at WL. The eggs are a little more vinegary than usual, which makes them a little more interesting than ordinary deviled eggs. They’re served with a spicy mustard and some greens, which also give them a nice little kick.

D just ordered a beet salad for dinner. With a heaping helping of oxygen on the side!

Quinoa risotto with vegan cream and various roasted veggies.

To me this dish almost seemed a bit of a throwaway, “we have to make something vegan…quick, what do vegans like?” I’m not stuck up about experimenting with classic dishes, but stuff cooked in stock does not a risotto make…it just makes it “quinoa simmered in stock instead of water.” It’s not a particularly absorbent grain, or maybe it is if cooked longer. It was certainly light and tasty, but not particularly compelling or anything.

Chicken and waffles! A grand dish for dead Elvis or a pregnant lady.

To the opposite extreme was this chicken and waffles dish, served with homemade butter, sriracha (or as we like to call it, “cock sauce”), and syrup. The combination sounds a bit strange, but I thought it worked, as it is scientific fact that cock sauce goes with everything. The batter on the chicken was noisily crunchy, and the syrup-sriracha concoction tempered the severe fattiness of the rest of the dish. If we weren’t pregnant before eating this, we sure looked it afterwards.

Because I am a glutton, I ordered this massive carbofart of a dinner. It did actually look kinda purdy before I slashed the yolk with my fork and went to Chowtown.

I was torn between ordering the carbonara (which is one of my favorite dishes to cook, so this was definitely breaking my tendency to order things that I don’t know how to make) or the mussels in chorizo and tomato broth, but then I vaguely remembered being slightly disappointed in the mussels the last time I came to WL, and also I had Anthony Bourdain’s infamous “no seafood on Sundays” advice in my brain, so I went with this.** The carbonara featured crispy chunks of pancetta, which were fantastic – almost like crispy Chinese pork belly, with an intensely crunchy and salty exterior. Minor quibbles: instead of parmesan, there was a big dollop of mozzarella, which kind of melted into this gooey sticky puddle at the bottom of the plate and didn’t incorporate very well with the rest of the dish. In place of peas, for some reason, there were fava beans – which I thought was a little odd and incongruous. The pasta was nicely done, however, and I am generally a big fan of having a little egg yolk sitting there, awaiting brutal stabbing with a fork and bleeding out all over the rest of a dish.

All in all, Westside Local is a cute, hip little joint in the cutest, hippest little neighborhood in the KCMO area. Stop by, grab a beer and get some deviled eggs!

The Westside Local
1663 Summit Street
Kansas City, MO 64108
(816) 997-9089

* – though there are a few exceptions to the local ingredients rule, such as the mussels. I think – hopefully these haven’t been dredged from the Kaw!
** – Note for future reference: carbonara + beer is NOT in fact a genius combination when one plans to go to a concert immediately afterwards. Shoulda gone with beet salad + air.