Pot.Stir

The first time I passed this restaurant and saw the name, I actually hooted out loud in a highly unladylike manner, cause y’all? I LOVE POT PIES (c.f. my waistline). My bf and I vowed to return to this intriguing place. Last night, we were in KC for a few hours before going to a show at the Beaumont, so we finally had our excuse for glorious gluttony.

The menu is rather small at Pot Pie. I tend to take this as a good sign, in contrast with places that feature tome-length menus of mediocre offerings. But, for a restaurant themed and named after pot pies, there are only two variants of the dish on offer: classic chicken & vegetables, and beef & mushroom. No vegetarian options, which ordinarily wouldn’t bug me that much except that this strikes me as rather simple to do. A pot pie is essentially “stew covered with pie crust”; just have maybe three or four varieties of stew bubbling on the stove beforehand, and roll out the pie dough / crust whenever people order. There are a few other dishes on the menu, your basic (for fancypants restaurants, at least) plates of seared scallops, steak, etc etc – but we came for the Pot Pie and that’s what we ordered.

Sad to say, the titular* pies were a disappointment. Service was a tad slow considering the place was hardly packed, but we didn’t mind because we had several hours to kill before the show. When the pies eventually came out, they were piping hot on top – the phyllo dough crust was burnt in several places, actually – but the stew beneath was lukewarm and severely underseasoned. The beef wasn’t particularly tender; the chicken was all right but then again, it’s just chicken. Both pies were pretty sizeable, and I struggled to finish mine even though I was ravenously hungry beforehand. My bf liked his well enough; he’ll essentially like anything wrapped in some sort of bread (as long as the contents meet his cryptic dietary restrictions, of course), but given the few other generic-sounding offerings on the menu, nothing about this place would lure either of us to return.

My suggestion: unless burnt and bland happens to hit the spot for you, keep right on walking to Bluestem next door. It’s a bit pricier but there are happy hour specials, some of which I would have tried had the pot pie not been taking up valuable real estate in my belly**.

Pot Pie
904 Westport Road
Kansas City, MO 64111-3147
(816) 561-2702

* haw haw “tit.” Yes, I am twelve.
** rows of condos for sale up in here, yo.