Brasserie Bar & Cafe-Westin Crown Center

Hmmm. Well, yes, it is pretty trendy on Unilocal to give lousy reviews to Hotel based bars and restaurants. Plus, my observation from a lot of travel is people arriving here are tired, away from home, want instant gratification and world class service. It’d be nice if that was always the case but it rarely is, anywhere.
Our experience here was OK, not great, and folks… look where you are. This is the Disney version of Kansas City. Were you expecting Chez Panisse or the French Laundry? Hello.
First things first: our service was very good. Food: good enough, not great. We both had their salad selections and a charcuterie selection. The beers were cold and on tap, not out of the bottle, a plus. When the time came for the check there was no dallying around and we certainly did not have the time for it. Being we were attending an international music convention – the most entitled of self-​absorbed individuals on the planet (I am one, I know), I thought the experience was decent. Wouldn’t call it a date destination and really, what are people from KC doing showing up here for that? Go figure.
Come expecting competent service and respectable food, good service. And remember, your attitude is *always* a part of the ultimate experience you have. I know people don’t like reading that but restaurant people are humans too. Treat them like it and it’s amazing how they respond in kind. Good enough Westin, good enough.

I had lunch here once during my stay and breakfast once. The turkey sandwich and fries were good and I’d get them again if I stay at the hotel again.
The breakfast buffet left a lot to be desired, I’ve had a better free breakfast at lesser hotels. Very basic, not worth $ 15. I only tried it because I had vouchers from the hotel.

First time in this establishment, we tried the breakfast buffet, and it was disappointing for $ 14.95, the fruits were hard and not ripe. For the price you would expect more selections but nothing exciting was on the buffet line, bacon scrambled eggs and greasy sausage. Customer service is two the hostess gave us a table that wasn’t wiped down, I had to get someone to wipe it down, the server wasn’t friendly at all. For my first time visit in Kansas City, the impression that this place has imprinted for me is bad.

We stayed at the Westin on our Fourth of July trip through Kansas City. We spent the day in Legoland with the kids and by the time for dinner nothing was open except the Brasserie. Our server was pleasant and quick but the restaurant seemed under staffed especially for a holiday where every restaurant in downtown KC was closed at 7pm. We ordered crab cakes appetizer chicken fingers for the kids and cheese burgers and adult beverages for the adults. I ordered mine medium with Swiss. I was in the mood for a great juicy burger seasoned well with a nice bun and perfectly cooked fries which you get at high end restaurants with a chef that knows what they are doing. The crab cakes were great with sprouts and a mustard spicy mustard sauce cooked perfectly crisp on the outside and soft and warm on the inside. These seemed to be made with little bread crumb and mostly crab meat. The chicken tenders looked good but were definitely frozen. When the burgers arrived No surprise I got a burger with burnt edges and overlooked fries. The bun was croissant like and toasted too much and the cheese looked like it was melted with the fire from the grill that burned my patty. The best part were the cold ingredients. The lettuce, tomato and red onion were perfect and crisp and the pickle spear was fantastic. In a perfect world the $ 100 meal of burgers and chicken fingers would be cooked with some respect and love but not here at the Westin Brasserie!

Horrible!!! We got there with an hour before we had to live for the airport. Still serving breakfast at 11:45 but we told our waitress Fran we needed to be out by 12:45 and asked if we would be okay within the one hour to get our food, eat etc. we were extremely clear we needed to be out by then since there were many other food options to go to in crown plaza. She assured us it wouldn’t be a problem and besides there were only 2 other tables with people at it so we thought we were fine. 40 min later and still NO SILVERWARE FOR ANY OF US AND NO FOOD! We asked to speak to the manager Jewel and he couldn’t even say he was sorry that our food was so late with only two other tables occupied. He was rude and had no customer service skills! Food finally came and I had to down it (totally unenjoyable) and pack the other ¾ of my meal to go in the car. Silverware only came after we asked for it after our food arrived. I got the wrong dressing, my cousin got fries instead of salad and it was shocking how no apologies!!! I’m from California and I had heard mid-​west people were nice. Well the people at this restaurant were awful. While rushing to the car to go to the airport my sandwich (mustard dropped all over my shirt and drink spilled all over my new leather purse). Just an awful experience! I guess they aren’t owners do really don’t care! Ruined my time with cousins I was visiting. We couldn’t even enjoy our conversation because we were all agitated and stressed out about not getting food and making our plane on time. I own a large business with many employees and employees who don’t care about their customers needs should be fired, at least they would be if they were my employees Again the worst part was no apologies! Wow!

My first experience here was an absolute nightmare. Everything was bad from beginning to end. We were one of only four tables eating here for lunch at the time. We told the waitstaff that our guests were on a time crunch to catch a flight. Regardless, our food took 35 minutes to arrive. We did not even receive silverware and napkins until after the food was brought out. Our server was pleasant and tried to help accommodate us. I do not blame her for anything. The hostess did not seat us at a table that was ready and the kitchen was clearly slow. The most disappointing part of the experience was the passiveness of the manager, Jewel. He was standing idly the entire time until our food came out, during which he asked «how is everything tasting?» and turned to walk away. Our group voiced all of our complaints to him, in which he got defensive and not once did he apologize. Extremely disappointing. We definitely will not be returning.

Having barely made our flight to Kansas City from Chicago O’Hare, the group was tired and hungry when we finally made it to the Westin. This was my first trip to Kansas City, Missouri, so I didn’t really know what to expect as far as food options go.
I don’t recall the actual name of the dish that I got, but it was something like pork belly lettuce wraps. I initially ordered pork belly something else, but they were out. So I ordered the lettuce wraps from the bar menu. When it came out, I was like… crap, I should have gotten the tomato soup like everyone else. Upon first bite, the pork belly was overcooked and dry. There was some kind of sweet and tangy Asian tasting sauce drizzled on that left an describable weird aftertaste. As I write this review, I’m still shaking my head over the bits of fried egg on top. Just plain weird!
If I ever I have another opportunity to visit Kansas City, I’m hoping for real KC BBQ.

We ordered 2 dinners and 2 kids menu items. My wife had to ask if I thought the scallops were okay. They weren’t spoiled — just didn’t taste good. I got the soba noodle salad which was okay but really light on vegetables– mostly noodles. My son got kids chicken quesadilla. Absolutely awful and the rice & bend that came on the side was even worse. Hard to explain — tasted like stale rice. It’s hard to screw up rice. My daughter got pasta with grilled chicken and the chicken just didn’t taste right. All around bad experience.

This is the restaurant inside the Westin at Crown Center, and as I was staying there I ended up eating a last minute dinner there Saturday night. My group was greeted by the manager at the door. She was very friendly, professional, and made sure we were taken care of. I split the lobster mac and a flatbread pizza with someone in my group and both arrived in a timely manner and were very delicious.
I was pleasantly surprised by the decently priced menu, considering this restaurant’s location inside a large upscale hotel/​shopping center. I felt that I got a good bang for my buck at this place.
In addition to the restaurant, the Brasserie has a very cool looking bar. I didn’t get a chance to have a drink there, but it looked like a good place to chill after a long day of work or travel.

Service is slooooooow and distracted. We were seated without menus, had to ask for beverages and ultimately the check as we had to get to an event. Served one wrong dessert but we had to go. Disappointing.

We have eaten here on several occasions when staying at the Crown Center properties, more out of necessity than desire (although Crown Center has several restaurants, none start service until after 10:00am).
In the beginning the Brasserie had a pretty decent breakfast (all you care to eat with fresh fruit, cereals, omelet bar, pastries, sausage, bacon, hot cakes, French toast, etc.) all for $ 14, children $ 7. The omelet bar has ceased, and now the scrambled eggs sit pre-​made… Dry and old under heat lamps.
I enjoy fresh fruit but prefer that the restaurant pick fruit that is in season (there are many good choices to choose from, I was able to get some great deals at the River Market after I left the brasserie). The sausage looked like it was prepared an hour or so earlier (my wife, youngest daughter and I were in today [a Saturday morning] at 9:10 and there was only three other families in the restaurant). The oatmeal was glue like (Elmer’s would be proud), and the sausage gravy had an oil slick on top that even OSHA couldn’t clean up (I believe the oil/​grease was there to soften the extra dry biscuits).
They make the buffet the way to go, because if you order off the menu it will cost you $ 12 for one item, and it goes up from there.
For two adults and child (with tip and tax) it came to about $ 47.
This will be our last visit to the Brasserie, no matter how desperate we become while staying at either the Westin or the Sheraton Crown Center.

Terrible service at dinner. Food came out 20 minutes apart for different people in our party. Had to ask for everything even a glass for the beer. Waitress kept saying ’ no problem ’ but everything was a problem.
Breakfast, on the other hand, was the opposite. Excellent service, good food.

I had breakfast at this location. My husband and I stepped in about 12 when they had just stopped serving breakfast. They were very nice and said they can accommodate most breakfast meals even though it was lunch time. I ordered French toast. Epic fail :(the berries were bitter and my bread was dry. I had to add one jar of syrup to each slice of French toast and let it absorb so it could be some what moist. The husband had american breakfast he said it was good. The service was great. The restaurant is clean. Just don’t eat the French toast.

If you want to come to a bar where the staff is exclusively focused on the closing time and getting you out by then, this is the place for you. Im a Lifetime Platinum Preferred Starwood frequent traveler and i will walk 3 – 4 blocks in the future to avoid the unpleasant environment in this place. Very disappointing.

The Brasserie is located within the Westin, and has a nice big bar. I had lunch here with a friend, and the food was fine, but nothing great or terribly exciting. We did have a free dessert card with purchase of an entrée and I got the gooey butter cake, which was crazy rich and sweet but pretty tasty. Generally, this is about what you might expect of a hotel restaurant– nothing outstanding but it will do the job in a pinch.

It’s not that BAD. It’s got new chef and if u want a beer and a place to chill with the local yanks patron’ing this shitty ass Westin hotel (it’s not the best to be honest) then get off you’re heavenly bed and have a pint. Stella on tap is good bubbles and price.

I’ve never heard of Brasserie Bar & Café until my friend (who had a coupon) suggested we have lunch here. I did not look up Unilocal reviews prior to dining which was my mistake, I figured a coupon is a coupon I’ll get a free or discounted meal out of it. I was mistaken, my entrée was very much so a disappointment.
My friend and I arrived in the afternoon for a late lunch around 1:00pm. About an hour before they closed for lunch. We were the 2^nd table there as the lunch rush has already trickled away. Our server was very nice and friendly. I had looked at the menu the day before so I had an idea of what I wanted. My friend had a coupon that allowed us to spend $ 37.50 to be able to use the coupon so we had a difficult time trying to decide considering lunch time tends to be cheaper. We started off with the duo hummus trio appetizer, that was a large dish (12 slices of pita bread) in itself my friend and I started to become very full from it. The portion was on par! Now to the hummus, we were given an edamame hummus and the traditional chick peas hummus. We were partial to the chick peas hummus by far. It had better flavor and tasted like hummus. The Edamame we could have done without, it was bland, tasteless and could use a bit of seasoning. Oh was irked me a little was seeing the oil layer on the hummus, almost as if it had been sitting out draining for a while… I understand hummus will do that but it wasn’t something I wanted to see personally.
The wait in between our entrée and appetizer was just right, by then my stomach had digested and I was able to open up room for my entrée. I ordered the Ahi Tuna Sandwich with fries and my friend ordered the salmon sandwich with fries. Much to my dismay I was disappointed with my Ahi Tuna. The outer edges were dry, it looked like a slab of pork in between 2 buns, and it was super salty I had to take a drink with almost every bite not to mention the fries! My tuna did not look like a tuna, and 90% of it was fully cooked. My assumption is that it was partially? No? Anywho I forced myself to eat as much as I could, it got a little bit better towards the center though. I really enjoyed the fries but they were just as salty if not more. My entrée was not what I had expected from a high end restaurant. However according to my friend she seemed to enjoyed her meal… glad 1 of us did!
My friend did order a cocktail to make our lunch more interesting and that was probably the only thing I enjoyed at Brasserie. I wish I could remember the name of it, it had raspberry liqueur was the only thing that came to mind. The bar was out of fruit garnish and our server apologized for that… very nice of him to. Most restaurants don’t even do that!
This was a lesson I learned, to always read Unilocal reviews instead of going into a restaurant blind! I doubt I’ll go again nor would I suggest such a place. They had great service, if only I could say the same about their food. So beware fellow foodies, if you find yourself dining here I would stay away from the Ahi Tuna sandwich or else you’ll be needing a lot of refill on water and the hummus… way too expensive for the quality you got ($ 10!).

Called on a few different occasions… today being one of them. Called 3 different times, no answer. Phone just rang until it hit voicemail.
This place is never so packed that nobody could answer.

I actually feel bad talking about this place. It’s obvious that there are people there doing their job, hustling, working hard, but to be attached to such a nice nice hotel… embarrassing. The menu, food quality, service, cocktails… all totally average. Concept, décor, cleanliness… average. Average average average! The only thing above average was the prices. Like, it’d be less expensive to eat at the Disneyland airport during a pro sporting event. So, some foodies may come in and be upset the whole time because it’s SO OBVIOUS that this is much more of a bistro than a brasserie, but I think the average Joe will be way more ticked off that their very average dinner left them $ 38 lighter and one pound of Ben E Kieth and olive oil richer.
And in the morning when you leave perhaps you can stop by and get upset again, because the giant sign in the lobby that eludes to «now proudly serving Starbucks coffee» is actually these guys again (See? Bistro, not brasserie!) And the sign that advertises Starbucks takes up way more space than the actual operation itself. You can have your Starbucks coffee one of 4 ways, none of which are iced. Laaaaaaame.
So come to the Westin to stay, it’s great. Just plan on eating, drinking, socializing, and getting coffee somewhere else.

While waiting for the Hospital Hill half marathon packet pickup to open, my wife and I decided to kill some time by dropping by for a drink. No big surprises here, really.
Upon arriving at the bar I was pleased to learn that they had Boulevard’s Boss Tom’s Golden Bock on tap, so I ordered a pint of that. My wife had her favorite cocktail, a dirty martini. We weren’t there to order a lot of food but decided to try the hot pretzel sticks. They were tasty enough but for $ 8 you would think that you’d get more than TWO.
Overall, I think this place is pretty much what you’d expect from a hotel bar… average food at well above average prices. I’d never eat a meal here but perhaps I’ll stop by for a pint while I’m waiting for packet pickup to open next year.