Stroud's Restaurant & Bar

02/02/09

I too agree this place is Highly Overrated

by biostudent at Citysearch

I went to Stouds for the first time a month ago. I've heard soo much wonderful feedback about this place. I will never go back to this place if I'm paying. it's beautiful inside, it's like a log cabin with fire place, but when I saw the menu and that they wanted $14- $20 for one person to fried chicken my jaw dropped. Their pan fried chicken is good, but it's not $20 good. and I can't eat that much fried anything. I can eat a breast or 2 legs, but not a breast a wing & a leg. I ended up buying their cheapest plate of chicken which was like $14 I ate half the breast & the rest of it that night the other 2 pieces went to waste because like I said I can't eat that much greasy fried chicken. they give you unlimited green beans & mashed potatoes. I ate a lot of green beans. I ate more green beans than chicken. and the potatoes I skipped all together because they were horrible. They tasted like they had been siting out for 12 hours. Our ticket for 2 people was over $50. This place is ridiculous I have no idea how it's gotten such good reviews. There is place called Brookville in Kansas a few hours a way. It has this same menu only I enjoyable going there.

• Pros: good fried chicken, beautiful interior
• Cons: extremely overpriced, food was not worth what you pay for it, menu selection

04/05/08

Highly Overrated!!!

by pue at Citysearch

My wife, daughter, and I took my Mother to Strouds "At The Wine Barn" for her birthday.

Upon entering, we decided to have some wine. "Sauvignon Blanc?" we asked... "Whats that?" the bartender wanted to know. "Its a wine" , I responded. "Im pretty sure we dont have any." Responds bartender.

"Pinot Grigio?" I ask. "Whats that?" Responds the bartender again. "Its another type of wine." I explained."No, I dont think we have that either." he offered, without making any effort to check...

I examined the visible selection of beers, and upon spotting Corona, ordered one. "Were all out of Corona", he explained upon his return from the cooler.

"How about a Heineken?" I ask. "Nope, all out." he informed me upon another trip to the cooler.

"Crown & Seven?" I ventured yet, another gamble. "I can do that", he replied.

We waited for 30 minutes in the entry way for a table, and were eventually seated next to a family who had the most interesting display of tatoos Ive ever seen in one immediate household!! (Wow... Culture!!)

The waiter named Jacob, greeted us with a "You guys know what you want?" after which we ordered what we assumed to be the reasonable item to order at Strouds; Chicken...

We also ordered waters to drink with everyone specifying "No lemon."

Three waters with lemon and my daughters Root Beer arrived at our table.

Our order came out as my mother was wearilly asking, "I'm starved, I wonder when we will get our food?"

A plate of very greasy chicken (I'm amazed that the waiter even served it!!), some cold hard gravy, and some potatoes that were probably OK an hour before, were handed to us to place on our table. Green beans of no special mention were also delivered by our server. Three plates were set in front of me for me to distribute, and Jacob wandered off leaving drink glasses that all needed attention.

At this point, Mom stated that she wished we had just gone to Popeyes and gotten some fresh food.

08/09/07

Worst fried chicken ever...

by sambamaster at Citysearch

After reading rave reviews of Stroud's in KC and here in Wichita, we decided to take my visiting brother to a "landmark" restaurant. My wife told me (I've just move here myself) that Stroud's used to be good, but was no longer, but I insisted...how could the Jane and Michael Stern be wrong??!!

Well, maybe the original KC Stroud's is great, but the Wichita location (different owners now as I understand it) should be avoided at all costs.

The dining room was hot and muggy. I asked the waitress to try fixing that and a manager went to the thermostat which I could see was registering 79---at that point it went up to 80, then 81...so, did the guy turn on the heat or what?

Then the food came out, in a most confusing fashion, fine, we sorted things out. But the main thing is, the chicken was terrible. Reviews said it would be juicy and delicious, but it was dry and insipid. I remarked that Popeye's would be better any day of the week. The cottage fries were limp and oily, the mashed potatoes were heavy and flavorless (Sterns say fluffy and great...not so, folks), the green beans were nasty, and also devoid of flavor after hours of cooking...canned? Who could tell? The gravy was not great either. My beer was good, but it was bottled and sealed in China, so this place could not mess that up too much, though I guess it could have matched the room temp.

And the price for all this mediocrity seemed a bit high.

All in all, a bad experience. We were all glad to get outside to cool off (at least the breeze helped...it was probably 85 outside). And all swore never to return. And I promise I never will. Avoid this over-hyped place like the plague! Need fried chicken? Go to Popeye's...the spuds are better too, and the price is much lower.