ABC Cafe

In researching the Kansas City Chinese restaurants it appeared that many of the authentic ones were on the Kansas side of the border, and that they were not messing around with the usual Americanized menu with a short list of ‘real’ Chinese dishes available for the more adventurous eaters. ABC Cafe turned out to be exactly what I wanted–a very good restaurant with a very extensive menu. Moreover it was Cantonese/ Hong Kong style that made me feel as if I were in the International District in Seattle or the various Chinatowns of large cities.

For having such a large menu, though, the dining room was surprisingly small. When I went shortly before closing time there was still a pretty large number of patrons, indicating to me that the food seemed to be very popular with the local population. I was pretty much overwhelmed with the number of choices available on the menu. My assessment, though, was that it would probably be hard to go wrong with any of them.

The Food

Tofu hot pot with pork belly

One of my favorite dishes, and one that is not served at many restaurants, is the Tofu Hot Pot, a dish normally consisting of large chunks of fried tofu in a pot of brown sauce. It normally comes with pork although this is usually not mentioned on the menu. In this case I asked for pork just to make sure it had some meat. I think the waiter (who I think was the owner) thought I wanted an upgrade so he included pork belly, an ingredient not normally served with this dish.

The result was the classic hot pot dish which made me very happy. In fact I thought this hot pot was very close to my all time favorite which was at Super Star in Denver. The tofu at both of these restaurants was the right flavor and consistency and the sauce here was very good. I wish I could explain just how good it was, but outside of the tofu the sauce is the biggest reason this is a special dish (and not many restaurants attempt to make it). To me the pork belly is not really any better than the regular pork, and I think both go equally well in this dish.

The hot pot came with very fresh bok choy, another reason it compares with the best I have had anywhere.