Swagger Fine Spirits & Food

Service is terrific. Our waiter Jerry from San Diego has the BEST personality. He knows how to take care of the customer. Loving the ahi tuna burger. Portions are generous. Will be back!

Get the Suribachi Burger or the Dead Texan Burger with a side of Wasabi Coleslaw! Great Food and Incredible Beers on Tap! Featured on the Food Network Show — Diners, Drive-​ins and Dives!
The Castro Sandwhich with fries = Amazing. Great buffalo wings too. Can’t wait to see them featured on Diners, Drive-​Ins and Dives.

If I could rate Swagger solely on the food and drinks they serve, I would give it 5 stars without question. Everything I’ve eaten here has been wonderful, and I’m convinced that the Suribachi Burger is one of the greatest sandwiches I’ve ever had in my life. Add to that an extensive list of craft beers on tap and a nice selection of bourbons as well and you have the makings of a perfect bar, at least one would think. But unfortunately, Swagger can get a little too «rough around the edges» for me at times, and that makes me not enjoy the experience as much. I’ve also found that unless you’re seated at the bar the service can be pretty bad. It’s certainly not enough to keep me away, but it keeps me from being able to give it the 5 star rating it deserves for its amazing food.

They had great burgers even tho it could possibly contain roach feces according to the paper. Had the fried chicken, tasted like it was fried in 100 year old oil that’s been used a ca-​million times. Very good saracha burger though.

One of my girlfriend’s friends is in love with this place, so we headed over to give it a shot a couple weeks ago. I had no idea what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised by this little place. Swagger prides itself on being a dive bar, but I’m not sure that’s entirely accurate. It lacks the dirty, smoky, burnt-​out atmosphere necessary to truly be a dive, but it certainly has that low-​key local, townie bar feel to it. My kind of place.
Swagger has an extensive drink menu and boasts some fairly unique brews imported from around the world as well as a healthy stock of local stuff, including just about everything Boulevard produces. Some of the more exotic choices will set you back a fair amount, but if you happen to go during happy hour, all Boulevard brews are $ 3 — not bad at all. I appreciate the variety and amount of beers they have on tap, as well.
The food is pretty good, I have to say. I had some weird chicken sandwich with a combo of wasabi, sweet slaw, jerk seasoning, and teriyaki that was tasty. It was a bit difficult to wrap my head around all the conflicting flavors going on, but they all ended up working together surprisingly well. My girlfriend’s crab legs weren’t quite as exotic as my sandwich, but they were still devoured in short order. I see some hate for Swagger’s fries in some of these reviews, but I just think they’re a different kind of good than a lot of people seem to be used to. Their fries are of the plain potato, skin-​on variety that end up softer (not soggy, mind you) than what many places aim to achieve. Add a little salt or some malt vinegar, and you’re good to go.
Overall, I enjoyed Swagger a lot. It’s a bit pricey, especially considering the atmosphere, but they back up the prices with quality to a large extent. I doubt I’ll become a regular, but it’s a decent spot for happy hour or a change of pace.

The first thing to understand about this place is, it’s a dive. Recently I went for dinner with a group of friends. The service was friendly, but very slow to get our drinks, appetizers and food. The whole experience was two hours.
When the food arrived, people either loved it or hated it. The french friends were stale and dry, but lukewarm. A few ordered onion rings which were burnt. They brought out a few baskets of fresh ones, but everyone who ordered fries left them sitting on their plates.
We ordered everything from the Hawaiian chicken, which was good, to the Pulled Pork which was awful. Whatever they use to season the pork and BBQ sauce just wasn’t right. One of my friends had to order 3 different times, because they were out of his first two choices.
The music was loud and piercing which didn’t help matters. I’m not sure if they are aiming to be a bar or a bar and grill and I’m not sure they know. They need to tame down the bar and pay more attention to service and the time it takes to prepare food if they’re going for the latter.

I really like this place a lot. It’s decadent and the beer list rocks.
The service is always very good (well there was that one chick that one time but we got up and moved to someone else’s station and it was as good as all the other times I’ve been there).
The food is outrageous in the sense that one shouldn’t eat this way daily (or even weekly) and is rich and delicious in a slightly elevated white trash kind of way.
I love the loaded baked potato french fries, the onion rings, the dead texan (no egg), the Suribachi. I can’t wait to get the seared tuna. Look, it’s a fun place with a LOT of options, and great service. This is not fine dining people, this is roll-​in-​the-​mud-​head-​in-​the-​through-​squeale-​with-​delight good food. Go with friends. Totally worth your time and money.

The better half and I finally got around to trying Swagger (of Diners, Drive-​ins and Dives fame) with the benefit of a Groupon. This place has a great selection of craft beer, whiskey on tap and a menu that isn’t quite like anything else in the area. And while I’ve read a great deal of hit-​or-​miss comments regarding service, on our one experience, the service was top notch.
First off, regarding the service, our waiter was friendly, made consistent eye contact and knew the menu well. He came to check on us once the food came out and was attentive wihtou being overbearing. If they were all like this guy, Swagger would have a great waitstaff, and his helpfulness alone makes me inclined to return.
The menu – both for food and beer – is unique. The food is a mix of all sorts of gastropup-​type fusion fare. I had the Fidel Castro (basically a Cuban), but the pulled pork they use has a bit of barbeque flavor, giving the traditional sandwich a new element. I liked it, but it definitely alters that traditional Cuban taste, and may not be for everyone. The rest of the menu has crazy items like The Dead Texan (a hamburger made with two grilled cheese sandwiches for «buns») and they use a wasabi slaw on several of their sandwiches and other Asian flavors to kick up otherwise fairly standard pub fare. I should also mention that the fresh hummus is fantastic. You can tell that it’s made from scratch and the veggies that come with it – cucumber, tomatoes, red onions, and olives – are very high-​quality and fresh-​cut.
Lastly, I’ll note that atmosphere of this place is a little more «night out with friends» than it is «date night». It has a bit of a biker theme that works great, but maybe isn’t for a nice night out with your significant other.

KC Native here. Avid DDD Fan. Let me just say, even though I was skeptical at first, it’s crystal clear that just because you’ve been featured on Diners Drive-In’s & Dives does not make you a desirable place to eat at. I went last night, it was a total of 7. The place itself is very proud of their «Triple D Status»… anything that was featured on the show, they make sure you know about it on the menu.
Most of the group ordered «The Dead Texan» (basically a bacon/​jalapeño cheeseburger sandwiched between 2 grilled cheese as the buns). I ordered «The Waldo Trucker» (pulled pork sandwich with «wasabi» cole slaw and fries).
Our group arrived at 6:30 and was seated immediately. We didn’t get our food until 8PM (I’m seriously not exaggerating). The service was pretty slow, and we kept getting excuses that «the kitchen was backed up» and «we’re slammed» … although they didn’t look that bad to me at all.
The Dead Texan isn’t as intimidating as it’s made out to be. Nothing special to it, just dried grilled cheese that’s been sitting out way too long sandwiched between a burger with bacon and jalapenos.
The Waldo Trucker was a bit of pulled pork, a small scoop of wasabi cole slaw (which I couldn’t taste any wasabi), and cold cardboard texture fries.
You shouldn’t have much of a problem making good fries… these are supposedly freshly cut. Be that as it may, they seem to be prepared in masses and sit for extended periods of time… to the point where the texture is like wet cardboard and the potato itself is cold.
The Dead Texans were $ 14/​each … There are burgers in Kansas City that put this place to shame that cost half that.

I’d heard the hype of Swagger’s sandwiches and now I’m a believer. Sign. Sealed. Devoured.
The Suribachi Burger is good to the last grease spot. The burger patty is grilled then fried tempura-​style and topped with Asian mustard, Sriracha Chili sauce, pepper jack cheese and wasabi cole slaw. Savory, spicy and fried, this sandwich has been in my thoughts since the day I ate it.
Another winner is The Steve Martin, a jerk chicken sandwich with Swiss cheese, herb mayo and wasabi cole slaw. In all my sandwich-​eating years, I have never had a sandwich so perfectly sauced and seasoned.
Try the hummus plate for a starter. A pretty solid homemade hummus for a bar.
The food outweighs the service, just a warning. Our waitress seemed in a generally pissed off mood. However, that won’t stop me from coming back for more.

I’m giving this place a 5 star due to many reasons. Let me just say that one of the biggest is that they treat you like a person and that they appreciate your business. We made the trip from Olathe to Swagger based on the Triple-​D spot on the Food Network. We went on a Friday night and it was getting pretty busy. The bartender immediately pulled over one more chair so that we could wait for our table from the bar. Then asked us if we would like to take the table for 5 because it was available now, or wait for a table for 2. We chose to wait, but thought it was awesome that we had an option to take that large table in spite of it being a busy night.
Our waiter was fantastic, very polite and very accommodating. The food was as good as we expected. Actually, we were more impressed by how big and how good the Greek Salad was. It’s not one of those «Specialty» items, but it’s what my wife got and it surpassed the salad at a nearby Greek restaurant for heaven sakes.
If there is anything critical I can come up with it would have to be parking, there’s hardly any. Although there is plenty of it across the street, just be careful getting across with the traffic.

We went to Swagger to try the «Dead Texan» burger that was featured on Diners, Drive-​Ins and Dives. This was a good burger to try, it was big so we split it for two people.
We went back to try the Elk burger, which was a little gamey for my taste. I didn’t really like the french fries either. Also, they were out of most of the beers on the menu, and we had to order about 10 before we found something they had in stock. For this experience, I am giving Swagger three stars, but we are willing to try it again.
They have a few other menu items that I want to try– The Fidel Castro (a cuban sandwich) and the Flying monkey’s chilli.

Great dive bar. Seems like I saw another one down the road in Martin City– no idea if they’re related (one of you long timers may know; I’m so new back in KC), but I’ve only been to this one at 85^th & Wornall.
The food is great bar fare– huge perfectly cooked burgers covered in anything you can get. The fries are totally addictive. The staff we’ve gotten each time we’ve been there has been totally helpful and helped with the low-​pressure, low-​key vibe.

This is one of my boyfriend’s favorite places to visit in Kansas City, so once I saw that it was on Diners, Drive-​Ins and Dives, I knew we would be stopping by on our visit to Kansas City!
We ended up at Swagger late on a Saturday night after going out. We got lucky and the kitchen was just about to close. So, we quickly put in our order. Since I am a huge nerd, I wanted to order from the items on DDD. The had these clearly labeled on the menu so that is what we did. We got the Pulled Pork Sandwich and the Cuban Sandwich and split both of them. I liked the Cuban Sandwich better.

I have been to Swagger twice now. The first time they were out of some of the tap beers (not a big deal for me because I was still recovering from a night out and didn’t think hair of the dog would do any good) but the second time they were all up. Food was good, the BBQ sauce is more spicy than sweet, which I prefer. And both times the servers were attentive and just plain sweet. They list on the menu what was on Diners, Driver-​Ins, and Dives so if you want to try what they did it’s easy too.
Downfall is parking can be a little tough, with several stores in the building there just isn’t enough parking. (We stole the Jimmy John’s parking spot, they were none the wiser.) It definitely fits into the «Dives» category, but honestly, those are my favorite places. A bar where I can show up in a jeans and a hoodie for some hangover cure and not feel out of place.

My update is for breakfast — which was killer. The coffee was strong, the Bloody Mary (priced well @ $ 3.50) was extra spicy and my order of Rattle Snake Eggs was plentiful and very tasty.
The dish has hard boiled eggs which are covered with sausage and fried. Add a little Tabasco and this dish was a winner. The biscuits and gravy with added pepper was really good too. The home fries were just chunks of cooked potatoes. They didn’t have any seasonings or onion/​peppers added. Out of the 3 items on my dish these rated the lowest. But the eggs and b&g more than made up for the potatoes.
So, why is my review still 3 stars? Their credit card system. Either the printer doesn’t work or the network is down or both. This has happened to us more than once. I should have learned. If they know this is a problem then let the customers know ahead of time to go get extra cash.

Stopped by here last weekend for a pre-​game meal before drinking at another bar in the area.
First things first — where in the world does one park? All the parking behind the place is dedicated to either the neighboring Jimmy Johns or the neighboring liquor store. I got lucky; I found a space directly in front of the strip mall (in a bizarre parallel parking setup), but my friend had to park across the street in the grocery store lot. And cross a very heavily traveled street to get to the bar.
The atmosphere is very friendly and you can tell this place is loved by the folks in Waldo. (A few regulars serenaded the crowd to That’s Amore on our visit; not sure if they were sober at the time.) Service was a little slow on this particular night (given that they were busy but not jam-​packed)… but it was still pretty good.
The food wasn’t bad. My friend had the Waldo Trucker; I had the Kentucky Colonel. Swagger specializes in bar food, pure and simple — while the food was good, I think I’d much rather come here to drink than eat.

Honestly, a solid 3.5 stars. I wasn’t amazed, but I will definitely be back at some point.
We had been wanting to try Swagger since we heard about it from friends over a year ago. Finally, the stars aligned last weekend, and we stopped in for lunch. As we arrived right at noon, it wasn’t terribly busy and we were able to get a seat in the bar area with no problems. Our waitress appeared with menus quickly, and took our drink orders. Unfortunately, though the beer I ordered was on the menu, apparently they actually didn’t have it, so that was a bummer. (And makes the beer menu somewhat moot.) They did have Boulevard Pilsner on tap, though, which made my husband happy.
For lunch, I ordered the Waldo Trucker (pulled pork sandwich with wasabi coleslaw, pickles, and fries), and my husband had the Dead Texan (burger with grilled cheese sandwiches for buns). Our food arrived quickly, and was alright — I wasn’t wowed by the somewhat bland pork (and odd sauce on the side), and my husband was actually a little bit surprised that he was able to finish his burger with no problems, as he was expecting it to be bigger. I mean, it was a good size, but not so big that he didn’t want dinner later, which was not what he expected. He said it tasted good, though the onion on it was a bit overpowering. We both thought our fries were enjoyable enough.
Prices were good for the portion size, and service was fast and friendly the entire time. I didn’t get asked if I wanted a refill on my drink, but as I also had a glass of water, I didn’t mind. We also used a Groupon, and that was redeemed with no problems.
The atmosphere is your typical neighborhood bar — nothing fancy, but a great place to have a laid back meal and a couple of drinks. I will also say that there must be some kind of healing goodness in the food or something, as when I arrived I was on the verge of getting a migraine, and when I left, I was pain free. :-)
Next time, I think I’ll try the Cuban… and I won’t wait another year for my next visit.

I want to start off with the main point in case you lose interest soon… make someone at your table order the Cuban (add bacon for a buck) and a side of Wasabi Coleslaw. Ask for the fries to be loaded.
Ok… now, you need to be the one that orders the Cuban or you will be jealous of this pulled pork and ham sandwich the whole time. Don’t be tempted by the upgrade to onion rings. They are ok but the fries were quite tasty and even better with sour cream, bacon and cheese! You have the choice between fries and pasta salad. I’m picky about pasta salad and inquired about it. She said she would bring a sample but ended up bringing a sample of coleslaw instead. Anyway, you can substitute onion rings or a side salad (what? why?) for an additional charge.
The wasabi coleslaw was subtle at first, but ended up packing quite a punch (in the nose, it burned). This slaw ended up saving my sandwich. You see, I got the Dead Texan because I am impressionable. It was a novel idea (a pile of stuff), but the flavor just wasn’t there. Just as the Cuban was the clear winner, the Dead Texan was the clear loser. I put some slaw on it and tried to imagine something better.
Coming in second place, The Colonel was something to shake a stick at as well. This sandwich was ever so moist and tasty. If you are looking for a chicken sandwich, then this one should be considered.
There was a special for the day and it was the Pastrami Burger. Not a bad burger but my heart was already won by the Cuban.
The place itself is a lot larger than the outside would lead you to believe. It had a bar seating area, another room for seating and then a game room. It was kind of sectioned off and I thought I was about to wander into the kitchen or some employee area. So, don’t be afraid to look around. There is plenty to see. Bicycle on the ceiling, signs a plenty, at least four tvs in the the bar area and a beer list that is a full page long, small print front and back. Oh and the music ranged from Johnny Cash to AC/​DC.
Parking is down a narrow ally in between Jimmy Johns and Swaggers. You almost have to know it’s there before taking the chance it’s not a dead end. It’s not, but it seemed to be pretty tight quarters.
I already have a list of what I want next time. I must try one of the Portabella sandwiches (Tempura fried or hummus stuffed), The Steve Martin Jerk Chicken and I would like to sample that pasta salad with a Jameson and Ginger (depending on the price). The Caipirinha was 9 dollars … I might try it some time but dang.
So, don’t believe the DDD hype about the Dead Texan. Try it if you must, but don’t expect much.

I love writing this review, mainly because I love Swagger. I even started out my birthday party bash here early this summer.
Where do I begin? My friend and I discovered Swagger a while ago, and for some time it was our «secret meeting spot». Not that we were involved in anything scandalous, but because nobody else knew of its existence. Swagger is a prime example that looks can be deceiving. Upon cozying up to the bar, I reviewed the extensive Whiskey List. Holy Bourbon, Batman!, it’s like 8 pages long! If you like Whiskey, this is the place, they have it all! Not only do they have Whiskey, they have several different types of cachaca. Are you kidding me? Hello caipirinha heaven! (One night we talked with the owner, apparently his wife is Brasilian, Obrigada!!!)
A favorite appetizer is the Hummus. It is really delicious. Sometimes it is more chunky than creamy, but it is always tasty. It is served with huge pieces of feta cheese and kalamata olives as well as diced cucumbers. Their pita bread is warm and fresh, this hummus never disappoints.
One night I received a phone call from my friend, asking if we should stretch outside our comfort zone and try the Wednesday crab leg special (14.99, 1 lb crab legs, potatoes, corn and a bun). I’m usually not a fan of getting crab legs at a bar, but we took a risk, and they were great. They tasted fresh and were served hot with melted butter.
We took a little break from Swagger after the Triple D chaos. Although we were initially sad that our «secret spot» was revealed, I think things are back to normal. Maybe still a little busy, but not ridiculous, park across the street busy!
On my most recent visit to Swagger, I finally tried the Suribachi burger. Ok, novelty menu item. Not spectacular. The tempura breading seemed a little mushy, and although some reviews stated that the wasabi coleslaw was overpowering, my burger was actually… bland? My date ordered the Beef and Cheddar, and it was served to him cold. Our server was very friendly and immediately took it back (I’m sure to nuke it), and returned with a hot version of the dish. On this specific trip, the food was underwhelming. Luckily I have been here enough to know that this is NOT typical. In the future I will stick with a burger, perhaps some hummus, or maybe go back for crab legs and definitely a caipirinha or 3.
I still love Swagger.