Affäre

This is one of my favorite restaurants in Kansas City. We ordered the «Cut» appetizer which came on a huge board that took up most of our table filled with meats and cheeses. The pretzel sticks and dipping sauce were amazing, and the spargel soup may just be the best soup I’ve ever had. Our main dishes were just okay, so next time we might forgo the main dish and just order apps drinks and desserts

Duck was hard as a rock, I had to use my husband’s steak knife to cut the minuscule amount of it. Carrot purée was cold, liver medallions were all mushy but tasted good (a bit like foie gras). My husband was not impressed by the bison which was served with a microscopic amount of morels which had absolutely no taste. Homemade sorbets were just not good, very dense and not light nor refreshing at all (as a sorbet should) the apple sorbet tasted like frozen apple sauce, The cherry one tasted like Kirsch liquor, not sure what the third one was, I’m assuming it was strawberry but did not taste like it and it was tar. I don’t know about the wine I don’t drink alcohol my husband says it was good. Service was goods the restaurant itself is nice other than the horrible bathroom, but who cares about the bathroom right :-)

Being German American i was excited to try this place which one friend told me had the best German inspired food in the city.
The service was good.
The food… Well the service was good. And the pretzels and beer was good… And well that’s about it. The butterspetzel treated reheated and would have made my grandmother offended of she ever served anything like that. The jagerschnizel was dried out and bland. I felt these 2 items should have been great, especially at a «German» restaurant, but sadly I would have rather have had more than the 1 pretzel they have us per person than my entrée.
It’s also odd to hear mariachi music at a German inspired restaurant. Makes no sense
Hope this is just a blip, and maybe it was just an off night for the kitchen. But at least the service was good.
The other dinners in the restaurant seemed to be enjoying their dinners, so maybe it was just my meal.

This is one of Kansas City finest restaurants. An upscale casual atmosphere with a delicious German fare. Highly recommend!!!

For almost a year I knew about the place but never made it to check it out. After a recommendation of one of their employees, I finally made reservations for friends and I. It’s definitely recommended to make reservations for groups and the main dinner times.
Service was awesome. Our server Kevin was very nice, paid attention without being annoying and was very patient. With our group being part German, part people who have lived in Germany before, we wanted the typical German dinner experience without being rushed through the meal and out the door.
While the food was fantastic as well, I am not sure, how much German was really going on. A little more authenticity would have been nice.
Prices were on the top end of my comfort.
Plus: they have «A Echt Schlenkerla» smoked beer from my home town Bamberg, Germany on the menu. For $ 12 a bottle (half liter, served in the wrong glass), my husband only enjoyed one of them though.
Overall: it’s a nice ambience with great service and food. I wouldn’t go monthly due to price but definitely recommend to others!

Absolutely love this place! The food is great and the service is top notch! Truly a gem for the city!

Affare is a little place of paradise that you must visit soon. I love this place. Everything about this place, the food, the drinks, the décor exude passion. The food and drink are delicious and inventive. The décor is beautiful, minimal yet elegant. And the service is top notch.
The Pannise or chickpea fries are incredible! Perfectly fried with a subtle chickpea flavor that will make you wonder why there aren’t other types of fries made of something other than potatoes. And the cilantro-​based sauce was a great compliment as well.
The fried brie with apple compote was another winner – a great combination.
Another winner was the soup and salad made with white asparagus or spargel. The soup was a delicious balance of cream and vegetable. And the homemade potato chips with the asparagus was a fun combination.
If you’re a fan of whiskey or bourbon you must try the «I’ll Have Another». This is the best cocktail I’ve tasted in Kansas City.
I love some of the communal seating around the bar, it encourages people to mingle with others.
Even the bathrooms are beautifully appointed with subtle lighting and breath mints!
And the owners are beautiful too. Stop by early and you may luck into meeting them.
And don’t worry about parking. There is plenty of parking, even in this chic part of town. Walking is good!

Great atmosphere and the patio is lovely. Food was delicious and cocktails were memorable! We had the seafood risotto and jaegerschnitzel — both were even better than they sounded on the menu.

First time at Affare. Liked the atmosphere and the overall décor. Lovely bar in the back. I had the seafood lemon risotto. The risotto was delicious, cooked perfectly and had a yummy sauce. I would have given this place 4 stars but the shrimp on the top was not peeled. If there is a shrimp sitting in sauce I assume it has already been peeled. I cut it up and popped it in my mouth and had to spit it out.

I have been wanting to try this restaurant for several years and a few years ago, I bought a Groupon and then forgot about it and let it expire. So, we had just come out of the Ballet and wanted to have a nice dinner and I thought of Affare and looked up my Groupon. When we arrived, the place had not started to fill up just yet and I informed the young lady at the door that I had an expired Groupon. She explained it was only good for what I originally paid. I told her that I understood and thanked her as she seated us. I like the ambience and the décor. We were settling in and someone took our drink order. We decided on a Warsteiner pilsner for me and a Hofbrau Haus lager for my companion. And then the server came. I immediately let him know that I had an expired Groupon. My companion and I both noticed an immediate change in his demeanor. He sort of started looking down his nose at us and became a bit stand-​offish. I suppose a lot of servers have had bad experiences with Grouponers who do not tip based upon the total actual bill but tip based upon the bill after the Groupon is applied. So, understanding that as a possibility, we looked over the menus and decided not to give it another thought. The beers came and they were crisp and ice cold and delicious! Then a small plate with fresh, warm, fragrant, hand-​made pretzels, some pickles and some spicy mustard. All delicious! Then my companion had an artisan salad and I had the Southern German Snail Cream soup which was out of this world! Very delicious! Don’t wrinkle your noses until you’ve tried it. I wanted to order the pheasant but the server informed me that they were out and he suggested the duck. I was grateful for his suggestion and ordered the duck. Finally, the entrees came and we did not have to wait an unreasonable amount of time. We were enjoying ourselves and the relaxed atmosphere. It’s too bad our server couldn’t relax. I think that Groupon thing really threw him. So, my companion had Sauerbraten with kasespaetzel which he said was bland. I did not sample it so, I can’t say. I had the Magret Duck Affäre, Seared duck breast, confit croquette, duck sausage, duck liver torchon medallions with Plum-​port wine sauce. Every aspect of it was wonderful. The duck breast tasted like steak, the duck sausage was good but kind of mushy (due to the nature of duck meat not because there was anything wrong with it) but it was delicious, the duck liver was fabulous and the croquette was interesting but not my favorite because of the texture of the duck meat inside. The outside was wonderfully crispy and nice. The plum port wine sauce was superb. Everything was delicious in spite of a few things that I noticed that were pretty much insignificant when it came to the quality and artistry of the entire presentation. So, here’s where things get disappointing. The server comes back. Still unfriendly and asks if there will be any dessert. We both said no as we were quite sated. He brings the bill and I give him my phone with the Groupon. He brings the bill back and has taken off $ 20. I checked my Groupon and the terms of the Groupon are that the $ 34 I paid for the Groupon never expires. I pointed this out to him and he politely told me that since I had let the Groupon expire, I was being charged the extra $ 14. Well, that is not in the terms of the Groupon agreement and he asked me if I wanted to talk to the owner. I politely said yes. And he took the bill and left. My companion said he could see the server talking to a woman who was either one of the owners or a restaurant manager. He said she was agitated and took the bill, and then slammed it back down on the counter. My companion said their eyes met so she knew she had been seen. The server came back and gave us the bill with the updated $ 34 removed from the total bill which is what should have happened in the first place. The total bill was for $ 103 and I tipped the server $ 20 in spite of the less than pleasant service and experience. I ended up paying a total of $ 89 ($ 69 for the meal and $ 20 for the tip.). We left. Restauranteurs, if you don’t like the rules surrounding Groupon or the fact that some us may forget and let a Groupon expire, then you shouldn’t contract to accept Groupons. We were very, very disappointed with the way we were treated in spite of a lovely, artistic and delicious diner. I absolutely detest writing this type of review because I know how hard people in the restaurant business work to make a successful go of it and I am not suggesting that anyone NOT go to Affare. The food was absolutely lovely. It’s unfortunate that our service could not be equally lovely and we will not be back. There are too many other restaurants out there that are willing to treat us professionally, Groupon or not and so, we will opt for those.

Overrated and way overpriced for the quality. We went here for Valentine’s Day. The food was cold (and bland) and there were fruit flies everywhere. Honestly, this was some of worst food I have had in an restaurant environment which is probably why the restaurant was pretty empty when we went. Not sure why there is any hype around this joint.

My fiancé and I visited the restaurant for an early Valentine’s dinner and had a wonderful time. Bennie was a fantastic and attentive server. We shared a bottle of the Franz Keller Pinot and it paired perfectly with our elk and bison main courses. Because of appetizers at another restaurant, we only had our main course here but both of our dishes were cooked and seasoned perfectly. The ambiance of the restaurant is lovely and we will definitely be back!

We have been waiting for a special occasion to try this place. We have heard that it can get a bit pricy to we saved our pennies and decided to go for an early Valentines Day treat. The food was good and the service was great. My biggest issue was that our table was swarming with fruit flies. It started with just a few at the beginning of the meal and by the end our table was infested. It totally ruined the experience. I was surprised that no one noticed the fact I was constantly swatting at them during our meal. This wouldn’t surprise me at a dive bar but I was a little shocked to have this happen here. I was sorely disappointed. We would have been better off saving our money and going with an old stand by.

THE BEST! Love the menu, love the hospitality, love the design… i. late to this but hurry up and get on the affare bus!!!

We arrived early for our reservation and were seated right away. After that, it was ‘crickets’… No waitstaff appraoched our table, or even made eye contact with us. After dealing with this for 10 minutes, we walked out. The place was half empty, so it was not because they were busy. If they can’t even get that part right, what would the rest of the service/​food be like? Don’t want to find out…
Plenty of other great places withing walking distance, so we chose one of those instead!

This has been on my to-​do list for some time, and it just so happened to fit nicely for a restaurant week lunch.
The restaurant is modern yet comfortable. I’d call it classy casual in dress. You don’t need to be dressed up, but you’d feel most comfortable in a little classed up outfit. The hostess was very sweet and made us feel welcomed. We dined with a baby, and they were very accommodating about that. Our waiter was nice, but odd. He didn’t do anything bothersome per say, but he would just kind of disappear, or if he was around then he would not look up at us so we couldn’t flag him down. Because of this, it took quite a while to order and we waited 30 minutes from our end of meal to finally catch him and ask for the check. I appreciate not being rushed out of a place, but this was beyond that. It was odd. However, I think we had an odd man out experience, because the other staff seemed much more responsive (and often did stuff for our table like clear it and refill drinks).
As for the food, it was good, but it didn’t impress us as much as we hoped. We chose the restaurant week lunch, and we had the split pea soup, pulled pork, polenta chicken, cookie, and apfelstrudel. The soup was good. It had a nice base that suggested a smokey meat to me. My pulled pork was quite good; the items with it (broccoli, sauce, pasta) were okay. The broccoli was just a simple steam with minimal to no seasoning. The cheese sauce was kind of lackluster. I appreciated the homemade pasta. My husband’s chicken was kind of overcooked (chewy), but the other components were good (polenta, risotto grain, and arugula pesto). The desserts were both very good. The presentation here was quite upscale, but for us, the food didn’t meet the presentation expectations.
I don’t think we’ll rush back, but I would love to grab some drinks in their adorable garden terrace.

Hmmm. Really waffling between a 3 and a 4 on this one — it’s definitely a 3.5 on my scale!
This was another choice for us for Restaurant Week 2016, and while it was good, Affare really didn’t overly amaze me. We were seated promptly, but the first thing I have to say is that some of the seating near the bar is a bit… odd. Basically, there were two large split booths, each L-​shaped with a small two person table in the corner of them, facing two other booths across a walkway. So you kind of felt like you were part of other diners’ parties, as you sat essentially facing each other. Not totally comfortable, and not really conducive to having a private meal. Just… different.
We opted for the wine pairings with our Restaurant Week meals, and I have to say that Erin W. is correct — while the wines were nice, the wine pours were definitely not generous for the price we paid for them, which was a disappointment. Next time I’ll just opt for cocktails or ordering a bottle, as that would be better value for money. For our first course I had the snail chowder, and my husband had the chicken liver. My chowder was nice, but a bit salty and only warm when it arrived. I did not taste the liver, but my husband really enjoyed it.
For mains, I had the bison sauerbraten, and my husband opted for the pulled pork. He wasn’t a huge fan of the pasta with the pork, but cleaned his plate anyway. I loved the bison — it was amazingly tender and flavorful, and the red cabbage was delicious. The potato dumplings were just alright — I didn’t feel like they added much to the meal, but then again, I’m not a big fan of those type of dumplings anyway, so I just ate some and left the rest. The portion size was ample without finishing the dumplings!
I had the chocolate cream for dessert, and my husband had the apfelstrudel. The chocolate was nice, but the poppyseed torte was a bit dry, so it’s worth giving a miss. The strudel was tasty, but there were a lot of nuts in it, so if you don’t like nuts, be warned. We also had espressos, which arrived when we were almost finished with our desserts.
Service was alright — not overly friendly, and the timing was off at times. (Such as, we didn’t get bread until we had finished our starters and the plates had been cleared, sometimes only my water glass was refilled even though they were both half full, the espressos arriving late, etc.) It was also a bit rushed — I’m guessing that was due to Restaurant Week, but I did feel a touch hurried (or at least not encouraged to linger), and we were done in right at an hour.
All in all, the food was good and we’ll probably be back, as there were definitely some things on the regular menu that I’d like to try, but Affare isn’t going to make it into our regular rotation of places.

I use Restaurant Week as an opportunity to visit restaurants that I may be on the fence about; the $ 33 dinner option provides a tease of the full experience without the commitment of the usual price tag.
Affäre was my stop. The Restaurant Week menu boasted more options in one course than a lot of other places offered on the entire three course menu. The space itself is industrial but still warm by means of local art for sale on the walls and dim light with candles to feel more intimate. There’s something informal about the dining room despite the white table clothes. The space is wonderful. I wanted to like it all, I really did.
I went in with every intention of loving it and raving about the experience. Unfortunately the food just didn’t deliver on what the rest of the modernized German restaurant was presenting.
My first course was seared chicken livers alongside a champignon cream sauce and toasted brioche. The livers were hefted on top of the brioche and smothered in sauce, leaving the poor piece of bread to lose any hint of toast it may have had. It made the dish texturally unexciting and overall: forgettable. I did ask for a second piece of brioche on the side, and while it improved on what was happening, it didn’t resurrect the plate.
Main course included Sauerbraten, what’s more or less a German pot roast marinated in a vinegar-​heavy mixture to make what’s normally a tough cut of meat more tender. They absolutely succeeded in that facet. The beef was tender and easily cut, but even with the traditional «sourness» and red cabbage beneath, there wasn’t the punch of flavor associated with the German classic. The potato dumplings that came alongside lacked anything much more than the generally gummy texture that whispers of overworked potatoes. The traditional density of the dumplings begged for a sauce for sopping that went unanswered.
Dessert showed what was described as a chocolate Bavarian cream, which was more so a panna cotta, along with other additions that blur from memory just by nature of being average.
Nothing was bad; but nothing was good. Affäre didn’t leave any impression on me at all, but instead just slid comfortably into the category of ‘mediocre’.

Came here for KC restaurant Week. Delightful menu with wine pairings. The food was delicious. The dessert was fantastic. Portion sizes perfect.

I’ve been eyeing this place for over a year now and decided to give them a try for Restaurant Week and everything was awesome!
The Southern German Snail Chowder was THE best thing ever. I had the Westmoreland Bison (this was a tad bit too tart for my taste buds but was still pleasantly good!) and my date had the Beer Braised Pulled Pork (soo good) as our entrees. I’d recommend either of those dishes if you are doing Restaurant Week in KC.
Based on our first experience here, we will definitely be back! So glad we decided to finally try this place out.

Came to this lovely establishment for a wine tasting with my friend and had a great time. The ambiance was stylish yet laid back so I feel I could come in after a long day of work or for a nice dinner date, very comforting. While we were there for the wine, my friend had the Mac and cheese which was so good. I had something else, which escapes me at the moment, but it was also amazing mixture of cheese, meat and potato. The wine selection for that night was to die for, and the owner Katrin came up and gave us a sample of some amazing wine she had. Katrin and her husband opened the restaurant in 2012 and have made it into a very respectable establishment with delicious, authentic German food, bringing more culture to Kansas City. Can’t wait to come try an entrée!

Thoroughly enjoyed our dinner here! My boyfriend and I decided to come here the day before Thanksgiving as we weren’t going to be spending the holiday together. We made reservations via Open Table and when we arrived saw that the reservations weren’t necessary. We were immediately seated in an alcove off the entrance at a small two person table. As we sat there looking over the menu I looked around and was a bit confused by the layout of the restaurant — the bar/​lounge wasn’t to easy to distinguish between the main dining room. In fact, they almost were one in the same. But I digress, as that has almost nothing to do with my review of the food and service on our night out.
We ended up deciding on drinks and our appetizers fairly quickly — a beer (really is this at all a surprise?) for my boyfriend and something called an Elevensies (?) for me. In addition to our drinks we decided on the Cut — or Affare Charcuterie. The cocktail was amazing, but cannot for the life of me remember what was in it… I’m thinking maybe Gin? Don’t quote me on that as it’s bee a few days since Thanksgiving. (Ok, maybe more like weeks…). The Charcuterie was delicious and actually had a selection of food stuffs that both my boyfriend and I enjoyed and disliked. I enjoyed the pâté (he wouldn’t touch it) as it was full of flavor and wonderfully luxurious, but refused to touch the mortadella (not a cut of deli meat that I enjoy). Our dinner selection included the shrimp and scallops with squid ink angle hair pasta for me and the black angus steak for my boyfriend. Our food came out quickly after we finished our appetizers — and tasted delicious. Now, the plates were quite large and made it appear that the portion sizes were smaller than they really were. Honestly, between the appetizer and our entrees we had plenty of food. Oh! I totally just remembered that they gave us house made pretzels. My only complaint was that I’d have loved it if they could have come out to the table fresh out of the oven. I’m not the biggest fan of soft baked pretzels that are cold or room temperature.
Now at point we really shouldn’t have ordered dessert, but as it was our ‘holiday’ dinner together we when ahead and ordered the cheesecake and apple strudel. The apple strudel was wonderfully flakey and hot. Utter heaven for me. Unfortunately for both my boyfriend and myself (since I had to steal a bite) the cheesecake (with a pear shoved into the center!) had the spices akin to pumpkin pie… something neither one of us enjoyed. Oh well… now we know. Although it would be nice for that to have been indicated somewhere on the menu.
Service was unobtrusive and quite excellent. Our server engaged with us over our dessert options, especially since one of our choices was only recently added to the menu. Overall, a wonderful dinner and an intimate setting for the two of us. The only thing that bothered either of us were the fruit flies/​gnats that were flying around due to our proximity to the door and in door plants.
Definitely somewhere we’ll be back to — especially since I found out the son of a friend is now an apprentice chef here!

Love this place. I’ve been here several times and I’m never disapointed. So I decided to have my business Christmas party here last night. It was exceptional. The staff was friendly and attentive without being intrusive. The food was amazing! They worked with us to provide a variety of choices. We had several hors d’oeurves that were delicious. Everyone loved all the entrées. The apple streusel for desert was perfect, light and satisfying. I will be back, and I’ll definitely have my next Christmas party here.

The brie cheese is amazing. Really good food. I did not like my main dinner plate it was the trout — I really could have passed on this. And the wood chip salad was so good –excellent food. I will be back this week for the fried brie.

Date night for the win! The beau and I decided to treat ourselves to a fancy dinner out the other night, and although we attempted to go to Lidia’s we were fortunate and got another great option with Affäre.
Our server, Kevin, was awesome and made some great recommendations, which I appreciated! I think sometimes servers are hesitant to call out one item, but his decisiveness was helpful — PLUS his selections were fantastic!
My date ordered the pork shoulder roast, which he loved, but we were both dazzled by my dish: the Idaho trout. It was perfect in that the BF is from Idaho, and it didn’t hurt that it was packed with flavor. Before we headed out to catch a movie, we indulged in a berry dessert.
Food was on point, service was top notch, and the atmosphere was perfect for a little romantic dinner out.

Excellent food and service! If you are looking for a venue with a private dining area, Katrin and her staff make it so easy for you. They are professionals and have great food and drinks to back them up. I can’t wait to go back!

Nope. This place is no longer on any of our lists. I’d say it’s inconsistent, but it’s been consistently bad the last few times we’ve eaten there. The happy hour is sad, and the regular menu was not the same only a couple days after a great meal. They employ the city’s «C» servers now, and that signals the beginning of the end for places. It’s just a matter of time.

This place was fairly expensive, though we got a lot of wine, which pushed the bill up a ways. I had a delicious cocktail and shared some apps with the my posse and had a delicious german dinner of veal and spetzle. I wouldn’t really call this a german restaurant, the menu had more fusion stuff on it than german food. the atmosphere is kinda swank, and parking down in this area sucks right now because of construction. our waitress was super nice and helpful on what stuff was. also appreciated the hell out of the desert, it was delicious, but not on the menu any more.

My date and I came here from reading some of the Unilocal reviews on this site. We were here on a chilly Spring Thursday. It was very quiet, we were probably only one of three tables in the entire space although the space was huge and very smartly decorated. I could see this place being used as a good event space for small parties ie Bridal Showers, Wedding Brunches, corporate parties, etc.
To start, we each got a cocktail off their menu. They range in prices from $ 10-​$ 14 so not too uncommon for this type of establishment. We did not order an appetizer but that was okay because our server brought warm Bavarian pretzels to our table with a Dijon mustard dipping sauce. I was a little surprised at the menu. It’s pretty sparse and not overt-​ly German although we’d heard this was a contemporary German establishment. I’ve been to Grenauer so perhaps my idea of German cuisine is a little biased. They had some traditional items but mostly their menu seemed like something I’d see at any other Crossroads/​Downtown fine dining establishment.
The food was good although the portion sizes were quite small. I got the Seafood Allerlie with lemon risotto and it was very very lemon-​y. My date got the scallops and although they seemed slightly more under cooked than what I’m used to, they were tasty. For dessert, we each chose a port from their drink menu. I was pleased by their port/​sherry selection and the server was very knowledgeable about what they had to offer.
I would definitely come back. There is plenty of space for large parties which was nice. I enjoyed the cocktail menu and I’d like to try several other things on the menu. Not the most intimate of spaces, but a good place over-​all.

I came here in early October for a Unilocal event that was cancelled at the last minute — and I didn’t see the cancellation. I was there anyway, so I decided to have a drink and a bite to eat. I will tell you that if I was listing my favorite types of food in order from favorite to least favorite, German would probably be towards the bottom. But this is «modern» German so I thought I’d see what that means.
I sat at the bar, like I always do if I’m eating alone, and the bartenders were very pleasant and knowledgeable. One of the waiters was eating at the bar also and we had a delightful conversation. So, very friendly and knowledgeable wait staff. Yay!
The décor is very modern and trendy. There was art (maybe local art?) on the walls and it was not super busy. I think the street car construction was hurting their business a bit.
I ordered a gin drink — with St. Germain — which was very good, I don’t remember what it was called. Then I asked the bartender and waiter what they recommended for food. I told them I would like to try something different and very German so they suggested the blood sausage. Speciifically, «Himmel and Erde» — Potato-​apple mash served with seared blood sausage, bacon and carmelized onions. I said OK. What was I thinking? Blood sausage? what does that mean? Yikes.
So it came out and it was delicious. There wre 3 large slices of blood sausage. It’s not bloody at all! It has a distinct, rich taste and was almost spicy. The carmelize onions and bacon (who doesn’t love bacon) added additional flavor. The potato-​apple mash added a little sweetness. All in all, a great bit of food.
Would I come back? Yes! The trout looked really good and there were a few other dishes I would like to try. Thanks Affare for helping me step out of my comfort zone!