Restaurants in Shawnee

Authentic techniques are the key to French recipes. Understanding this, Chef Emmanuel Langlade honed his cooking skills in Marseille, France, before opening Aixois Bistro with his wife more than a decade ago.

Amid suspended orb lights and rustic, wrought-iron chandeliers, French flavors prepared by chef Pascal Larcher delight palates at all hours. As morning light spills through enormous windows, the staff brews fresh coffee to pair with piping-hot croissants for early-bird visitors. Lunchtime guests sample favorite French sandwiches, from the classic croque-monsieurs to the egg-crowned croque madames. For dinner diners, the kitchen dishes up an elegant menu that includes two varieties of moules frites (mussels with pommes frites), as well as seafood, steak, and oven-roasted chicken. Afterward, traditional desserts such as crème brûlée topped with fresh berries cap off meals and keep sweet teeth from rebelliously biting tongues.

Husband-wife team Colby and Megan Garrelts met in Chicago at the five-star, five-diamond TRU. After traveling to Las Vegas and Los Angeles, the culinary duo opened Bluestem Restaurant, using it as launch pad for their explorations into progressive American cuisine. Locally grown produce joins with sustainable seafood and meat in their recipes—lauded by the James Beard Foundation and Zagat. And the menu makes every dinner a multi-course story, where smoked lamb belly with barbecue spice precedes beef with fermented grains and whipped bone marrow, before themed desserts pair strawberries with angel-food cake for a perfect ending.

In Bluestem's lounge, guests sink into a more relaxed dining environment, sampling such plates as hanger steak frites and garlic pomme frites while sipping wines and craft cocktails. Whether perched in the lounge, at the hardwood bar, or at an ironed tablecloth, simple elegance abounds. Small table lamps cast warm, homey glows or exposed brick walls that allow diners to work on perfecting their chewing technique.

With a more casual dining experience, The Grille by Piropos in Parkville sets itself apart from its fine-dining sister establishment Piropos Restaurant. Nestled high in the hills of historic Parkville, it sits above the landscape, allowing diners to take in visions of Park University's beautiful gothic architecture or watch as the sun sets and the moon rises in the evening. Not only a restaurant for special occasions, it is also a favorite spot for everyday casual dining.

This vista-induced amnesia, however, doesn’t tend to last very long, as the aromas of South American–inspired food soon draw diners’ attention to the new casual-dining menu’s signature dishes from Venezuela, Mexico, and Argentina. This cuisine makes itself at home inside the dining room, where large, colorful murals and lavish wood furnishings give the restaurant an upscale, rustic ambiance. The outdoor patio, meanwhile, features views of the horizon and a fireplace, meaning at a certain time and from a certain angle, the sun is setting into the fire.

Tucked inside the lobby of the Overland Park Marriott Hotel, Nikko Japanese Steakhouse's chefs gracefully twirl their gleaming steel utensils and flip vegetables through the air while cooking filet mignon, teriyaki salmon, and scallops at each tabletop griddle. Traditional teppanyaki cooking is the foundation of the menu, which features seared morsels of steak and fresh seafood cooked before your very eyes instead of inside a magician's hat. Away from the sizzling action, the sleek sushi bar houses deft chefs slicing fresh sashimi and rolling ingredients into flavorful combinations, such as the spider roll's soft-shell crab, smelt roe, and avocado. Behind a second bar, the servers replace sushi with shakers of freshly squeezed fruit-juice cocktails and hot and cold pours of sake. Nikko Japanese Steakhouse also recently completed a renovation.

Friday and Saturday evenings at Tassos, live musicians furnish a beat for belly dancers who shimmy across the dance floor, imbuing the casual eatery with a raucous, lively atmosphere. In the kitchen, chefs charbroil and skewer lamb and gyro meats and drizzle their tender exteriors with classic sauces such as béchamel and tzatziki. In addition to offering traditional cuisine, owners Tasso and Katina uphold their Greek heritage by hosting an annual toga party and even sell breaking dishes that diners can smash in celebration of marriage or in frustration at impossible Rubik’s cubes.

Windows covering the wall let floods of natural light pour across servers who bear trays of pastas and pizzas through Sutera's Italian Restaurant, which has been in business for three decades. As night falls, domed hanging lights glow overhead like hovering spacecraft, illuminating a weathered wooden bar where wall compartments backed in vibrant red contain ranks of bottled wines. At tables, patrons tear into meatball subs and burgers with italian seasoning, causing traders in napkin futures to pull out their cell phones.