With St. Andrews Golf Club to the south and Sykes/Lady Overland Park Golf Course to the north, you’ll find the Scottish-themed McGregor’s Butcher & Bistro nestled into the middle of a strip mall on 135th Street surrounded by residential neighborhoods. This two-in-one concept delivers two things the southern burbs of Kansas City have been noticeably lacking—a locally owned butcher shop and a reasonably priced upscale steakhouse that is close to home.
The owners may have given the restaurant a Scottish name and backstory based on their own family lineage, but given its location near two of the most popular golf courses in Overland Park, it also feels like it might also be an unspoken nod to the Scots who invented the game of golf. When I arrived for dinner, golf was playing on all three televisions at the bar. I’m just saying, it feels like a natural tie-in they should lean into.
With plenty of quiet ambience, quality meat, and prices that are less than those charged by bigger steakhouses downtown, McGregor’s is teed up to be a hole-in-one for first-time local restaurant owners Michael and Phyllis Gregg and their financial partner, Kenneth Gregory. This place has all the potential to be Overland Park’s new favorite clubhouse.
Guests will find two front doors under the McGregor Butcher & Bistro awning. One door leads directly into the dark and moody restaurant and bar, and the other leads into the exceptionally clean, bright-white butcher shop that not only supplies the restaurant with its meaty provisions, but also sells those same cuts and many more to the public, along with pantry staples, locally made condiments, and a full sandwich menu available for lunch only.
The butcher shop is managed by Samson Benford and Matthew Buechele and carries a wide selection of meat from Arrowhead Specialty Meats, and its fish and seafood are supplied by Fortune Fish. Although steaks and seafood are front and center, you can also find a selection of ground burgers and sausages in the case ready to be wrapped up and taken home.
On the restaurant side, the layout smartly eliminates the view of the parking lot when you are dining inside, while the dark, inky-blue walls feel like you are dining in a cozy cave. Green booths are tucked in around mostly four-top tables covered with white tablecloths. There is a full cocktail bar and lounge area serving a selection of steakhouse cocktail classics (think Stoli Dolis, with which we started our night), wine, and beer, along with a private dining room.
The food menu is comforting, with plenty of dishes that are surprisingly well executed. Fresh oysters, a Scottish egg, and roasted bone marrow are just some of the appetizers served here. Erik Fernandez, the executive chef and general manager, who previously worked as a corporate trainer and opening chef for Yard House at locations across the country, is managing a kitchen team executing at an impressive level.
For anyone dining here for the first time, I would recommend the steak flight. It’s an all-inclusive meal, with salad, steak, and one side, plus dessert and a glass of wine for $75 per person. No one will go home hungry, I promise.
The meal includes three four-ounce cuts of their finest steaks—the house filet from locally raised Angus cattle, the Kansas City strip from local Cedar River Farms, and an Akaushi rib eye (basically American wagyu beef), all cooked to your specifications. You also get your choice of the McGregor garden salad or Caesar salad, one side dish (choose from several potato choices, creamed spinach, roasted Brussels sprouts, or onion rings), one signature dessert, and six-ounce wine pour of either an acceptable Sean Minor Four Bears cabernet sauvignon or a Violet Hill pinot noir.
McGregor’s steak flight is basically an education in the flavor and texture of various cuts of meat. It is a difficult task to cook a full-sized steak perfectly to temperature in a fast-paced commercial kitchen, now imagine three smaller cuts of steak all needing to be cooked to the same temperature. We ordered our steak flights medium rare, and they both came out juicy and perfectly cooked. The filet was silky smooth to the knife, with a big beefy flavor, while the KC strip had more of a chew to it, with a salty mineral umami, and the rib eye was buttery and rich from all the marbling.
Lightly dressed crispy romaine lettuce topped with large shavings of Parmesan cheese and croutons, my Caesar salad was exactly what you might expect, while the creamed spinach, my favorite steakhouse side thanks to a childhood of being told to eat my spinach like Popeye, was cheesy in flavor, but just a bit runny.
The desserts, consisting of a chocolate cake, a cheesecake, a berry cobbler, and made-in-house donuts, which were cake donut holes cooked to order and rolled in cinnamon and sugar served with chocolate, caramel, and strawberry sauce, were basic. I think they were a favorite because they were served warm, but they didn’t really make sense with the rest of the dining experience. However, for the record, it is hard to be mad at a churro ball dunked in sauce.
For many of us, steak and seafood restaurants are usually considered a fine-dining experience. The same is true here, but there is a casualness in the service, atmosphere, and menu that feels comfortably unfussy, like a favorite neighborhood joint, which I think is the goal of McGregor’s.
I saw it firsthand when the owner, Mike Gregg, made his rounds, checking in on tables and introducing himself. From his questions, I could tell that he always expects to see friendly faces from the neighborhood. When he stopped at our table, I mentioned we had come from downtown. His surprise was obvious as he said, “Welcome, we haven’t had too many people from downtown come and visit us yet.”
Don’t miss your opportunity to become a McGregor’s regular at this new locally owned bistro, bar, and butcher shop.