There isn't a great variety of restaurants that offer cheesesteaks in KC, so Chartroose Caboose is one of the few choices available to get your fix. Maybe if we had more competition in town, Chartroose Caboose would be motivated to provide a better than average product. Unfortunately, there isn't anything special about their offerings.
The cheesesteaks are the featured menu item, and they're just OK. The meat is very dry, not really any better than steak-umms that you could cook at home. They could easily offer additional options, such as an Italian Beef sandwich, or a combo with sausage, but they don't. Swing and a miss.
The menu includes a few additional burgers and sandwiches, and I recently tried the "hand breaded" pork tenderloin. They may be hand breaded, but if so, they are then frozen and subsequently pulled from the freezer when you order to throw into the fryer. In other words, they aren't made fresh. Another swing and a miss. The tenderloins extend about an inch out from the bun, but they aren't pounded thin like many KC restaurants, and the result is approximately ¼ inch thick with a medium thin breading coating. I can understand how you can get away with a subpar cheesesteak in KC because we're so far from Philadelphia and few people here really know what it should taste like. But an average pork tenderloin in KC is harder to tolerate.
The fries are thicker than McDonald's style, but thinner than steak fries, with typical frozen out of a bag fry flavor. They should probably offer some sort of fry seasoning near the topping bar.
You'll find both a soda fountain with a few choices of drinks near the condiment bar, plus a cooler with a variety of Fritz's and other brands of bottled drinks and water in a cooler located by the ordering counter. A few arcade size video game machines are somewhat hidden in the back, and they have a couple nice flat screen TVs mounted in the dining area that were showing sports on my recent visits.
They have a condiment bar with pickles, onions, cherry peppers, sliced pepperocinis, lettuce, and tomato - but you still have to go to the ordering counter to request ketchup, mustard, or mayo. Why? These are staple items that should be placed front and center on the condiment bar. I also didn't see any cheez-wiz. How can you call yourself a cheesesteak restaurant and not offer cheez-wiz? Maybe they offer it, but if so, then you must have to ask for it the same way you have to ask for ketchup, mustard and mayo, because it certainly isn't obviously available and they never mentioned it when I was ordering. Another swing and a miss for strike three, and we haven't ever gotten to the problem I experienced with my delivery order.
I tried Chartroose Caboose's delivery service a few weeks ago and they didn't get my order quite right. My "Zephyr" cheesesteak arrived without mushrooms, and the delivery person told me they had run out. Ever heard of a grocery store? It's really not that hard to run down the street and purchase more mushrooms if you happen to run out. I mean, seriously. I also specifically requested two containers of au jus when I placed the order, but upon inspection discovered they only delivered one.
I can say one good thing about this all-round very average restaurant, or at least something good about the restaurant's location - As you exit the building when you're done eating, you can turn left and walk 30 feet down the sidewalk to Peachwave frozen yogurt to order some cheap and delicious dessert. read more