Cleveland’s ‘Snack Daddy’ rates KC barbecue. The burnt ends left him kinda cold
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Snack Daddy reviewed seven Kansas City barbecue joints; opinions ranged widely.
- He praised burnt ends at BB’s, Joe’s, Q39 and Chef J; criticized several briskets.
- His recent YouTube and Instagram posts received more than 50,000 likes.
The Cleveland social media celebrity known as Snack Daddy to more than 2 million Instagram followers came to Kansas City and reviewed seven of the city’s best-known barbecue joints.
And let’s just say ... we got burned.
Snack Daddy — aka voice and screen actor Stefan Johnson — was left unimpressed with many of the burnt ends he tried, declaring the ones at BB’s Lawnside Blues and BBQ among the city’s best. He dubbed one restaurant’s burnt ends “visual catfish.”
The popular Z-Man sandwich at Joe’s Kansas City Bar-B-Que earned one of his most scathing reviews.
Q39 hit his trifecta — burnt ends, ribs, brisket, “not a single miss.”
He posted a YouTube video of his visit in October, but began posting bite-sized reviews of each restaurant to Instagram a few days ago. As of Monday, those posts have received more than 50,000 likes.
Johnson found instant celebrity in 2021 when he posted a silly TikTok of himself rating fast food French fries. Overnight, the review earned 1 million views and since then he’s become known for his no-holds-barred food reviews — kind of like that uncle at Thanksgiving who loudly calls out the lumps in the gravy.
Johnson’s reviews and foodie posts vaulted him into a voiceover career; he’s narrated Netflix shows, McDonald’s commercials and World Wrestling Entertainment promos.
When it comes to barbecue, he made clear he has two personal preferences: He thinks ribs that have meat falling off the bone are overcooked and barbecued meat should not rely on the sauce for its oomph. He prefers his meat naked.
“We came into this world naked, we should be able to eat our food naked,” he said in one of his barbecue reviews.
Here’s what Snack Daddy said about Kansas City barbecue.
Gates
The “very finely chopped up, almost like ground beef” burnt ends at Gates confused him. “I am not used to that, but we are gonna rock with it,” he said, wondering if he accidentally ordered them chopped during the fast-paced ordering process.
He liked their “really good, fatty, seasoned” flavor. On bread, “oh, it’s amazing as a sandwich ... like the perfect sandwich meat,” he said.
“This is really just so (bleeping) good as a sandwich. OK, there’s a method to the madness. I understand now.”
He was less kind about the brisket, which, thinly sliced, reminded him of corned beef. “That is such a weird thing for me,” he said.
“Well, that’s a no,” he said when he tried it.
He liked whatever dry rub is used on Gates’ ribs, which he declared to be “smoky, tender ... so incredibly savory” and praised the baked beans.
“This is all solid. The only thing I don’t rock with is that brisket,” he said.
Arthur Bryant’s
He was excited to try the burnt ends on what he said was his first trip to Arthur Bryant’s. He ordered the burnt ends sandwich and ham sandwich.
He was excited about the burnt ends “because the spot I stopped at yesterday ... it didn’t really scratch the itch.”
He was reassured to see the smoke ring on the burnt ends here.
“It’s fine. I would rather want a little more seasoning on here,” he said. “I’m not really getting too much of a bark on here. On any piece. Oh wait, I lied.”
He said the burnt end sandwich was “all right. Because the meat itself isn’t seasoned a lot at all ... it weighs heavily on the sauce.”
He gave higher marks to the onion rings. “Love the onion ring, just not in love with the burnt ends. I’m sorry,” he said.
But angels sang when he bit into the pit ham sandwich, stacked with meat.
“All right, that’s what we want,” he said. “Extremely tender, extremely flavorful. It’s salty, it’s fatty ... now imagine if they put some coleslaw on that sandwich, maybe a little bit of cheese, for your razzle-dazzle.
“That is some of the best ham I’ve ever had, and I don’t say that lightly.”
Jack Stack
He ordered the burnt ends, brisket, turkey, fries and butter cake for dessert.
“But the first concern is they tried to hide the burnt ends with the fries. Why top them like that? … what are you hiding, Jack?” he said. “I don’t know why they’re trying to hide them, they look amazing.
“A nice little smoke ring, a great bark. I’m hoping it tastes good.
“Absolutely phenomenal smoke on here. You really taste, you taste the smoker on here. It penetrated all the way down to every fiber of the meat.
“But that said, the only thing I taste is smoke. I don’t taste any salt, pepper, garlic, that’s all you really need for a good piece of beef. You don’t really need much more than that. But there’s nothing but smoke.”
He tried them with hot sauce, but said as soon as he got past the sauce “it’s like you’re biting back into the sadness.”
Flavor of the brisket? “Nothing, absolutely nothing. I don’t even taste the smoke on that one. That is ridiculous.”
The turkey?
“Lunch meat. Oscar Mayer. It’s literally like plasticky, it’s a super-processed mouth feel. And when you start to kind of break it down, not particularly seasoned well.”
But he loved the butter cake — moist, topped with light whipped cream. “They probably whip and nae nae it in the back,” he said. “Their pastry chef is doing their big thing back there. Why doesn’t their pitmaster have the same energy?”
Q39
As he prepared to pop the first burnt end into his mouth here, he said, “now I’ve been striking out with burnt ends in this city since I landed. I am really, really curious if this is gonna be the one to kinda whet my whistle.”
It was.
“Thank (bleeping) God,” he said. “Flavor. Actual (bleeping) flavor, for once since I’ve been in this city. It’s nothing crazy. It’s like your basic seasonings, but that’s all you need. I just need some salt, some pepper, some smoke.
“A beautiful smoke ring there. It’s tender, not too fatty, but you got a little moisture in there. That’s exactly what you need.”
Fired up, he called the brisket “the best” he had in Kansas City so far.
But the “very loose” baked beans? “That’s not my favorite, not gonna lie,” he said. “The beans are so beat to (bleep) it almost reminds you of SpaghettiOs, the sauce. Would have been an absolute hit if it wasn’t for that.”
The sides, he said, are not Q39’s strong suit, calling the coleslaw “supermarket deli” slaw. “So the meats are where they’re gonna shine here,” he said.
The smoke in the ribs, he said, penetrated all the way to the bone. “That’s just insane,” he said. “This is the best barbecue I’ve had in the city. And again, I’m not a master fan of the sides. The sides can kinda go to (bleep). But the meats, the thing that you come here for, they do right.
“All in all, Q39, all right. They gonna be around for a while.”
Chef J
He was enthralled by the macaroni and cheese here, pasta shells in a creamy, white, cheesy sauce. Not what you’d expect from a barbecue place, he said, “like an elevated kind of experience.”
He expected a little bite to the chipotle slaw but was disappointed, calling it “not good at all.”
But the bacon burnt ends won instant and high praise.
“PORK BURNT ENDS THAT TASTE LIKE THICK SMOKED BACON?!” he wrote on Instagram. “Stopped by Chef J BBQ in Kansas City — a more modern, new-school take on Southern barbecue. The pork burnt ends were the clear standout, insanely rich and smoky. The rest of the menu? Solid. Not gonna lie, this spot won’t be for everybody… but I really liked it.”
“That is (bleeping) delicious. That is a treat,” he said in the video as he dug into the burnt ends. “It’s almost like this entire cube is like a crispy chunk of bacon. But when you do start to chew it, it starts to break down a little. Tender, flavorful, salty, sweet. And the bark on there, it’s so good. It’s so smoky.”
He thought he wasn’t going to like the ribs because he could feel the meat pull away from the bone on the first one he picked up.
But he liked the “amazing flavor. I’m a massive pepper guy. Almost all of the spice on here is just black pepper and I just love that.
“It’s just overcooked. A fall-apart rib is an overcooked rib. You don’t need to have it a meat soup, if you will. Damn, an amazing flavor. But it’s overcooked pork.”
He liked the restaurant’s “vinegary-based sauces,” including the one he described as “black as the back of my neck.”
“Again, to have like a new take of your Kansas City barbecue, it’s enjoyable,” he said. “Would I choose it over like any of the classics? I’m not sure about that. But pretty solid for what it is. Experimenting.
“I bet the old heads around here hate it. But I would definitely come back, I’m not gonna lie to you.”
Joe’s KC
It was his first time at Joe’s, too. He ordered the burnt ends dinner, which he said “really isn’t even much of a dinner.” He got the spicy slaw as the side.
“That’s by far probably the most flavorful burnt end I’ve had in this damn city,” he said. “I can’t even count with my tongue how many herbs and spices must be in that bark.
“And the flavor gets all the way down to the middle of the meat. It’s smoky, fatty, moist, well seasoned. Thank god when the old guard actually does a burnt end well. I am super excited about that.”
But then he bit into his Z-Man sandwich.
“It’s like biting into (bleeping) water.”
He tried the brisket alone. “There’s absolutely no (bleeping) seasoning on this. They should be (bleeping) ashamed of themselves,” he said.
“How are you one of the oldest, most renowned, legendary, prestigious barbecue spots in this city and you don’t season your (bleep, bleep) meat. Like there’s nothing on it. It’s like it’s seasoned with prayer.”
He liked the sauce better.
“The sauce they have is phenomenal,” he said. “I’m finding out that Kansas City has a specific genre of sauce. All the sauces really kinda have that same body flavor, almost texture profile, with each spot just having their own individual identity to it.
“The burnt ends ... are like a 10 out of 10 … that’s like a perfect burnt end. But … the brisket, I don’t know what went wrong.
“And to think this may be my last stop here in Kansas City, this is truly disheartening. Again, ups and downs, ebbs and flows, one complete win, one absolutely failure.”
BB’s Lawnside BBQ
Johnson’s last Instagram video, posted over the weekend, showed him trying out the menu at BB’s.
He called it the “coolest (bleeping) joint I think I’ve been in this entire city.”
And then he popped a French fry in his mouth.
He had had high hopes, calling the thick fries on first inspection the “sexiest looking potatoes I think I’ve ever seen in my life.”
After tasting one though, he said “that is exponentially disappointing ... its very dry, it’s overcooked. The batter has no seasoning. I thought it was gonna be seasoned to perfect. It is seasoned to defection. Not for me.”
He liked the citrusy, “fruity” taste in the baked beans — and hollered with joy about the meaty burnt ends.
“Finally, finally. That is a burnt end!” he shouted. “Tender. Fatty. Oh my God. It’s smoky. Little bit of crisp around the edge. Not overseasoned ... let the beef do the work.
The sauce, more tangy than sweet the way he prefers, made them “amazing. I love it,” he said.
He also dug into one of the restaurant’s barbecue sundaes, layers of coleslaw, beans and pulled pork served in a tiny glass jar and accessorized with a pickle spear. “Not gonna lie, that’s some country (bleep) that I am here for,” he said.
“As far as atmosphere, as far as the food, even the wait staff, they’re pretty solid here. Amazing blues band playing right here, this might be the best vibe I’ve had in Kansas City. You should pull up.”
This story was originally published January 26, 2026 at 2:48 PM.
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