Where KU basketball players love to eat in KC and Lawrence: Favorite wings, steak, BBQ

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If you’re seeking a restaurant recommendation from the Kansas men’s basketball team, you probably don’t want to start with Ramsey Nijem.

Nothing against the Jayhawks’ strength coach, of course. He can give you a nice, lean suggestion, but when it comes to a cheat meal …

“He’s not going to do that,” joked Kansas senior and defensive ace Kevin McCullar. “He’s allllllll healthy food.”

Sure enough, Nijem needed a beat, then another, followed by a hmmm, before he could answer this reporter’s question on that very topic. Then it came to him.

“Oh,” Nijem said, cracking a smile. “Morningstar’s Pizza in Lawrence. Shoutout to Brady Morningstar. That’s my cheat meal.”

He began to walk away, down a hall leading to the coaches’ makeshift office in Des Moines, where the No. 1-seeded Jayhawks were preparing to play in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

“Make sure you get Morningstar’s Pizza in there,” he yelled across the locker room.

He might be biased. The pizza shop on Sixth Street in Lawrence is owned by Roger Morningstar and family. He, of course, made a Final Four with the Jayhawks, and his son Brady, a former KU player and current Jayhawk video coordinator, used to work there.

“Hey, shoutout Morningstar’s Pizza,” interjected McCullar, reminded of the connection after listing another eatery as his top place in Lawrence. “… That’s my second favorite, for real.”

There’s plenty of healthy discussion when it comes to the preferred meal of the Kansas Jayhawks, starting with one debate that’s tearing the team apart.

Jefferson’s is the favorite venue for starting center KJ Adams, walk-on sharpshooter Michael Jankovich and McCullar, but there’s no consensus on how best to enjoy the wings.

“They do good wings,” Adams said. “I like their cheese fries. They’ve got a little mac and cheese with Buffalo in it, too. I like that.”

“Boneless honey-barbecue wings and fries and ranch,” Jankovich added.

McCullar respectfully disagrees.

“I get the Asian Zing wings, but I get the bone-in,” McCullar said. “I don’t like boneless. That’s not a real wing. That’s a chicken nugget.”

He grinned, then shook his head at his teammates’ selections.

“They be doing that chicken wing — they like to eat quick, take it to go,” McCullar said. “I like to sit there, enjoy my meal.”

If they can agree on one thing, it’s this cheat meal: McCullar’s go-to is a McChicken at McDonald’s. Backup point guard Bobby Pettiford will grab two of those, plus fries, a cinnamon melt and large Hi-C — “No ice,” he clarifies — but only on Sundays or off days.

Pettiford, who grew up in North Carolina enjoying his mom’s cooking — lots of soul food, chicken, mac and cheese, green beans and potatoes — has found a different top spot in Lawrence. He heads down 23rd Street for Oriental Bistro & Grill, ordering orange chicken with broccoli, fried rice and some lemonade.

The student-athletes at KU have many of their meals provided by the university and planned out through a nutrition program. But they also have a “red card,” Pettiford said, that allows them to get meals around town. It was through that card that Pettiford first gave Oriental Bistro a try, and it was an instant hit.

On special occasions, the players find themselves with a buffet of options from Kansas City-based Q39 barbecue, which most in the locker room highlighted as a favorite, though Jankovich prefers Gates Bar-B-Q’s mammoth beef-and-a-half sandwich.

(Funny enough, Jankovich’s father, Tim, a former KU assistant coach, may have been the first to recommend that dish to a reporter.)

Another consensus favorite? 715, an Italian bistro on Massachusetts Street.

“The last thing I got from them, I got the filet steak, a little potato, little salad,” said Nijem. “You can’t go wrong with 715. Shoutout 715.”

“The Lumache Alla Vodka with shrimp,” added Greg Gurley, former KU player, current team color commentator and assistant athletics director for major gifts. “I bet you (my wife and I) go there when we’re in Lawrence at least twice a week. And it’s only open five days a week.”

Nijem’s filet is an 8 ounce steak, served with crispy potato pavé, Worcestershire aioli and tomato peppadew salad ($52). Gurley’s pasta dish comes with the shell pasta in a tomato vodka sauce, fresh basil and Parmesan cheese. With shrimp ($8), the meal runs $33.

Gurley also comes locked and loaded with KC area recommendations. Nick and Jake’s on 135th and Metcalf in Overland Park is his go-to spot to grab a beer, and he and his wife are often seeking out Italian food, be it Garozzo’s or Jasper’s Italian Restaurant.

His favorite meal from Jasper’s, located at 103rd and State Line? “Veal for me,” Gurley said. “What Jasper’s does that’s cool, they do at the table — make their own mozzarella. They make it with hot water and curds and do all the stuff right in front of you.”

Work your way around the Kansas locker room, you can pick up a few fine dining tips.

Adams’ KC-based pick is 801 Chophouse, “probably the best steak place you can ever have,” he says. He orders the bone-in filet mignon, Oscar style, a $26 add-on that features king crab with bearnaise and asparagus.

McCullar goes for Ocean Prime when he’s in Kansas City. In fact, he took his parents there before he joned the team. His pick was a steak paired with a California roll.

Perhaps the most memorable pick belongs to combo guard Joseph Yesufu, a Drake transfer known for his quickness, jump-out-of-the-gym athleticism and three-point shooting. You’d never know it looking at him, but growing up 30 minutes from Chicago in Bolingbrook, Illinois, Yesufu was all in on McDonald’s, at least until he “started seeing how it can affect your body.”

Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen is still a cheat meal of sorts, but Yesufu’s top picks start in the suburbs at J. Alexander’s in Overland Park. His favorite dish is the Steak Maui, a marinated ribeye, plus some fries ($45).

His Lawrence pick has some significance, and a bit of a track record.

Back in spring of 2015, a young point guard by the name of Frank Mason had just wrapped up his breakout sophomore season when he decided to impart some restaurant advice to his Twitter followers. Asked for his favorite restaurant, Mason, who would go on to win consensus national player of the year honors in 2016-17, recommended Kobe Japanese Steakhouse in Lawrence.

Four years later, two years removed from his sensational senior season, Mason affirmed that was still his top pick in Lawrence.

Yesufu may not have known Kobe’s track record in KU basketball lore, but he had heard about the food.

“I get the steak and shrimp, extra rice and extra steak,” Yesufu said. “When I first came here, everybody was telling me that’s the best restaurant. I tried it here, and I go almost like every week.”