I've heard about this restaurant for quite awhile, and I don't know why we've never tried it.
When I was doing my research on this restaurant, I found out they were one of the premier wine restaurants in the USA. That is a little intimidating. Many of their wines are WAY out of our league. They have wines that are like $7000 a bottle! We don't drink wines that are $70 a bottle, let alone $7000.
It actually turned out very well. The servers are very well schooled in the wines. I'm sure they have at least one sommelier on staff (maybe more than one) who we could have asked questions of, but we didn't need to. Our server was more than competent. After reading the menu, we told him what we were planning on eating and he asked us a few more questions (what kinds of wines we liked and didn't like, how much we wanted to spend on a glass/bottle, etc.) and we ended up NOT getting a bottle of wine. We got a couple of glasses of a wine from Italy that was really good and under our price range. It is called Il Bruciato. It is made in Italy with Cabernet, Merlot and Syrah grapes (mostly Cab, which we like). Because I don't know what it might taste like (sometimes good, sometimes not) I am always hesitant to pick wines that are a mixture. This one was really quite nice.
For an appetizer Mike had French onion soup. He said it was very good. Sorry, my photo is sad because he had already begun eating...
For my appetizer I got the mussels. They were good, but the broth was a butter garlic sauce and it was really quite salty. It was fine on the mussels, but unlike usual when you get this dish at other restaurants (and it has a tomato broth) you couldn't really sop it up with the bread...it was just too salty.
Ok, so VERY much like Annie Gunn's, this restaurant has a specialty store next door that sells fine cuts of meat, wines, cheeses, and everything that could go on a appetizer tray. It is called The Butchery. So, they are known for their steaks.
Mike got a filet, some haricot verts (small French green beans) and fancy parmesan French fries. He said it was all very good.
When I had researched this restaurant, I had totally planned out what I would eat. I was going to get the gumbo for my appetizer and then the mussels appetizer for my dinner. Well, tonight the gumbo was made "extra special" with pork belly in it. I don't like "pork belly. I know it is all the rage in the food world right now. There is something about a cut of pork that is mostly fat that doesn't appeal to me. So, I had to switch gears. When our server told me about on of the specials I was super intrigued. You see, when you aren't a steak eater and you go with your husband to tons of steak style restaurants, you are always looking for something different. I appreciate when a restaurant has a true "chef" who has an imagination and can cook some new and different things. So, the chef had ordered branzino (sea bass). He expected it to come whole. It came in filets. So, he fried it in a tempura batter and decided to play on the Asian flavors. He made sushi sticky rice with a little extra vinegar and black sesame seeds in it. He took some green onions (the whole stalk) and pickled them in a kimchi style. Then he made a soy and spicy sauce that went around it all. So, that's what I had: tempura battered and fried branzino on sticky sushi rice with kimchi green onions. The flavors together were super yummy and something you'd never expect to find at a steak place!
We never finish our dinner, so that we can try the restaurants desserts. Mike always has cappuccino with his dessert. I was just finishing my wine. Mike had creme brulee. He said it was very good, but I like it better with berries of some kind. His came with almond biscotti.
I thought about a chocolate torte, but ended up getting a churro dessert that was fried and covered in cinnamon and sugar. Then they put warm apple compote on it and cinnamon ice cream. The crunchy and warm in contrast with the soft and the cold were really good. It was a BIG dessert. I couldn't finish it all (almost).
This is an expensive, super nice place set in the heart of Ladue. We were surprised...there were people of all ages there. There were people who were dressed up and people in jeans. The tables are spaced enough apart that I didn't feel like I was infringing on anyone else's dinner or listening to anyone else's conversation. It wasn't full, but when we left a couple hours after we started, I'd say it was 70% full.
I would go back here. It was expensive but worth it.
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