It was going to be a nice evening, so I looked for some of the nicest outdoor seating in St. Louis. One of the places that came up was Bar Italia in the Central West End.
I hadn't been in the CWE for awhile. Because it was a Cardinal baseball night, traffic on Hwy 40 was super busy, so we took Hwy 70 and then south on Kingshighway. Whoa! Talk about driving through blighted St. Louis and then almost immediately, just before the CWE it changes to nice houses/stores. I think this is evidence of previous redlining in STL. It is so obvious...and bad.
We had 5:30 reservations for outside seating. When we were there, at first, the patio wasn't very full. Over the next couple hours, it filled up.
We ordered the appetizer special of the evening. It was a bruschetta with ricotta cheese and artichoke topping covered with parm cheese. I ended up not caring for it and Mike ate both of them.
We found a nice bottle of cabernet, but their wine list left a lot to be desired.
The menu wasn't very large and I had a hard time figuring out what I was going to eat. Mike got the steak and potatoes dinner. The steak had been smothered in a sauce that was made with shallots. He said both the steak and the potatoes were good.
I didn't want a noodle and scallop dish, I didn't really want a heavy meat sauce on large noodles. So, I ended up getting butternut squash ravioli with sweet potatoes made with a butter, basil, and cashew sauce. I really liked it except I could have done without all the melted butter. It just seemed oily. The ravioli was really nice. The sweet potatoes gave just a little sweetness to the dish.
The patio was fine but it was just an average patio. The only thing that made it special was that outdoor area is hard to come by in the CWE and Bar Italia has a nice sized patio. I would not call it one of the nicest outdoor areas in the STL area. The food was good, not great. It was a nice evening. I can't say if we'll return.
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