Retreat Gastro Pub in the Cortex area of St. Louis 11-18-23

 I'd give this place a 3.5/5

I don't think I've ever eaten in this "Cortex" area before.  It is the home of Wash U Med and IKEA.  It has the new Foundry and the Armory across the highway.  

Retreat Gastro Pub is not new and we've thought about going to it for awhile, so we decided to try it before we went to a show at the Fox, because it is actually quite close to the theater.

This is a small restaurant with about 7 tables and a dozen seats at the bar.  There is a "back room" that has about 6 additional tables.  

I guess the best way I could describe their menu is kind of like a bistro menu.  It has a little of everything (meat, chicken, fish, veg, dessert).  They do brunch on weekends.

My take of the clientele...It was several parents taking their 20-30 year old medical student children out for supper.  

We started with cocktails.  Mike had a gin and tonic and was pleased to try a new gin (Leatherbee...made in California).  I had a "shrug" Moscow mule.  I don't think it fit the true definition of a shrug (that is made with something in vinegar) but it was a Moscow mule with grapefruit juice and ginger beer.  It was good.  

We had an appetizer of risotto balls.  They had braised beef short rib meat in them.  They were in a spicy marinara sauce.  They were OK.  I think they were overcooked and seemed a little hard on the outside.  The sauce was good but there was not enough of it.  They were fine, but I don't think I'd get them again. 

For dinner Mike had a burger and fries (again).  He enjoyed this one way better than he did last weekend.  This one was cooked well and the house ketchup was more like BBQ sauce.  The fries were crisp but not greasy.  

I had a portabella sandwich.  The portabella had been marinated and then tempuraed and fried.  It had a sweet goat cheese spread on top and a bit of pepper jam that had a bit of spice.  Those two tastes were a nice compliment to the tanginess of the vinaigrette the mushroom had been marinated in.  I liked the sandwich.  Instead of fries, I paired it with a cup of potato leek soup.  The soup was topped with what tasted like dehydrated bacon.  It was really dry and hard.  The soup was good, but it had been totally whizzed up.  There was no chewing to it...no potatoes, no leeks, etc.  You could tasted them, but the consistency was like thick mashed potato soup. It was good, but I missed chewing some potatoes. 

We liked our drinks and what we got for supper, but the menu is really small, and I don't know that there is enough stuff to tempt us to come back.  

Planters House in St. Louis 11-11-23

Drinks 4.5/5

Food 3/5

This is a cocktail place we've wanted to try, but it is a darned long drive down to Mississippi and Choteau just for a drink.  It has absolutely no parking...only street parking and you are fighting with all the people who live around this block for a spot. 

It is a small place (maybe 12 tables and only 12 seats at the bar).  They make actual reservations for their seats at the bar.

Since it is a cocktail bar, I made us reservations at the bar.  I had hoped we could chat up the bartender about drinks and fun things to try.  This was not the case.  Behind the bar were two women who were both working their butts off.  One was a tall, very quiet Asian woman who just quickly made drinks, made drinks, made drinks.  She was in charge of the drinks for the entire restaurant (except the bar).  The other gal was in charge of all the food and drink for the 12 people seated at the bar.  We talked to her a bit, but she was just too busy to chat much.

I had read that this place had the best gin martini in St. Louis.  So, that is what Mike started with.  It was good, but a straight up martini is REALLY strong.  I started (and eventually stayed with) a vodka gimlet.  It was super good.  It had been shaken really hard and then poured over a large ice cube.  The lime was literally beginning to freeze in the glass, it was that cold.  

I don't remember what Mike's 2nd drink was...I think it was a tropical rum drink.  It was OK, but we both ended up really liking the gimlets, so Mike's 3rd drink was a gin gimlet.  The lime cordial they make for the gimlet was REALLY good.

We both had supper.  I had a BBQ shrimp sandwich.  It was pretty good.  The bread was crusty and the shrimp weren't over cooked.  

Mike had burger and cacio e pepe fries.  The burger was fine and cooked the correct amount, but it had machego cheese, chorizo jam, and serrano pepper relish on it.  The ketchup they gave was the "house" ketchup and it didn't taste anything like ketchup. They also had a very bland aioli that just tasted like bland mayo. All those differences were just too much and they seemed to fight each other for what one was tasting.  So, Mike was disappointed in the burger and fries.  

One thing I REALLY liked about this very small place was that it was a true cocktail bar.  There was no TV anywhere in the place.  It makes people (even at the bar) have conversations.  I just wished we could have talked to the bartenders more.  

Bayon Bistro in Winghaven 11-10-23

I would give this restaurant a 3.5/5

I had heard from people in my bunco group that they really liked this newer Asian restaurant in the Winghaven/40 strip mall.  So, Mike and I decided to try it on a Friday evening.

The owners are Cambodian.  They took the old China King and cleaned it up a bit and made it more of a sit down restaurant.

It has sushi and there is an actual sushi bar where you can sit and watch them make sushi.  I got a tempura shrimp roll.  It was good.  They have several rolls on sale during happy hour.  The couple next to us got all happy hour shrimp for their supper.  

    

They had Bud products and wine on sale for happy hour (which is until 6 p.m. M-F), so Mike got a beer and I got a glass of Hess Cabernet.  

Mike ordered some pot stickers.  He didn't like them.  I think instead of pork they might have been filled with ground chicken and he said he found the insides to be "mushy."

For dinner Mike got teriyaki beef and broccoli.  (I forgot to take photos of our dinner entrees).  It was nice and the broccoli looked fresh.  

I got green curry with shrimp.  It was in a large soup bowl.  I took home 2/3 of it.  It was quite spicy.  I am still not sold on curries.  I like that they are spicy, but I wish they had a bigger variety of vegetables.  This one had onions, LOTS of bamboo shoots, a few mushrooms, pieces of sweet potato and a few carrots.  I am missing celery, broccoli, pea pods, etc.  I know, I know...what I'm missing are the more American Chinese things and I should just get over it.   

I don't think this will replace our favorite sushi restaurant (Sushi Sen in LSL) or our take out Chinese, but it is nice to know it is close.  I may get happy hour sushi from here sometime when Mike isn't home at supper time.  

Big Sky in Webster Groves 11-4-23

 I would give Big Sky a 4/5 based on the items we tried.

Big Sky is a cool little restaurant that is actually attached to a Senior Citizen apartment complex in Webster Groves.  It is almost across the street from another favorite of ours the Highway 61 Roadhouse (Cajun food).  

We had early reservations and at that time the restaurant seemed to be populated by people who were eating early and then had tickets to the Rep (which is very nearby).  Many of them were our age or older.

The menu is rather small.  There were only a few actual entrees to choose from.  I think this place wanted to be a wine and appetizer place, but most people I saw were actually ordering the entrees. 

I ordered the seafood stew.  In other restaurants this would be called cioppino.  This is one of my favorite dishes. This one was just OK.  It needed a few more spices (especially a dash of heat) and maybe one more kind of fish.    I will give them props for not shoving the bread down in the juice when serving it to me.  The bread was still crunchy and crisp and that was good.  

Mike actually ordered two entrees, as he wanted leftovers.  The only beef entree (Mike's go to) they had was a rosemary and red wine braised pot roast.  Mike also added an entree of cheddar mac and cheese.  He liked both of them and took home the leftovers.  

    

We both got a dessert (which I forgot to take photos of).  Mike got a caramel apple pie dessert and I got a dish that was overflowing with chocolate/chili sorbet.  Mike's was good.  The sorbet's flavors were too strong.  It was good for a few bites and then you needed a bite of something else.  It was dark chocolate and strong chili powder flavors.  

This was a nice restaurant, but the small menu really limits your choices.  I'll have to check back and see if the menu changes with the seasons. 

 

El Mezon in Lake St. Louis 11-3-23

 I would give this restaurant a 3.5 out of 5, but I think I need to try more things on their menu.

I get my hair cut by this restaurant and it seems to always be busy.  It is in a strip mall on the north side of LSL and 70.  

I was surprised by the 20 minute wait.  The actual rooms are much bigger inside than I would have expected from a strip mall restaurant.   It also has some rather cool Mexican/Aztec style decorations...different than the typical El Maguey decorations that are so typical all over St. Charles county.

The chips and salsa are about the same.

Mike got a large margarita.  He said it was good...probably not homemade.  

I had shrimp diavolo.  This is typically shrimp in a spicy sauce.  I then put the shrimp on tortillas with lettuce, etc.  This dish was totally different.  It was a base of rice, then they poured melted white cheese all over the rice.  Then there was lettuce, tomato and avacado on top of the cheese.  The shrimp were cooked in a spicy sauce and poured over the lettuce.  There were many things that did not work.

The cheese over the rice made a hard bottom that stuck to the plate.  The hot shrimp and sauce just wilted all the lettuce/tomato.  Also, the sauce on the shrimp was not very spicy.  The waiter actually asked me if it was too spicy.  I told him no, so he brought me out some spicy salsa.  It was too different of a kind of salsa and it was just heat...no actual flavor. There were no tortillas...it was just eaten with a fork.  

Mike got a trio of items (burrito, enchilada, and taquito)...all with beef in them.  He said they were fine.  The taquito (rolled taco) was quite good as it was homemade and especially fresh.  

This place has a very high ceiling and is very loud.  It has some homemade items and we may come back to try some other things, but I didn't especially love my first impression.