Twisted Tree Steakhouse in South County 12-6-25

I'd give this place a 3 on decor but a 4.5 on food and wine.  

It has been several years since we've been to Twisted Tree, but they just keep getting good reviews, so we decided to try it again.

We had tickets to the Fox, so we had a 5 o'clock reservation.

This restaurant is attached to a Holiday Inn.  The parking is HORRIBLE.  I even remember that from several years ago.  All the hotel people take up the spots and we luckily found a spot WAY around back.  It was cold and we had to walk and walk from our car.  We came in a side door and walked all the way through the convention center part of the hotel, out the front door and then around the front side to the entrance to the restaurant.  What a pain!

As I mentioned...the decor in this place needs some help.  I KNOW...it is a hotel restaurant.  That means they are going to accept all kinds of people in all kinds of clothes at all times of day.  But it has "nice" food and it just doesn't have to look so "yee haw."  Wagon wheel style circular light fixtures...photos of cattle on the walls...wooden paneling.  It has fine dining style food and the decor of an old Bonanza buffet restaurant.  

The clientel is quite varied.  There were a wide range of ages and ethnicities of people there.  That was nice...but it was heavy on the white, over 50 crowd.

The waitress was nice.  We ordered a drink and told her to leave the wine menu.  She politely informed us that they had a sommelier who was not stuffy at all and very easy to talk to.  I agree that sommeliers are somewhat intimidating to me, even.  So, that was nice of her to try and put our minds at east.  For a cocktail I ordereda drink called the Smoked Orchard.  It was made with mezcal, cider, lime and ginger beer.  I like all those things.  It was OK.  There was no "smoked" aroma or flavor to it at all, and the mezcal was overpowering.  It had a salted and cinnamon rim...I found that odd.  The cider and ginger beer were nice.  

Mike had a gin and tonic.  It is one of the places that brings you a small unopened bottle of tonic water, so you know it is fresh.  That is nice, but a little wasteful, as he doesn't need a whole bottle of tonic for one cocktail.

I do have one complaint...their salads.  They are WAY too big for one person.  They come in a large serving bowl and then you serve yourself onto a plate.  Mike got a traditional field greens salad and I got a caesar salad.  They come with homemade croutons, shaved parm, homemade salad dressings.  We each ate 1/2 of the salad.  If I had eaten the whole salad...I would not have been able to eat ANY of my dinner.  

For dinner I ordered the special which were 4 large scallops on a bed of creamy sweet potato risotto.  It was very good and I would order it again in a second.  The scallops were very well prepared.  The risotto had the slightest bit of sweetness from the sweet potatoes.  YUM!

Mike had his favorite...prime rib.  He got the largest piece so he would have plenty of left overs.  He also got a LARGE baked potato with butter and sour cream.  

We tried a new wine with dinner.  Honig Cabernet.  We just ordered it from our waitress.  I had looked it up on my Vivino app.  It was delivered by the sommelier.  He was very nice.  He told us all about this winery and how there was a bee on the front of the bottle because they also grow olives and honey on this vineyard.  He explained how it was a small family owned winery and the main guy still travels and promotes his wines.  Our waitress was right...the sommelier was nice and not too pretentious.  

They had some yummy looking desserts, but we were full and didn't really have the time to linger over dessert and coffee.  

The food/wine were better than I remembered...I just need to get over myself about the yee haw decor.  

Yes, we'd go here again. 

Gio Modern Italian 12-5-25

 I'd give this place a 4/5 for a casual but nice place to eat

I went here with Laurie/Beth/Vickie after going to the movie in Chesterfield.  We had a reservation at 6:45 and we arrived about 6:40 but we ended up standing for a good 10-15 minutes.  That's a bit of a pain, they have no lobby area and nowhere to sit while waiting, so we stood in the cold doorway.

I ordered a glass of wine, Joel Gott Cabernet.  It was nice.  I would order it again.

We all looked at the pastas and the appetizers.  They seemed all over-priced.  So, it ended up we all ordered pizzas.  They were all under $20 and we wanted leftovers.  Laurie got a mushroom pizza, Vickie got a gluten-free crust with a grilled chicken topping, Beth got some veggie pizza and I ordered the supreme with extra sauce and no green peppers.  It was really quite good and we had a nice time.  We sat and talked for quite awhile.  Because it was after 7, there was no one waiting for tables and the waitstaff didn't mind us keeping the table.  

Wright's Tavern 11-15-25

 I would give this place a 4/5 stars.

This was the long awaited night at Wright's Tavern.  It is so difficult to get reservations here that you have to be up at midnight when a new month opens and you need to be ON IT to get a reservation in a regular dinner time.

So, on Sept. 1st I was up at 11:59 pm and secured us a table for 2 at 6:15 p.m.

The place is very small.  There are only 12 tables.  There were places for 4 people at the bar, but I don't know if those are reservations or walk ins.  I'm thinking reservations, because I sat facing the door and I watched the hostess turn A LOT of people away.

After standing for about 15 minutes (so tiny there is literally no place to wait) for people before us to vacate the table, we were seated at a small table for 2 in the middle of the room.  Not Mike's preference.  The tables were close to each other no matter where you sat in this place.  It is that small!

They are white table clothes with big roll white paper over the top.  So on each table is a glass with pencils in it...so you can draw on the paper...I guess.  I found that odd for a restaurant of this caliber. 

The menu is small. Their wine list is not available online.  That always bugs me. 

We each started with a cocktail...and I'll have to say they were REALLY good.  I had what was called a Pink Lady.  It had vodka, raspberry something, lime and egg white froth.  It was refreshing and tart.  Mike had a gin martini.  It had a "side car" which just means more martini in a cruet on the side in ice.  

Oh, by the way...it is DIM in this place...so all the photos look dim.  

Another thing that was not super fun about this place was that it was loud.  The walls are old brick and the old tin type ceiling make all the sound just bounce around.  It was difficult to talk and enjoy a quiet moment. 

The food here is expensive.  The bread is made by Union Loafers in south St. Louis and it is a yummy warm sourdough loaf.  The butter is a whipped dolop with olive oil and herbs in an indentation in the center.  I have always had a problem with people who think the bread is a course.  I don't want them to take away my bread when my salad and entree arrive.  I want to not eat the bread before, so I can eat it with my salad and entree.  But, when you have a table this small, it becomes and issue of space.  We literally didn't have enough room for all the plates on this small table. 

I decided to get a Caesar salad and have the crab cake appetizer as my entree.  The salad was too big for one person...unless it was there whole meal.  I'm sure they were trying to justify the price, but no one needs salads to be platter sized.  It was good.  

The crab cake was a nice size...much bigger than I usually see, but it was in a spicy remoulade.  I wish this had been on the side or in fancy dots around the plate.  Crab is such a delicate flavor that I don't like some spicy sauce with every bite.  The crab cake was good with lots of big lump crab meat.  I could have done without the sauce.

There wine list was heavy on French and Italian red wines.  We got a bottle of Laely cabernet for just under $100 and that was one of the cheaper wines on the menu.  They went up to almost $2,000! Our waiter said we got the last bottle of Laely and my thought was...you need to get some more affordable bottles of cabernet on your wine list!

Of course the reason we came to this place is because it is known for steak.  Mike got a filet.  It came with pomme frites (homemade french fries).  The filet comes in an au poivre sauce.  Which is a cognac and black peppercorn sauce.  Mike wished it wasn't on the plate.  He probably should have asked for it on the side, but you hate to dis a chef on their signature dish.  He likes a little sauce here and there, but most of the time he want a steak with just salt and pepper on it and no sauce. The french fries were hot and crispy and good. 

Dessert was something I had heard all about on line.  They have this amazing hot fudge sundae.  So, of cource we ordered it.  It has a big dolop of homemade whipped cream on the top and they pour the hot fudge on tableside.  Then, it has 12 different toppings you can put on yourself. Cookies, Gummy Bears, regular M&M's, peanut butter M&M's. little Heath bars, maraschino cherries, hazelnuts, Rolos, and more...Twelve!!  It was every bit as good as it looks.  

I mean...steak and ice cream...this is Mike's kind of place.  

The bill was crazy huge.  I think this is one of the top three highest bills we've ever had for the 2 of us.  Was it worth it?  Will we go back?  I don't know.  It is hard to get a reservation.  It is small and kind of cramped.  It isn't quiet and intimate.  The food is good but not over the top great.  I'm glad we went once.  

Buzzetta's in Chesterfield 11-14-25

 This place is still about a 4/5 stars.

We were on our way to the Fox and needed a place we knew well and knew how to get into and out of in about 90 minutes.  We chose Buzzetta's Italian Cafe in Chesterfield.  There food is pretty good.

We had a reservation at 5.  They must open at 4 as there were several tables already eating when we arrived.

When we arrived they tried to seat us at a hightop tables.  I don't like hightop tables...they make my legs hurt.  Mike asked if we could sit at a regular table (which were set for 4 people).  The seating hostess said she'd have to check.  This didn't sit to well with Mike...either let us make reservations and ask us if we want a high top, or allow some parties of 2 sit at regular tables.  We did get a regular table in the end. 

We started with a cocktail.  Recently I have been on a quest to find places that have a cosmo as good as Cafe Napoli.  This one was NOT as good.  It was strong on the vodka and thus not perfect

Mike got his typical gin and tonic. 

For dinner I asked for the eggplant parm appetizer with a side of cappelini pasta with red sauce.  I got the appetizer, but I got penne pasta...not horrible, but not what I asked for.  Since we were going to the Fox, Mike didn't want to split a whole bottle of wine, so I got a glass of Sebastiani.  It was good

Mike asked for the chicken parm (he would have preferred veal) with a side of cappelini with red sauce (he was supposed to get green beans, but he wanted to substitute pasta).  He too got the penne.  

Overall the food is good.  The ambiance is nice.  The waiter was good.  It is a nice place without having to go all the way into St. Louis.  

The Gin Room 10-18-2025

 I would give this place a 4.5/5 just because the food menu is so sparse.

Mike is a gin lover.  He likes old style gin...the kind that tastes and smells like a Christmas tree.  It is actually the smell of juniper berries off those trees that is used in the making of gin.

I like gin...it is OK.  I like drinks that have gin in them but would rather not taste the gin.

I had read this article about Natasha Bahrami and The Gin Room and knew it was a place Mike and I needed to see.  She is a fountain of knowledge on all things gin.  

So, when I made our reservations I made sure to make them "at the bar."  We were lucky enough to have her be there when we were there and she did the explaining on Mike's "gin flight."  

They had a variety of 5 gins laid out before we began, but as she found out more about Mike and the fact that he doesn't like "botanicals" in his gin, and the fact that he can't drink grapefruit juice...even in gin because he is a transplant recipient...she kept changing her choices.  The variety of their gins is massive.  

She explained all the different varieties.  Mike discovered that he liked the "London Dry" variety but we LOVED the story behind the "Old Tom" variety.  Apparently during prohibition people in the gin making world (Scotland, mostly) would put out a sign with a black can on it.  There was a pipe that came out of the building somewhere...an unassuming lead pipe that could look like an old drain pipe.  If you walked up to it and said something like "puss" or "mew mew" there was a response back like "mew mew" and then a shot of gin would come out.  That tom cat is how they developed the "Old Tom" variety!  She also talked about "bathtub" gin like Miss Hannigan had in the musical "Annie."  Those were so toxic and made with such bad ingredients that they flavored them with annis (licorice) and other flavors and that is when flavored gin began.  

While Mike was tasting all these different gins, I was having some amazing gin drinks.  The first one was called the Icelandic Pear.  It had moroccan mint tea, brandy poached pear, cardamom, lemon and gin in it.  It was super yummy.  

Then I tried a classic gin gimlet made with fresh lime juice.  It was nice and sour and great.  

So, we looked and looked at the menu.  There was no beef dishes.  There was one pork chop dish, one fish dish, and a morrocan meatball appetizer but nothing that really sounded like something Mike would like.  So, we ordered the meat and cheese platter.  It was good...2 different meats, 3 cheeses, some crostini bread, jam, very vinegary whole grain mustard and some green tomatoes.  

Natasha made Mike a lovely "gin tonic" as she called it...not a gin and tonic.  And I finished with something called a "Cinnamon."  It had cardamom tea cordial, lemon, atomiced spiced rum, smoked cinnamon, gin and St. George spiced pear liquor.  It was like a dessert and just the right finish.  

If you are looking for a fun place to go and try a drink or two or three.  I would totally recommend Natasha and her big brain!  Sit at the bar and try some great drinks.  

Napoli Kirkwood 10-16-25

 I would give this place a 4/5

We had to run to Kirkwood to look at cabinet colors.  So, instead of sitting in rush hour traffic on the way home, we decided to have an early dinner in Kirkwood.

We knew Napoli had their newest restaurant here, but we've never been here.  It is in the bottom of The James apartment building.  The parking is confusing.  The Alpine Store has a big lot north of the restaurant but you aren't supposed to park there (even though that is where Google maps takes you) you are supposed to park in a lot south of the building.  We parked in the wrong place.

The menu is essentially the same as Napoli Cafe in Clayton and Napoli II in Town and Country.  

I started with their ever so yummy cosmo.  I don't know how they make their cosmos but they are the best anywhere.  I think it has to do with real lime juice and a lot of it.  Mike had a beer.

We weren't in the mood for full on entrees, so I got the eggplant appetizer and Mike got a pizza.  I wasn't going to take photos, but I decided to...after we'd already started eating.  

The sauce is the same as it is at the other places, but the eggplant was breaded heavier and fried more.  It was more greasy and gave me more indigestion than the other places.  It still tasted good, but the breading wanted to fall off it as you ate it and it was harder to tasted the eggplant and not just breading.  

Mike liked his pizza. The waitress talked about how they have these amazing European pizza ovens and Napoli has one in Kirkwood and one in Chesterfield valley.  We've been to the Napoli in the valley and they like the pizza with the "char" on it.  I know some people like that added flavor of charred crust and cheese.  Mike doesn't...he thinks it tastes burnt.  So, the fact that this place DIDN'T take the pizza to that dark level made him happy.  

The inside of this new restaurant was sleek and modern.  The floor is a polished cement with wild paint splatters on it.  The light fixtures are wire and gold.  It was sleek but not my favorite feeling for an old style Italian.  I would say it is not as nice as the Clayton restaurant but on the same level as the Town and Country one.  It is nicer than Chesterfield, which is open kitchened and louder.  

This was a nice place, but if we want Napoli food, we will probably go to Clayton or Town and Country first.  

Cafe Provencal in Kirkwood 10-11-25

 This place is always a solid 4/5 for French food. 

There are only a few French restaurants that we go to in the STL area (La Floraison, La Bonne Bouche, and Cafe Provencal).  

Cafe Provencal is very busy at 5 pm on nights that Stages St. Louis has a show nearby.  There was a line waiting out front waiting for the restaurant to open.

We told our waiter that we were going to the Fox and had a little more time than some of the other nearby patrons. 

We had a little weirdness with the cocktails.  Like I said, there were A LOT of people who all arrived at the same time.  We were sitting outside, but so were about 10 other tables.  Our waiter came with a bunch of drinks on a tray.  He gave Mike his gin and tonic, but gave my vodka collins to a guy at the next table, who took a drink and then said "this isn't right."  Our waiter took it away.  I knew that that had been my drink.  He came back out in just a few minutes with my drink in a different style glass.  Mike said he wondered if he just took the guy's straw, tossed it and poured the drink in another glass.  That was kind of a gross thought.  I drank it anyway.  

I started with the escargot.  I have only had them one other time in my life and I wanted to try them again.  They are good, but really you could put almost anything in that garlic, parsley butter and bake it and it would be good.  It is also kind of crazy to pay something like $16 for 6 bites of snail.  Now that I've had them, I won't need to have them again for a long time. 

Mike started with their classic French onion soup.  It is always good.  

Mike wasn't in the mood for wine, so I ordered a glass of Crocus Malbec.  They had 6 red wines by the glass and I used my Vivino app and went through every one of them.  5 of them kept saying "This would not be a good choice for you."  Thank goodness this one said it was a good match.  It was fine.  

For dinner Mike ordered the steak frites.  It was a steak with some roasted veg and fried shoestring potatoes.  The potatoes were too fried and there were too many of them.  But the steak and veg were really cooked properly.  Mike said it was good overall. 

I ordered 2 appetizers for my entree.  I got the French onion soup and crab cakes.  I should have only ordered the soup.  I ate the soup and then I ate the salad that came with the crab cakes and I ended up taking the crab cakes home.  

You can't go to a French restaurant and not do dessert.  Mike and I shared a profiterole with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce.  It had a variety of berries on the side.  It was more than enough for the two of us and it was lovely.  

We enjoy this restaurant and its French faire.  

Peno-Southern Italian Soul Food in Clayton 10-4-25

 I would give this place a 4/5

This little area at the corner South Hanley and Wydown is the home to several very good restaurants (Akar, Wright's Tavern, Bistro La Floraison).   The problem is...there is NO parking for any of them.  Just around the corner on Westwood Drive is Peno.  It is in a little strip mall and doesn't look like much, but it is a nice, well-managed place.

Peppe is the owner/chef and he's hands on.  We saw him several times talking to regulars at other tables.  People come in and don't look at the menu, they just talk to Peppe.  

It was a lovely evening and we chose to sit outside.  There were probably a dozen tables outside under an awning.  Since we were on an off street the outside noise was low.  It was nice.  

We sat by a couple who had been coming here for 8 years.  They love Peppe and his food. 

The patrons seem to be a mix of local people from the Clayton area and others from farther away, like us. 

We started with cocktails.  Mike got his typical gin and tonic.  I tried the pepperoncini-martini from the menu.  I had had one at Napoli Sea a year and a half ago and it was really zingy.  This one wasn't near as good.  It didn't have the twang of the pepperoncini and there seemed to be something that was oily floating on the top layer of the drink.  I wouldn't recommend it. 

We ordered some toasted smoked mozz bites.  What came were some fried cheese squares.  There was a slight smokey taste to them.  They were fine but nothing awesome. 

We always struggle when a restaurant only has "Old World" wines, since we prefer California cabernets.  We did an ok job with this Nobile de Montepulciano.  It was good and went well with our food.  

I heard Peppe telling someone at another table that their octopus and eggplant were 2 of their specials.  I would like either, so I went with the eggplant.  It had been shaved thin on a mandolin and then almost layered like lasagna.  It was good and it had plenty of sauce.  It had a side of pasta with mushrooms on the side. 

Mike got pasta with sausage and meatball.  He said he liked the homemade sausage, it was good.  But he said we've had better meatballs at other places.  I really like the meatballs on Mamma's on the Hill.  

The food was good but not great.  I said that if I wanted eggplant, I would go to Napoli every time.  If we want meatballs, we'll got to Mamma's on the Hill.  

It was a lovely evening and nice sitting outside, but the food was not outstanding enough to make us return.  

Esca in the Delmar Makers District 9-13-25

 I'd give this small restaurant a 4/5

OK, full disclosure, I'd never heard of the Delmar Maker's District.  It is just an area on Delmar east of the Pageant.  Right now it is VERY close to all the demolished homes from the May 16, 2025 tornado.  

So, Ben Poremba is the chef/owner of 3 restaurants on Delmar: Esca, Nixta and Florentin.  Each is a different style of restaurant.

Esca is geared toward Mediterranian food.  The restaurant is very small.  The inside only holds 12 tables.  There is a nice patio with another 8-10 tables, but on the night we visited, it was 95 degrees outside, so most people were inside. 

Mike and I both commented that the menu may be Mediterranian, but there really is nothing inside that distinguishes the space as any specific type of food.  It is just a typical city restaurant in a fixed up old building...wood floors, exposed brick.  The semi-open kitchen is nice.  Mike enjoyed watching the dessert station.  

We started with cocktails and an order of their signature bread and butter (which you have to order and pay for, by the way).  Then Mike ordered a salad.  We ended up splitting this as it was actually too big for one person.

They have a sommalier who we think was also in charge of some other aspect in the kitchen most of the time.  He did come out and present our wine.  Speaking of the wine...their wine list is all French and Italian.  We ordered an Italian whose region we were familiar.  It was fine.  It just would have been nice to have a regular old Californian cabernet. 

For dinner Mike ordered the special, which was lasagna.  It was a very pasta forward lasagna.  There were about a dozen layers of pasta!  There was meat (beef and sausage) in there and there was ricotta cheese, but there was almost no sauce.  Maybe it had all been absorbed by all that pasta.  Mike said it was good.  I would have needed a lot more sauce.  

I got the grilled octopus entree.  It is served with chickpeas, celery, oregano and chili spices.  It had an celery/olive oil drizzel on the plate.  The octopus was very good.  It had been grilled well and wasn't chewey at all.  The rest of the dish didn't have a lot of flavor and there wasn't much to it.  I liked the dish but yearned for a more substantial side dish. 

After dinner we each decided to get dessert.  Because the restaurant is small we had been very near to a singular girl who dined alone and then had 2 desserts at the end because she couldn't decide which one she wanted.  Both of her desserts looked good, so we decided to each get something and not split one. 

I got an olive oil cake with strawberries that had been masurated in balsamic vinegar. There was a quenelle of a sweet almost frosting like substance on top. It was also topped with fresh cracked black pepper. It was really yummy.  The cake was a little dry but the strawberries really helped with that. 

Mike had an ice cream sundae with cocoa nibs and chocolate sauce. 

 

Overall this was a nice dinner.  The food was interesting but not amazing enough to make us feel like we need to come back.  The menu is very small and doesn't seem to change that often.  

Also, on a side note, they add 16% to the bill for an automatic tip and then ask you to please add more.  Just a little pushy.