We are Back (after 13+ months) Back to Bristol's in Winghaven

 Yes, after a 13+ month Covid hiatus, Mike and I are vaccinated and back to eating out.  We do take precautions.  

Mike and I getting ready to go out on our "date"

Last Friday night we had a reservation at 5:00 (so that we could dine on the Twilight Menu) at Bristol's in Winghaven.  The Twilight Menu  is a 3 course menu for a set $24.

Mike and I started with a cocktail and then we each had the gumbo.  It was good, but the ham in it kind of tasted like Canadian bacon (which was a little odd).  

Bristol's Gumbo

We ordered a nice bottle of red called Conumdrum Red.  It was yummy (maybe because I haven't had wine in 13+ months!!).  

For dinner I had the pretzel crusted trout with fingerling potatoes and haricot vert.  

It comes with a bacon/mustard vinaigrette.  I usually don't like mustard, but I hate to insult a chef who thinks this whole dish goes together.  I asked for it on the side.  It was very vinaigretty and not very mustardy.  YAY!  I ended up putting the entire little dish on my trout.  It was tangy and yummy.  

Mike had a steak/filet with mashed potatoes and asparagus.  

Mike said he'd totally return for the steak as it was cooked really well.  He usually doesn't get mashed potatoes when we dine out, but these were surprisingly good.  

For dessert we both had the lava cake with ice cream.  It is supposed to come with hazelnut ice cream.  Mike asked for regular vanilla, so I followed suit.  

The raspberry sauce was yummy and pulled it all together.  It was not a huge dessert and we both commented that it was just the perfect size for such a rich and gooey dessert.  It topped of the meal very well.  

Stay tuned, and next week we'll return to some other local eatery.  We're back...and as usual, we are always hungry for new food adventures. 

Sauce on the Side-Chesterfield 3-7-2020

I've been to Sauce on the Side before, but it was nice going with others who all wanted to try different things and share. 

So, I tried the Figgy Piggy but I asked for the bacon on the side.  I don't love bacon but I do love figs and cheese.  It was good.  The weird thing is that it is a totally onion/fig/cheese type pizza and the sauce they put on the side is regular, standard tomato sauce.  This doesn't go with it at all!  Something like a balsamic reduction or a white cheese sauce are what is needed...but they don't have that kind of sauce.  So, we just didn't put sauce on it. 



Laurie had the monthly special (March) called The Blarney Zone.  It has corned beef, pastrami, swiss, onions, gouda.  I am not a huge corned beef fan because sometime I find corned beef to be fatty (and this was in places).  Otherwise the flavor was good.





Vicki had the most typical pizza tasting one...she had the Meet Me in St. Louie which has pepperoni, Italian sausage, provel cheese.  This one the side of regular marinara sauce was perfect.  This was good. 

Beth got one called the Puttanesca.  It had chicken, onions, capers, green olives, feta, mozzerella.  It was also good with no sauce. It came with a red sauce.  If you would use the sauce, I think you would have missed tasting all the good briney taste from the capers and olives.  It was good.

We liked all four of these choices. 

St. Joseph's Church-Manchester Fish Fry 3-6-2020

We had an appointment in Chesterfield on Friday afternoon that ended about 6 p.m., so we decided to find a nearby fish fry.  We went to St. Joseph's which is close to 141 and Manchester. 

I got 2 fish tacos, french fries, applesauce.  I also paid $2 to try their clam chowder.  The fish tacos had been made ahead.  They were not hot any longer and they had gotten soggy.  The flavor was OK, but the sauce they used on them was mayo based and to me that isn't what should be on a fish taco.  The clam chowder was OK.  Not many clams.  Just OK.

Mike got a 2 piece fish meal with french fries and cole slaw.  He said the fish was OK, nothing special. 

There really wasn't anything that made this fish fry stand out.  They didn't have any special item that were uniquely good or would make you want to come back. 

Hamilton's Urban Steak House 2-29-2020

Hamilton's is owned by the same people that own Vin de Set and Eleven Eleven Mississippi.  They all use the same greenhouse (in the parking lot of Hamilton's), suppliers, etc.

This was totally a last minute dinner change.

We had reservations for somewhere else but they didn't open until 5:30.  That is just not enough time if we want to have a nice leisurely, multi-course dinner before the Fox.  So, I quickly looked for places that opened earlier.  Hamilton's is open all afternoon/evening.

It is small and the tables for 2 (as happens in many places) are too close together (you can totally hear what the conversation is at the tables next to you...and they can hear yours).

They had a very small wine list and I couldn't actually find it online.  So, my research was done in the restaurant.  I hate doing that, because it looks like I can't sit and have a decent conversation without being on my phone a whole bunch.  Needless to say, I didn't pick a great wine.  We had a Cabernet from Chile called Maquis.  It was OK.  It didn't have much to it.  I wouldn't pick it again.

We ordered their charcuterie  board.  It was OK.  It had some good cheeses (soft and hard) some house made pickles (kind of bread and butterish), some dried figs, some rye toast points, a peach compote, a house made chorizo sausage, and a house made salzita sausage.  The sausages were SUPER boring.  Both of those kinds of sausage should have big tastes, but neither did.  The one interesting thing on the board was a candle made out of bacon fat.  You can spread it like butter.  Mike did.  He said it just made his toast taste like bacon.  That was interesting and fun.

I had two appetizers for dinner (scallops and crab cakes).  The crab cakes were fine.  They had an ailoi underneath them.  I expected it to have some spice...it didn't.  That seems to be the problem with the food here...they are afraid of big bold flavors.  The crab cakes weren't especially crabby...no big lumps of crab...a little too much filler.  I wouldn't order them again.

My other appetizer was the bay scallops.  They came on a bed of butternut squash puree (think squash soup...nutmeg, cinnamon) and they were sprinkled with pepitas (pumpkin seeds) and super thinly sliced jalepeno's.  This dish was SUPER!!  The scallops were seared prefectly.  The warm spices mixed with the crunchy, spicy jalepeno...yum!  I would get this again!!

Mike got steak, of course.  He got broccoli with Parmesan cheese on the side (one of his favorites).  Alas, for the 2nd weekend in a row, the steak was cooked medium and not medium rare.  We told the manager.  Again, they offered to cook him a new steak, but we again, declined. 

We each decided to order a dessert.  I ordered the bread pudding.  It was good, but the bread part didn't seem to be made of lots of pieces of old bread...it seemed to be more made like a cake.  Mike ordered cheesecake.  The problem was...the desserts ended up being HUGE.  They were $9 a piece.  Neither of us could finish.  Mike brought his home and ate most of it the next day.   We wished they'd only charge $6 and cut the size in half. 

Overall...an OK restaurant.  I don't know that we need to return any time soon. 

Mango Peruvian on Washington Ave. in St. Louis 2-22-2020

OK, first thing to know...parking.  We parked in a safe, well-lit lot behind this restaurant.  It was $20!  I thought that was kind of crazy!!  I know Washington Ave. is kind of a hip spot for restaurants, but they've got to do something about the parking.  Maybe everyone uses Ubers, but we were going from the restaurant to the Fox, so we needed our car. 

We had a great waiter who, once he found out we'd never dined here before, explained everything well.  We were served fried plantains with a chimichurri sauce.  It was good.  Kind of like a weird chips and salsa.  On the recommendation of our waiter, we ordered the national drink of Peru, the Pisco Sour.  I swear...it was VERY like the Mexican margaritas we had a Lily's Mexican restaurant in south St. Louis city a few weeks ago.  I even told our waiter about it and he lives down by the Bevo neighborhood, so he was going to check it out.  There is a frothy top made by putting egg whites in the blender when making the drink.  It is still tart with lime juice, but sweeter than a typical margarita.  They were good.

Of course, I'd researched the wine list.  When we ordered our appetizers I asked the waiter to open a bottle of the red we'd chosen.  He came back and told us they were out of that (bummer), so he brought us a different one to try...we didn't like it at all.  Thank goodness I research a whole bunch of wines on their list and keep a photo of the list and my notes in my phone.  I asked for our 2nd choice.  It was called Tonel 46.  We REALLY enjoyed it.  It was from Argentina and went with this food well.  It wasn't expensive.  We'd order it again in a heartbeat.  Yay, the research paid off, again!

We each got an appetizer and ate 1/2 and brought 1/2 of it home.  I got their special (the ceviche).  Because it got it with all the kinds of seafood, this appetizer was more than a typical entree at many restaurants.  It was good.  It had all the usual parts (shrimp, calamari, mussels, octopus, lime juice, garlic, red onion), but it also had a few odd things (hominy and what I would call "corn nuts").  The only thing I found odd...usually when I've had ceviche at a hispanic or seafood restaurant, it is served with chips or crackers to accompany it.  This wasn't. 

Mike ordered "Antichuchos" (grilled marinated meat on skewers).  They came with a citrus dipping sauce, fried chunks of plantains and hominy.  That hominy, corn nuts, or actual corn popped up in many places.  He really liked both the beef and the chicken.  He said they had been seasoned well.  The dipping sauce was like and oil with lemon and lime juice in it.  He didn't care for it and like the meat fine without it. 

For dinner I ordered the Pescado a la Macho ("Roasted fish of the day with mussels, calamari, octopus & shrimp in a ají rocoto sauce with white rice & potatoes"). The fish was fine.  The sauce was just not that flavorful.  It was a roasted red pepper sauce and that's it.  The rice was served in a separate dish and the rice had corn running through it.  I'd give this dish a 7/10.  It wasn't bad, by any means, it just wasn't special

Mike got the Lomo Saltado.  Our waiter told us that we'd see the word "saltado" all over the menu and that kind of means "stir fried together."  Mike's was: "Beef tenderloin stir-fried with sweet onions, tomatoes, garlic & Peruvian spices tossed with steak fries and served with rice."  When it came it was rather odd, as the fries are thrown on the top at the end.  The sauce was a super good demi-glace.  I had one bite of Mike's and even though I prefer seafood, Mike dish was better than mine. 

We were pretty full, but we split the "dessert of Peru" and Mike had some coffee at the end of our meal.  We had a warm piece of Piono Manjarblanco Roll.  It was sponge cake with warm caramel and little pieces of mango on the side.  It was the perfect 3-4 bites each. 

This was a fun place to try.  It was kind of expensive and I don't know that we need to come back any time soon, but I'm glad we came. 

Blues City Deli in South St. Louis City 2-17-2020

It is kind of a bummer that some of St. Louis' best sandwich shops are only open for lunch.  I think of Blues City Deli and Gioia's.  So, it takes a holiday that isn't super busy for Mike and I to make the 49 minute drive in to the city just for lunch.  I know that sounds crazy...but at this point in our lives...what the hell!!

I have been here before, but this was Mike's first time.  There are only about 6-7 tables in the entire joint.  A couple of them are big and used as community tables.  There is almost ALWAYS a line out the door. 

We arrived at 11:40ish.  We were lucky, the line was only about 6 people out the door.  It was cold and raining (we wore raincoats).  I will say we got there at a good time.  Around 12:15-12:30, when we were getting ready to leave, the line was much bigger and the crowd was from business people (suits, fancy coats, wearing lanyards from work).  They all stood outside, too.  There were people eating in their cars all over.

I ordered a 7th street Sicilian.  It has salami, cappicola, pepperoni, provolone, lettuce, onion, oil/vinegar.  I asked for it with their spicy giardiniera.  It was spicy and yummy.  My only thing that i wish is...I wish it could be heated up.  I love warm sandwiches.  Gioia's Hot Salami with spicy giardiniera is a warm sandwich and this is every bit as good (maybe better) I just wish it was warm.  There's something about melted cheese and THEN put on the lettuce, onion, giardinera...just my preference.

Mike got the Black and Bleu (without the Bleu...I know, weird).  So, in essence, he had a warm roast beef sandwich with caramelized onions and provolone cheese.  He also asked for spicy giardiniera. 

I think Blues City Deli's giardiniera is spicier than Gioia's.  It actually makes my nose run when I eat it (like a good spicy salsa).  I appreciate that. 

The sandwich was big enough to save 1/2 for lunch the next day and it only cost me $6.50.  That's a good deal....even if we did have to drive 49 minutes to get it!

Chile's in St. Peters 2-14-2020

We came here for their "Valentine's Day Special" and came to find out it was just their normal 2 for $25 special.  Which is kind of nice because we thought it was a pretty good deal and it is nice to know we can come back and get it any time.  We haven't been to Chile's in a pretty long time. 

The place was busy as it was 6 p.m. on Valentine's Day.  We were told we'd have a 30 minute wait.  We went to the bar.  They have a different $5 margarita special every month.  This month was "Heart's on Fire" margarita.  I didn't know if I'd like it, as it is made with Fireball and would have a cinnamon taste.  But I'm cheap, so for $5, I tried it.  It was good.  It still had that sour margarita taste with the added cinnamon taste.  Definitely worth $5. 

So, for this 2 for $25 deal you get your choice of an appetizer to split or 2 salads.  We decided on chips and salsa.  Then I got a Mango Chile Chicken dinner and Mike got a sirloin with broccoli and fries.  For a couple bucks extra he decided to "load" his fries.  This makes the fries much bigger and they are covered in cheese, bacon and jalepenos. 

First let me say that we miss the chips and salsa at Chevy's.  We like those thin chips with a spicy salsa.  Chile's has them.  We enjoyed the chips and salsa.

My chicken was REALLY good.  The mango salsa was spicy and refreshing all at the same time and the chicken was not dry at all, which is surprising.  I think chicken is one of the most bland proteins (like tofu) and you really need to do something good with it.  This was good. 

Mike's sirloin was just a little overcooked.  He asked for it medium rare and by the time it got to us, it was probably medium well.  When the server came back to check, he told her and she totally would have gone and gotten him a whole other steak.  He said no...he didn't want to be THAT guy, but it was nice to see how accommodating they were.  His loaded fries were so big that it ended up he couldn't finish them! 

Our deal also came with a dessert.  The menu said our choices were warm chocolate chip cookie in a pan or cheesecake. But our server told us we could share ANY dessert...even the molten lava chocolate cake with ice cream.  This is what we got.  I only ate about 4 bites because it was REALLY sweet.  Mike was able to finish it! 

The server was super nice and attentive.  Like I said, it has been a long time since I'd been to a Chile's but the fact that we almost got too much food and spent under $46 with our bar tab and tax and tip...that's a pretty good deal.