Carnivore 10-2-2021

 I know "The Hill" is known for great Italian restaurants, but what about a steakhouse??  We decided to give it a try.  Carnivore had barely gotten their feet wet as a restaurant when the pandemic hit.  The fact that they are still open boded well in my book.

We did begin with a bit of a hiccup.  There were a bunch of open tables outside when we arrived, but as we age, Mike and I both get cold easily, so we wanted to sit inside.  We had reservations at 6.  When we arrived the seating hostess sat us as a table for 4 that was RIGHT by the exit.  Mike didn't like it and asked to be moved further into the room.  They accommodated, but then they sat us at a VERY small table for two.  I am sure it is difficult to distinguish between diners.  We don't look any different than the mother and tween aged son who sat at a table four near us.  The problem is...there is a difference.  We are here to be diners.  We will order cocktails and an appetizer.  We will get a bottle of wine to share with dinner.  We will probably box up some of our dinner so we can have dessert and coffee.  We are hear for the long-haul.  We need a table that can accommodate all of that.  I can't really fault them...but Mike does.

Now...back to the food.  We started with cocktails.  I tried a strawberry and limoncello martini.  It was good, but still a little too sweet for my taste.  Mike had his standard gin and tonic with lime. 

We ordered the arancini appetizer.  This was the very first food we ever ate when we arrived in Italy and it has always held a special place in our hearts.  They usually have meat and peas in the inside of the fried saffron rice balls.  These had melted cheese in the center.  They were different, but they were still good.  Mike (who was still in a bit of a tiff over the table) commented how he didn't like that appetizers often come in odd numbers when they are often shared by 2 people.  I remember hearing on a food network show that presentations of food should always be in odd numbers as it is more pleasing to the eye.  I don't know if I think that is true...but when the arancini came...there were 3.

Our server was very nice and attentive.  We asked her to open a bottle of cabernet.  It was good and not too expensive. 

For dinner I ordered the lobster risotto.  It was creamy and yummy.  I was surprised that it was spicy.  I like spicy food, but I think it would have been almost too spicy for some people.  It was spicy enough that the lobster taste was somewhat lost...and that's a bummer.  

Mike ordered the filet.  The menu talked about Modiga sauce.  He asked our server.  She said it was super yummy, but it was a mushroom sauce.  Mike decided to get it and pick out the mushrooms (which I ate.  Our server also talked him into getting the carnivore potatoes...loaded (with sour cream, bacon and diced jalepenos).  Mike REALLY liked the steak.  He gave them big compliments on their steak grilling, but he didn't like the potatoes at all.  He wished he had gotten a regular baked potato...loaded.  These were small whole potatoes and all the toppings melted and slid right off.    

After dinner, Mike asked about cappucino, which they did not have (often Italian restaurants do).  We split a chocolate cake.  It was not really a lava cake and it wasn't super great...just a bite of sweet at the end of a meal.

Overall, I'd say the food was good.  I wouldn't worry about the desserts.  Next time go somewhere else for dessert.  But if you want good steak and you are near The Hill, this place is worth a try

 

Polite Society 9-18-2021

This place is quite a trek from our house.  It is way down south of downtown St. Louis.  It is literally south of Union Station.

Chris our waiter was super!  He knew about drinks, food, and desserts.  

We weren't in a hurry so we enjoyed a leisurely multi-course meal. 

I started with some kind of cocktail that was both strawberryish and sourish.  

It was interesting and good.  Mike had a gin and tonic with some kind of interesting gin.  We ate some spinach artichoke dip.  It was warm, cheesy and yummy.  

Mike narrowed it down to 3 and with Chris' help, we opened (to let it get some air) a Barbara Italian wine.  It tasted a lot like a Chianti.  Their list of wines online was not as complete as the list we were given in the restaurant.

This bistro style restaurant did lean toward the French foods.  So, we figured their French onion soup would be good and it was.  Super homemade, tons of Gruyere cheese...yum.  It was a big bowl.  Looking back, Mike and I said we both could have stopped eating right there...and probably should have, but we were both intrigued by their entrees.  (Oh, when your eyes are bigger than your tummy!).

  

I tried a mushroom ravioli.  It had MANY kinds of mushrooms both in the ravioli and on the alfredo style sauce.  There were pickled mustard seeds on top for a contrast of flavor.  I am not much of an alfredo girl and I found the sauce kind of heavy and somewhat overwhelming for the mushrooms.  I wish it would have been in a lighter mushroom stock type of sauce.

Mike had the steak, fries and roasted Brussel sprouts.  Mike really liked the steak and the fries.  He will sometimes like Brussel sprouts, but they need to have a bit of tweaking.  These didn't.  They were roasted well, but they were just plain Brussel sprouts...no sauce/glaze of any kind.  

Both of us packed up over 1/2 of our dinner to take home.  We wanted to try their desserts.  Mike got a sundae that had crumbled waffle cone in it and I got chocolate bread pudding with crème anglaise.  It was super rich.  

   

I thought this was a fun place with an interesting vibe.  It has a unique menu.  The wine list is a little small but OK.  The wait and bussing table staff is GREAT.  I would totally recommend trying this place. 

 

Vito's in the Valley for Happy Hour (on a weekend!) 9-11-2021

 I don't think we intended on only eating from the Happy Hour menu, but who knew that Vito's had a Happy Hour menu 7 days a week!

All their appetizers (in a smaller size) are only $5.  Drinks are also cheaper. 

I met Laurie, Beth, and Vickie there on our way to see the movie Respect.

We each ordered a drink and then couldn't decide what appetizers to order, so we ordered them all!!  I think we got 6 or 7 different appetizers.  They were on the smaller size, so we had to cut things in half and split things up, but the 10" pizza was almost too big.  It was a lovely afternoon/evening and we sat outside.  

We had arancini:

Toasted ravioli:

Bruschetta:

Whiskey Shrimp:

Meatballs:

Mushroom Pizza, Cannelloni, Bruschetta Frittes (french fries), and Mediterranean Bean Dip.

It was all good.  We couldn't finish it all.  I would say no to the bean dip and the cannelloni next time.  Super yes to the meatballs, arancini, and the shrimp.  

It is a fun happy hour that you can go to on a Saturday or Sunday!

Antonino's on Macklind 9-4-2021

 Mike wanted pizza.  He wanted to try some new pizza place.  We had been to Antonino's a loooong time ago (I think it was 2013), but I don't think Mike got pizza.  I remember Mollie and Bonnie splitting a gyro pizza.  Anotonino's is famous for being the children of Greek and Italian immigrants, so the menu is a combo of both.  

We started with toasted ravioli and I ordered calamari.  The calamari was good.  I little chewy, but that's because some of the smaller pieces were over-cooked.  Anna didn't like the toasted ravs as well as her favorites at Cunnetto's.  She said the middle part was fuller and filled with a softer filling...so they just felt "mushy" in her mouth compared to what she was used to.  The marinara sauce that accompanied them was fine.  

   

So far, things are fine.  Their wine list is small and doesn't really have anything especially good on it (but neither does Cunnetto's, so I can't fault them on that).

For dinner, Anna ordered pasta carbonara, Mike ordered a pizza with pepperoni and proscuitto, and I ordered the "tutti mare" (it is a pasta with a variety of seafood).  Here's where things got weird.  First it is spelled wrong...it is Tutto Mare.  It means "total sea" or (all things from the sea).  Tutti is the wrong word.  Secondly, the "sauce" that goes with Tutto Mare is typically a fish broth/white wine/butter/garlic sauce.  At Antonino's I asked for Tutto Mare and the waitress asked me what kind of sauce I'd like.  My choices were: alfredo, marinara, or olive oil garlic.  Right there I should have changed my order.  But I didn't.  I said marinara and lived to regret it.  The marinara just covered up the taste of the fish.  I didn't really like it much.  I ate the fish out of it and ended up leaving the pasta.

Anna's carbonara was not the same as Cunnetto's.  She couldn't really describe why she didn't like it.  I know neither of us was used to fresh made pasta, but that was just different, not bad.  Anna LOVES pasta and to see her not like some kind of pasta dish is unusual.

Mike has determined he doesn't like wood fired pizzas.  He likes pizza oven pizzas.  When a pizza comes and has a lot of "char" on it (on the top and/or the bottom) he doesn't like that.  I know some people LOVE that...he doesn't.  So, Antonino's pizza has char.  The crust is also a little thicker than he likes it.  So, this was a no for pizza for him.  Of course we brought the leftovers home and are eating them for lunch, but we don't need to go back.  

I don't know if it is just personal preference, but we don't have any desire to return to Antonino's, yet they keep getting REALLY high ratings on TripAdvisor and Yelp.  People love them.  I say...good for them, but we will keep looking.  

La Bonne Bouchee Bakery in Creve Couer 8-28-2021

 For years Mike has thought that St. Louis needed more dessert spots that are open in the evening.  One of our favorite things to do is go to Farrara's bakery in NYC after a Broadway show or after an evening meal.  So many of the bakeries in St. Louis close after lunch.  St. Louis Baking Co. on the Hill has a wonderful array of cakes, pastries and cookies.  But they close most days at 4 p.m.  

After going to One 19 North Tapas in Kirkwood, I googled for someplace to go for dessert.  Happily we were led to La Bonne Bouchee Bakery in Creve Couer.  I can't believe we've never been here before.  It is currently celebrating its 40th anniversary.  Almost as long as Mike and I have lived in the St. Louis area.  

I looked it up (for you, like me, who don't speak French).  The name means...the good mouth.

They are a full-fledged restaurant with a French theme.  They do soups, sandwiches, quiche, and best of all...desserts.  I think are open as a restaurant most of the day, and then after dinner, they just serve desserts.  The restaurant part was closed when we arrived...around 8:30 p.m.

Their dessert cases are vast.  I didn't take a ton of photos...just look on Yelp.com!  They have dozens of kinds of macrons (I only learned this summer the difference between the macron and the macaroon). 

Mike ordered a chocolate éclair and I got a blueberry tart.  Mike also had a cappuccino.  We sat outside in their outdoor garden area and had a nice end to our evening.  

   

I KNOW this is some place we will return to.  Now that I know it is there, I think I want to try it for lunch/dinner, too.  

 

One 19 North Tapas and Wine Bar in downtown Kirkwood 8-28-2021

Mike isn't usually a "tapas" kind of guy, but tonight he went right along with me in the idea of eating tapas.

Let's just start with the fact that our waiter was a "flake" for lack of a better word.  He seemed like a 40 year old unemployed actor (grand gestures and over exaggerated facial expressions), but he just wasn't a very good waiter.

First we ordered 2 cocktails and asked for a bottle of wine to be opened.  He said "Both?" like he couldn't imagine we would drink that much.  Mike said, "We're going to be here awhile."

After about a good 15-20 minutes he arrived with the cocktails (that is a REALLY long time to wait) and my cocktail was wrong.  So, he left the one that was wrong and went back to the bar.  After about 10 more minutes he brought the correct one.

He asked for our dinner/tapas order.  He was helpful in telling us when we had enough but not too much food.  He did bring and open our wine.  I had read the wine list online and for the 2nd weekend in a row was disappointed that the one online was different than the actual list.  Several of the wines were the same, so we were able to order one of the ones I had researched.  It is called Requiem and it is from Walla Walla, Washington.  It was nice.  

As we sat and waited for the food, we heard the other waitress explaining to people how the tapas vs. the entrees work and what the specials for the evening were.  We never heard any of that.  It would have been nice.

After about 15 minutes our waiter came back and apologized because he hadn't written down our order and couldn't remember what we wanted.  So, we told him again.  

About 10-15 minutes later, the first of our 4 tapas arrived...fried artichoke hearts on a marinara sauce. I didn't do a good job taking photos of our food.  

Next came the carnitas fries.  These were just OK.  The french fries were good and hot and you could tell they just came out of the fryer.  The white cheese over them was yummy, but the little bit of carnitas meat and the tablespoon of pico de gallo did not make them have an overall "carnitas" flavor.  They were just cheese fries with a little meat on them.

Next we had some goat cheese one a puttanesca sauce with crostini.  It was good, but there was not much to it.  Mike said, it is just king of like ricotta cheese on some marinara with toast.  He wasn't wrong. 

Then Mike had some mac and cheese.  I am not much of a mac and cheese person and I had read that their mac and cheese was good.  So, I finished off the goat cheese while Mike ate some of the mac and cheese.  He did say that it was good homemade mac and cheese.

Back to the flakey waiter.  We go to the end of the evening and asked for a couple of "to go" boxes...and then the waiter said thank you and brought our check.  I guess he just decided for us that we didn't want any dessert of coffee, etc.  I knew from online they had a small, but OK dessert list. 

So, we left.  

I would say the food here was good, not amazing.  It is always fun to try a few things at once.  Their wine list is nice but not huge.  

I didn't like that to use the restroom you literally had to go through the kitchen to get there.  

So...we decided to go out for dessert (see next review). 

 

Nudo House in Creve Couer 8/27/2021

 For many years Mollie and I have been fans of Mai Lee, a Vietnamese restaurant in Brentwood.  It is owned and run by Lee Tran.  Her son is now and adult and married a person of Japanese decent.  Thus, the Vietnamese and Japanese fusion restaurant of Nudo House was born.  

This is good for us because I really like pho (the Vietnamese soup with the clear broth and rice noodles).  Mike and Anna prefer ramen (the Japanese soup with egg ramen noodles and a more milky broth).  

We tried a bunch of different things on this trip.  I ordered the papaya salad.  I LOVED it.  Hint: mix it up before eating.  It is shredded papaya and carrots with some cucumber in it.  There is a few bits of pork about 1/2 way down.  There are peanuts about 3/4 of the way down and the citrus sauce/dressing at the bottom is the best!  Mix it up and enjoy the peanuts and dressing all over it all.  I could eat this often!

Next we also had spring rolls.  Mike had pork and I had shrimp.  They were good, but they were typical spring rolls served with a thicker tamarind sauce with peanuts on top of it.  Just an FYI...Anna and I were watching a show about Asia the other day and we learned that what Americans call "Spring Rolls" are actually "Summer Rolls" because they are cold and meant to be eaten in the summer.  True "Spring Rolls" are the small fried rolls.  They are different from "Egg Rolls" which are fatter and contain a lot of cabbage...and are more Chinese.  

We also tried the tamarind fried chicken.  I had read online that this was good.  It was good.  It had some kind of sweetness in the breading.  It was also dotted with fried shallots and green onion.  It was a nice appetizer.  

Anna ordered Classic Nudo Ramen with pork.  She said it was really good.  The bowl had a nice amount of pork, plus the extras you get with ramen...like egg, green onion, sesame seeds, bamboo shoots, and seaweed.

Mike didn't know if he would like all that "stuff" in his ramen, so he ordered "Kid's Ramen" that just had noodles, chicken and broth.  I think he regretted it.  His broth was rather lackluster and his pieces of dark meat chicken were rather bland.  

I like pho.  In pho it is all about the broth.  Nudo house does a really good job with their pho broth.  I know this sounds "foodie" and somewhat snobby, but I find their broth to be "complex."  It just really has a lot of tastes and smells in it.  You can tell they have boiled a whole bunch of things and then strained it off to a clear broth.  I could smell meat and vegetables and warm spices like cinnamon or nutmeg.  It was a broth that had the umami taste of protein with an ever so sweet finish.  It was super yummy.  I had them add shrimp.  It comes with the customary plate of cilantro, mint, bean sprouts, raw jalepenos and fresh lime.  I add all of that except the mint.  I also add siracha.  It was a nice sized bowl and I didn't know if I'd finish it after eating my entire papaya salad...but I was able to stuff it down!!

This is a popular place...when we left at about 7 p.m. on a Friday night, there was a line that stretched outside (probably 15 people).  They also do a booming take out business.  I would totally recommend trying this.  It was good.