Rosalita's in Des Peres 7-1-22

 Mike and I have had a gift certificate to Rosalita's for a long time.  We won it at a trivia night.  When we feel like Mexican, we usually go to one of the local restaurants.  

Tonight we drove to Des Peres, just across Manchester from the movie theater (Manchester and 270).  

They don't take reservations, so we had about a 20 minute wait when we arrived (6 pm on a Friday night).  We sat at the bar and had a margarita.  They were good, better than the local places. 

It is a HUGE place.  It holds hundreds and hundreds of people.  We kind of got stuck back in a corner with a bunch of other people who only had 2 in their party.  They main part of the floor is for groups of 4 or 6 or way bigger.  Our waitress was good, but she seemed too busy.

The chips and salsa were some of the best I've had in a while.  

I ordered chile rellenos.  Mike ordered a steak burrito.  I thought the prices were a little high, but the portions were very big.  I got TWO large chile rellenos (usually you get one).  

The food was good...not amazing, but good.  We said we'd come back.  It has a really good atmosphere.  They have a mariachi band who walk around and they are actually quite good.  It would be fun to come to with the whole family...or with friends for a happy hour as there are SOOO many different places to sit (inside, fully outside, partially outside, covered/heated patio, by the outdoor fountains, etc.).  

NOTE:  I'm pretty sure I got food poisoning from this place.  I'm pretty sure it was the chile rellenos.  I was sick for a few hours (until it was ALL out of my system).  I don't actually hold that against them.  I still think I may go back some day.  

Cate Zone Chinese Café 5-8-2022

 For Mother's Day I wanted to try some place totally authentic.  We decided to go to the most Chinese part of St. Louis.  When we arrived at Cate Zone, the place was absolutely full.  It only has about 10 tables.  They were almost all full of Asian people eating dinner.  This is always a good sign.

They took down my phone number and we waited outside.  

All the dishes come in family sharing size.  We ordered WAY too much, but there were too many things we wanted to try.  

Anna ordered noodles with brown bean paste, cucumbers, carrots and some of what she calls brown fungus.  Hers is on the right.  

Mike ordered a beef brisket noodle soup.  Mike's is on the left.

They also shared beef skewers

I ordered the crispy sizzling eggplant.  It was covered in a brown gravy that tasted like beef gravy.  

I also had salt and pepper calamari.

Yeah, that's right...5 family sized dishes for 3 people!!  We brought a lot of food home!  One thing to remember about authentic Asian food, they like tendons, intestines, tripe, meet fat, pork skin, tough and chewy things.  They eat chicken feet and pig trotters.  All of these things were on the menu.  The beef in our dishes had fat and tendons.  We Americans need to just learn to chew it or eat around it.  It actually adds to the flavor of the sauce it is in.  

I found the dishes here unique and fun to try.  They do have some SUPER spicy dishes on the menu that I'd like to be brave enough to try sometime.  

West Allen Grill in Wentzville 4-23-22

 Mike and Anna spent the entire day looking for a car for Anna, so they didn't have any lunch.  Mike was starving.

Anna came home and ate lunch at 3:45p.m. and didn't want dinner.  

I had had detention and then had run errands, but I ate lunch at a more normal time.

That all said...Mike hadn't thought about dinner and was HUNGRY!

He wanted steak but wasn't in the mood for a fancy or expensive place.

West Allen Grill has a very nice prime rib special on Friday and Saturday nights.

We made sure to get there before 6:00 p.m. when the church crowd arrives.

We waited only about 10 minutes for a seat.

Mike had a salad and a very yummy prime rib dinner with a "loaded" baked potato.

I had a fish (cod) sandwich that was huge and some fries.  

It was nice, yummy and didn't cost that much.

West Allen Grill has been around for a long time and they have a nice variety of things on their menu from pasta, to burgers, to steak and chicken.  I've also always enjoyed their soups and salads.  I recommend this place. 

Erio's Ristorante on Jungermann in St. Peters 4/22/2022

 Our VERY good friend Vickie is finally retiring.  We decided to go out to celebrate.  This is a restaurant she likes and it was something we had never tried.  

We made a night of it!!

There were 6 of us (Vickie, Laurie, Beth, Mike, Anna and me).  We began with cocktails and 2 appetizers: the fried artichokes and the "Sampler Platter"  The sampler was good...everything you can think of that's fried and can be dipped in marinara.  The artichokes were tough and should have been better.

Then we had more cocktails...

Then we ordered dinner:

Vickie-lasagna

Beth-pasta with broccoli cream sauce

Laurie-linguini tutto mare (seafood) pasta

Anna-fettuccini alfredo with added chicken

Mike-chicken parmesan with a side of pasta

Me-linguini pescatore (same as tutto mare, except it has mussels instead of clams)

Then we had wine with dinner...

I think EVERYONE liked their dinner.  I was pleasantly surprised that they made such a good seafood broth.  Sometimes people will try and do a seafood dish with a cream sauce and it masks all the flavor of the seafood.  So, Laurie and I asked a lot of questions before we ordered.

This is a little family owned Italian restaurant in a strip mall in St. Peters and I'd totally go back to it.  They don't have a good wine list (I think they had about 8 wines on the list) but they did have some and they were fine.  

If you are looking for Italian and don't want to drive to The Hill...I'd say try this little place. 

Town Square Pub 'n Grub Dardenne Prairie 4-21-2022

 This place is over by our movie theater and Schnucks.  It ALWAYS has a bunch of cars around it, so when when a meeting I had fell through and Mike got done with pickleball at dinner time, we met here for supper.  

They have a typical bar menu with a few more items.  They have all the typical sandwiches and appetizers but they also have a whole section of pizzas.  I saw many people with both sandwiches and pizza at their table.  (That sentence sounds like people were eating double meals...I mean that both items seem to be equally popular).  

Mike ordered the loaded fries and a set of 3 "Smokin Hot" Sliders.  They have chipotle sauce, onion straws and some jalepenos on them.  We waited probably 20 minutes for our food.  But a BUNCH of people came in at about the same time we did.  So, I think the kitchen got slammed all at once.  When Mike's food came (with all of ours), it looked like his fries had been done for 5-10 minutes and sitting under a heat lamp.  They were a little dried out and warmed over.  The sliders were good.  

    

I got a Buffalo chicken sandwich.  It was a grilled chicken breast (not breaded).  It was huge and didn't fit on the bun.  I had to cut it into pieces and rearrange it on the bun to be able to eat it.  I asked for more Buffalo sauce on the side (I like to dip my sandwich and fries in it).  It was a good sandwich.  The bun was a little dry and wanted to try and fall apart.  The fries were fine...nothing special.

Anna got the All American Burger.  It was very big.  It was a double patty with bacon and cheese.  She said it was juicy and good.  It was so big it was a little hard to eat.  

We all decided the food was good and we would come back here.  It is more of a restaurant that has drinks than a bar that has food.  It is super casual and has a decent menu of things to try.  

The Original Pancake House in Chesterfield 4-17-2022

 I realized that I have never made a blog about The Original Pancake House.  This is one of our favorite breakfast places.

We don't go out for breakfast much, so we realized today that we hadn't been here since before the beginning of the pandemic.  

They don't take reservations, but they have a waitlist you can watch online and put your name in before you leave the house.

We went on Easter Sunday at 9:00 a.m. and thought it would be terribly packed.  It wasn't.  We met Laurie and Beth there.  

I'm not going to have photos, because it's breakfast...you can imagine every dish.

Mike got eggs, bacon, hash browns, AND pecan waffles.  

Anna got the Irish eggs benedict: English muffins topped with corned beef hash, 2 eggs and hollandaise sauce and hash browns. 

I got French toast with homemade blueberry compote. 

Laurie got bacon pancakes (they cook the bacon right into the pancakes).

Beth got some kind of eggs and potatoes that she mixed all together.  

It's all good. It's all homemade and none of it is terribly expensive.  If you've never been there, try the Dutch Baby sometime, and have a waitress teach you how to eat it with powdered sugar and lemon juice!  

The Bao in Clayton 4-16-2022

 I had read about this little restaurant on a blog that I follow.  It takes the Asian steamed Bao buns and fills them with interesting things like fried soft-shell crab or BBQ pork or hot chicken.  

So, the 3 of us (Mike, Anna, and I) decided to give us a try.

I had read online that it was wise to make a reservation.  What an odd reservation system they use.  When you make a reservation, you get a text that says "We have received your request.  We'll let you know when it has been accepted."  So, it is kind of like...we may not accept it.  About 4 hours later that same day, I got a text that says "Your reservation request has been accepted."  I don't know what the deal is with that, but I found it odd and a little off-putting.

It is a small restaurant in an old restaurant in the middle of the Central Ave. restaurants of Clayton.  It probably only has 8-12 tables.  When we arrived and we said we had a reservation, they said "We've put you in that high top by the bar."  Mike explained that we'd like a regular table if possible.  They made the accommodation but didn't seem really happy about it.  Old people don't like to sit at high top tables for too long.  It makes our legs hurt.  FYI.

So, this is kind of a restaurant with fancy bar drinks.  I don't think I can actually call it a bar.  It has a bar area but I can't imagine anyone coming here to just drink.

    

I tried a drink called the Cherry Blossom (the one with the flower (pansy) on top).  It had Vodka, elderflower liquor4, cherry liquor, ginger liquor and lime juice.  It was very aromatic.  It was good.

Anna tried a drink called Respect the Geisha.  It was made with plum sake, grapefruit liquor, raspberry liquor and prosecco (like champagne). It is the one with the umbrella.  It was good, but had too much of a champagne taste for me.

Mike tried a Red Light/Green Light.  It had tequila, hibiscus liquor, lime juice and orange bitters.  It was probably my 2nd favorite to the Cherry Blossom.

I ordered a bowl of Tom Sap soup (like hot and sour soup) and one Bao sandwich...the fried soft shell crab.  The soup was the consistency of Miso soup...meaning it was just a clear broth with a little bit of tofu and mushrooms floating in the bottom.  The broth was super yummy but I paid $3 for one shrimp to be added to it.  It was a $9 bowl of super yummy broth with one shrimp.  

My bao sandwich was good but not great.  It was a breaded and fried soft-shell crab with a little bit of eel sauce (sweet), masago (the little orange fish eggs on sushi) and some microgreens.  There was nothing bad about it.  It just didn't have much taste.  The bao bun was fine, but there was nothing amazing about it.

Mike had a special where you get 2 bao sandwiches with fries and a coke.  He tried the hot chicken and the waygu beef.  The hot chicken was the best thing we tasted all night.  If we ever went back...that's the sandwich I'd get. It was sweet and spicy in an Asian sort of way.  The sauce was very yummy. The waygu beef was kind of just like eating a "slider."  The fries were fine.  

Anna loves "Katsu."  Something (usually pork or chicken) that is katsu is breaded in panko crumbs and fried.  She also loves soba noodles.  So, they had a soba noodle bowl that you could add katsu chicken.  It had a soft boiled egg and some cabbage/veg in a broth that she said was just average.  She was there was nothing wrong with the entire dish but it didn't WOW her in any way.  

Overall, this was a fun place to try.  It was probably a one and done, but we don't regret trying it.  It was a fun outing on a Sat. evening.