bobzemuda's Recent Activity
Chowhound Post
St. Louis/Frontenac - ISO restaurant with vegan options
Cardwell's Frontenac is an option, but what are you looking to spend?
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STL - Need Recs near Scottrade Center
It's open until 8:00PM
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STL - Need Recs near Scottrade Center
I always hit 10th Street Italian when I go to anything at Scottrade as I can park in between and walk to both.
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STL - Are there any decent Korean restaurants?
Hangook Kwan at Fee Fee and Olive is generally considered the best.
Seoul Garden on St. Charles Rock Road was good in the past but I've not been in a very long time.
There are also places that have a couple dishes that that they do well
i.e. U-City Grill does bibimbap
Shu Feng has good bulgogi
Chowhound Post
Late night dining in STL?
Franco serves dinner until 11:00
Remy's Kitchen & Wine Bar serves until 11:30
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Does anyone miss Flaco's Tacos (stl) as much as me???
From what I gather the food is very different as it is different owners who also fondly remembered the original. I think both Bonwich and Froeb have reviewed it at this point.
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STL...Off the Vine, Hampton Ave.
Well that's kind of what I was getting at. If it was the steak I was going to hold myself back because Luger's is, as you know, pretty much the bar with which all other's are judged.
We don't have a particularly good steakhouse in St. Louis in my opinion.
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STL: organic beef in bulk?
grassland farms makes weekly deliveries to St. Louis every Sunday. Their beef is grassfed.
If you go to slowfoodstl.org there is information about them and other grass-fed farmers in our area, and more will be added in the coming weeks as well.
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STL...Off the Vine, Hampton Ave.
"was very similar to Peter Luger's in Brooklyn"
The steak or the steak sauce?
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Cheese shops - STL
Of all these places, the Wine Merchant Clayton probably takes the best care of their cheeses physically as they have a true cheesemonger.
Their selection is smaller than some, but they do an excellent job helping you find the cheese that's just right for your occasion---even if it's just sitting around eating cheese.
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Need Quick Rec for St. Louis
You totally got us. I didn't even think about the Monday thing.
And how was your 222?
Chowhound Post
Need Quick Rec for St. Louis
suck it up and drive to Edwardsville
Erato On Main
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Kansas City Espresso recommendations?
If you do go to Broadway, don't go to the one they pictured in the NYT. The baristas weren't as good as the ones just around the corner at the roasting facility. It's literally within two blocks, and the roaster is just sitting out in the shop so it's got a nice ambiance if you're a coffeegeek. Considering your looking for shops in cities you travel to as I was, I'll gather that you are.
Chowhound Post
St. Louis near the airport??
Oh come on...it's a lot better than most cities airports. The biggest reason not to walk isn't that it's dangerous for any reason other than there are no sidewalks and you might get pegged by a car.
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St. Louis Lunch
As much as I'd love to steer them to something that is actually good, and I really hate to say this because I don't personally care for most of it, but the original poster is looking for "St. Louis" food and that equals:
St. Louis style pizza
toasted ravioli
soggy salad
pork steaks
gooey butter cake
st. paul sandwich
slinger
etc
As far as originality of the experience, I agree with Crown Candy and Blueberry Hill. While the food is not phenomenal, I think most out-of-towners find those places pretty unique.
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St. Louis Lunch
I believe Five ceased to serve lunch when Newstead opened.
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STL: NY/East Coast style pizza
La Pizza is your best option.
Dough is made fresh daily. Pizzas are tossed to order.
They're NYC transplants. Father and Son own it. The father used to work for Racanelli's in St. Louis until he felt they stopped caring about quality and had to quit and go off on his own.
Chowhound Post
Good eats around the St. Louis Airport area
As with most airports, it's not in the best or worst neighborhood, but there are really no fine dining options close. Staying close, however, these are some good things -- though not fancy things in any way:
Las Palmas on Woodson Road
Woofies on Woodson Road
Nick & Elena's PIzza on Woodson Road
India Palace on Lindbergh
Chowhound Post
Firefly Grill in Effingham IL
I've spoken to several people that have really enjoyed it but I've not been myself. Effingham is actually closer than Columbia, MO, so it's not that far as well. My wife and I were talking about driving their just this past weekend to check it out. Seriously.
Chowhound Post
St. Louis/U. City: Recs. re Chinese Noodle Cafe
I love that House Special Chicken at Shu Feng. I love spicy food and Liling always seems to get a kick out of making me pay for that. There are times they've made it so spicy I started sweating from the first bite on.
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Araka vs. Niche: Parental Dinner
How is Terrene post Owens?
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Araka vs. Niche: Parental Dinner
I wouldn't really call the food "bad" at Araka, but having been back once since my initial lunch, it has been sort of ho-hum. Still, when weighing against the rest of St. Louis' offerings, it's been well seasoned, properly cooked, and therefore still better than most of the offerings in St. Louis.
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Land of Smile Thai - St. Louis
I agree masamun is a staple as well, but a bit heavy for a Wednesday lunch -- for me
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Need fresh Sweeetbreads
Call some restaurants that you know of that serve them. You'd be surprised at how many restaurants are willing to sell you raw ingredients that are hard to come by in usable quantities for home cooks.
Chowhound Post
BAGELS + BIALYS IN ST LOUIS
I did see this post and completely agree. Kohn's is just not good. I've found it unkempt--bordering on dirty--every time I've ever gone in.
When I came back from NYC last year, a lot of foods in St. Louis were ruined for me, because I saw what they can be when they're made fresh.
Heck, just keeping it topical to this thread:
Hot pastrami and corned beef in St. Louis come from microwaves
Bagels are as you said, BSOs.
knish...can you even get one in a restaurant here?
We just don't have the daily foot traffic to make doing these things right, profitable. The reality is that few places can, and New York just happens to be one of them.
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Land of Smile Thai - St. Louis
Oh...so how about this. What would you recommend getting as a couple of you seem to have been multiple times.
Chowhound Post
Land of Smile Thai - St. Louis
I wouldn't consider it tasty though; Tasty implies I liked it, and I did not because it wasn't what it should have been.
When eating in an ethnic restaurant (or any restaurant for that matter) the expectation I (and I think most people) have, is that the dishes with traditional names will be as authentic as possible within the constraints of America.
The reason I even responded to this post was because of the other post above saying Midland Wok was the best Thai in St. Louis. When I think best, I think authentic, and I was merely commenting that what I saw was not, but also offering the point of reference that I'd only been once, and that I would go back. Maybe it's just this one dish that misses the mark.
As for your examples, the St. Paul sandwich isn't authentic in any way because it was invented in America. They also don't call it something authentic and try to sell it as such. And American pizza has been distorted en masse to the point that it is now its own creation.
Lahb gai, however, is something that is authentic, and was not delivered in a similar manner to the dozens of times I've had it before. And as it isn't something like Chinese food that has been so warped and twisted in this country (like pizza) so as to make it a new familiar Americanized version with amazing variation from establishment to establishment, I will squabble over its authenticity, and felt it was worth mentioning.
I would liken it to having spaghetti and meatballs with fettuccine noodles instead. Sure it's close, and it still might taste good, but it's definitely not spaghetti.
Chowhound Post
Land of Smile Thai - St. Louis
Having only eaten there once, the only thing I can say is that of my two staple Thais dishes, the lahb gai was incredibly strange here. Instead of ground meat it appeared to simply be chicken breast cooked in advance and then chopped up with a knife.
In the end it was more of a composed salad with chopped chicken on top, and not authentic in any way.
Everything did seem very fresh though, and none of it was truly bad--just not as authentic as other's I've been too....I'll have to try some more dishes.
Chowhound Post
BAGELS + BIALYS IN ST LOUIS
I work right by these, so I went to Bagel Factory and Pratzel's on the same day a few weeks ago to compare the two.
Texture and crust at Pratzel's was better, but taste was better at the Bagel Factory. Pratzel's tasted too sweet to me.
The Bialy's at bagel factory were not as flat as I've seen elsewhere, but they did taste good also. It was my preference of all three things.
Chowhound Post
L'École Culinaire???
I was going to stay silent on this, but I completely agree with this post.
When I worked at Harvest, the CIA, Johnson & Wales, and NECI were all represented in the kitchen, and there was nothing they knew that I did not because of a tremendous amount of reading and dedication (two jobs for a while) on my part.
Of those three, the person that went to New England seemed to have gotten the most practical experience out of it, but he's the only person I personally knew that had gone there.
Speaking for the midwest, I'd worked with some people when I staged in Chicago that went to Kendall College, and they spoke very highly of that program, as do others.
At the end of the day though, I feel like if you can't afford to go to one of the two or three top schools, you're definitely better off spending your money in another way and just working as much as possible in good places (which sometimes means getting paid little).
I will also add that I worked with several people from L'Ecole's first graduating class, and they were less than enthused with the program. Perhaps things have changed, I really don't know.
