I say, I say there's a new rooster in town.

Who is the best, number 1 rooster in all of the world?  This guy:

What is the best, number 1 rooster in all of America?  Well, this place:

Let me start off by saying this: Foghorn Leghorn is my most favorite cartoon character of all time.  I can't tell if it is his attitude or his swagger but he has always made me laugh and always stays with me.  This restaurant, named Rooster, and owned by the same people as Bailey's Range, is right up there on the same level as Foghorn.  This restaurant is awesome.

I took my wife and kids here and we all ordered something different.  The wait staff was great with kids and there wasn't this air of stuffiness like so many great restaurants.  What makes coming with kids good, is that the kids get a sheet of paper and crayons.  While that may sound lame, at first, if the kids do a good drawing of a rooster, they will hang it on the wall.  

Rooster is great because unlike other places, it only does breakfast or brunch.  It isn't open late at night or even in the late afternoon so it takes care of that wonderful first or second meal of the day.  I ordered the eggs over the potatoes and andouille sausage.  The potatoes were cooked perfectly with a light crisp crunch on the outside and soft on the inside with proper seasoning.  The sausage with great with a good bite to them.  There was a hint of heat but not enough to scare anyone away from them.  The eggs tasted delicious and were cooked wonderfully.  I ordered a side of bacon and I received what could have been the best bacon in the ST. Louis area.  It wasn't too salty or smokey and just had the right balance of flavors.  My order was an easy 4 out of 5 stars.

One of my sons ordered the pizza crepe and completely demolished it.  He told me that he had to destroy it because it was so good.  It was a crepe filled with cheese and tomatoes.  It really did taste like a pizza.  I'd give it a 3 out of 5.

My wife ordered the smoked salmon and capers and even though it was delicious, she felt that the crepe was missing a few more ounces of salmon. She guessed at maybe only having 2-3 ounces of salmon which at other places, is far less than what they would like.  Perhaps if this crepe had about 5-6 ounces of salmon, she would have liked it better.  A 3 out of 5.

The thing is, besides the savory dishes, the fried apple dessert, in the crepe, was very tasty and had everyone at the table reaching over to eat it.  I can't say now that anything that this owner has is bad as everything that I have tried at any of the restaurants has turned out good.  So, I would suggest checking them out, easy parking across the street, in a non-busy part of downtown, definitely go to Rooster.

1104 Locust St, St Louis, MO 63101
(314) 241-8118

http://roosterstl.com/

Welcome to the White Knight

Back in the early 1950's, a family opened a small diner downtown.  They called their small diner: The White Knight Diner.  The small diner, held about 16-18 people and was situated at a busy intersection of what is now near 18th and Olive.  From what you can see now, driving about, this was perhaps the only restaurant for many years downtown.  Unlike other restaurants that come and go downtown, this diner has been open, since the 1950's.  It wasn't closed down for a bit through the years, it wasn't closed down to remodel it and it doesn't even close down when the weather is bad.  The diner is there and looks just like it did, 60 something years ago.

What you have inside, is a large American Flag, lots of pictures and other memorabilia, white metal sheets on the walls and ceiling and a small cook's line behind a counter.  It looks like any other diner would. But while it may look like it has been stuck in a time warp for the past half century, the food is great and it has very reasonable prices.  They serve lunch and breakfast all day and even have a Facebook and Foursquare page, which is always a plus.

So, what did I order?  Well, it was 10:20 on a Wednesday morning.  My wife was at the dentist downtown and I had time to spare.  Whenever we are downtown, for one reason or another, we see this diner but have never gone in, much less I never knew that it was even there or had been there this long!  Basically, I walked in to look around, I was still full from my breakfast at 9:00 am and decided to try to order a burger and see how it was.  I mean, the burger was 1/4 pound and was only $2.59!  So, I ordered it and when I got it, it tasted great.  It was a simple but perfect burger, like the kind you would get at 5 Guys Burgers and Fries.  It was just a simple burger and cooked right and with all of the other things on the bun, it was just perfect for a mid morning snack, or second breakfast as my wife would put it.  

So, what did I think?  I would give the burger a simple 3 and 1/2 out of 5 stars.  Was it high tech? No.  Was it something new that I had never had? No.  Was it good and would I order it again?  Yes.  Would I suggest it and this place to others?  Yes.  It was actually so good, that even though I was still full and not very hungry, I wasn't expecting to eat the whole thing and I did anyway.  It was very good.  

If you are downtown, and looking for a good burger, don't go to TGI Fridays and don't go to Hooters: Go to White Knight Diner.  

https://www.facebook.com/Whiteknightdiner?fref=ts

St. Louis has nothing to worry about.

The other night, my wife and I had a free night in downtown Austin, Texas and decided that a night out, at one of the trendy and local, seasonal, farm to table restaurants may do the trick.  This restaurant, Parkside, has won awards and attention for their raw bar and oysters as well as their use of sustainable and seasonal foods.   Not for their other foods.  Now, when my wife and I stood there, waiting 10 minutes past out 8:00 reservation, we wondered if it could be as good as other great restaurants in this same category: like Farmhaus.  The answer is 'no'.

The interior of Parkside reminds me a lot of Taste.  It is dark, the lights are high up and everything has dark wood colored tones.  The hostess staff are dressed in black.  There was seating near the bar and more seating in a separate dining room behind the bar in the next room.  What was odd about our wait, was that they seated several people who just walked in and asked for a seat, before us.  So, right off the bat, reservations here mean nothing.  After being sat at a table/booth combo, we were greeted by our waiter who was not very friendly or knowledgable.  He didn't know what the different selections of oysters had in them, where they were from, or even where they were from.  It was odd since this place is famous for their oyster selection.  As we looked at the menu, we noticed that the food was priced a bit high, which would be alright if the food came in reasonable sized portions and were great, but neither was the case at Parkside.  We ordered some drinks, he left and returned with them and then without saying a word, left.  We didn't see him come back to our table for 10 minutes.  Our waiter seemed too occupied with the large table of 8 people next to us, which was odd since they were more than 6 and had an automatic 18% tip added in and would make sense that the guy should work on the tip that wasn't automatic.

There was a good selection of food and as such, we both selected some appetizers.  We were told that the beef marrow dish is cooked to order and would be about 20-30 minutes and since after we waited 10 minutes for him to come back, we figured that the 20-30 minute wait wouldn't be that bad.  So, while we waited, and waited, finally our starters came out.  The first one that came out was the Kampachi, which was pieces of fish with some blood oranges and ginger for $12.  We thought it would be a good sized plate for $12.  This was it:

Was it any good?  Neh.  The blood orange segments completly ruined any good flavors from the dish.  So, would we order it again?  No.  It stands at a 2 out of 5 stars.

I'm thinking that I made a good decision and set off to accept my Potato Gnocchi with sunchoke butter, arugula and a citrus gel.  This is what I got:

Someone needs to go back to cooking school.  Gnocchi are supposed to be a little firm, a gummy, toothsom texture, like al-dente' pasta.  Guess what this was? Mushy.  They tasted like someone mashed some potatoes and then cooked them in little balls in boiling water, like you would cook spaetzle.  They were flavorless and not seasoned at all.  I tasted not even salt or pepper.  The sunchoke butter was super sweet and there were these orange segments which were tart.  The citrus gel, was a runny sauce.  If you say that something is a gel, then it better be a gel, not a runny sauce. Here's the thing, if myself or my wife can make food better than what we pay for at a restaurant, then the restaurant did a bad job on it.  This is a 2 and 1/2 out of 5 stars.  For $10, I'd say that the price was a bit high.

As we are still waiting for the marrow bones, we got one of the other starters which my wife had ordered.  She picked out the Caramelized Cauliflower with chili, calabrese and capers.  This was for $7 and we had a small plate here: 

So, we paid $7 for partially cooked cauliflower and a few capers.  What was most promanint about the dish was the large leaf of parsley there, for no reason.  A 2 out of 5 stars.

So, finally Marrow Bones comes out with an herb salad, a whole $14.50.  This is what is delivered to us:

First thing, flat leaf parsley leaves, strewn over the bones with some bony fescue, is not an herb salad.  Second thing is, that when something so rich and fatty is served, something that is tart or acidic should be served with it.  Traditionally the greens are tart or sour and there should be some vinegar; even a simple dressing that should go with this dish.  But there was none.  It was fat on burnt toast.  The fat was also quite boring.  At Truffles, a St. Louis restaurant, when we last ordered some beef marrow bones there, they cooked them, then scooped the marrow out, mixed it with herbs and spices and then placed it back in the bones for presentation.  So, they were not boring as in this place  I love my marrow, I really do, but this was just good, like a 3 out of 5 stars.  Its just that for the price, we expected a bit more time and effort.

The last dish was the real winner of the evening.  I figured that what looks like to be the strangest item on the menu, should be the best one to pick.  So, I ordered the Grilled Hill Country Rabbit with roasted carrots, green garlic spaetzle, carrot puree' crema, and red wine vinegarette for $24.  

Does it look like rabbit?  The rabbit, is in these disc shaped patties.  They had what tasted like bacon, wrapped around them and the whole thing tasted like bad tasting ham.  Really.  I know that rabbit does not taste like ham, so why did it taste like turned pork or salted and brine-marinated pork.  The meat was awful and even if they made a mistake and gave me ham, it was so salty, so terribly salt, you could kill a room full of slugs with one bite.  So, let's look for the carrots.  There is one that is bright orange, in the 6 o'clock area of the photo.  At about the 9 o'clock area are two more carrots.  These were more roasted than the other one and even worse is that the two dark roasted ones, were so burnt that there was no flesh there to eat!  The green garlic spaetzle, were the best part of this dish.  I ate every one of them and if you could take one part of this dish out and separate it, I would take those.  They alone were like a 4 out of 5 stars.  They were awesome and I really did eat every one.  It was just sad that it was so salty and I couldn't eat it.  I will say this: this is the last one.  My wife kept egging me into returning the dish, because it was so bad.  I told her it was okay, but after this, restaurants look out, I will ask to return items that are bad or suck.

My thoughts?  Parkside sucks.  Parkside is also supposed to be an award winning restaurant and award winning restaurants need to be good.  So, for St. Louis which has a number of award winning restaurants which pop up all the time, they have nothing to worry about.  

Mexican style

Until today, I was a food truck virgin.  I knew that there has been a huge number of food trucks stalking the workers of St. Louis for a few years now and there is even one street dedicated to the food trucks serving people downtown.  What I never did, was experience them. I don't work anywhere near downtown, so when these food trucks are out and about, it is impossible for me to leave work and track them down to get a bite.  Yesterday, I had a rare opportunity to spend some time in downtown St. Louis from about 9am to 1:30pm., which was a perfect chance to check some of these out.  I always wanted to try a food truck and my thought was that every chance I get, I will try one out and talk about it.  I tried two out this morning but will only focus on one of them.

While relaxing and taking pictures for fun in the City Garden, I saw the Taco Truck.  The Taco Truck is owned by Tomas Pedro and serves what I think is authentic Mexican food.  It is not your Taco Bell tacos being served here, but real Mexican food that tastes fresh and delicious.

It was my first time there and I just wanted to try the food, so I ordered the Mexican Tacos with steak and within minutes I was handed a large container with 3 tasty tacos, some fresh limes and some fresh pico de gallo.  I had what I thought was a good amount, for $7.00 even.

Without mentioning other taco locations or other Mexican restaurants, it is important to note that some places sell tacos this same size and weight for about $3 each.  This would make the meal from Taco Truck equivalent to a $9 meal at other spots.  So, the amount of food for the amount of money was a good deal. Now, the pico de gallo was good and tasty.  Everything tasted like it should, so the vegetables were fresh and crunchy and you could tell that it didn't come from a can.  The steak was juicy, tender and well seasoned. The onions were perfectly browned and tender and yummy.  The tortillas were warmed up and everything was easy to eat with little to no food falling out while munching on these.  Oh yeah, you have to try their hot sauce and a good squirt of fresh lime juice on them.  The lime juice picks up a citrus side of the cilantro and the whole thing explodes with happiness in your mouth. This was good, and furthermore: it was really good.

You can find Tomas Pedro and his Taco Truck, Monday through Friday on Market Street downtown.  While there are other places to get Mexican food downtown, I seriously would recommend skipping them and doing all of your business at the Taco Truck.

Now, you can find out what is happening or where the Taco Truck is by checking their Twitter: https://twitter.com/tacotruckstl

And don't forget to visit their facebook page for more information and photos:
http://www.facebook.com/tacotruckstl

      
      

Ahhhh, Wasabi.

After being an assistant to a sexy photographer for a photoshoot this past Saturday with Gravity Plays Favorites, we went for a nice meal at Wasabi, where we had the company of having both Michelle and Katrina dine with us. I may not be the best person to judge about sushi, since I am not really into fish, but do try whatever comes on my plate. I ordered some spicy chicken and my wife ordered the sushi meal for one.
We enjoyed our meals as we sat outside on Washington Avenue, in the 70 degree weather on the clear sky day. As the conversation started to get interesting, our food arrived. Mine was a spicy chicken dish, with some fried vegetables and fried rice. The rice was okay and not the best fried rice, maybe a 2 out of 5 stars. The veggies had a thick sauce on them that ruled out any taste of their true form, which I gave a 1 out of stars. The chicken was the best part. I had a Buffalo hot sauce/ Asian spicy hybrid on the chicken and it tasted so good.
I fixed the rice be adding some soy sauce as you can see that it looked like it had none, originally. Overall though, the chicken pulled the dish from okay to good, getting a 3 stars out of 5 from me. Now my wife, who has eaten sushi all over the world, commented on how her dish, was so good that she was recommending it to anyone who would listen. At other sushi places, they would have just served her food on a plate, but here, they gave her a small boat.
She gave it a 3 &1/2 out of 5 and we were very happy with the service as well, as the waitress was always right next to us when we needed us, even no matter how strange the table's requests were. Whether you like sushi or not and are in the downtown area, I recommend going to Wasabi and enjoying yourself.