First time at Baxter's

Baxter's is a restaurant in Lake Ozark, boasting a huge lake view, which it does have.  Their website mentions that they are a restaurant the has a great bar and serves great American food.  That is the idea and it seems to be close to what is really served.  I went with my family and in-laws, we were seated at a table on the patio, overlooking the lake at sunset.

Now, first off, the food was good but nothing as interesting as other restaurants that hold the "fine dining" phrase in their name.  I ordered the "Baxter's steak burger" and to the heartbreak of my father-in-law, who loves the food there, the burger was slightly dry.  They describe it as "our special blend of striploin, ribeye and tenderloin freshly ground in house daily".

 The problem wasn't that it didn't have flavor.  The problem was that on a large bun with a piece of lettuce, slice of tomato and 3 rings of red onion, didn't add any moisture to the burger, which tasted like dry meatloaf in the center.  So, the outside was seasoned properly but the inside was arid like a desert and it actually took the moisture out of my mouth, like a saltine cracker.  Every bite I took, I had to take a sip of my drink.  So, here I am about 1/3rd of the way through my burger and my mouth is still dry.  I figure I would start to try some of my side dish. 

I had chosen to have the "roasted red bliss potatoes", which probably meant something poetical to them.  To me, it meant that they were steak cut fries, as seen in the picture, sprinkled with Kosher salt, dried parsley, and roasted in such a way that one of them could have a crispy outer shell and soft on the inside while another one could have a soft outside and be almost raw on the inside.  I ate another fry and it was cooked well.  It was like sticking your hand in a bag of black and white marbles and without looking, trying to pull out a black marble.  You win or lose and it was or seemed completely random.  I'd give the dish a 3 out of 5.

As far as service was concerned, the only thing that really stuck out was the fact that even the salads were dry.  There was a teaspoon of dressing on a giant salad.  So, when my wife asked for a little bowl of balsamic vinegar, to go on her salad, we were amazed at how quickly and nicely the waitress responded with a "yeah".  Then we never heard from her again.  Maybe she fell in the lake.  That waitress, actually never got back to us, she didn't even bring the kids their ice creams that came with their meals.  That was a different waitress.  Our waitress vanished and I had us all asking, out loud, "was that our waitress?" Pointing at a server in the corner, then wondering as another waitress walked by and another.  When a table loses their waitress and can't find her anywhere, then that is a problem.

Food okay overall, atmosphere was great with a great view.  Menu and restaurant was kid friendly.  It was a smoke free restaurant but there were people smoking on one of the lounge chairs while they were waiting for a table. But as I said, it was okay for the price.

http://baxterslakesidegrille.com/
2124 Bagnell Dam Blvd, Lake Ozark, MO 65049

(573) 365-2669

It was the dog days, on the lake

It was my second time there, but the first time that I had eaten on one of the tributaries from the main restaurant.  Dog Days is a restaurant, situated on the Lake.  Like other places, it has parking access for cars and docks for boats.  It is shaped like a long line, with the main restaurant, then an outdoor deck like seating and eating area, a bar then a another seating area and then another covered area with bar and seats for eating again.  It runs parallel with the shore of the lake and allows everyone who sits there, to see the lake, which is cool.  The place had live music starting up while we finished our meal, on Thursday evening and was really starting to get busy, but had a lot of families there as well.

So, besides have great food for the kids and treating them really well, they have all sorts of other kinds of American style foods.  I order a chicken burger, with avocado and bacon with a side of black beans and rice.

The last time were here, the rice was undercooked but this time, everything was perfect.  The rice was mixed with onions and peppers with the beans and everything tasted great and was cooked properly.  The burger was huge and with all of those fixin's, made for a filling lunch.  I'd give this dish a 3 and 1/2 out of 5 stars.

There are a lot of people here during the summer time and even though it was not very hot, probably in the high 70's, on this night, there was a lot of people getting drunk and a lot of kids having fun with their parents.  So, basically, it seems that this a great place for everyone.


1232 Jeffries Rd, Osage Beach, MO 65065

Day 4 of Las Vegas

With the okay buffet at the Bellagio and the bad service at the bar at the Wynn, we wanted a day where we knew that we would have a good time.  This started with a lunch that my wife was looking forward to for the whole trip:

Hot n Juicy has the best tasting hot and garlic sauce that we have ever had.  So my wife got a lobster and mussels and I ordered the Cajun fries and a basket of potatoes and sausage.

Cajun fries were crispy and spicy.  A 3 out of 5 stars.

I placed the potatoes and sausage on the fries, so any sauce would drip on them and make them tastier.  Again, a 4 out of 5 as being good.  The thing with this place is that the food is always good.  It is well worth a trip for people who like seafood and sausage and things like this.  http://hotnjuicycrawfish.com/

My wife wanted to check out a tea store and we went to this place on the same road called Tea Station.

It was a simple place inside, seats for maybe 20 people, and a bar where the guy behind it would make all of the tea and tea drinks.  My wife ordered a honeydew milk tea and the cup smelled like fresh cut honeydew, a 3 out of 5 stars. 

She ordered a desert for the two of us to share, I did not know it would be huge:

What this is: is a giant shaved ice desert.  It has a huge mound of shaved ice in the middle.  It had red beans on top, grass jelly to the left, some boba to the right and the foreground has some agar balls made with rice, purple potato and sweet potato.  There was a small shot glass of warmed up sweetened condensed milk that was poured on top of everything.  Everything turned into something very sweet and yet most of it was very low calories.  It was delicious and an easy 3 out of 5 stars.

That night, we had reservations for the Foundation Room: (http://www.houseofblues.com/lasvegas/fr)

The food here is not expensive, but not cheap either.  The service was as good as Rose.Rabbit.Lie and they were very interesting and knowledgeable.  We ordered some pork belly:

An easy 4 out of 5 stars.

We ordered a side of grilled asparagus, which was a 3 out of 5 stars:

My wife had ordered two appetizer dishes as her main course: The yellow tail tartar bruschetta and the Stefano Farms burrata:

She loved both and would give a 4 out of 5 stars.

I ordered an 8 oz steak with a horseradish crust:

This very good, but not super.  I do eat some horseradish and spicy foods, but this crust was very spicy and had my scraping it off of the top of the steak to cut it.  It was tender, perfectly cooked to medium rare and completely seasoned.  I'd give it a 3 out of 5 stars.

The Foundation Room is a special members only or paid access club at the top of the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino.  The bar area has music and some dancing space for the DJ, there is a balcony overlooking the strip and on the other side is the restaurant, which was good enough for us to return.  Check it out if you go there and please wear something nice, no chubbies and flip-flops.

Day 2 in Las Vegas

So, the 10th of July was our first real day this year in Las Vegas and our real anniversary.  Ten years ago from that day, we were married at 2pm on a hot summer day.  The wedding was at St. Raymond's, downtown in St. Louis, but then our photos with the wedding party, were at the Botanical Garden, in the heat and sun.  I think it got to 100 degrees or so that day and while my wife was in multiple layers with her dress, myself and my groomsmen were also in multiple layers of shirts, vests and jackets.  Now, just like 10 years ago, we are spending the time in Las Vegas, also in 100 degree plus weather.

For the day, we went over to the Planet Hollywood Casino and mall.  We had to drop off a refill inventory or my jewelry to be sold at Club Tattoo in the Miracle Mile shops and while in there, we stopped for lunch at a place called the Earl of Sandwich.  I've never eaten there, but the food seemed very familiar.

My sandwich was a toasted BLT with avocado.  It was nice, silky, fatty and salty.  It was warm and crunchy and herby.  It had all of the good parts of the pieces like the crispy and saltiness of the bacon, the fatty and creamy-ness of the avocado and the juiciness.  I'd give the place and their sandwich a 3 out of 5 stars.  It was good, almost very good, but not awesome good.

For our night out to celebrate, we happened upon the best kept secret in Las Vegas.  Hidden inside of the Cosmopolitan is an experience called Rose.Rabbit.Lie.  RRL, is a complete experience.  Upon entry, you are brought past the host station to a room with 4 doors.  The room is void of design or interest and these 4 large doors look imposing.  The host picks a door and opens it and you enter a themed room.  We sat in The Music Room, and it was a room with a large piano, bar and few booths lining the wall.  The walls are made of frosted glass windows and helped divide the room and keep it separate but when there is a small show, in each of these four rooms, the windows retract all of the way down into a half wall and allow the patrons in each room to see through and access the others.

So, we sat down at a booth/table and were greeted by our server, Patrick.  We had no complaints with our server at all.  Patrick was nice, just the right amount of talkative (not too much and not too little).  He was very knowledgeable about everything on the menu, everything about the venue and even the drinks.  It was like getting a dining room manager as a server.  Everything that had to deal with Patrick and our service there was perfect.  He is why I would give him a 5 out of 5 stars for his service and friendly demeanor just made us so happy.

So, with Patrick's help and recommendations we ordered our dishes and it started with the first one: "Heavenly Eggs".  This was a single egg dish, so we ordered two.  This had an egg custard in the bottom and then the truffles and sauce on top.  A single scoop of this dish, was filled with this warm feeling of the truffles, with a creaminess of the smoothest ice cream and the sweetness of the best dessert, while still being savory.  Each bite felt like a warm hug with a loved one.  They were awesome and they made me want to make a whole night of eating these and only these.  I'd give a 5 out of 5 on these.

So, our next dish was a Curry spiced carrot dish.  These perfectly cooked carrots and tomatoes were just perfectly spiced, like a curry or Middle eastern flavored spiced sauce, with perfectly cooked vegetables.  The sauce was the real star and this was an easy 4 out of 5 stars.

This was the "Orange Fennel salad".  This salad, resembled a cole slaw recipe, or at least reminded me of one.  It was shown with shaved fennel and had orange slices on top. My wife loved this and I'd give it a 3 out of 5 stars.  It was just the right amount of strong and subtle flavors to work well with each other.

Next we had ordered these "Herb Brioche rolls", which as you can see, came heavily herbed with rosemary and thyme and a sweet butter.  These were hot, almost flaky and moist at the same time and very delicious.  As a "carbs" person, these were a great addition to our meal.  I'd give them a 3 and 1/2 out of 5 stars.

Next came the pork dish, which was perfectly rich and fat on fat pork.  The dish had a simple sauce, and some vegetables around it and was not a really salty dish, yet I felt that there was too much fat and needed some acid to break it up.  I'd still give it a 3 and 1/2 out of 5 stars.

 

Rabbit is a funny thing because as a chef, you don't want to lose the game flavor and you don't want to elevate it to make it inedible.  This rabbit dish called "Rabbit Fricassee", had just the right amount of everything.  It was a perfect balance.  You knew you were eating rabbit, but it didn't taste to strong like rabbit.  It was very mild and tender.  There were rose petals, greens, carrots and it reminded me of a dish I had seen elsewhere.  It looks like the thing to do with animals, when cooked and prepared and plated, is to present them with things that they belong with.  Not suggesting a natural environment or surroundings, but in the case of the rabbit here, presenting and cooking it with rose petals or carrots, which it could have eaten when alive, seems like a good idea.  This was very good and I give it a 4 out of 5 stars.   

Now for desert, we did something different.  By the end of all of these dishes, I was getting full and didn't really want to get a dessert at all.  But, when you are in Vegas, celebrating your anniversary and you are there to do it right and do it big, then go big.  We picked the largest item on the desert menu, something so large that it normally would be ideal for many people to share, but the idea was so interesting that we couldn't back down.  It was the "chocolate Terrarium".  

This is what our server Patrick brought to our table.  This was huge, with this glass dome probably standing at least 18 inches high.  The plate or dish was at least 14 inches in diameter.  As you can see from the picture, there was some branches of  lavender, a single edible rose and some smaller plant fronds.  A single candle sat inside the dome as well.  Now, when the dome was lifted, this is how we had it in front of us:

So, where do I begin?  We removed the plant material and took a closer look at the 'dirt'.  Those solid looking parts were giant pieces of chocolate cookie.  There was large chunks of chocolate brownie underneath a crumbled chocolate cake, as dirt.  The white parts were actually ice cream and marshmallow creme.  It was just crazy, the amount of chocolate and hidden things we found as we dug deeper in this dish.  This is the ultimate desert experience and I recommend this to everyone.  This received a 5 out of 5 stars as well.

Now, over the course of eating, there are small shows that take place in each room, as I had mentioned.  We sat a juggler doing a balance act as well, an aerialist, a singer and many other acts, in the dining area.  When we had finished, we watched a show in the 4th room, which has a larger stage and then after the show, it turns into a nightclub with perhaps the best MC I have seen and heard anywhere and a great DJ.

It is called Rose.Rabbit.Lie. and if you are looking for something romantic or to impress or just have an awesome time in Las Vegas, check them out. 

http://roserabbitlie.com/#/about

           

What it is really like being a chef or working at a restaurant

I saw this online and it only started to bring back memories:
http://www.thrillist.com/eat/nation/understanding-cooks-best-kitchen-advice?ref=facebook-868

 

 From the time that I was 16 years old, I started to work at a restaurant. When I think back to this place, from seeing and dining in so many other restaurants, it really didn't seem like a true restaurant, but it was.  I did so because it was easy work and fun when your friends worked there as well.  My older brother worked there and as such it helped me get my job there.  I didn't think of it at the time, but it helped light the fuse for my love of food and cooking.  I tried to avoid the kitchen as best as I could because I was young and 16 and didn't want to do anything back there that pulled me away from my friends and the windows looking upon the outside world.  There were a couple of times that my brother was pulled into the back to help and when he came out at the end of the day, he looked drained and smelled like a trashcan.  I just didn't want that and I did try really hard to avoid it, and did so at that location.  What happened when I was about 18, was that while school was one thing and I had friends there, my friends did not live by me and work with me.  The friends I had acquired at this one location, in Shrewsbury, were the friends I would go out and party with on summer nights, weekends and vacations.  That was my social network, it was Facebook and Myspace before those sites were even invented.  I don't try to sound old and ancient, but before there was the internet and even cell phones that did anything other than make and receive calls, there was a physical meeting of people at locations. 

My friends were all together and we were making friends with managers and then all of a sudden, they moved my favorite manager.  They transfer managers and move them around like chess pieces. (Wait, maybe not because that implies that the district supervisors who manage whole city's worth of restaurant locations would be capable of any intelligent thought.)  But my favorite manager was sent to another location, on Manchester Road, in West County and I was still stuck here in Shrewsbury.

I begged to be moved there and when I was, I noticed that things seemed different and there, I did volunteer my services to the kitchen when they had a cook call in sick.  I thought it was really cool that 2 guys would run the cook's line and maybe 3 on a busy day and there would be as much as 10-15 in the front of the house just working on the products of those on the cook's line.  So one day I was working and the cook called in sick.  There was a certified trainer back there and they needed someone to go back and I took the chance.  I slapped a hairnet on, a cap, a thick apron and went to the cook's line.  I worked there in what seemed like perfect harmony with the other cook.  He was on the ovens and I had steamer and fryer.  I was having trouble keeping up with the food taking and when the manager, probably in a drunken stupor came before me and pulled me over away from the cook's line.

"John," he says. "Recipes are just instructions.  If you can read, just do what they say and everything will be fine."

That is all it takes and that thought, that saying, coming from an a-hole such as he was, was the most remarkable thing I ever heard about cooking food.  That and my co-worker that night, Terrell, told me that cooking was "just having fun."

The rest is history but I can tell you this; the restaurant I worked for, Old County Buffet, was an all-you-can-eat restaurant.  People would pay as much as $10 for dinner and eat $100 worth of food.  I was frying 4 chickens at once in one fryer and about a pound of french fries in the other, while mixing 4 pounds of mashed potatoes in a large stand mixer.  My steamer was filled with 10 pound trays of corn, green beans and carrots and that was the tough part.  On a busy Friday or Saturday night, the line servers were taking food out of the Sham faster than I could cook it. 

The feeling and thoughts and memories, all came back when reading that article.  So, let's look at my favorites from that site:

[It gets really hot]- At the locations where I cooked, and at the restaurant itself, they did not have AC in the back of the house.  So, whether you were working on the oven and the grill or getting a burning facial with the fryers and steamers, there was no saving your body from the heat.  What we did, was use the meat freezer.  About 10 feet from the oven side, against a wall, was the meat freezer.  All of the meat was there, frozen, along with boxes of other stuff like vegetables to be steamed and so forth.  Let me tell you this: working for 8 hours on steamer side and then walking into a freezer is amazing.  It is so cold that the sweat on your hands actually starts to turn into frost after a few seconds and it feels wonderful.  It was a great pick me up during those hot summer days on the line.

[No matter how hot it is, don't drop it]- What a great piece of advice.  I have dropped a large sheet pan full of baked chicken before.  It was so hot, out of the oven, that I burned myself on one of the doors on the side of my arm.  I dropped one side of the sheet pan and it fell down, as hot, molten, chicken fat and juices ran all down my apron and my leg and on my shoe.  While that sounds like I could have been saved, I wasn't.  The lava was so hot that I besides the food costs I wasted, I had to run around the corner, get my arm fixed up and take my shoe off to make sure and stop everything from burning my foot and leg.  What a day.

[Even in scratch kitchens, 98% of everything is prepared ahead of time]- Every night, before we closed and locked up, the cooks would prep for the next day's crew and shifts.  On steamer side, you had to get about 2 boxes of frozen vegetables and get them into some quarter pans to prep for the next day.  The oven side cook would get his chicken laid out and on pans for the freezer to be ready for the next morning.

[You must over-communicate]- My line, which was the cooks I worked with whether I was scheduled to cook or if I was sent back to help as kitchen supervisor, always spoke clearly and loud.  I had my guys yell when coming around a corner.  When you have dishwashers placing cleaned pans on a rack that is the same rack where my cooks were going to get food going, and having guys with grease and food stuff on the bottoms of their shoes walking into a wet and soapy area, it makes a huge difference between being quiet and yelling "coming around!"  When you had something hot, you yelled "hot coming around!" And when my team or myself opened a steamer or oven, customers in the dining room could hear us.  For good purpose because my team, had a flawless injury streak.

Also, a good one on here for people who are in this line of work or thinking about it: Don't date outside of your house.   This just means that if you are on the cook's line or dishwasher (back of the house), don't try dating someone who is in the front of the house, like a cashier, line server, or server.  It will make it very difficult to communicate and keep appointments.


 

There is nothing more dangerous than a writer with no edits.

I feel bad sometimes as I look at my blog and wonder where the posts have gone.  I feel a bit nostalgic as I wonder where my passion for writing a blog 2-3 times a week has gone.  Have I lost a love and passion for real food?  Have I lost a need for finding and tasting interesting things?  Have I lost a feeling of allowing writing to be so easy as my own thoughts on paper (or on a keyboard)?  No, I think the main reason that I don't do so much now is actually because of time.  I do not own a TARDIS.

I have never owned a time machine nor been able to travel and contain time.  So, the possibility of myself to be able to be a full time father, a full time sales and accounting person as well as do my new hobby and still have time to go out and about and write about some restaurant that St. Louis is told to follow like sheep, is just not on my mind right now.

Contrary to what some may think, I am not paid to eat out.  I am not under the salary force of any magazine, website or institution so no one is paying me to write about certain things.  In that same sense, no one is paying me to not write about certain things.  There has always been this loyalty to the truth, which I write by that very little other writers in the metropolitan area live by.  The truth being what a restaurant really is like.  I want every person who reads my reviews to be able to feel as though they had been there in my same circumstance.  I do not want to read about how someone was specially greeted by the manager and sat at the best table where they were given the best food and then everything was on the house because their arrival was predetermined and arranged.  I don't want to hear about how someone called and called and had whole conversations with a group of chefs about where their favorite places are and then make sure they have advertisements with my company before they have their reviews posted.  The fact remains, as it does in any city, that if you wish to be paid for writing about a restaurant or item, you cannot piss off the sponsors.  It seems like a very simple idea.  The sponsor pays the company, the company pays you to eat at the sponsor's location, and you need to write something good about the sponsor so they are happy and maybe pay more.  It makes complete sense and if I was a sell-out, I would ask for advertising and then write post after post about those sponsors and make them out to be the best in the world.  The problem with this concept is: I have too much integrity for the truth to sell-out.

I have read online reviews of restaurants which rave and rave about how perfect everything is only to go there and have a horrible dining experience.  Why did this restaurant get such good reviews?  Well first of all, in the online version of the magazine, they have links, banners and ads on the site.  In the tangible magazine, they have 1/2 to full page ads, which can be as much as $1,000 a run.  Like any good business, the site would not dare say anything about someone who just paid them $1,000 to promote their restaurant as that would be completely the opposite of the original intention.  Also, the online negative reviews were hidden and removed.  There are a lot of online reviewing sites but most of them give the reviewed location or company a chance to remove the negative ones, making them in the best possible light even though they are not.

In this case, as you read above, the restaurant I was thinking of is always listed as one of the best 'burger' places in town.  It is hailed as also being a great LGBT friendly location as well.  They have ads in almost ever St. Louis magazine and on their sites.  The problems is though, the food is so-so and the service is difficult.  In my mind, if the service is horrible but the food is good, then I'd be happy to come back.  If the food is bad and the service is amazing, I'd even come back to be pampered.  But if the service and food is bad and the only savings grace you have as a unique restaurant is the fact that your mascot is a cross dresser, then I don't count that as saving your ass.  This isn't an anti LGBT post or sexist or chauvinistic or anything having to do with people, but only food.  I have been in a local bar where the female staff wear costumes like Tinkerbell and even serve customers in bikinis. You could have the best looking staff wearing next to nothing but if it has nothing to do with your food and your food and service still suck, it will not save you from me.

It may save you from the droves of men that fit that demographic.  About a year ago I was picked up as the first ever food writer for a website which normally only did sports and sports news.  They wanted to try having a food writer and so I started writing about places that I go to.  I don't go to super fancy locations but the places I go to require you to wear a bit more than a T-shirt, shorts, flip-flops and a hat.  During the year which I had submitted articles for this site, it was becoming more and more clear to me, from the trolls as well, that the majority of readers of my articles were actually men looking for the best place in St. Louis that served the best food, for the cheapest price, the cheapest beer, and the best looking girls.  And you know what?  That doesn't fill what I write about.  I like beer, and I like to get great food for a low price, and having a wait staff that is clean-cut, nice-looking and in a uniform certainly helps, but usually the places that have great food don't have half-naked girls running around.  (Although the last time I did eat the food in the VIP section of the Penthouse Club in Sauget, the food was pretty decent and there were half-naked girls running around.)  The owner of the site told me that they were moving in a different direction after a year, which is code for "the readers don't want to spend more than $10 for a meal".  But as a food writer who actually has some restaurant experience, I don't want to stick to the $10 beer and hot wings every day for every meal.  I want to explore and taste new things and that often means that I need to go to new places and try the food, even if it is more than $10.


But food writing is also a large editorial and is entirely opinion based.  Traditionally it is, at least.  I like to add a bit more though.  I know that from my dark days working on that cook's line at Home Town Buffet, making cheap food for old people to push down their throats, I know that if you have a frier full of grease and set at 385 degrees, you can drop and cook 2 whole chickens in about 13 minutes.  I know that you can cook chicken strips in a frier for about 3 minutes.  I know that French fries take about as long and I know that you can cook a whole sheet tray of baked chicken in an oven at roughly the same temperature in less than an hour.  I have some basic education and know how long a steak should take.  I know how a sous vide machine works and how some basic molecular gastronomy techniques are used.  I can't be fooled easily because I still experiement and cook food at home.  So, me going to a bar or restaurant, that specializes in chicken wings, and having to wait for 50 minutes to get them delivered to my table, cold, is not an excuse.

Here is a fun fact for you:  While working 8 and 1/2 years for Buffets, Inc.  I developed some basic understanding of the Spanish language.  I did take Spanish for two years in high school but didn't really full grasp it until I worked at the restaurants, where most of the staff was illegal Mexicans.  Am I calling them out, will I cause a scandal?  I doubt it.  Were they really illegal?  Well, let's say this:  one instance had the general manager asking two employees who were related about their SS card because they had the exact same number.  Secondly, about once a year, we would get tipped off that there was an INS agent coming in and on those days, half of our staff called in sick. So, when you speak Mexican Spanish, drive a car with a temporary license plate for 2 years, live in an apartment with 10 other people in St. Louis, can't recite the Pledge of Allegiance in English and call in sick when the manager has a meeting with a representative from Immigration,  I would call you an illegal immigrant. But I digress...  I learned Spanish from them.  So, while I was dating my now wife and even after we married, anytime I would go to a Mexican restaurant, and my family asked for a table, I would listen to the banter, I would hear what they were saying about us.  I would also make suggestions.  For instance at one restaurant they claimed that they could not seat my group of 6, and we had to wait 20-30 minutes.  Well, in Spanish, I suggested that we could take those two tables if they turned them and pushed them together.  I will never forget the look on the face of the hostess, because right there she realized that I A: knew what I was talking about and B: knew what she was saying.  It would be like if you want to the local nail salon and could understand the language that the Vietnamese women use.  You could understand all of their banter and you could find out if they were saying anything about you.  Imagine how honest they would become, all of a sudden, if you said something in their language.

So, back to my point, going to a place that says they have great burgers and getting an okay burger is not a good thing.  The best part of my hobby, is that I can write about it as it is.  The restaurant I went to was called Hamburger Mary's.  Sorry, I don't have pictures.  In fact, the place was so dimly lit that I bet it helped the food look better than it actually was.  My wife and I entered, and were sat upstairs, surrounded by tables full of women.  The bar which was about 6 feet away from us, had one bartender who came over and was also our server.  After greeting us, we told him that we were actually stopping in for a quick bite and had a show in an hour at the FOX.  Ordering a coke, a burger and fries and a grilled piece of chicken, didn't seem like it would take forever or should take forever, but it did.  The restaurant had two levels.  The top level, by us, was where the bathrooms, bar, and 4 televisions on the wall were located.  There was 4 different movies playing at the same time.  There was music and talking and it was a very loud place.  My wife and I waited for almost 45 minutes before our food arrived.  It was the most boring burger I have ever had.  The burger tasted like you took regular ground 85/15 beef from the supermarket and cooked it.  It didn't even have salt or pepper.  My poor wife, ordered some grilled chicken sandwich and the chicken had nothing on it as well.  I know people, even health nuts, like their grilled chicken to have some flavor so it doesn't taste like you are eating a piece of cardboard.  This had no salt, no sauce of any kind, and no pepper.  Here is the thing, my wife and I were starving, attempting to fill our bellies before a two show at the FOX.  So, we wanted to eat the food, but it was so bad that we didn't.  We didn't even take it to go!  It was just bad.  How does that rate?  Well, in my book that is a 0 out of 5 stars.

What does that mean for you?  Well, if I was paid to write by any of the St. Louis magazines, websites or organizations, you would not know how bad the food is there, until after you got ripped off as well.  This also means, that I can help relate the truths that the restaurants who DO NOT pay out for ads are like.  One of my favorite restaurants in St. Louis is called Basso and they are by the Cheshire.  They have all of the makings of a restaurant that is highly praised by the news and media outlets, yet they are not.  Instead, the magazines, websites and news shows seek instead to draw attention to Niche and Sydney Street.  Now those two restaurants are good, I'm not saying they are not, but what everyone else fails to understand is that Basso is here as well.  There has been a lot of press recently because the head chefs of Niche and Sydney Street are nominated for a James Beard Award, which is like the Emmy of the food world.  Every news outlet, every magazine and website are talking about how great this is to have these two chefs represent St. Louis and bring home a James Beard Award for this city.  They say things like "this is awesome", "we deserve this", and people saying they have a life-long dream of eating at a James Beard Award recipient's restaurant.  But, we have a James Beard Award winning Chef at a restaurant in St. Louis already.  I have just honestly mentioned this to all of these posts and my mention gets ignored.  What does the chefs of these other two restaurants have over these magazines and website?  I bet you that if these two chefs didn't win this award, the above sources would be depressed suggesting that St. Louis will never be recognized for their food.  Yet we have an award winning chef here already!  I don't understand, but maybe it has to do with politics.  Maybe Basso is so good of a restaurant that they don't feel that they need to give food away to the owners of those magazines and site to get good reviews.  It is amazing how the mediocre restaurants, like Hamburger Mary's or Brazikat, get pushed and represented as the best in the area because they paid the most for the biggest ad. 

I know that the restaurant scene in St. Louis is highly political.  I was reassured of that truth upon my first conversation with Chef John Johnson, but at the same time, that political correct view of which restaurants are allowed to be on top and which ones stay on the bottom does not work well with the same concept turned to reflect actual quality.

(And this is why I am dangerous.) 

Overall though, as work and time permits, I do wish to write about more things, like new food ideas and new restaurants.  I feel that you can always come to me for the real story of some of these restaurants and not the controlled suggestions that these outlets claim to be the truth.  Although, maybe you can't handle the truth.

Basso always amazes

Late last month, I took my wife to Basso, on her birthday, for lunch.  I know, lunch sounds so taboo considering that most restaurants only open around 4 or 4:30 and even so, only open for dinner and after-hours.  But, as I said, I went there for lunch.  They do serve a lunch and on a weekend when it is cold outside and you want to go someplace nice and warm and have great food...then go to Basso.

I want to warn you though, Basso may just be my favorite restaurant in St. Louis.  The prices are very reasonable, the service is excellent, the atmosphere is warm and comforting while still young and hip, the chef is amazing and everything is going for this place.  So, this review and write-up may seem a little biased.

First off, we ordered a Basso salad, the Mafalda (which doesn't look like it is available on the lunch menu anymore), a cauliflower soup and pizza, that they had split in half where one side had shrimp and the other side had poblano peppers and sausage.

Everything was delicious.  Period.

Why are you still reading this?  Basso is awesome.  They get my best of Tasty Magazine for 2013, for Best Restaurant.  Go there, eat there and you will love it.  Tell them I sent you, why not!  It is so cool, they even have valet parking.  Come'on, take the wife there before you finish your Christmas shopping.  Stop there, then go to the Galleria.  It is a win-win situation.  

http://www.basso-stl.com/

Address: 7036 Clayton Ave, St Louis, MO 63117

Phone:(314) 932-7820

Panorama without the panorama

After waiting what seemed like forever, this year, the extension to the St. Louis Art Museum opened up and showed St. Louis what a real art museum looks like.  Yeah, I  know our historical Greek-influenced building matches those of Chicago and even looks like museums in ancient Lebanon, but with the every new and growing trends in art, it would be nice if something could change and reflect this.  The new extension is that change.  It looks like something from out of Europe, as this black large building sticks out from the classical building that we have all known and grown up to love.  The new building looks huge and when you go inside and see that the tall ceilings and large rooms, make the whole area more welcoming as more enjoyable.

Within this new part of the art museum, the board has placed a new chef and a new restaurant.  The restaurant, named Panorama, is inside a 2,500 square foot area with floor to ceiling windows which overlook some views of Forest Park.  However nice the view is, it is only out of one direction of the restaurant, which makes me wonder why a restaurant would be called Panorama if it does not offer panoramic views.

It has a nice feel to it, making it out to appear to be a stuffy museum restaurant and only to see that the prices are comparable to that of other medium level restaurants like Ruby Tuesdays, for instance. Paying $12 for a hamburger is completely alright when it comes out with a side salad and is in fact locally grass fed.

So, what we got, between the two of us, was overall good.  The food seemed and tasted fine.  But not really good.  If I use my scale, of 1 to 5, I would say that the average experience at this restaurant was a 2 or a 2 and 1/2.  The waiter was perfect, nice and quick.  The food was priced very well.  The hostess got a table for us even though we had a reservation.  The food was hot and local.  Everything pointed in the right direction, but just didn't seem to move any further than that.

My wife ordered the special, which was fish on a puff pastry with blue cheese and a cream sauce:

She liked it and said it was good.  But, to quote her using a line based on her weight watcher's point diet; "It was good, but I wouldn't spend the points on it again."  She gave the dish a 2 and 1/2 out of 5.  This means that it was a bit more than average good.  Like it was okay with a bit of creativity to it.  It wasn't something that was very good, it didn't have a new technique or anything awesome and didn't blow up my battleship.

I ordered a locally raised grass fed cow burger.  It looked like this, with a side of a lightly dressed pile of salad greens.

The burger had a nice char to it. The bun had no oil or butter on it and was also just grilled.  The burger tasted like really good beef, but was a tad under-seasoned. I give my burger a 2 and 1/2 our of 5 stars.  

As I stated before, everything was pretty good, but not really good.  For a restaurant of that magnitude, or that much hype, I would have expected food along the lines of quality as Basso or Farmhaus.

Anyways, if you want to try it for yourself, here is the link: http://www.slam.org/dining/about.php

Also, make sure you make a reservation as this tiny restaurant fills up fast.

   

The best in a chef?

What I have here is a story that every chef should read and understand and agree to.  Two weeks ago, on October 4th, I was asked to a private tasting of the food for the Capitalist Pig, which was a BBQ take-out restaurant located in the Mad Art Gallery.  The grand opening was supposed to be on the 10th of this month also and foodies and writers and bloggers were given early access to taste what Ron Buechele had in mind.  Now, I went with my wife, dressed up nicely, had beer, talked to some people and the went up for what looked like an all-you-can-eat BBQ buffet.

There was all sorts of creations and while my first instinct here is to show you picture after picture of what each item was and how it tasted let me stop you right there:  I will not.

What happened that night was something so magical and so incredible and so "unlike St. Louis" that it makes me thrilled just thinking about it.  That event, this singularity of awesomeness gives me hope that there is something or can be something great in St. Louis that will draw people from around the world.  What this event was, was the head chef and owner, Ron , discovering that the food was coming out as good as he thought it would be.  That's correct, you read it right.  The food was not as good as we, the people and even the chef thought it would be.  So, while I wouldn't mind telling you that the sauces were good, or the smoked pork belly was like heaven, I don't want to get into how the chicken was flavorless and had a rubbery skin on it, because it will most likely be fixed.  There is no reason to get into any of the issues and problems I had with the tasting, because Ron already knew it.  What was so magnificent was that a chef or restaurant owner decided to put off the opening of his restaurant to fix everything.

Huh?

It may not sound like anything important to you, but there are so many restaurants in St. Louis that suck.  They are really awful and I wouldn't eat at them if you paid me to do so.  But, those restaurants, like many of those shown on shows like Restaurant Impossible, are filled with staff who believe that their food is the best and flawless.  They are so blinded by the truth for one reason or another that they do not wish to change, much less take any comments or critisezm.  What you have is a chef or owner volunteering to not open his restaurant at the specified time and date and instead make sure everything is perfect.  I was so worried because so many people have their heart in the right place and want to bring business to St. Louis and want to open up restaurants.  But, their food or service sucks.  Then they close down in a matter of years and act like it is a bigger mystery than Atlantis as  to why no one would come to their place.  It take a real chef, much less a real St. Louis citizen, to see that it is better to not open on time and do it right than to open early and ruin it.  

How much was I paid to say that?

I was reading a fun story on cracked.net about some of the hardest but silliest sounding jobs.  One of these was the restaurant reviewer or food critic. http://www.cracked.com/article_19308_6-silly-sounding-jobs-that-are-way-harder-than-you-think_p2.html

I love the Anthony Bourdain picture at the top of this article...

"Your bad review can ruin some family's business -- and they know where to find you. At least one critic has been threatened with a gun over a bad review. Another has been beaten bloody by the owner's associates (i.e., mob goons) over several bad reviews; to be fair though, he probably shouldn't have posted on his paper's website where he would be dining that night.
You can't think of this as Michael Bay threatening Roger Ebert with a shotgun over a bad review -- they're both famous, that's not going to happen. But as a food critic, you are literally going into enemy territory -- a business owned by some regular guy who you don't know -- assessing the fruits of his labor, and telling everyone in your readership whether or not to give that business their money. That restaurant owner's ability to pay his mortgage can lay on what you write, and you don't know how he's going to react.   
Not wanting to become the next bloody statistic, many a critic will go to work in disguise and assume a false name -- whatever is deemed necessary to stay anonymous."

Now I was thinking about this all weekend.  Everywhere I ate, any foods I looked at and any interesting people and items I saw, I wondered about how valid those above statements are to me and I came up with an interesting revelation about the food world, as a whole:  they don't want the truth.  I've said it before in my defense, but I like to give an exact account of my experience from the moment I walk into the front door to the moment I leave the building.  Everything gets taken into account from the decorations to the bathrooms.  Now the truth is that many magazines, from the RFT to the New Yorker, pay their reviewers to go to a restaurant, eat and then write about the experience.  So, their views may already be tainted because they are getting paid for those restaurants.  Secondly, in some cases, they are comped for their meal, by the restaurant or given other perks.  Would I have liked to have my meal completely paid for when I went to eat at RM: Seafood in Las Vegas?  Yes, but it wouldn't have changed my mind or view of the meal.  For some reviewers and critics, you have to ask them some questions:

Do you get paid to eat at the restaurant?
Who picks the restaurant?
Did the restaurant pay for your meal?
Dis the restaurant pay you for your nice review?
Did the restaurant buy a large ad in your magazine or paper?

The cost of ads in some papers like the RFT or Ladue Times is enough to consider a trade for a nice review.  (I am not suggesting that every restaurant that has a nice review in the RFT, Sauce, Feast or any other magazine or paper in the St. Louis area has paid for their nice review by ad space.)  But it could happen.

I was thinking about this article also when I ran into the local grocery store Saturday Morning.  While in there I noticed the owner of a local restaurant buying his ingredients.  The owner looked tired and still half-sleepy as he had a load of buns, lettuce and a few other small things in his cart.  I did start to feel bad for giving them a bad review, but then cut myself short.  It was bad.  It wasn't me being paid by someone else to say those things and I wasn't being comped for my meal so I was giving an honest experience just as the average person would enjoy or have as well.  The average person cannot afford to eat at Alinea every night, so I pick places I just happen to go to. Also, if you are a restaraunt owner and you had any bad marks in my reviews, there was a reason.  It could have been that your food was saltier than a salt lick, or that it took over an hour to bring out a hamburger or maybe you charged me $12 for something that I could have bought at the local store and made at home in less time and for less than $4.  That is why you are in my blog.  I explain it like this:

If I have someone I know from Texas come to St. Louis and ask me, "where is a good place to go for dinner?" I want to take them or suggest a favorite spot of mine.  This is human nature.  As humans, when we like something, we tend to want to enjoy it again and that suggests that we also like to let our friends enjoy it as well.  So, a good dinner spot in St. Louis?  Well, I have to know how much they want to spent.  You can find great food spots for about $20 a couple for great food and also for not great food.  So, where should I send them?  For less than $20 for some great 5 star food and service I would suggest the Thai House in Columbia, IL, about 10 minutes East of the JB Bridge.  Why?  did I get paid by them?  Did they pay for my kids to go to school?  NO.  They are real people who have a real passion for Thai food of their heritage.  Many times a year their head chef flies back to Thailand to get new recipes and ideas, which is something that some of the "best rated" Thai restaurants in St. Louis do NOT do.  That shows a real passion in the food.

Do you want a meal for about $80 a couple?  Well, what about the Farmhaus in St. Louis City?  Have I been paid to say this? No.  I went there and loved the food and atmosphere. It was a bit expensive for St. Louis but it was great from the start to the end.  If I was like the other reviewers in STL, I would suggest Niche.  But I haven't eaten there yet as I have not been able to make a reservation before 9:30pm.  It doesn't matter what time I call or what I say, but I can't get in.  (I know I could get any time I wanted if I identified myself as a restaurant reviewer and told them that, but that defeats the purpose.)  Its true: if I called and told them that I was a restaurant reviewer, I would have the best seat at the best time and no questions.  But, everyone else will not have that experience, so I will not do it.

A lot of people see this blog and then think to themselves that my ideas, ramblings and thoughts could not be that important.  Many think that if you are not writing for the New Yorker, the RFT or the Post Dispatch that you are not important.  Well, my answer back is simple:  My blog is important because I am NOT in those periodicals. I have not sold out, I was not bought out and my thoughts are my own.  I am allowed to say whatever I want about whoever I want.  I don't care who donated or who bought ad space.  I don't care if you think that just because your grandfather ran a lemonade stand that it qualifies you to run a restaurant.  If you don't have your whole heart and soul into the food then it shows and I will know it.  Maybe you shouldn't be running a restaurant.  I know that there is a huge amount of investment, but if you are doing it just to make money and really not care, then it may not be for you.

How not to run a restaurant, part 2...

Just like the original restaurant, that is not to be named, my family and some co-workers decided to check out the new restaurant in town and see how it is.  Located on Main Street, in Columbia Illinois, this new place wants to be known for their wine and delicious food.  We had a problem with what we experienced.

So, there are nine of us and we were looking to try the place out, ordering appetizers, kids' meals and foods for everyone.  The first thing that was tough was that we waited 5 minutes for them to clean off a table, which was right in front of us and just needed to be wiped off and a single cup had to be thrown away.  That was it and that took 5 minutes!

Secondly, after we were sat, it took about 15 minutes for a waitress to come to us and get our drink order.  After that we ordered food. 

Now, we have an hour for lunch at work, and we waited and waited and an hour later, we still had no food at our table!  Well, we had the appetizer which was a bad spinach dip and a bowl of Kraft mac and cheese and that was it.  One hour after coming in and more than 40 minutes later, no food for anyone else.  And I will point out that we went at about 12:30pm and there were no more than 15 people in there eating as well!  So, no one can tell me that they were too busy to get food to us.

It is now 1:54pm, my wife just brought in our food, as I had to leave after an hour of waiting and get back to work with my kids.  My wife told me that as soon as they brought the food out, she asked them to wrap it all up, and they complained saying that the food was only put in 20 minutes ago!  That is not a true statement as where was the order while we sat there for 40 minutes after we told the server. Not once did we receive an apologize or anything as they acted like it was our fault.  I am eating as I write and guess what?  Its not that good.  The steak and straw sandwich and chips is cold, fatty, flavorless and the chips have no taste to them at all, and one was even raw. The onion straws are soggy. The sandwich, as I did finally get it, 45 minutes later, is not good. 

So, restaurant, I don't want to tell people to not go there, as the Union is already doing that for me.  But step it up a notch.  At your current rate, your restaurant will likely be open no longer than a few months. I for one will not tell anyone to go there, nor will any of the other 7 adults whom went with me. 

How not to run a restaurant...

I really don't want to do this.  I have been in so many places around the world, had so much good food and bad and when it comes to the places that I would definitely under any circumstances never return to, I really don't want to write about them.  But then again, at some point, someone will want to know about a certain restaurant that I have given a scathing review and they will want to know why I scored it so poorly.  Well, I still cannot bring myself to write a review of the following restaurant with my usual 5 star system and just focus on a few things that were wrong with our evening.

1.  My wife and our two kids were given a small 4 top table at about 8:45.  It took them 10 minutes to get us menus and after we ordered it took them 30 minutes to get us food.

2. The waitress brought out 4 glasses of water and we had two kids sitting at the table.  A bit later she brought out our four ordered drinks.  That makes 8 glasses of liquid, on a tiny 4 person table, with a 3 year old and a 2 year old.  If you are a parent, you are seeing where this can lead to.  When I noticed this and asked the waitress to remove the waters, she did so but only after we told her why.

3. Chips and salsa were given to us after we had sat down, almost instantly.  The salsa had way too much lime juice and the chips were overly salted.  So much salt that each time a chip was reached for, we tried to knock off the visible salt from on it so we could enjoy the chip.

4. On staff, I counted one waitress, one bartender, two other waiters and what appeared to be a head waiter or owner, in the front of the house.  When we got there, there was maybe 20 customers there.  When we ordered, there was probably 15 customers.  Whee our food arrived, there was also about 15.  What was funny about our food arriving so late, is that immediately after wards two other tables received their food also.  Those two other tables ordered many minutes after we did.  Our food was piping hot though, which meant it wasn't just sitting around somewhere, but just cooked so late.

5. Our food did finally come out about 39 minutes after we had been sat.  I ordered the SANGRE DE TORO BEEF BRISKET, which was some beef brisket that was cooked in wine and spices, served with a corn dish and some black beans and rice.  My dish on the menu was $16.95.  I am expecting a huge plate to come out and what came out, was a small oval plate, probably about 11 inches long and 6 inches wide.

I've paid out less money, for more food, at internationally known Latin cuisine restaurants.  I paid less for incredible food at Rick Bayless's restaurant and this is what I get for $17!  Me thinks the prices are a bit too high.

6.  But how was the food?  You don't want to know. With the chips for the salsa being overly salted, I drank most of my lemonade. I then had to walk my son outside because the food took so long to get to us and he was causing a racket inside the restaurant as he was hungry since at most restaurants when you order food you get something back. I come back in and sit down to a small plate for its price.  The first bite of the meat was tasty, the second bite was salty and the third and fourth bites were way too salty. I would be willing to bet that the chef is a smoker, because most smokers over-salt their food because they can't taste anything.  The corn dish tasted like someone mixed Tabasco sauce with grilled corn.  It was good.  The black beans and rice, didn't taste like it had any seasoning at all, just an opened can of black beans on white rice.  The beef, was charred on the outside and well done on the inside.  They used red wine to cook it as you could see and smell it in the beef.  There was very little juice running from the meat as I cut it to indicate that it was over cooked. And salty: as in the beef was so salty that I couldn't finish it.  I really wanted to since I had paid so much money for it but I couldn't get it past my tongue, just way too salty.

My wife ordered a dish that had what looked to be a saffron rice with shrimp in a white sauce.  My wife ate only half of her dish complaining that she would eat more had the shrimp not tasted like rubber.  She had to chew the shrimp in order to eat them.  Her dish was also around $18 and not worth its money.

Overall, I will not say what restaurant this is, publicly.  If you are in the st. louis area and you do want to know which one this is to avoid or see for yourself, then please email me and I will let you know.

I will say that the best thing that this place had to offer was the band.  They were awesome.

Back to Bravo

Like any restaurant trip, the first impression is important but sometimes a second impression is needed as well. With every chain restaurant, your experience will vary and as weird as it may sound, this is the first location for this chain in the st. louis area so I figured it would be okay to try. I went yesterday with my wife and kids and while a new dish was tried by me and while it was okay as well, we had some horrible service.

The waitress had our table and 3 others and after taking our drink order and the order for the kids because they were starving, she disappeared. She came back with food for the kids, saying something like "I'll take your order in one minute" and went back into the kitchen. She came back though, 20 minutes later. The kids were finished with their food and waiting to go and my wife and I were still waiting to give our order. The waitress finally showed up and took our order as we had to walk the little ones around to prevent them from crying because they had finished and couldn't leave.

While I was in the bathroom with my son, the waitress came back with our food. She insisted that my dish had to go in front of my seat, but in that spot was my drink and a diaper as my wife was waiting for me to come back so she could change the little one. My wife pushed the food out of the way and the waitress pushed it back, knocking into my drink and spilling Pepsi all over my wife's skirt, my littlest son's pants and the stroller. So, I come back and I see the waitress wiping down the stroller and my seat.

My order, a Chianti braised beef ravioli was good, the sauce was a bit too thick and the pasta was good. Probably a 2 & 1/2 out of 5 stars. But as far as our experience, even after the waitress spilled, she didn't take anything off of the bill or even apologize. So, I don't know what to say about Bravo; one bad experience and one good one.

Five guys with no pictures

I was in the Kirkwood area, right by the hotels on Watson, and I was getting hungry. Instead of my first gut instinct of going to the Chipotle', located across from the Hancock Fabrics, I tried something new. Right up the road from that center, across the Lindbergh/Kirkwood road, from the Steak N' Shake, was a new restaurant called Five Guys Burgers and Fries.

Just walking up to the restaurant, you could see that it was pristine and clean inside, much like the Jimmy John's with their clean tile walls and super bright areas. There was white tiles on the walls, from the floor to the ceiling, like a diner, with a border going across with red and white checkerboard, about half way up. The order line was bordered by bags and bags of potatoes, which they apparently use, directly. Instead of having them out front as just a show or a prop, this place uses the vegetable, unlike other prop happy diners.

In this place, you order your food, then move on, grab a bowl of peanuts, find a seat and wait for your food to be called. I ordered a little hamburger and a regular fries, Cajun style. Now, for those of you wanting to go there, you should note that the "little hamburger' is not a kid's burger or a slider; it is just a single patty on a bun. So, I order this single patty burger, with lettuce, grilled onions, tomato, pickles, hot sauce and mayo. The condiments are all free and the burger starts cooking. The french fries, are ordered in two sizes, regular and large. The cup, which looks like it could hold about 16 ounces of liquid, is enough fries to feed two people. I thought that looked a bit weak, but went along with it.

After sitting and enjoying some salted in the shell roasted peanuts, they called my number and I went up for my food. I took a large paper bag back to my seat. I could tell it was good, because there was grease spots starting to eat through the bag. When I opened the bag, I was taken back, as for what I had paid for and ordered was not in this bag. What I pulled out first, was a huge hamburger, wrapped old-school style in a simple piece of foil. It was huge, perfectly cooked and juicy and had everything I ordered on it. AND IT WAS DELICIOUS! I was half expecting the mediocre hamburgers that tend to come out of most diners, like they all do it the same as they have done since the 50's but this was entirely different. It was as filling as a giant Red Robin burger but with more tasty-ness.

As for the french fries, that shocked me the most, as out of the bag I pulled the cup filled with spicy seasoned cut fries, as they were spilling over the rim and inside of the bag, left over was at least 2-3 more handfuls of french fries. This isn't like the 2 or 3 extra french fries that you may find at the bottom of the bag from McDonald's, but this was easily about a pound of french fries, extra. You hear me? EXTRA! I love extra food and even more so, I love extra tasty food.

The burger and fries, be it separately gained a 4 1/2 stars out of 5 and 4 stars out of 5, in my book. The restaurant service was incredible nice, there was no smoking inside, everything was clean, and it was great overall, an easy 4 out of 5 in service.

If you are in the area, you have to stop by, although the food is not for those watching their weight, but for those who love food and love the taste of food. Lastly, as I said that I have no pictures, because when I normally review a restaurant, I bring a camera, but because I didn't think anything of running an errand after work and stopping off for dinner, I didn't bring my camera. But, if you still don't trust me, go there and eat for yourself.

Five Guys Burgers and Fries
1500 S. Kirkwood
Sunset Hills, MO, 63127