St. Louis Foodies

Cupcakery =D vs. Jilly's =D

2007-11-20T18:49:00.000-06:00

So, cupcakes have soooo became a thing over the past few months. Well, let's just say I welcome that trend.

In any case, I finally tried out both cupcake bakeries in town: Cupcakery in CWE and Jilly's on Delmar.

I like them both, but for different reasons.

Jilly's is a great place for breakfast and lunch. The food is absolutely delicious! The decor sunny and bright. There is also a wide variety of cupcakes, from the Elvis to the Strawberry Cheesecake. A great alternative to your everyday lunch spot, and a change of pace to your favorite coffee shop. Did I mention cupcakes?

Cupcakery is the other great spot, and it's open late! A cupcake fix at almost any time of the day! The decor is much simpler. There is no food menu. The cupcake menu is also smaller in comparison. The cupcakes are not elaborately decorated and the flavors are not as fun sounding. However, I think the simplicity allows them to focus on what's important: YUMMY cupcakes! Cupcakery is the cousin of Cakery in Dogtown, known for their custom cakes. They know how to bake a good cupcake!

Shamless plug: Speaking of cupcakes... apparently some schools are banning cupcakes! A fellow foodie friend of mine is starting a Save the Cupcake campaign. She is an experimenting cupcake baker. Anyway, check out her Save the Cupcake t-shirt giveaway contest! http://www.cupcakeproject.com/

Flaco's Cocina =(

2007-11-19T23:55:00.000-06:00

"Flaco's Tacos was a St. Louis restaurant that had great fish burritos.
However, Flaco's closed down a number of years ago. It clearly inspired somebody -- and they have now opened up a tribute restaurant that we'll be going to on Monday. This is our first tribute restaurant, which is very exciting if you want it to be! Who knows what a tribute restaurant even is?"

The above was on the invite for a dinner party at the new Flaco's Cocina on Delmar. You could imagine my excitement. However, the experience itself felt short of my expectation.

We had a group of 20, and as a group, we often overwhelm the kitchen. Therefore, I completely understand and am usually quite forgiving on slowness or mistakes.

However, there is a limit to my patience.

First, service was very lacking. Glasses were kept empty often. We requested for more chips and salsa, which was not delivered. Later, she stopped by to fill up waters, and asked if we'd like more chips and salsa... By the way, we did notice that she holds glasses near the rim. So, make sure you always drink out of the straw at that restaurant!

Then the food comes. That was a MESS! We were the only table at the restaurant. (BTW, we always make reservations, and the tables were indeed reserved. So, they were not surprised by a big party.) Plates and plates of food came out that no one ordered. The servers did not even TRY to figure out what order belongs to who, and which orders were still to come. They just take whatever that's coming out of the kitchen and yell out who ordered this. If no one answers, they go back to the kitchen with it.

A friend and I ordered the paella. A total of four paella orders were placed. Two came out, but ours did not. Rounds and rounds of unclaimed food came out, in between claimed food. Oddly, this did not motivate the serving staff to keep track of the orders. In fact, I think this just made them give up on keep track. They did not even bother to see who have been served and who have not. When food come out, they continue their yelling from the beginning to the end, even though my friend and I were the only two still did not have food in front of us. After dishes and dishes came out of the kitchen unclaimed, we finally fed up and said "no! those are not our orders! we ordered the paella!" This seemed to be the only way the servers knew which orders came out and which orders were still missing... (yes, maybe it's just because we overwhelmed the kitchen. Yes, maybe it's because they are new... but yes, there is something fundamentally messed up in the communication on what orders need to be cooked!)

Yes... we suspect this is when our paella actually get started in the kitchen. And yes, we waited for a long time.

What was really annoying was that despite this mess, the staff or management seems unapologetic.

Then, when the paella came out, it was not good. Complete lack of flavor...

Also, there were mystery ingredients. Turned out it was the fish of the day. Which is normal and fine, but it was less fine when no fish was listed as an ingredient on the menu. To us, it was shocking. It just seemed like they threw random stuffs in a pot. We may not have been as taken back by the random fishes, if it weren't for another patron's odd ingredient...

Carne Asada enchilada... completed with bacon...

King and I =( vs. Land of Smiles =)

2007-11-18T15:08:00.000-06:00

So, last night, went to the King and I for the first time. I know, how can it be my first time since it is perhaps the most famous Thai restaurant around town.

Anyway, my friends had warned me about its declining quality, but I had to try it for myself. After all, it is perhaps the most often referenced Thai restaurant. It has a reputation. It had been a crowd favorite for years.

Sadly, my friends were right...

First of all, when we went in, there was a 30 minutes wait. Which, actually was a good thing, since that means there is ample demand for what was suppose to be yummy food. In addition, the wait was really closer to 15 minutes, so we were pleasantly surprised. Good start... but...

After we were sat, it took quite a while for service. At one point, when we left the table for 5 seconds to say hi to the friends just across the room, waters were brought over (along with three empty beer bottles... odd...) Anyway, when we finally ordered, we ordered the following:

Duck curry hot for me. Basil chicken for my friend.

(Another strange thing about ordering was when I tried to order "hot". From what I understand, there are usually three level of hotness. Mild, medium, and hot. Then, there is the surprise Thai hot, or Vietnamese hot, or other means of extra hot. So, I said, I want hot, just not Thai hot... I was told that isn't available. That would just be a medium. Okay...)

Good long while later, the food came.

My duck curry was not hot AT ALL! At best a mild. For a dish that is called basil chicken, it could really use a dash of basil, and many many less dashes of salt. OMG, that dish was super salty.

Finally, as we were ready to leave, the server was nowhere to be found. We ended up walking up to the counter to close the check after much waiting.

Service =( food =( overall =(

In contrast, a couple weeks ago, we visited a new Thai restaurant (on Olive), called Land of Smiles. The decor left much to be desired. Its former Mexican self was still fairly apparent. But the food was solid. The service was friendly. If you're looking for Thai food in the area, go to Land of Smiles instead.

La Tropicana Market & Cafe :-|

2007-10-22T23:46:00.000-05:00

So, it's a market. It's a cafe. In any case, it is solid Mexican / Cuban food, and friendly and fast service. No frill, no fuzz food. Also, extremely reasonably priced. Decor is very much lacking, but that's not what you're looking for here. So, try it for yourself. It's also a great place for quick take-out.

I had the enchilada with chipotle and cilantro sauce, catus salad, beans, and rice. All around solidly yummy. Chipotle was a little overpowering, I would recommend the cilantro sauce more. My friend ordered roasted chicken. The chicken was said to be a little try, but otherwise the meal was still reasonably enjoyable.

The free chocolate at the end of the meal was a particularly good touch.

Cha Yoon :)

2007-10-22T23:43:00.000-05:00

Solid yummy sushi. Simply said. Decent decor. I recommend you trying it out!

F15teen :-|

2007-10-22T23:40:00.000-05:00

So, tried only desserts... this new hot restaurant opened only a few weeks ago. The decor is specular, and I would definitely return. However, when we visit, they didn't yet have the dessert menu created. While the dessert was good. My friend had the ice cream cookie trio, and I had the sorbet. Both had inventive flavors, and were very enjoyable. While I would return to try the food, I may wait a couple weeks to give them more time to work out the new restaurant kinks.

Red :-|

2007-10-22T23:37:00.000-05:00

Okay, so I haven't actually eaten there yet... only tried their dessert...

I tried the goat cheese cake, and my friend tried the rosemary cake. Rosemary cake was surprising cold, and the flavor of the goat cheese cake was inventive is probably not for everyone. Overall, good enough to warrant another visit for more thorough analysis.

Bissenger's :D

2007-10-22T23:34:00.000-05:00

oooh... so I am a chocoloholic at heart (though I usually avoid that on a menu, since it is so everyday and boring). However, Bissenger's does chocolate, and does it well. The drinking chocolate is to die for! (Try the triple, the spiced one is a little too overpowering.)

Okay, so it's a girl in a candy store when I'm there... oh wait, I am a girl, and it is a candy store... oh heavenly...

Sage :-|

2007-10-22T23:28:00.000-05:00

Tried Sage a few weeks ago. The decor is simple... uninspiring, but acceptably nice enough.

However, even less inspiring than the decor was the food...

Ordered the smoke salmon quesadilla to start. I think it was good, my friend thought it was so-so.

My friend order the grilled chicken breast (he seems to like to order that...), I ordered the seafood special. Both were reasonably yummy, but the flavor is extremely traditional and uninventive. We both agreed that we like the veggie the most, and the rest of the plate was acceptable. The rice pilaf was average, at best.

The dessert was interesting, it was offered as shots. However, since I wasn't particularly impressed with the meal, we did not stay for dessert. Nothing on the dessert tray seemed inventive either...

Reggie's Backstage :(

2007-10-22T23:13:00.001-05:00

Okay... so I've been back to STL for a couple months now, and yes, I have not been posting. But nothing motivate me to post than a bad restaurant experience.

Last night, I visited Reggie's Backstage on Grand. The food was admittedly okay. Nothing too special. Service, however, BOTH THUMBS down.

We started with the corn chowders, which were good. I ordered the stuffed pork chop, almost tasteless. My friend ordered the curry ahi tuna, which was rather acceptable. So, I guess it's luck. We didn't stay for dessert.

First, it started with the bus boy accidental pouring ice all over me when filling up the water. Oh well, things happen. But then, it was another almost 10 minutes before our waiter acknowledged us. When we ordered a bottle of wine, he was spacing out or something, and thought we ordered glasses. Well, we corrected him, so no big deal. We wanted to order appetizers at this time, but he rushed off to fetch our wine. A while later, he brought over the wine. Chilled white wine, with no wine cooler. He then had to hunt for wine glasses. Poured the wine, the idea of wine cooler still never occured to him. (About halfway through dinner, a manager noticed the lack of a wine cooler and corrected the situation...)

Another good 15 minutes before we got our soups. It wouldn't have been so bad if we had bread... We asked for bread, request fell on deaf ears. Water glass emptied, and no refills... you had to ask specifically.

Soup bowl was never cleared, until the entrees arrived (another good 15 minutes later). Asked for bread again (the waiter acted as if we never made such request earlier...)

Waiter never stopped to ask the customary question "is everything okay?" Just all around fell a lack of service... We would have considered dessert... but between the long wait for the food, and quite frankly the waiter never even attempted to tempt us, we opted to go elsewhere to satisfy our sweet tooth...

(I will update this blog with a few places I have visited since September...)

Topeka KS :(

2007-08-17T21:12:00.001-05:00

So this St. Louis Foodie has been stranded out in Topeka/Lawrence KS for the last 10 weeks... This past week, I am living in a hotel in Topeka. So, I thought I'd try some local cuisine.

And I use the word cuisine loosely...

Anyway, this foodie had her first food crisis. I learned that I am allergic to shellfish, which manifest itself with exercising... who knew!

Anyway, tried a local Italian restaurant: Paisano’s Ristorante. I was so disappointed. Not because it wasn't a good restaurant. But because it had the potential to be a GREAT restaurant, if they just changed a few things.

Fresh cracked pepper on salad... not that hard.
Have bread plates available when you bring out the bread stick, especially if you have olive oil on the table for dipping...
Bring out a spoon for spaghetti...
Offer dessert before offering the check...
Offer coffee if I am ordering dessert...

All little things... maybe I'm getting too snobby...

Top 10 List!

2007-06-10T21:20:00.000-05:00

As my first post, I thought I'd start with my top 10 list!

10. Taste of Central West End - Great opportunity to sample!
9. Copia - Nice patio space, and solid food.
8. Guido Pizzeria and Tapas - Yummy!
7. Schlafy - Tap Room has great food festivals, and Bottlework has a wonderful menu (even open late)!
5. Pho Grand - You can't get better food for <$10!
5. Blue Elephant - Tie for 5th place, for the same reasons!
4. Nadoz - Great dessert selection, and the brunch is awesome.
3. Wasabi - I am a sushi fan, and this has some of the most creative rolls around town.
2. 1111 Mississippi - Solid food. Great decor. Great place to take out-of-towners.
1. Destination Dining - My all time favorites! Check it out! http://www.destinationdiningstl.com/

I am actually spending the summer in Lawrence, Kansas. So, new posts may not come in a fast and furious fashio, but once I am back... watch out!