Monday, January 27, 2014

Quincy Street Bistro - Three Strikes and You're Out

Saturday night Joe and I went to Quincy Street Bistro with two friends, Ben & Megan.  The head chef, Rick Lewis, was labeled 2013 Chef of the Year by the St. Louis Post Dispatch so we were really looking forward to trying the restaurant.  We pulled up a little before 6:30pm and had a difficult time finding parking.  The restaurant is located directly off of Gravois Road at the Quincy Street (hence the name) cross street.  We again got excited that we were about to have a great experience due to how difficult it was to park.
Photo of Quincy Street Bistro 6931 Gravois Saint Louis Missouri 63116!
Source
Once we got inside we put our name in for a table of 4 and were told that we would have about a 20 minute wait.  No problem since we all wanted a drink.  Joe bellied up to the bar with a $20 bill in his hand and waited at least 10-15 minutes to place his order for two beers (Strike One).  Ben then waited his turn to order two cocktails and had a similar wait.  They did have a few local beers on draft like Perennial, Civil Life, Urban Chestnut, AB (ha!), and an out of towner with an Abita on draft that Joe tried and liked.

After waiting nearly 30 minutes we were seated in the upstairs dining room.  There is a downstairs dining room that includes the bar and then an upstairs dining room.  We were sat next to a window that was letting in quite the draft on a cold January night....close to a strike two but it was an old building so I cut it some slack.

The menu is mainly filled with comfort food that all sounded very appetizing.  We all ordered a main dish and no appetizers or desserts.
Jessie - Buttonwood Farms Roasted Chicken Leg Quarter with Mashed Potatoes and Gravy, I choose a side of Mac and Cheese to accompany the dish.  I WISH I would have taken a photo of the dish when it came it. It had to be the smallest chicken leg quarter I had ever seen.  I think I only got about six bites of chicken from my serving.  To top it off the mac n cheese lacked any flavor and definitely lacked salt.  Whereas the mashed potatoes were overly salty due to the salt infused gravy.  (Strike Two)
Joe - Stuffed Pork Loin with Mashed Potatoes and Gravy, he choose Apple Sauce as his side.  Joe was the winner of the evening as his dish was a huge portion and actually tasted delicious. Lucky Joe.
Megan - Glazed Meatloaf with Chips and Mac and Cheese.  Megan is a bit of a meatloaf connoisseur and she seemed rather disappointed in her meatloaf that evening.  She also was very unhappy with the mac n cheese and even said "I don't even taste the cheese"....not a good sign.
Ben - Buttonwood Farms Fried Chicken with mashed Potatoes and Gravy and  Mac and Cheese.  Ben's dish looked substantial but he was not overly pleased with the taste of any of the components of his dish.

Dinner service was overall average with the bar service being very poor.  The bathrooms were clean but were also freezing, not fun.  

To top everything off, one member of our dining party became ill during the middle of the night and thinks the cause was the dinner (Strike Three).  Needless to say we will not be returning to Quincy Street Bistro and we hope this post will save you from experiencing this place as well.