Three Flags Tavern - Brunch

Jessie, Joe and I tried Three Flags Tavern for Brunch the other day.  It is located at the entrance to the Hill.  Jessie and Joe had been there for dinner a couple times, but never for brunch.  They are known for their brisket burger, which is on both their dinner and brunch menu.  Jessie and Joe couldn't decide between the crab eggs benedict or the burger, so they ordered both and split.  I am very decisive and chose the crab eggs benedict - great pick!

Eggs Benedict with crab meat and tomatoes

Brisket Burger and Fries

The eggs benedict were one of the best eggs benedict I've every had.  Perfect amount of crab meat and the yolk from the poached eggs seemed to run on and on forever.  Everything was delicious and we cleaned our plates. 

 

We also ordered lobster beignets and breakfast cinnamon buns as starters, which were good, but nothing to write about.  Also, the bloody mary's and mimosas weren't that good, so I wouldn't go there for the drinks.

 

I'd go back for the eggs benedict!!

Lona's Lil Eats

We were super excited to try Lona's Lil Eats in Tower Grove.  Voted best new restaurant in St. Louis and home of the Original Giant Rice Paper Wrap!  It definitely lived up to the hype.  The line was to the door, but it went fast.  There were some cute picnic tables outside to eat on, so it would be a great place to grab lunch in the summertime.  You get up to the counter and order, and then they bring everything to your table.  I would recommend tipping when you place your order, because they did have workers walking around and filling up your water and delivering your food and cleaning up after you.

Let's start with the Appetizers.  They only have two:  Spring Rolls and Dumplings.  Both were good.  The Grilled Chicken Spring Rolls were really fresh and showcased their famous rice paper wrap.  However, if I had to choose a winner between the two, I'd choose the Steak and Mushroom Dumplings.  They were wonderful.

Grilled Chicken Spring Rolls

Steak and Mushroom Dumplings

Now for the wrap:  You can choose the wrap (Rice paper - DUH!), the protein (chicken, shrimp, beef, tofu, turkey), the staple (rice or noodles), and the sauce (all looked good).  I think part of the fun was standing in line and discussing with each other which options to choose.  I chose rice paper, chicken, with the stir-fried glass noodles and spicy sesame sauce.  It was a home run.  I am in love with the stir-fried glass noodles (which Jessie even thought were a bit spicy).  Definitely get the noodles over rice.  Someone else in our group got Shrimp as their protein and they loved it.  Next time I'll be trying the shrimp.

Josie's Wrap - Rice Paper, Chicken, Stir-Fried Glass Noodles, Spicy Sesame Sauce

I think Jessie described it best, it's like Chipotle for Asian food.  Except everything in a Lona's wrap was so much fresher and lighter.  Plus it didn't make my stomach want to hurt me an hour later.  It was amazing and I'd go back in a heartbeat.

Note:  there were also a bunch of side options to go along with the wrap, but I really don't feel like going into too much depth with them.  There are pretty much a bunch of veggie sides you can try.  Nothing too special.

Fork and Sticks

Jessie, Joe, Ben, Mike, Ada and I were in the mood for Thai food so we decided to go to Fork and Sticks in the Loop.  Jessie and Ben had been before and were eager to go back.  We decided to try pretty much every appetizer on the list: Crispy Spring Rolls (Glass noodles, cabbage, carrot, wrapped in egg roll wrapper and deep fried. Serve with Thai sweet chili sauce), Thai Stix (Cream cheese & Crab mixed wrapped in egg roll wrapper and deep fried. Serve with Thai sweet chili sauce), Muu Ping (Grilled pork skewers marinated with palm sugar, pepper garlic paste, coriander seeds, glazed with coconut milk reduction. Served with sticky rice), and Sai Oua (Grilled Chiang Mai pork sausage with Thai herbs. Served with sticky rice).  Everything was really good, but if we had to pick, our favorite was the Muu Ping, hands down!

Muu Ping - Our favorite!

Crispy Spring Rolls

As an entrée, we got their specialty - Khao Soi (Northern Thai curry noodle soup with curry paste, coconut milk. Served with shallot, pickled mustard greens, crispy yellow noodles and roasted chili paste) with chicken.  It was amazing!  Even when we got full, we couldn't stop eating it.  It did have a pretty strong coconut flavor though, so if you aren't a huge fan of coconut milk, you may want to try something else. 

Khao Soi

 Joe tried the Hung Lay Curry (Northern Thai sweet pork belly and pork loin curry with palm sugar, turmeric, tamarind, peanuts, and fresh ginger served with Jasmine rice) which was phenomenal.  When I go back, I'm definitely going to try that dish.  And yes, I'll definitely go back, however, I may try to sit outside next time, because the smoke from the kitchen kept lingering into the dining area and upsetting our eyes.  Maybe in the summer they'll open the back door or have outside seating to avoid the smoke attack.

Vincent Van Doughnut

The other morning, Jessie and I stopped by the new Vincent Van Doughnut shop in Clayton.  When we walked in, they had all the donuts that hadn't sold out that day on display.  They all looked really good, but we settled on a classic chocolate glazed donut and the chocolate chip cookie donut.  We also got an order of the vanilla donut holes to try.  We ended up eating them standing at the counter up in the front window.

Chocolate Glazed Donut

The Chocolate Glazed Donut was pretty good, but really sugary and too rich to finish the whole thing.  Notice that the donuts are square shaped and not circular.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Donut

The Chocolate Chip Cookie Donut had cheesecake glaze with chocolate chips, streusel, and Ganache.  It was delicious!!!  I especially liked the cheesecake glaze.

And of course the donut holes were really good...simple, light and fluffy.  We ate them all too fast to take a picture.

Go check it out!

Farmhaus - Breakfast For Dinner

Who doesn't love breakfast for dinner?!  Well, last time I went to Farmhaus, I tried their "Breakfast" item on the dinner menu.  It consists of High and low roasted Berkshire pork belly, house maple link, corn flour blinis, whipped maple pig butter, clarified butter-poached local egg .

It was the perfect mix of sweet and salty that I love.  Plus, it was entertaining to eat because each item looked like it was run through a shrink ray - I felt like a giant!  It was fun to try and I definitely enjoyed eating it.

Sauce on the Side

I tried Clayton's new calzone place today and I was pleasantly surprised.  I had heard good things, but I was skeptical.  The restaurant is in a pretty ugly building next to Quiznos, but the interior was actually pretty sharp (and clean!). 

Like the name suggests, their menu is full of different calzone options, and instead of filling the calzones with sauce that runs all over the place as you try to eat it, they give you the sauce in a cup on the side for you to pour/dip at your leisure.  Delicious and neat!

 I had planned to get the "Meat me in St. Louis" calzone (you can guess the main ingredients of that one) but I quickly changed my mind when I read the monthly special - The "Cock A Doodle Noodle"... Mozzarella, Provel, chicken, green onions, pancetta and Macaroni and cheese, with a side sauce of buffalo butter sauce.

It was amazing!  I ate the whole thing!  And if you are curious, the buffalo butter sauce was just a creamier/buttery version of buffalo sauce (it reminded me of the buffalo sauce at CBW, but a little thicker).

Hurry to Sauce on the Side to try the special before September ends!  Trust me...there is always next month to try the regular menu items.

Ted Drewes #forthewin

Always fun to see Ted Drewes make a national list for best ice cream in the US, well technically "custard", we'll take the win!  I've sadly only been to two places on the list, Ted Drewes and Amy's down in Austin.  I think I need to book some trips for the sole purpose of ice cream tasting!  Here is the link to the top 20: http://www.brit.co/ice-cream-shops/

Have you been to any others on the list?!

A friendly reminder that Ted Drewes is already serving their famous PUMPKIN CONCRETE!  Joe brought me one on Friday and it was delicious!  I will be returning soon!

Pic from a recent Ted Drewes visit, yum!

Pastaria - Brunch

Jessie, Joe and I decided to try brunch at our favorite lunch/dinner spot in Clayton, Pastaria.  We went at around 11:00 am and walked right in. 

The brunch menu looked pretty good, they had a nice range of food.  I heard their donuts were good, so I had to try one.  When I ordered a donut, they actually have 4 different flavors that day.  I chose the classic glazed donut, and it was really good.  Nice and flakey.

Donut

Since I had never gotten pizza at Pastaria (how can I when there is pasta?!), I decided to try their breakfast pizza.  It comes with tomato, bacon, fontina cheese, egg, garlic, chili flakes and parsley.  It was delicious.  They put on the perfect amount of tomato sauce, and the runny egg on top was amazing.  My only complaint is that there was only one cracked egg on top, because the egg only touched 2 of the 4 pieces.  I liked dipping my leftover crust in the egg yolk, so I could've used more egg.  The bacon was actually thick chunks of pancetta and were a nice touch

Breakfast Pizza

Joe got the Huevos Rancheros.  It was good, but just a warning, it came out looking more like Eggs Benedict, not the typical Huevos Rancheros you are used to.  The poached eggs on top looked delicious though.  Joe said it was not what he was expecting, but that it was good.

Huevos Rancheros

NOTE: Jessie and Joe went back to Pastaria for brunch recently and Jessie ordered something the waiter said contained procuitto - it came out and was basically slices of ham.  I think she's over Pastaria's brunch, but will gladly join you for lunch or dinner there - Cacio de Pepe!!!

5 Star Burgers

I went to 5 Star Burgers the other day for lunch in Clayton.  I've been missing a good burger place ever since Fatted Calf left and 5 Star does not disappoint.  Their burger selections are unique and it's hard to find a burger that's been done before, besides their original burger.  I decided to try their green chile burger and it was great.  It had great texture and great chile flavor and had just enough kick without being overly spicy.

As a side my coworker suggested their cheese curds.  What are those?!?! They are kind of like mini mozzarella sticks but instead of being breaded, they have a flakey shell of fried batter around them.  AMAZING!  I'd probably get a large order for the table next time and would skip the fries.

For dessert they have the perfectly sized ice cream shooters.  We all got the salted caramel and it was a great end to a great meal!

Southwest Diner

Jessie, Joe and I decided to try Southwest Diner a few months ago for a Sunday brunch.  It is located in Ellendale, which is a teeny tiny municipality around the Dogtown/Maplewood area.  We were excited to try it out because we heard it had authentic New Mexican cuisine.  The restaurant itself is very small with diner style tables and chairs crammed in every possible space.  They don't take reservations, so once we got there, we had to awkwardly stand in the doorway with a crowd of people and fight to give our name to a somewhat absentee host.  We then had to wait out on the sidewalk for about 40 minutes until we finally got a table (during our wait time we were able have a lengthy discussion/debate over the great city of "Ellendale").

Bloody Mary Time!

So what exactly is New Mexican cuisine like?  SPOILER ALERT - It is spicy as hell!  Jessie and I got the New Mexican Breakfast Burrito.  We got a choice of what type of chile sauce we wanted with it, and we chose the green chile sauce over the red, thinking it was less spicy.  Big mistake!  Apparently color codes are backwards in New Mexico, because green means HOT HOT HOT!  I love spicy, so I absolutely loved it, but there is a certain limit to spiciness.  It got to the point where my mouth was too numb to taste the actual food.  Maybe less is more for this burrito.

Spicy Breakfast Burrito

Joe got Carne Adovado - red chile braised local pork shoulder, 2 eggs, home fries and tortillas.  Sounds good, right?  Well, another aspect to the New Mexican spiciness (besides the heat) is the unique spices they use.  Joe let us try some of the pork shoulder and I almost spit it out.  It was heavily seasoned with some sort of earthy (i.e. tasted like dirt) spices that completely threw me off guard.  It was almost inedible to me.  I was shocked.

Carne Adovado

The saving graces of this brunch were the Bloody Marys and the Sopapillas.  They were awesome!  The person at the table behind us even tapped me on the shoulder when the waiter brought out the Sopapillas and asked what they were so he could order them.  I would go back just for a plateful of them.

Sopapillas - Amazing!