Today we're going to dine IN HELLLLLLL!!! (Sparta/300, har har har :P) at three restaurants near Clayton area and WashU's campus. Yep, you might be pondering-- this girl eats out non-stop! And I totally agree... as does my bank account XD But gotta enjoy St. Louis while I'm still here right? Plus, if it makes me happy, I should go for it!
So I'm going for it, and I'm taking you along! :D
Let's take a walk into downtown Clayton. If you're fairly skilled at navigating the blocks, you'll find a contemporary, glass-windowed restaurant called Remy's Kitchen & Wine Bar. Super cool-looking! :) There were people dining al fresco, and everything was very bright and happy~
Upon walking in, the hostess will take a look at you and have you seated. And if you are a college student coming straight from class for lunch and dressed in a T-shirt and jeans, you might feel as if she gives you a slight look. But once you are seated and look around, you're too happy to be at Remy's to really care if you are underdressed, haha! ;)
Okay, saying "you" and "you're" is weirding me out, so I'll just go back to first person!
Danroll~ :)
The inside looks very different from the outside :O
We imagined the inside was going to mimic the outside-- the modernized feel of glass and sleek metal, but the interior was warm and uh, plushy, haha! I'm not sure if Remy's is going for the Mediterranean side of things (well, probably, since they serve "Mediterranean-style" plates!), but there are phrases crawling around the walls in Greek-looking font.
Anyways, we had the *nicest* lady as a waitress! Unfortunately, I don't remember her name, but she was gentle and, for a lack of a word, professional. I don't know... I just thought if I ever met her in person outside of Remy's, she'd be the kindest lady ever :)
A complimentary basket of bread chips came with a dip made of what I'm guessing is mashed up olive. I like soft bread, so I didn't eat much of these. They're very similar to bagel chips though ^^b
Daniel ordered the special of the day, which was chicken breast on lentil salad and asparagus. It came out simply but beautifully presented~ The chicken breast looked so good, and I don't even crave chicken (unless it's fried, haha!)! He finished everything and said the chicken was juicy and yumyum.
As for me? MEATBALLLLLLLLS. Haha, this was under the "Mediterranean Grazing" section! I ordered the veal meatballs, fresh seasonal vegetables, and a cup of soup (I chose the lobster bisque). The plate arrived in its colorful splendor, and I just died a little from happiness :P I love eating color! ... that sounds weird. ._.
Choice of soup, seasonal veggies, veal meatballs
The lobster bisque was creamy and really satisfying. Daniel and I liked it better than the one he had at Posh Nosh. It didn't have any sweet aftertastes, and I could really taste the lobster flavor! The veggies were mainly spears of zucchini and squash (AHH!! *afraid of yellow squash*), but they weren't hard to force down at all. The green beans and spinach made up for it :P Spinach, you ask? Why yes!~ :D See that pile of green under the meatballs? Er, well, the meatballs are smothered underneath a layer of cheese and sauce, and then the spinach is under that!
I was pleasantly surprised the spinach was there (super happy, of course ;P). It was sauteed and had some wine in it, but it wasn't overwhelming. And about the veal meatballs... Yummy! ^_^ The meatballs had cheese inside too, and although there were only two, they were satisfying to eat for lunch. The cheese definitely filled me up :)
Yay! I'm glad we tried out Remy's! There's parking next to the restaurant for diners, but we didn't know so we payed at the parking meters. The waiter/esses seem very nice, the food isn't expensive for what you get, and the atmosphere is slow and relaxed. And of course, our meals were delish~ :3
Remy's Kitchen & Wine bar
222 S. Berniston Ave
St. Louis, MO 63105
Now that we had our Mediterranean fix, time for some Italian! Yay~~ Pastaria is the new restaurant opened in Clayton by the famous Niche. Niche also opened up the Brasserie and Taste, as well as having their own location elsewhere. But they're moving to Clayton soon, so I'll definitely be up for trying Niche when they arrive! ^^b
Anyways, Pastaria is so popular that they don't take reservations! Every night we pass by the storefront, there is a sprawling line of people waiting for seats. We came Halloween night, so since all the grownups were busy trick-or-treating... with their kids, silly. :P we waited less than 20 minutes. Josh apparently came before and had to wait more than 2 hours! The pile of people in front of the door was non-existent, and before we were even finished looking at the homemade pasta and gelato bar on the side, we were called to be seated. :)
Wow!
We were also given a choice between the bar or kitchen seating, communal seating (sharing tables with others), or individual tables. The whole place was mostly filled with tables that could only seat two people, and for parties more than two, they would push the tables together. Otherwise, this makes a pretty nice "date night" outing, I guess :P
Homemade Pastaria pasta!
I'm curious to what the pasta on the left is... it has such a weird shape!
Cute logo :D
Ooooh~
Gelato bar
Once seated, we were given mason jars as our water glasses-- so cute :D Daniel said that they're deceiving.. apparently they hold a lot of water (meh, can't tell), but the waiters did a good job filling them up! Also, our waiter, Tim, was super nice as were the other waiters ^_^b I asked them which dishes they liked, and everyone had a different one, but I have my eyes on the simple salt and pepper pasta next time!~
No, the menu is not edible, silly XD
We sat near the open kitchen
The side wall had a bunch of paddles signed by famous people
And the diners here were all so nicely dressed @_@
... I can't imagine my parents going out to eat at places like this o_o Actually, I can't imagine them eating outside of Chinatown!! :P
Ooh, appetizer has arrived!
Risotto balls! Six spheres of moist deliciousness~
They had a light fried encasing, but the inside was soft. They had enough flavor to eat by themselves, but they came with garlic aoili (which I thought was buttermilk dressing, haha) and marinara. Thumbs up!
Cup of winter squash soup
This cup was tiny! Think of a coffee cup at a hotel or something. But the soup was creamy and thick, flavored with what I think were pickled red onions. There were also bread or croutons soaked inside too, but they were so soggified that I couldn't identify them ^^'' Very yummy~
Each table comes with olive oil, salt, pepper, and chili oil
Oh yeah, every table also gets complimentary bread. The bread is soft on the inside, so that's always a plus from me :P The chili oil has barely any taste, but it does have the slight spiciness. Mixing it with the olive oil, which was light, was great when dipping bread :)
So now with appetizers behind us, what's for dinner? :D Daniel ordered the "Roman" pizza at Pasta-ria. Haha! Oh well, I guess pizza is also good too~ Look at the size of it O_O
The Roman with tomato, bacon, and mozzarella
The crust was light and thin, and Daniel said that it tasted almost like the pizza in Italy. :) I still like Papa John's, omgahh *drool*, but I'm sure the Pastaria's pizza is great too!
Pappardelle with smoked pork, mascarpone, and apples
Apples with dinner? TERRIFIC. Haha, anyways, besides for the fact that it had apples, I really wanted to try pappardelle noodles :3 Our waiter said that the pork had a very strong smoky flavor, but I could barely taste the smokiness. Also, the pork was very mushified, hehe~ If I didn't know that it was pork, I might have guessed canned tuna fish! But it was still yummy-- I finished the whole plate ^^
Lots of diners, even though the hostess said it was a slow night! Tables were constantly cleared and filled.
What to do when there's a gelato bar inside the restaurant we're eating at? D: Eat gelato! :D We got to sample the gelato before making a choice, so we tried the vanilla bean and buttermilk gingersnap. Hehe, I liked the buttermilk gingersnap, but Daniel wanted either espresso (NOOOOooo coffee x_x), chocolate, or vanilla bean. I liked the vanilla bean too, so we planned on ordering the vanilla bean. Tim told us we could pick *two* flavors, so we decided on vanilla bean and chocolate.
Pastaria gelato in a chalice? haha~
The vanilla bean was super yummy *heart*! But I can not say that for the chocolate. I don't really like chocolate ice cream that much, and I found myself not scooping from the chocolate side of the gelato. Haha~ After finishing the chocolate for us, Daniel said that the chocolate wasn't that great either :P
All in all, a great experience! The fact that the restaurant looked so nice and modern and that it was in Clayton also probably helped :P If anyone wants to come back again, take me!~ Oh yeah, there's free parking in the garage if you eat at Pastaria!
Pastaria
7734 Forsyth Blvd.
Clayton, MO 63105
All right! Now that we've nommed around the Clayton district, let's go explore what's near WashU's campus (besides the Loop!). Kayak's and Bobo's Noodle House are right next to the engineering buildings and pretty close to the art school, but I still hadn't eaten at either.
... Yes, and if you were a WashU student, you would gasp and ask me why I haven't eaten at Kayak's if I'm already a senior! :P I dunno-- Kayak's = sandwiches = lunch food for me = not enough time to run from campus, order, eat, and head back to class (I'm a slow eater ._.)!
So I already tried Bobo's for the first time last week, and I was so happy, that I decided to come again! Josh wanted to meet up for lunch, so I told him I was going to Bobo's again. Apparently he's been there quite a few times too, and he always orders the salmon noodle dish that I got last time!
I really think these flowers add to the awesomeness of the atmosphere ^^
If you compare to my last post with Bobo's, do you notice that my picture quality is better here? :D
We ordered at the front and awaited mass deliciousness at the table
Hehe, I think it's kind of funny that Josh always orders the same thing every time XD
But then again, the Spicy Salmon Noodles are really, really good @___@
I'm trying the Honey Ginger Duck on soba noodles this time though!
This is the duck :)
When Josh saw my plate, his eyebrows went up. Of course! The duck was cooked but still ever so slightly pink, and the noodles were so colorful ^^ We swapped duck for salmon, and I can't tell which one tasted better; both were equally delicious!
I think the fact that the noodles are so colorful really persuades my brain into thinking that whatever is on the plate is automatically awesome, haha~ I didn't need the side of spicy hoisin sauce, because the noodles and duck were already so flavorful, but I liked dipping my chopsticks into it and just eating the sauce by itself... kind of how I eat wasabi by itself too :D ... hurts so good!
And it was also so, so good *heart*
I finished half of the noodles and when the waiter came to ask if we needed any boxes, I asked him to pack the rest of my food to go. That's dinner!~ Josh was being ambitious and decided to finish the whole plate of noodles.
Go, go, go hyung! You can do it!~
It's a face-off between noodles and Josh XD
At the end, he barely finished and was super full, so I'm guessing there is a lot of food served per plate. :P I was, again, satisfied and happy with lunch, and I'm planning to go again this week to try something new! What should I order? :O Seared seafood with coconut curry on vermicelli noodles or the lemongrass beef? AHH! Menu anxiety already @_@
Terrific. Bobo's has gotten me addicted :P
And now to close with a random picture of a candle:
The end!
The candle is "vanilla snowflake" scented-- so delicious smelling. Makes me want to find the nearest cookie and eat it, haha~ Okay, I ate out like crazy this past week, so be prepared for a whole lot of food coming your way (as usual) in the next post :P
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