Here We Have It

It's a Friday night, the first in I don't know how long with no plans, no commitments. Just an early dinner out with the hubby then chilling at home. It's been much needed! So finally..........Here it is! I've been asked several times by friends and now even my husband to write a food and fun blog. So here you have it. As we try different places and things I will give our input, but we really have been sticking to a lot of the same places lately. Below is a list of favorites, and in other blogs to follow I will list the soso and never step foot in again places.

  

Favorite Faves!

Aya Sophia- My number one favorite!!! Maybe it's sentimental because it's where my hubby took me on our first date, but it is a pretty romantic atmosphere. Turkish Mediterranean cuisine, large wooden booths with dark red curtains, and they also have a pretty cute patio. Appetizers that we recommend are Borek, a feta and spinach cheese pie baked in filo dough, Sigara Boregi are crispy filo cigars stuffed with feta, ricotta parsleyand dill. We really like their cucumber salad with pita and you can't go wrong with their pita bread and humus. Any of their lamb dishes are a winner like the kabobs or their Kofte which are ground beef and lamb meatballs in spices with yogurt sauce and rice pilaf. They have a good happy hour which I believe is Monday thru Friday from 5-7, half off appetizers and drinks. 

Tower Taco- Authentic Mexican at a great price as well as margaritas, down on Cherokee street. Their $1.79 tacos in corn tortillas with simple cilantro onion and seasoning are delicious! Any of their nachos, and many, many of their other menu items you can’t go wrong with.  Tower Taco has ruined us for pretty much any other Mexican place in the area. Now we turn our noses up at the other places, because the food and prices really can’t be beat. Casual, cute little patio to lounge on in the warmer weather, there have been times we go once a week.

Tsevis- America/Greek/Italian Bar & Grill in Afton. Pizza, great hot wings, burgers, steak fries, onion rings (the best out of anywhere if I may say so!), gyros – chicken and lamb. Casual and a little under average prices. Sometimes we frequent this place once a week as well. Their brunch buffet with omelets made to order is only on Sunday morning from 9-2pm, but some of the best biscuits and gravy ever!

The Shack – Located down by SLU campus they have a very wide variety of food. Their owners went around the US of A trying out different popular items in major cities and bringing them back to STL and putting their own spin on things. Their loaded  fries are a meal in themselves. Buffalo fries, Loaded fries, Green Eggs and Ham fries, or even just their cheese fries rock. If you like fries that are piled with yummy goodness they got them.Hot wings, pizza, burgers and nachos, The Shack has them all. They have “Street Tacos” taken from Chicago and their “Shack-Which” that is a spinoff of Promonte Brothers sandwich is thick cut sour dough piled high with your choice of meet, slaw and French fries. This is a definite favorite of ours. Price range is average, dress is casual/sports/collage bar

Mango- Peruvian cuisine, we have not been here is quite some time but it’s defiantly worth another trip soon, we have never been disappointed. When we went they brought plantain chips and a green dipping sauce to the table just like other places bring bread, and it was very good. We tried their yucca fries last time and those were really good. We really need to go back in order for me to really give a better review, I just checked out the menu and it’s changed since we went so the items we have had are no longer there. But I know their appetizer are the same and they are quite tasty. Atmosphere is fun, trendy and nice. Price is a little more than the average bar and grill. Dress attire is dressy casual.

Bailey’s restaurants (Owner of Bailey’s Chocolate Bar)

The Range- If you like burgers you will like this place. It’s hip, it’s trendy and everything is organic and made in house. From their breads, buns, pretzel buns, fries, ketchup, sauces and shakes, it’s all done in house and you can tell by the great taste! Their soda’s and beer are not from the restaurant but I believe it’s either local beer or organic soda’s. I don’t believe they have Pepsi or Coca-Cola products. They only have one diet soda on the menu, kinda a bummer for this diabetic, but it’s the BEST diet cola ever!!! It beats Pepsi for sure. I don’t usually go for veggie burgers but I have gotten theirs multiple times. Their menu is always changing, they have burger battles of the week and their rooster sauce rocks for French Fries. My hubby, Brad, loves their homemade ketchup. Average prices, although I guess a bit higher because burgers do not come with fries and fries do come with 1 sauce but if you want another you pay like $.25 or $.50 for an additional sauce. It’s casual atmosphere.

Rooster – This is a breakfast/brunch/lunch place. It has a lot of the same feel as The Range yet totally different. All their food is made at The Range fresh and prepared in house at Rooster. Their mimosas I greatly  enjoyed as well as their berry French toast. Brad had a big plate of eggs, breakfast potatoes, sausage and gravy and that was just as good.  Have not made it back for lunch yet, but definitely intend to.

The Bridge- This is a wine bar therefore their food selection is small. What they do offer food wise is from The Range. We have never gotten any food, although it looks good we have only gone for drinks. Over 20 wines by the glass to choose from and many more by the bottle. I think it’s maybe 50 beer on tap? More in bottles. It’s a fun little place to go for drinks, be sure to look at the menu price correctly and don’t do what I did. Last time instead of looking at the price I was looking at oz per glass and wound up ordering a bottle, not a glass as I intended. It was about three small glasses of wine from the one bottle and it was about $28.00 before tax I believe. I wanted to cry once I realized that, I now wish I could have just blown it off and enjoyed it, but I felt so bad about spending that kind of money on a very small bottle of wine especially when all I wanted was one glass. They do have good prices, that was just my last experience and my mistake. They also have ciders in bottles if you like those like I do.