Tower Grove South

Café Mochi

by Stephanie on April 27, 2012

in Asian, Dinner, Lunch, Sushi

Gooood morning and happy Friday to you! I’m in an especially good mood this morning, because I get to talk about one of my favorite foods: sushi!

It’s been a while since I’ve written a review about sushi. In fact, the last time I wrote about sushi (at my favorite sushi spot, Kampai!) was in March of 2010! I need to step my sushi blogging game up, eh?

Anyway, I recently visited this sweet sushi spot with a friend:

mochi

(source)

Café Mochi! It’s a quaint sushi shop in the Tower Grove South neighborhood in St. Louis. I had been itching to visit this place for ages, so it was nice to finally stop in!

Let’s get to business. The menu offered lots of typical sushi offerings (California rolls, Dragon rolls, etc.), but I wanted to try something a little different. I love specialty rolls, so I went with the Godzilla Roll:

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Doesn’t that look fantastic? Among other things, it contained spicy scallops and a delicious crab mixture on the inside. There was also a lovely drizzle of spicy sriracha!

 

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I loved it and gobbled down every last bite.

My friend ordered the sashimi, which is simply raw fish; no bells and whistles here!

 

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It looked fantastic and super duper fresh; he thoroughly enjoyed it. Smile

Service at Café Mochi wasn’t the best; even though the place was practically empty, our waitress was extremely inattentive. We ordered Miso Soup, which she completely forgot to bring out to us. And she wasn’t particularly friendly, either.

Despite the less-than-stellar service, I still recommend Café Mochi. It’s hard to find decent sushi in a landlocked state like Missouri, but Café Mochi does a really decent job! Two thumbs up.

See you next week!

{ 6 comments }

Local Harvest!

by Stephanie on April 16, 2011

in American, Dinner, Lunch, Vegetarian

Hello, friends! How have you been? I’ve been pretty busy with my new job, running half marathons, and training for my next race – just the usual!

Oh, and eating, of course. A girl’s gotta eat!

My latest adventure brought me to this lovely place:

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Local Harvest! Okay, so I really visited in March, while in the middle of the Vegan Challenge. But let’s just pretend for a minute that I’m not a procrastinator lazy chick busy girl for a moment, shall we?

Local Harvest is a cute little shop in the Tower Grove neighborhood of St. Louis. Like the name suggests, they use all local ingredients in their dishes. A lot of their items are organic, as well! And they have a really good selection of vegan items for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

I rolled with their green plate special: sesame tofu with brown rice, shitake mushrooms, and spinach.

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This was delicious! It was also extremely fresh and light. I loved everything about this dish; the firm, yet flavorful tofu, the light brown rice, the way the mushrooms just seemed to melt in my mouth.

I also ordered a side of vegan chili:

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I didn’t even miss the meat! This had yummy chickpeas in it, along with other spices that gave it that authentic chili flavor. It was a little spicy, too! I loved it.

My friend went with Molly’s Veggie Burger:

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It was a veggie and pinto bean burger served on fresh bread, with hummus, red onion, sprouts, and pickles. It came with a side of chips and balsamic potato salad. Completely vegan and not too bad! I wasn’t a fan of the sprouts on the burger, but it was good otherwise. And the balsamic potato salad was amazing! My friend really enjoyed everything.

Service at Local Harvest was pretty good. Our waitress was extremely knowledgeable about the menu, and offered suggestions.

One thing to note: the place is tiny (only about 6 or 7 tables total!), so try to come during off-peak hours so you can snag a seat without waiting! We came around 8pm on a Saturday night, and that seemed to be just right.

Unfortunately, Local Harvest didn’t have any vegan desserts (but plenty of non-vegan desserts!) for us to try. I have a feeling this was due to our late dinner, but it was still a bit disappointing.

Time for scores!

Food: 4 stars (out of five)

Ambiance: 3 stars (way too tiny for me!)

Service: 4 stars

Value: 3 stars (a little on the expensive side, but the quality is certainly there, so I understood why it was priced the way it was!)

I would definitely come back to Local Harvest. Now that I’m no longer vegan (thank goodness!) I can try everything on the menu. I can’t wait!

{ 5 comments }

Yummy food and…yelling?

by Stephanie on September 7, 2010

in Dinner, Lunch, Mediterranean, Vegetarian

What do you do when you go to a restaurant and the food is GREAT, but the service is sub-par? I guess you blog about it! I’ll talk about the food first, of course. The sub-par service I’ll get to a little later…

Andy and I met some friends at The Vine: Mediterranean Market and Cafe a few days ago. It’s a cute little restaurant with a grocery store attached. It’s located on South Grand in South St. Louis. I LOVE South Grand – it’s a long street with tons of ethnic restaurants, grocery stores, and shops. So much good food crammed into one area – who wouldn’t love that?

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I love love LOVE the atmosphere of this place. It’s very cozy and is decorated very well. The amount of detail put into the place is obvious.

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Yes, those are SOFAS! Nice, soft, and comfy seating for the win!

Okay, on to the food.

We started with the Hummus appetizer. A blend of chick peas, tahini sauce, garlic, lemon juice, and olive oil. It was served with warm soft pita bread for dipping.

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I snapped a quick picture of the hummus before we stirred it all up and dove right in. It was creamy and delicious, and had a sharp tang from the lemon juice that I LOVED. The pita bread was soft, warm, and fresh! We had too much hummus and not enough pita, but the waitress quickly brought out more of the bread. Yum.

I also wanted to try the stuffed grape leaves. Grape leaves stuffed with rice, veggies, and spices? Yes! Count me in. I’m always up for a new adventure.

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These were GOOD. The leaves tasted exactly like collard greens. The filling was delicious and very well seasoned.

On to the real deal! I’m a huge fan of falafel, so I went with their falafel sandwich: a blend of chick peas, garlic and spices, with tahini sauce, tomatoes, parsley, onion, pickles, and pickled turnip. Wow!

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It was delicious, even though the falafel was a little too dry and crumbly for my tastes.

Andy ordered a side of fries for the table to share.

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These were SO good! I’m pretty sure I ate most of these. They were seasoned perfectly, and were hot and crispy! I’m a sucker for hot and crispy fries. :) I didn’t even need barbecue sauce for these babies! They were eaten plain. Yum!

After our meal, we decided to explore the shop that was connected to the restaurant. I thought this would be a good opportunity to snap a few pictures.

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Aren’t those hookahs beautiful?

Well, I was only able to take one picture, because shortly after I took that one, a worker came over and yelled at me, telling me to stop taking pictures! I explained my food blog to her, but I don’t think she understood. I was super embarrassed! That’s never happened to me before. What would you have done? It definitely put a damper on the night, and we left shortly afterwards.

Other than that one little snafu, the night was a success. You can’t beat good cheap food!

Score time…

Food: 4 stars (out of five)

Ambiance: 5 stars

Service: 2 stars (I can’t get over the yelling situation!)

Value: 5 stars

Overall, this place was good. Super cheap and delicious food in an inviting atmosphere. Just don’t take pictures of the shop next door!

{ 3 comments }

3 Monkeys!

by Stephanie on June 24, 2010

in American, Dinner, Lunch, Pubs

So what happens when a foodie (yours truly) plans a dinner date with her dad (also a foodie!) and her sister (who happens to be EXTREMELY picky!)?

You end up at 3 Monkeys near Tower Grove Park in St. Louis, MO. I’ve been wanting to try the place for quite some time, and it seemed interesting enough to satisfy me and my dad, while having ‘normal’ things on the menu to please my sister.

I was hoping for some mind-blowing food, and instead I left with a feeling of ‘meh’. Let me explain.

It was a nice night, so we sat outside. Fine, right? Other people were sitting outside too, so it wasn’t like we were the only souls out there. Well, our waitress seemed to forget that we were out there, because she dropped the menus off, and DIDN’T COME BACK. After about 15 minutes, I had to run inside (I was a little miffed) and remind her that she had (hungry) customers outside who felt a little neglected.

Water was finally brought out, and we started with some apps. Lobster rangoon and calamari.

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fried calamari

I love crab rangoon, and lobster rangoon sounded CRAZY delicious! I was expecting to have my mind blown. Honestly? This wasn’t fantastic like I was hoping. It was just OKAY. It tasted like the lobster rangoon at Crazy Bowls & Wraps (a fast food chain in St. Louis).

The calamari was decent. A little tough, but I wasn’t expecting much from a non-Italian place.

For the entree, I went with the turkey burger and fries.

Now this was pretty good. The fries were nothing to write home about, but the burger was DELICIOUS! It was seasoned very well, and is actually one of the best turkey burgers I’ve had in St. Louis.

My sister and dad both ordered the ribs and fries, which they both seemed to enjoy.

So even though the food was average, I was left feeling a little disappointed about 3 Monkeys. It reminds me of an Applebee’s. Not bad, but not GREAT. Just…meh.

Scores, anyone?

Food: 3 stars (out of five)

Ambiance: 3 stars (we sat outside…I’m not sure what the ambiance was like inside)

Service: 1 star

Value: 4 stars

I love the Tower Grove neighborhood, so I’ll definitely be back. 3 Monkeys is really known for their pizza, so I think I’ll try that next time.  Hopefully that’s better than what I had tonight. And hopefully the service is a little better, too!

{ 3 comments }

Mmm…Vietnamese

by Stephanie on February 28, 2010

in Asian, Dinner, Lunch, Vietnamese

One thing you will undoubtedly notice over time in this blog is my undying love of Vietnamese cuisine. I swear I could live off of pho and sushi for the rest of my life. Oh, I know sushi is Japanese. Let me reword my original statement: I love Asian cuisine. Yum. But this post? This post, my friends, is dedicated to Mekong.  Located on South Grand Avenue in St. Louis, it’s one of many ethnic restaurants lined along this busy street.

I went here on a blistering cold Saturday afternoon (actually, I don’t remember if it was cold or not — let’s just pretend that it was!). Like most places that I dash into, I had passed by Mekong dozens of times. This time, I decided to finally venture in.

It was around noon. Lunchtime, right? Right? RIGHT?!?! Hmm…so why was I the only person in the restaurant? And why did the restaurant SMELL FUNNY?!!? The average person would have walked out right then, but not me, my friends. I have a tummy of steel. I was craving Vietnamese. And I surely wasn’t going to let a funny smell separate me from some delicious food.

I’m not a huge fan of spring rolls (I like egg rolls much better), but after reading all of the glowing reviews of Mekong’s spring rolls, I decided to bite the bullet and try them. They came out quickly, with some sort of peanut sauce that was just heavenly. The rolls were pretty good. Spring rolls still aren’t my favorite thing, but these were probably the best I’ve had.


For my entree, I had the fried chicken in Mekong sauce (I think it was some sort of fish sauce). Oh my goodness. When I say that this was DELICIOUS, I really mean it. Just wonderful. Orgasmic. When my plate arrived at the table, I swear my heart skipped a few beats. I immediately fell in love. It just LOOKED good.

And boy, it tasted amaaaaazing. It must be the American blood coursing through my veins, but I couldn’t stop eating it, even after I was disgustingly full. It was THAT good. The portion was HUGE. Definitely enough for two nice meals. How I managed to stuff it all into my belly? The world may never know.

Service was fast and friendly. My waiter was quiet, but nice. He always kept my water full, he was very attentive, and when I ran out of fish sauce, he quickly brought me some more. Nice.

Food is really cheap here. All of my food came to less than 15 bucks, which isn’t bad for a huge lunch. Cheap food = happy girl!

{ 4 comments }