Casual restaurant recs in Saint Louis?

Hi bellairegirl!
Can you be more specific? What area of town will you be staying? I can give you some suggestions then!
Hard to beleive that college starts soon!

Wash U or SLU? Where are you staying? What kind of food do you enjoy eating? Breakfast, Lunch or Dinner? What is your definition of reasonably priced? (I have two kids in college too and will probably be delivering one of them somewhere when you're here in St. Louis).

Some more help from you about what you are looking for will help us make better recomendations.

If you are flush--Riddles Penultimate at the Loop. If you are like the rest of us trying to scrape by then Hodak's ---(2100 Gravois) best chicken any where! Expect a looong line! But, you will meet nice people and see lots of families waiting in that line too.

We're delivering our son to Wash U -- staying near Forest Park (but willing to travel to other areas for good food)! Breakfast is included at our hotel, so really just looking for lunch and dinner ideas. We try to eat somewhat heart-healthy, so we're not interested in places for burgers and fried foods. By reasonably priced, I guess I mean no more than $15 entrees for dinner.

My wife won't go anywhere unless there are heart healthy options.

One of our favs: Trattoria Marcella (http://www.saucemagazine.com/restaurant/440);

Closer to Wash U is Cafe Napoli which has some entrees for $17: http://www.cafenapoli.com/

It's easy to spend more than $15 a person at these places but if you don't order wine and hold the line on the entrees, the meal won't be too expensive.

You have several options in this area.

Clayton-

BarCelona - 36 N. Central -
a fun Tapas restaurant with alfresco seating/ fun vibe.
Almonds - 8127 Maryland
This is a family owned place with new fresh items in mini chalk board menus at eachtable that change daily. Very good! You can get lovely salads/ fish or even pizza.
Roxanne - 12 N. Meramec
Fun wine bar and very reasonable priced food from wraps/ soups to fish and steak - great atmosphere.

** All of the restaurants in Clayton are in walking distance of each other. They are many bars and ice cresam shops dotted in between if you want to walk around!!

Do you like Greek Food?
Near Wash U is Olympia Kabob House - 1543 McCausland..
the best in STL and low prices

University City -

Bluberry Hill - it does have the greasy burger and fries but it also has vegetarian dishes/ soups/salads.... It is a STL landmark in many ways - the whole place Pop culture memorabiia. Great people watching. http://www.blueberryhill.com/

Momo's - 630 North and South-
belly dancers at night/ lovely tapas and salads - Fun place for lunch or dinner.

A little gem of a place down the road is:

Flaco Coccina - 8400 Delmar -
An art Deco inspired place - it is Mexican and Latin/caribbean cusine. It is in an odd little area - on Tuesday there are $2 tacos - Fabulous fish ones too! It so cheap and good! Homemade Sangria that is very good!

Also in Clayton...

Companion Bakery has nice sandwiches, lovely salads for lunch, outside patio to eat.

Pomme Cafe and Wine bar ~ great for breakfast, Brunch, lunch, dinner or late night wine relief.
(Their more upscale restaurant-Pomme- is two doors south which is also very good, but more expensive). They have our family's favorite brisket sandwich.
http://www.pommerestaurants.com/restaurant/

I agree with Anne about Almonds, Olympia & Barcelona (although Barcelona can be VERY noisy and busy on weekends). I find the food at Momo's very hit-or-miss and the belly dancers loud and distracting but.....

And you should take your son to Blueberry Hill. He'll be able to walk there from campus and would probably enjoy knowing about it and getting new friends to go with him sometime.

Forgot the other links

http://www.companionstl.com/splash.html

http://almondsrestaurant.com/

http://www.barcelonatapas.com/

One more...someone mentioned Riddles in the Loop up thread, but I don't think it requires one to be flush. All locally sourced produce, great wine list, very casual, food options for all, homemade and wonderful ice cream and desserts.

http://www.riddlescafe.com/

Riddles is Fabulous!
Liz made the lunch suggestion of Companion - It was voted by USA Today as one of the top 10 bread makers - sandwiches are delicious! They have great cookies too! I always bring one to my hair stylist around the corner - It is a love/hate thing for her! lol

These are great! Thanks for all of your help.

So far we've had dinner at Pomme Cafe & Wine Bar. We loved it! The food was terrific -- and it had a casual, friendly atmosphere and the prices were reasonable. Thanks for the recommendation!

Glad you enjoyed it, it's one of our favorites. Thanks for reporting back.

Are the Wash U freshmen here already??? I know classes start Thursday, but it seems early for orientation somehow. Hope your son enjoys school.

I'm driving with DD to Connecticut next week. DH is driving with DS to Wisconsin. I'll miss them, but at the moment I've had enough.....

The freshmen who are doing a Pre-Orientation program arrived yesterday. Freshmen move-in is on Thursday. The weather's been pretty rainy, though. And more heavy rain is expected off and on over the next several days.

As a parent of an 06' graduate and a current Wash U student, I just want to say that your son made an excellent choice in schools. He's in for a wonderful 4 years.

Thanks, espinach. So far we've been really impressed with everything about the school.

And thanks to everyone who offered recommendations. You guys have picked some winners. We had lunch at Companion yesterday -- brie and apples with apricot jam on walnut bread (grilled) -- YUM! And dinner at Riddles, which we also enjoyed.

I'm going back home over Labor Day weekend and will have to try Companion. I never heard of it before! I've only been gone for a few years; is it new? I'm all about bread and pastries, and I checked out the menu and I determined that I definitely need to give it a try. Thanks for the rec Liz!

Tracy

bellairegirl - thanks for reporting back. Glad you liked Riddles. Now, take you son to Blueberry Hill, he'll appreciate it.

Tracy - I don't think it's new, I think it's at least 5 or so years old. They have three locations..the original in Clayton at Maryland (Ladue) and Old Bonhomme (katy-corner to Straub's), one in Ladue on Clayton Rd in the location that was Carolyn's and one in the West End that used to be the Bread Co (St. Louis Bread Co. - Panera to the rest of the country - opened a new store at the corner of Euclid and Forest Park Pkwy)

Thanks for the reply Liz. I admit that I didn't get over to those areas a whole lot. I lived on the IL side (Glen Carbon) and worked downtown. I use to go to Straubs once a month or so, but I can't picture Companion over there. I guess I just didn't see it or didn't pay attention.

Tracy

Duff's in the Central West End is good, too.