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Yes I really hated living in Saint Louis. The Food was only one of the reasons I could not stand it there.
When you go to a very highly recommended Mexican Restaurant and your soup is served with Fritos® floating on the top you know you are in a culinary hell.
If you stick to basic Meat and Potatoes, Burgers and Fries, and BBQ saint louis is OK.
I put on twenty five pounds when I moved to Saint Louis and it wasn't because the food was good. When I returned to CA, the weight came off almost immediately.
Don't even get me started on St. Louis Pizza and asian food.
Never had Middle Eastern or Balkan food in the St.L (even though I love that style of food) so I can't make a fair assessment.
Yes I really hated living in Saint Louis. The Food was only one of the reasons I could not stand it there.
When you go to a very highly recommended Mexican Restaurant and your soup is served with Fritos® floating on the top you know you are in a culinary hell.
If you stick to basic Meat and Potatoes, Burgers and Fries, and BBQ saint louis is OK.
I put on twenty five pounds when I moved to Saint Louis and it wasn't because the food was good. When I returned to CA, the weight came off almost immediately.
Don't even get me started on St. Louis Pizza and asian food.
Never had Middle Eastern or Balkan food in the St.L (even though I love that style of food) so I can't make a fair assessment.
i just think it makes you sound incredibly shallow to generalize about the food offerings in a metro area of nearly 3 million people as if your obviously limited experience applies to the entire city. that's just your typical unjustified coastal arrogance at its worst. every city has good restaurants and bad restaurants. you may have your opinions, but you are certainly no culinary authority.
i just think it makes you sound incredibly shallow to generalize about the food offerings in a metro area of nearly 3 million people as if your obviously limited experience applies to the entire city. that's just your typical unjustified coastal arrogance at its worst. every city has good restaurants and bad restaurants. you may have your opinions, but you are certainly no culinary authority.
Blah blah blah.
Coastal arrogance my arse.
I've been through out the US and have pretty much enjoyed different kinds of food throughout this country. As a NY I can honestly say I love Chicago Pizza. I've live in Pittsburgh which has some of the Best polish, german, central european and slavic food I ever ate.
In West Virginia I though that cole slaw on hot dogs was odd, but very tasty. I also reallly liked catfish and crayfish along with a long of other unique dishes.
Southwestern Cuisine in NM is different, but just as good as anything you can get in CA.
I give every place I live in an honest chance. St. Louis ranks as a major fail.
^yet you admit that you haven't had any of st. louis' european fare. this town has some of the best bosnian food in outside of sarajevo. and i hardly doubt you've been to every restaurant in st. louis. you don't like st. louis style pizza and you've had some terrible mexican food, so of course there couldn't possibly be good restaurants in st. louis, right? your blanket statements are so tired. yawn.
^yet you admit that you haven't had any of st. louis' european fare. this town has some of the best bosnian food in outside of sarajevo. and i hardly doubt you've been to every restaurant in st. louis. you don't like st. louis style pizza and you've had some terrible mexican food, so of course there couldn't possibly be good restaurants in st. louis, right? your blanket statements are so tired. yawn.
If I had at at least one better than average meal there I would have no case. But at every place I went, the cuisine was mediocre at best.
Lake Saint Louis made living in Missouri tolerable. Yeah the dining was Franchised (but there were some good smoke houses and BBQ joints). Don't forget the city was only 30 miles away. I guess that is far for a local population that is too afraid to travel more than 10 miles from their doorsteps.
Have you ever wondered that if Saint Louis had such a great culinary reputation, why would the Saint Louis Bread Company have to rebrand itself to "Panera" toacceptedl throughout the rest of the country?
Some of the best and most innovative food and dining in the country is along NY's Hudson River. So much for your theory on suburbs.
And this is not a jab at the entire midwest. I've had excellent meals in Chicago, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana and illinois. Saint Louis was just one of the oddest, insular places I ever lived.
^there you go again. either you have a chip on your shoulder or you haven't really tried. i suspect it's the former. i never said st. louis was a culinary mecca, but it does have some outstanding restaurants and some top-notch chefs. i just wonder why you aren't embarrassed to sum up the quality of food in a metro area that has over 3,000 restaurants. you obviously don't care how shallow you come across. i have lived all over the country including both coasts and also in norway, and i find st. louis to be a really great city. different strokes, i suppose.
^there you go again. either you have a chip on your shoulder or you haven't really tried. i suspect it's the former. i never said st. louis was a culinary mecca, but it does have some outstanding restaurants and some top-notch chefs. i just wonder why you aren't embarrassed to sum up the quality of food in a metro area that has over 3,000 restaurants. you obviously don't care how shallow you come across. i have lived all over the country including both coasts and also in norway, and i find st. louis to be a really great city. different strokes, i suppose.
because i can step out my door here in Huntington Beach and walk to at least 5 restaurants that will top anything St. Louis has to offer with out even trying.
Believe me I gave Saint Louis a chance. I even bought a house. I was thinking long term. The place was just unbearable for me. Had to leave.
Yes, St. Louis is SORT OF a major fail, restaurant-wise - especially historically. It's been that way for YEARS (ok, it had the Hill for fried ravioli and salad with provel ropes ) but actually has gotten significantly better since, oh, the late '90s. (Ok, StL did bring the world Panera, and it's apparently the only bakery-cafe type place in all of suburban Northern Virginia.. you would not believe the way people rave about Panera around here.) KANSAS CITY is miles and miles superior to St. Louis as a restaurant city: Kansas City chefs have won four (4) James Beard awards (plus double that many nominations) since '97. Guess how many James Beard awards St. Louis chefs have ever received? ZIP. And it looks like the first year any were nominated was 2009. But people invariably think that St. Louis would have better restaurants because it has older architecture and arguably some sort of 'eastern' influence.
I hate to inform all of you cultural-geographically hyper-aware C-Ders, but 'eastern' does not necessarily represent 'creative/fresh cuisine.' MASSIVE PARTS OF THE MID-ATLANTIC ARE CULINARY WASTELANDS. Most Midwestern cities (minus Chicago, frequently named one of the top 3 US restaurant cities) are SMALL, remember, and yet for their size tend to KICK FOODIE ASS. I will most likely be glued to this thread for the next week or so. (This topic just happens to be a personal obsession of mine.) Ugh.
But anyway, no, no, no. St. Louis does NOT represent the entire 'Midwest' (however you happen to define that term, and it's one of the most variously-defined geographic terms in the [American] English language), but even St. Louis (even the suburban part!) seriously kicks the ass of, say, Fairfax County (VA suburbs of DC) when it comes to fusion/new American/funky little cafes-bistros and such (yes, I know about your some of your really cool new restaurants in Lafayette Square and such and the more established indie bakery-cafes in Clayton, etc. ).
And here's a little Mexican restaurant tidbit I could not resist leaving you with: suburban DC (essentially) HAS NO MEXICAN FOOD, period (ok, there are a couple places in Riverdale Park, MD.. but most of the first-/second-gen Hispanics around here are Central Americans). (Most of suburban DC has little good food in general, but we can discuss that in another thread.) In Fairfax, where I live, there is a little mediocre local Tex-Mex place called the Coyote Grille.. you know, a place with a lot of white, white-collar families sitting around with margaritas and fairly bland food. Anyway, across the street is a Carlos O'Kelly's - a really lame (IMO), run-of-the-mill Tex-Mex chain out of Topeka, Kansas. You would simply not believe the way people rave about the Carlos O'Kelly's location here (the only location outside of a few smaller Midwestern cities.. nope, none in KC or St. Louis, too much better competition)... like it's a 'gift from California' *gag* or such. Anyway, though, the Coyote Grille has literally *copied, ingredient-for-ingredient*, numerous items off the nationwide Carlos O'Kelly's menu* because otherwise they wouldn't have a clue how to formulate even pseudo, upper-middle-class-white-people-approved Tex-Mex. Absolutely, 100% serious.
Please, somebody, get this thread locked. It's going to irritate/obsess me too much.
Oh, and *high-fives* Ohiogirl81. Yeah, the topic of this thread would tend to make you think it involved Grant Wood or something.
Last edited by Alicia Bradley; 11-01-2010 at 09:21 PM..
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) but actually has gotten significantly better since, oh, the late '90s. (Ok, StL did bring the world Panera, and it's apparently the only bakery-cafe type place in all of suburban Northern Virginia.. you would not believe the way people rave about Panera around here.) KANSAS CITY is miles and miles superior to St. Louis as a restaurant city: Kansas City chefs have won four (4) James Beard awards (plus double that many nominations) since '97. Guess how many James Beard awards St. Louis chefs have ever received? ZIP. And it looks like the first year any were nominated was 2009. But people invariably think that St. Louis would have better restaurants because it has older architecture and arguably some sort of 'eastern' influence.
). 
