Allin's diner - St. Charles Missouri

September 8, 2012

We were in Charles for my dad to do some genealogy research.   After doing some research of my own, I thought this place sounded alright and was in the area. There soup was supposed to be good so I wanted to make sure to try some. I decided to get a sandwich to go with the soup. After going over the menu I decided on the grilled ham and cheese and chose American for my cheese and I decided to get a cup of soup which I picked potato and leek off the day’s soup list. They asked if I wanted to substitute that for the chips, which was what I decided to do. My mom also got the potato and leek soup with her BLT sandwich.

 

My dad decided to have a Reuben and had chips to go with. All the food came pretty quick.

 

 

The soup I thought was kind of bland and boring and needed something. I added some salt and thought it helped quite a bit and made it taste all right.

 

 

My grilled ham and cheese sandwich was just that a grilled ham and cheese sandwich which I didn't think was all that exciting. It was good but was nothing too exciting, and that was pretty much what everyone else thought of the meal as well.

 

130 North Kingshighway Street St. Charles, MO 63301
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A’mis pizza - Webster Groves, MO

September 7, 2012

We stopped here our first night when we got to St. Louis. It was a little late around eight o'clock or maybe a little later and raining hard when we got there and it was mostly full inside.  not long after we got a table and cleared out pretty good. They took our drink order pretty quick which was three Pepsis. It seemed to take a little while before they came to take our order which we decided to get a pepperoni Chicago style deep dish which the menu said could take up to 40 minutes and a medium New York style sausage and mushroom.

 

They also brought out a basket of dinner rolls which were good. Really not too much time later the pizzas came out at the same time which wasn't close to being 40 minutes. 

The Chicago deep dish was okay but I don't think I'm too big of a deep dish fan.  It had all the basic parts of a chicago style pizza.

 

The New York style sausage and mushroom was good and I thought the better of the two, but I didn't think it was anything too great or exciting. When we were done they came to check to see if we needed a box which we took one but it didn’t fit in our fridge in the hotel so that didn't help much. Then we went ahead and paid up at the counter and left.

This was not the most exciting pizza but it was all right just about average in my opinion.

 

 

9824 Manchester Road, Webster Groves, MO

 

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Red Barn Cafe & Hen House Bakery - Mount Vernon MO

September 7, 2012

This day we were traveling to St. Louis, so I searched on Google and on the internet that morning and found this place.  I wasn’t exactly starving, so I didn’t want a huge lunch.  Mom and I both had the soup and salad bar and dad went with the cheeseburger with fries.  After we ordered we headed for the salad bar. This was a pretty good salad bar everything appeared fresh and had all the basics you would expect on a salad bar. With a few other salads as well including one that looked alright with broccoli and various other things but after I found the raisins in it I wasn't too excited about. We returned to the table to find a plate of huge rolls and butter that came with the soup and salad bar. Then we had to go check out the soup bar which wasn't with the salad bar it was around the corner from it. There were probably five or six different soups.  I decided I would start with the chicken noodle and my mom found a vegetable beef soup to try. After we got back to the table with my soup and salad, my dad's burger arrived.

 

The salad I got was just a salad a good salad but still just a salad.

 

I really like the chicken noodle soup with nice thick noodles, good chicken, and a really good broth. This was the best chicken noodle soup I have ever had. My mom really liked her beef vegetable soup as well. After I was done with my soup I went back and tried another kind this time sausage gumbo. I don't know if I ever had gumbo before this but it was nice and spicy and delicious and I'm not exactly the biggest sausage fan. Then I thought I better get some more of the chicken noodle soup.

 

The dinner rolls that came with were huge, they were about the size of four normal dinner rolls. The butter that came with it was honey butter which was good but I would have preferred just regular butter. My dad thought his burger was really good as well, and he is still talking about. It was like a good burger that you could get in his younger days.

 

 

As we were paying at the counter I noticed the pies and cinnamon rolls which looked amazing.

This was a good old time restaurant with great homemade food.

107 W Mount Vernon Blvd

Mount Vernon, MO 65712

 

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Chicken Annie's Original Pittsburg, KS

September 5 and 6 2012

We stopped here years ago and thought it was amazing fried chicken and every time we are in the vicinity and even if we have to go out of our way to get there we make sure to stop by.  Last time we planned two nights so we could compare it to Chicken Mary’s which is next door.  The two were featured on food wars on the travel channel.  The first night we thought it doesn’t matter which one to go to so we went to Annie’s again, then the next night we get to Mary’s and it was closed.  We again went to Annie’s.  Now this trip we wanted to go to Mary’s first to make sure we got it in first, but when we arrived we found this sign.

So I was not going to be able to do my own food war, instead we went to chicken Annie’s twice.  Most of my review is from the second night with some comments from the first night.

The first night we arrived and met a couple of relatives for dinner at about 5:30 and on the next night a little later than that, it wasn’t exactly packed either night but there were a fair number of people.  The tables looked like the yellow pages covered with ads. 

 

We were seated quickly and they brought a basket of bread with some kind of butter ish spread, I would have guessed ahead of time that they would have real butter, but it wasn’t.  It was still alright though and it melted nicely on the warm bread, it was definitely homemade bread. 

 

Next we made sure to order onion rings again because they were great the night before, we ordered the small size.  We ordered the large the night before but I think they might have been small both nights. 

 

These were some of the best onion rings I’ve ever had.  They did not come out with any salt, but when I salted mine they were amazing. 

 

I had the 2 piece dark meat, with a thigh and leg they gave me a choice of which type I wanted.  This night I had mashed potatoes and gravy along with baked beans, the mashed potatoes were good, but definitely not the best and the baked beans I think were out of a can.  The night before I had mashed potatoes and creamy coleslaw which was just ok.  Their side dishes are definitely not their strong point. 

 

 

 

But now to what they are famous for the fried chicken.  There was nothing crazy or different about the chicken just basic and really good fried chicken.  It was crisp on the outside and quite juicy on the inside, just perfect.   The service was good throughout both meals.  The second night we went to pay at the counter and I decided to get me a t-shirt and including the shirt the total was around $46 which I thought was a bargain for 3 people.

 

 

1143 East 600th Avenue  Pittsburg, KS 66762

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St. Louis Food

We just returned from our trip to St. Louis.  The following posts are about all the great food I found along the way.

Pablos Pizza – Ft. Collins CO

July 19, 2012

My mom and I stopped by Pablos pizza for lunch just after noon.  A couple of people have told me that this place was good.  Before we went I checked out the menu online there were about 25 specialty pizzas all with really different combinations that I’ve never seen before.  I did find a handful of types that sounded interesting and wanted to try.  They also let you build your own as well.  When we arrived we ordered at the counter.  We decided to try a 12” pizza that was half Spud tacular and half draculas nemesis.  As well as 2 drinks.  There were a few tables that looked like they needed cleaned, but we did find one that was not too bad and after we filled our drinks up we waited for a little while.  While we were waiting we looked at the interesting artwork on the walls.  This place seemed to me just like a regular neighborhood pizza place but that was a little fancier.  Soon they brought out our pizza and two plates. 

With The Dracula nemesis they weren’t kidding about the garlic, it was quite garlicy.  The rest of the day I had bad garlic breath.  This half was excellent, all the toppings were good quality; chicken, roasted garlic, green onions.  Then to the spud taclular, I was a little hesitant about a potato pizza, but my mom wanted to try it so I figured I’d give it a try as well.  This side had a sour cream sauce topped with cheese, roasted potatoes, bacon and chives.  I took a bite and thought that is incredible, I never would have thought to put potatoes on a pizza.  This was what you would get if you crossed a pizza with a baked potato.  So as I kept eating the pizza alternating between the two types and kept thinking this side is better, then I would eat the other kind and think it was the better of the two.  We were very happy with both types of pizza.  The crust was charred and blackened a little, was a little crispy and had a little chew to it but not a ton, I thought it was the perfect amount.

 I haven’t been to many pizza places in Ft. Collins yet, but of the ones I’ve been to Pablos pizza has been my favorite so far.  What we had was nothing anywhere near normal pizza, but it was amazingly good.  they also have build your own pizza with traditional options as well which I am looking forward to trying on my next visit.

2720 Council Tree Ave
Ste 100

Fort Collins, CO 80525

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Kaya Korean Restaurant – Westminster CO

Friday the 13^th July 13, 2012

I had never been to a Korean Restaurant, but have had Korean food that my mom learned to cook that has always been one of my favorites.  This place was rather confusing the name anyways,  on the menu and yelp it says Kaya Korean Restaurant, the sign outside just said Korean BBQ, the google map says Korean Garden and their business cards and the to-go bag said Dae Gee.

They have some of their tables have grills right in the middle of the tables, but we didn’t really want to cook it ourselves, so we took one of the regular tables.  We were going to just order one of the family dinners but they said we could only order that at the grill tables because I think they only let you cook the Galbi at your table.  So we just ordered 3 different meat dishes Chicken, beef and pork bulgoki as well as Jhob chae (I’ve also seen it spelled chap-chae or jap-chae) which was listed as an appetizer.  We all also got cokes.  The whole place was empty when we got here at about 5:30 but as we waited for our food the place started filling up and there were quite a few Koreans.  After a bit our waitress started to bring out the food. 

First she sat down some small plates that were kind of half bowl half plate.  She also brought out rice in individual bowl type things.  Then she came with a tray of side dishes that she went through the names but went kind of fast, there were probably about 10 of them.  Fish cakes, kimchi cakes, kimchi, spicy cucumber, bean sprouts, beef garlic and peppers, broccoli, mashed potato, a salad with cabbage and carrots and onions.  Some of these like the kimchi and the cucumbers were a little spicy, but not as hot as I would have expected.  The Kimchi I thought was really good, and I didn’t think I liked kimchi before, but the last I had was out of a jar.  This was like the difference between a jar of salsa and fresh salsa.  The potato salad I thought was a little weird how it tasted like normal Asian flavors but in potatoes which I hadn’t had anything like it before.  All of these were pretty good, except I didn’t really care for the fish cakes.  They also brought out a plate of lettuce and some kind of sauce, for eating the meat with but this was harder for me to do than just eating it with a fork.

Right after these came out; the entrees came one at a time.  The last thing to come was the jhob chae which was an appetizer.  Other bulgoki that I’ve had that my mom makes she cooks it longer.  All of these dishes were lighter cooked, and all had very good flavor, but it was the low quality of meat that I didn’t like. 

It was a little tough, chewy, and grisly in places.  The pork was spicy, probably the hottest thing we had that night.  The chicken and the beef were not spicy at all. 

The jhob chae dish was great, the noodles were clear yam noodles  with stir-fried veggies which were carrots, cabbage, onions, mushrooms and spinach with a little bit of beef.  This dish was what I expected it to be and it was delicious.  I really liked how they served the meal with a bunch of side dishes, which is traditional for Korean food. So you would get a lot of variety.   I probably would have given this place a 5 star rating if the meat would have been better.

 7570 Sheridan Blvd  Westminster, CO 80003

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