We had a going-away lunch for one of the guys today. We had planned to
go to KC Masterpiece, but the one near us is now Tango Uniform. We ended
up going to Tony Roma's at the St. Louis Mills Mall.


One bad sign, even though it was Wednesday, the place was deader than a
hammer. Of course, that has its advantages when you have a large group
eating. We had prompt and attentative service throughout the meal. My
iced tea glass was never empty.


The big problem was, they didn't have a lunch menu. You either to order
full dinners, sandwiches or salads. That kind of annoying. I don't want
to eat a half-slab of ribs at that time of day, not to mention dropping
$20 on lunch. So for most of us that left sandwiches, which ran about
$7.

Everybody went for pulled-pork except me, I've got a lot of pork in the
pipeline at home, so I went for brisket. The beef looked just like the
pork, shredded. Hmmm, "that's unusual", thunked I. The sandwich had a
dollop of some non-descript sauce on top, which made no sense to me.
They've got an array of sauces on the table, why put any on the sandwich
when the customer can do it?

Speaking of sauces, they had four on the table. A supposedly hot one,
barely spicy and sweet. Original, thin tomatoey one, for STL people it
reminded me of Maull's. I didn't try the sweet one, I mean, these were
already too sweet. The manager also brought out a dish of a honey
chipotle sauce, again pretty sweet but at least a bit of kick to it.

I sampled the sandwich meat from the side, which didn't have the default
sauce. It wasn't too bad tasting, although a bit salty. There were signs
of brown crust and some smoky flavor. The whole thing was suspiciously
moist, I imaging that it was smoked and then simmered until the meat
could be shredded. As mentioned, the pork sandwiches looked virtually
identical, but I wasn't sitting by people I felt I could snag some meat
from.

Sides were fries (acceptable) and coleslaw. The slaw was cream-style and
very bland. I don't think it had much more than mayo with a touch of
celery seed. They brought out loaves of hot bread, which were ok,
squishy white bread. Some of the folks split a ghastly-looking loaf of
fried onions.

Overall restaurant grade: C+ (good service but poor lunch-time menu)

Overall BBQ grade: D



Brian Rodenborn

> We ended up going to Tony Roma's at the St. Louis Mills Mall.
> (snip)
>
> The big problem was, they didn't have a lunch menu. You either to order
> full dinners, sandwiches or salads. That kind of annoying. I don't want
> to eat a half-slab of ribs at that time of day, not to mention dropping
> $20 on lunch.
> (snip)
>
> Everybody went for pulled-pork except me, I've got a lot of pork in the
> pipeline at home, so I went for brisket.

Therein lies your mistake. The sign out front is telling: "Tony Roma's: a
Place for Ribs." The ribs are pretty tasty, if not what I'd call real BBQ.

Jason in Dallas wrote:
>
> > We ended up going to Tony Roma's at the St. Louis Mills Mall.
> > (snip)
> >
> > The big problem was, they didn't have a lunch menu. You either to order
> > full dinners, sandwiches or salads. That kind of annoying. I don't want
> > to eat a half-slab of ribs at that time of day, not to mention dropping
> > $20 on lunch.
> > (snip)
> >
> > Everybody went for pulled-pork except me, I've got a lot of pork in the
> > pipeline at home, so I went for brisket.
>
> Therein lies your mistake. The sign out front is telling: "Tony Roma's: a
> Place for Ribs." The ribs are pretty tasty, if not what I'd call real BBQ.


Did you bother to read the entire post? It was no mistake, there was no
lunch-sized portion of ribs available. That's why I dinged them on the
restaurant grade.

Actually, I don't know why I even bother responding to you.



Brian Rodenborn

"Default User" > wrote in message
...
> > > We ended up going to Tony Roma's at the St. Louis Mills Mall.
> > > (snip)
> > > Everybody went for pulled-pork except me, I've got a lot of pork in
the
> > > pipeline at home, so I went for brisket.
> >
> > Therein lies your mistake. The sign out front is telling: "Tony Roma's:
a
> > Place for Ribs." The ribs are pretty tasty, if not what I'd call real
BBQ.
>
> Did you bother to read the entire post? It was no mistake, there was no
> lunch-sized portion of ribs available. That's why I dinged them on the
> restaurant grade.

I read your post. I still don't know why anyone would go there and not get
ribs. It's like going to Red Lobster, ordering a hamburger then posting on
the Internet your review of the hamburger. Ever heard of splitting a plate
with someone else or a doggie bag?

The sign out front says "Tony Roma's: A Place for Ribs."