Patron Offers personal Review:

I just wanted to say that I not really a steak kind of person. However when I visited Sidney Street Cafe for my husbands company diner a few weeks ago I was floored. The steak was wonderful it just melted in my mouth. If I could get steak this good every night of the week I would. The food was outstanding. The amount that you get with your meal was perfect for me. I have recommended Sidney Street to everybody I know since my visit.

--Dena

Stepping Out
Brooke Schachner and Eric Bierman
Issue date: 5/5/08 Section: Scene

Sidney Street Café

Rating: 4.5
2000 Sidney Street
St. Louis, MO 63104
Price Range: $20-30

For the Commencement issue, we decided to try a restaurant we had never been to before that would be a good choice for eating with parents. The well-reviewed Sidney Street Café seemed like the perfect place for a graduation dinner. With a large menu that changes sporadically, and truly delicious food, Sidney Street Café did not disappoint. Though the loud atmosphere and décor made it seem at times more like a lively pub than an elegant restaurant, this did not take much away from the overall experience.

Sidney Street Café is located in the Benton Park neighborhood near the Anheuser-Busch Brewery. Though we had detailed directions, we still got lost trying to find the restaurant. When we finally arrived, the décor caught us by surprise. The exposed brick walls and street lamp style light fixtures looked like they belonged in a different environment. Additionally, there were several large groups in the main dining room creating a great deal of noise. Needless to say, we were not off to a great start.

This situation did not improve much after being seated at a very small table against the wall. However, once we saw the menu, our sprits were raised. As there was only one hand-written menu due to occasional changes made to the courses, our very attentive waitress explained every dish in detail. She also explained that it is possible to choose several appetizers to make a sampler plate.

The menu consists of a wide array of choices, including lobster, steak, lamb, duck and chicken. Several of the first courses are more traditional, such as the crab corn cake, while others, like bacon-wrapped honey mustard shrimp, are less common and very interesting. Perhaps the most enticing dish on the menu was the pasta of the day, which was duck ravioli. The list of entrees has several fish choices, as well as a variety of meats and a vegetarian option. In addition, the main course comes with either the soup of the day or one of several salads. Finally, Sidney Street Café also has an extensive wine list and drink menu.

To start, we decided on veal dumplings and duck ravioli. The veal dumplings are pot stickers filled with veal, spinach, corn and ginger and served with a Chinese salsa. The veal was tender and delicious, while the Asian flavors were spicy but not too overpowering. The duck ravioli was particularly excellent, with very well-cooked pasta and flavorful meat.

The soup of the day was a house beef tenderloin soup, which was tasty but couldn't compare to the first course. Though the taste was good, the consistency was less than appetizing. While there were several salad choices, we picked the house salad. This dish was simple but delightful thanks to the freshness of the greens.

Finally, our main courses of Tuscan sea bass and buttermilk chicken arrived. The sea bass was lightly breaded and topped with asiago cheese. It was very light and cooked perfectly. The asparagus and string beans served with the fish added a refreshing aspect to the dish. The buttermilk chicken was also delicious. It was extremely tender and aesthetically pleasing, as it was served in a small pot. This dish also came with vegetables, which were good, but the best part of the entrée was the side of fingerling potatoes. They were slightly crunchy and truly delectable with the light gravy from the chicken.

Though at first we weren't sure about Sidney Street Café, it proved itself through delicious, well-cooked food and an interesting menu. We would recommend it for a date, special occasion or, of course, dinner with visiting parents.

 

Review by Joe Bonwich, Post-Dispatch, 01/29/2004

 
The dining room at the Sidney Street Cafe
remains a romantic destination.
(Sam Leone/P-D)

 The Sidney Street Cafe saga is one of the more remarkable success stories in the past 20 years of St. Louis restaurant history. It was born in February 1985, as much a business deal as a restaurant, with nine investors banding together because, according to a manager at that time, they "wanted a place to take their business clients and friends."

The unlikely location on a primarily residential secondary street in the Benton Park neighborhood drew 600 people on its unadvertised opening night. After several management and kitchen changes during a popularly successful but money-losing first 18 months, Tom McKinley and his wife and brother-in-law took over, continuing to book capacity crowds most nights but also apparently harnessing the finances so that the numbers started to work correctly.

Flash-forward to late last year and a never-ending stream of accolades: perennial top-five finisher in restaurant polls and winner in "most romantic" categories, tied for "best food" in the Zagat Survey for St. Louis, and still a tough reservation, even midweek. So when the news came down that the McKinleys were selling the landmark, the obvious questions included the background of the new owners and their plans for changes, if any.

The meals themselves at our two recent visits to the restaurant didn't provide any answers to those questions, although some follow-up conversations with the new owners led us to believe that the local talent pool is getting some interesting enhancements. More on that in a moment.

But especially given that Tom McKinley was in the restaurant for both of our meals - his official last day on site was last Saturday - we detected virtually no change at all from visits over the course of the past five or six years.

One meal was in the front room, with its slightly raised mezzanine bordered by what look like old globed streetlights, which allows two tables to be basically side-by-side but still remain distinct from each other. The use of a canopy at the entrance also helps to give the room a dual personality of being both indoors and outdoors. The back room is a single level, with a very high ceiling that almost seems to disappear, owing to the decor and lighting. Exposed brick and deep greens are prevalent, and both rooms are lined with artwork that evokes the fine old architecture of the surrounding neighborhood. The service staff recites the descriptions of the items on the chalkboard menu from memory but injects a casual element by dressing in khakis, suspenders, a white shirt and athletic shoes. (If you don't like having to remember the whole menu, grab - or ask your waiter for - one of the brochures in the bar, which has most of it written out.)

There's no easy description for the type of food at Sidney Street - there's a lot of Asian influence but also notes of bistro-style French, New Orleans and even the American Southwest. Among our appetizers were veal dumplings, five pot-sticker-style wrappers well-stuffed with a ground veal, corn and red bell pepper mixture and topped with a veal glaze flavored with ginger; escargot, classically enhanced with garlic but also by a white-wine cream sauce, and made much more special housed in a puff-pastry bowl; and an egg-roll riff called a Down South Roll, looking like a normal egg roll cut at an angle across its circumference, but filled with sausage, chicken, ham and bell peppers and served with, in addition to the expected mustard sauce, a tangy-sweet peach chutney and an earthy roasted-pepper sauce.

Variations on filet mignon are the most common items on the entree list, and the hibachi steak was more than an inch thick, encrusted on the side with sesame seeds and also tasting of a hint of garlic. Grouper Creole was a nicely seared fillet topped with several shelled shrimp with the buttery garlic sauce that's called "barbecue" in New Orleans, but also with a coating of long slivers of scallion that most closely resembled clippings from the rough at a well-manicured country club. The veal Pinot Noir was two relatively thin discs of veal tenderloin sandwiching mascarpone cheese, sauced with a dense Pinot Noir, veal and wild mushroom reduction that's easy to absorb with its side dish of shoestring potatoes.

The wine list leans toward value pricing, with a dozen wines available by either the glass or bottle at $5.75 and $19, respectively ($8 and $21 for the sparkling wine); the other 25 or so reds, 17 whites and three sparkling wines are generally under $35 except for the celebratory bottles. The only moderate disappointments - or at least dishes that didn't rise to the level of the rest of the meal - were the desserts, in that turtle brownies and apple pie have become relatively commonplace, and one nightly soup special, a cauliflower soup whose mild flavoring paled in comparison to another full-flavored version we'd had on a recent outing to a different restaurant.

In total, Sidney Street is still a fabulous environment for a romantic or business meal, or any other special night out. The interesting sidelight to the sale is the restaurant pedigree of the new chef, Kevin Nashan, whose brother Chris and wife Mina are running the front of the house and business operations. Mina Nashan is a native St. Louisan; Kevin and Chris are from Santa Fe, N.M., but graduated from St. Louis University. The brothers grew up in their grandfather's restaurant, La Tertulia, renowned as one of the pioneers in defining New Mexico cuisine. Kevin is a Culinary Institute of America graduate, subsequently working at Commander's Palace in New Orleans, Restaurant Daniel in New York City (which is developing quite an alumni association in St. Louis), Le Francais in Chicago and two Michelin three-star restaurants in Spain - Ferran Adria's El Bulli in Rosas, near Barcelona, and Martin Berasategui's eponymous restaurant near San Sebastian. That seems to be a great deal of background, and to show a high degree of drive, for a chef who begins his new gig simply covering another's long-running creations. But both brothers noted that they're aware of the "golden goose" nature of Sidney Street and that any changes will be subtle evolutions. (Kevin Nashan didn't mention this, but our adventurous side would love to see perhaps one night a week dedicated to showing off what he's learned at a remarkable collection of the world's greatest restaurants.)

Meanwhile, the vast majority of the Sidney Street Cafe remains unchanged, and even features a McKinley, Tom's brother Pete, still on the staff. The transition appears to have been seamless; now we can only hope that the evolution will unfold just as smoothly.


Sidney Street Cafe
2000 Sidney Street
314-771-5777

Menu: Eclectic influences, with lots of Asian but also French bistro, New Orleans and the American Southwest.

Entree prices: Hibachi steak, $26; grouper Creole, $23.

Atmosphere: Intimate and romantic, with interesting touches that include exposed brick walls and lighting from globed street lamps.

Wine list: A dozen wines are available by either the glass or bottle at $5.75 and $19, respectively ($8 and $21 for the sparkling wine). Some 40 other wines are generally under $35 except for the celebratory bottles.

Smoking: In the bar, which must be walked through to get to the dining rooms.

Hours: 5-9:30 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday and 5-10:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday.

Wheelchair access: Slight step up through front door.

Last updated: Wednesday, July 02, 2008