Foods

It's Not Delivery, It's Plastic Fragments: DiGiorno, California Pizza Kitchen Pizzas Recalled

Gut Check was just talking to ourselves the other day: "Self," we said, "it's been a while since we reported on any foods being recalled because of plastic contamination." So we ambled on over (virtually speaking) to the FDA's recall, withdrawal and safety alert website and, lo and behold!, there's ... More >>

Jilly's Cupcake Bar & Cafe Wins Cupcake Wars A Second Time

Congrats to Jilly's Cupcake Bar & Cafe (8509 Delmar Boulevard, Ladue; 314-993-5455), two time winner of Food Network's Cupcake Wars! Back in February, Jilly's cupcake chef, Casey Shiller, and its executive chef, Dana Holland, duked it out against other past competitors for a chance at redemption. Th ... More >>

Best Pies in St. Louis: A Roundup

This month has nothing to do with pies. There is no holiday in April (or May, even) when one is expected to eat pie. It's not National Pie Week or Celebrate Pie Day. It's not March 14 (National Pi Day) or January 23 (National Pie Day). So why are we writing about pie now? A reader bugged us about i ... More >>

The Ten Best Food Events in St. Louis This Weekend: April 19 to 21

See also: -Bike to Work Tomorrow, Get Free Coffee and Breakfast On the Way! -Saturday is Webster Groves Herb Society's Annual Herb Sale -Broadway Oyster Bar Invites You to Suck It at Crawfish Fest This Weekend -Celebrate The Sweet Divine's Grand Opening in Soulard Saturday Friday (Apr. 19): Bike ... More >>

The Ten Best Food Events in St. Louis This Weekend: April 19 to 21

Third Friday is here, which means Third Degree Glass Factory's Third Friday Free Party, an Around the World Wine Dinner at Missouri Botanical Gardens, and Trailnet's seasonal Bike to Breakfast. Read on for an array of ways to fill that plate this weekend. See also: -Bike to Work Tomorrow, Get Free ... More >>

Broadway Oyster Bar Invites You to Suck It at Crawfish Fest This Weekend

The mighty mud bug is the star of this month's food festival at Broadway Oyster Bar (736 South Broadway; 314-621-8811), and chef Brad Hagen is pulling out all the stops (and all the crawfish) to make this a feast worthy of the Big Easy. Gut Check spoke with Broadway Oyster Bar's Mary Moramarco to ... More >>

One of St. Louis' most talented chefs works in the Cheshire's basement. Time to let Basso's big dog bark.

Slideshow: Inside Basso at the Cheshire Inn

Pack a Restaurant Picnic for Your Next Visit to Busch Stadium

Gut Check loves us a day at the ballpark. And Gut Check loves us some ballpark food. Nachos? Bratwurst? Soft pretzels? Pretty much anything shellacked with orange cheese product? Yes, please. We ain't always caviar-and-Champagne snobs. Gut Check, however, doesn't loves us the cost of ballpark food. ... More >>

Fuel Up: A happy belly trumps an empty tank at BBQ ASAP

Slideshow: Inside BBQ ASAP on Manchester

Takaya or Leave Ya: Didn't New Asian get old, like, ten years ago?

Slideshow: Inside Takaya New Asian

5 Best Easter Candies of All Time

As Easter Sunday creeps closer, Gut Check dreams of baskets piled high with pastel-colored candies, chocolate shaped like baby animals and, oh sweet Jesus, Cadbury eggs. We remember well the ritual of sorting the bounty bestowed by the big, weird Easter Bunny: Would it be good stuff...or crap? Want ... More >>

Olive Boulevard Asian Eateries & Much More: An Updated Guide to Restaurants Along Olive, Westward From University City

St. Louis' neighborhoods are gems in their own right: full of history, great people and, as far as Gut Check is concerned, fantastic food. Each week we'll take you into a specific neighborhood and point you in the direction of the best places to grab some bites. View Olive Boulevard Asian Eateries ... More >>

Pi Pizzeria's "Grove" Pizza: One of 100 St. Louis Dishes You Must Eat Right Now

The Gut Check One Hundred is our accounting of the 100 dishes in St. Louis that you must eat right now. These are the best dishes at the newest restaurants and the newest dishes at the best restaurants. These are the 100 dishes that define St. Louis dining in 2013. Our list culminates this fall when ... More >>

The Secret to Fighting the Flu This Season? Eat Yer Fruits and Veggies! (Gut Check Tells You Where)

Lately, it seems like everyone Gut Check knows either has a cold, is recovering from a cold or is awaiting the arrival of a cold. Now, Gut Check's general recommendation for fighting off a cold is to dose a bowl of pho with twice as much Sriracha as you can stand and then chase it with half a bottle ... More >>

Five Star Burgers Makes Eater National's 25 Hottest Burgers List

Congrats to Steve Gontram and St. Louis' own Five Star Burgers (8125 Maryland Avenue; 314-720-4350) for serving one of the "25 Hottest Hamburgers in America Right Now," according to Eater National. Five Star's "Dad's Green Chile Cheeseburger" was singled out as a must-eat item, joining stellar burge ... More >>

Bar (& Grill) Hopping: The south side of St. Louis is a pub lover's paradise

Photos: Inside Schoemehl's South Side Grill

The Seven Best Barbecue Joints in St. Louis

Gut Check has been looking back on the Riverfront Times Best of St. Louis 2012, but we're also keeping an eye on the Best of St. Louis 2013 by nominating finalists for our awards this fall. To see hundreds more winners and finalists, suggest your own contenders and download the Riverfront Times Best ... More >>

Observe National Pancake Day Today at These 7 St. Louis Restaurants

Today, Tuesday, February 5, is National Pancake Day -- and no, it's not a fake holiday engineered by IHOP, though it does market the hell out of its celebratory free pancakes special. Nope, gulping down pancakes in February has much older roots. Next Tuesday, February 12, marks Shrove Tuesday, a med ... More >>

Home for Diner: Belly up to the Kitchen Sink for a burger or something a little more Louisiana-fied

Slideshow: Photos from Inside The Kitchen Sink

Family Tie: Trattoria Marcella gets a big Mia Sorella in Ballwin

Slideshow: See photos inside Marcella's Mia Sorella

12 Best Delmar Loop Restaurants To Visit During This Weekend's Loop Ice Carnival

Always a fan of DC Comics, Gut Check often imagines with glee what the aftermath of a visit from Mr. Freeze would look like. Fortunately for us this week's eighth annual Delmar Loop Ice Carnival on Saturday, January 19, should paint a pretty reliable picture. Yep, from 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. this fa ... More >>

Gut Check Chows Down on Imo's New Provel Bites

Riverfront Times restaurant critic Ian Froeb's animus for Provel is, let's face it, well documented. (He once famously summed up that "Provel is a processed cheese made from Swiss, provolone and cheddar cheeses. Sounds harmless, no? Sadly, it is considerably less than the sum of its parts.") Gut C ... More >>

PM BBQ Opens New Location

PM BBQ opened its new location at 161 Long Road in Chesterfield yesterday. The restaurant relocated from a very short distance away. Its original location, tucked into the shopping plaza at Long Road in Edison Avenue, closed at the end of last month. See Also: - "Best Beef Brisket" 2011 - "Ian Froe ... More >>

Andrew's Bayou Ribs Joins St. Louis Food Truck Fleet

A couple of eagle-eyed readers let me know about a new food truck that has joined the St. Louis fleet: Andrew's Bayou Ribs. According to its Facebook page, the truck hit the St. Louis streets at the beginning of November. It was at St. Louis University on Wednesday and downtown today. We've reached ... More >>

Korea Opportunity: West county's fast-food options just got a little more interesting

21 Best Halloween Candies Of All Time

Gut Check isn't so old that we don't remember the hierarchy of Halloween candy: i.e., good stuff and crap. While neighbors who neglect to buy the best sweets suffer at the hands of t.p.-ing teenagers, Gut Check's house remains unscathed. Stay on the good side of neighborhood ne'er do wells by dolin ... More >>

21 Worst Halloween Candies Of All Time

Gut Check isn't so old that we don't remember the hierarchy of Halloween candy: i.e., good stuff and crap. While neighbors who neglect to buy the best sweets suffer at the hands of t.p.-ing teenagers, Gut Check's house remains unscathed. Stay on the good side of neighborhood ne'er do wells by avoid ... More >>

Cock-a-Doodle 'Cue: At the Gobble Stop Smokehouse, it's all poultry, all the time

Slideshow: The Dishes of Gobble Stop Smokehouse

Askinosie Chocolate Wins International Chocolate Awards, Entered In World Finals

In June Gut Check spoke with Askinosie Chocolate founder Shawn Askinosie after the Springfield-based company won its fifth silver Sofi Award from the National Association of Specialty Food Trade for its Dark Milk Chocolate Black Licorice CollaBARation Bar. Last week Askinosie announced it won thre ... More >>

Best of Missouri Market Preview -- Including Seven Show-Me State Products to Taste Test

If you're looking for the the cream of the crop from the Show-Me State, head down to the Missouri Botanical Garden (4344 Shaw Boulevard; 314-577-9400) this weekend. The annual Best of Missouri Market will take place Saturday, October 6, and Sunday, October, 7, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The market will a ... More >>

Wait, Should We Be Eating Organic Food or Not?

Researchers at Stanford University published a study earlier this week that knocked proponents of organic food on their collective ear. Turns out that organic food, while far more expensive than conventionally-produced food, isn't any healthier. But now that the foodies have had a chance to read th ... More >>

Taos Hunters: The Southwest slings diner grub with a side of New Mexican

The Carbondale Connection to Seattle's Signature Hot Dog

Hanna Raskin, the restaurant critic for our sister paper Seattle Weekly, has just published an oral history of Seattle's signature street food, the "Seattle Dog," a hot dog topped with onions and cream cheese. As it happens, the hot dog's history has a local-ish connection.

J. Gilbert's hooks our taste buds and our nostrils

Want Guys With That? Hamburger Mary's strolls into St. Louis with LGBT flair — and food to match.

Jac's or Better: Sassy JAC's kicks it Southern style in Soulard

Mexican Metamorphosis: If you thought Half & Half's name refers to breakfast and lunch, you don't know the half of it

Built to Suit: BrickTop's is based in Nashville, but it hits home at Plaza Frontenac

The Five Best Spots for Comfort Food in St. Louis

Selecting Riverfront Times' Best of St. Louis 2011 was no picnic. Choosing the winner meant several worthy candidates would go unmentioned -- until now. In this Gut Check series, we are chewing our way through notable runners up in a number of categories. To see hundreds more winners and finalists a ... More >>

Busch Stadium's "St. Louis Dog" Among Baseball's "Craziest" Hot Dogs, Apparently

The "St. Louis Dog" is this year's signature item at the Food Network's concession stand at Busch Stadium, a quarter-pound, all-beef hot dog topped with barbecue sauce, shredded Provel cheese and crumbled Red Hot Riplets. When Gut Check sampled the "St. Louis Dog" last month, we weren't impressed, e ... More >>

2012 St. Louis Food Blogger Bake Sale April 28 at Sappington Farmers' Market

Warning: The mental images produced by the following descriptions of items offered at the 2012 St. Louis Food Blogger Bake Sale might cause uncontrollable cravings and excessive salivation. The second annual St. Louis event is part of a national effort to benefit Share Our Strength, the nation's lea ... More >>

Oh, Mickey's: 'Cue so fine, it blows food critic's mind

The Veggielante Surveys Schlafly Bottleworks

Destination: Schlafly Bottleworks (7260 Southwest Avenue; 314-241-2337) Neighborhood: Maplewood Cuisine: American, Contemporary Overview: The name Schlafly is likely to spark a craving for some quality microbrews, but beer isn't the only thing it has to offer St. Louis vegetarians.

The Ten Best Dessert Spots in St. Louis

Selecting Riverfront Times' Best of St. Louis 2011 was no picnic. Choosing the winner meant several worthy candidates would go unmentioned -- until now. In this Gut Check series, we are chewing our way through notable runners up in a number of categories. To see hundreds more winners and finalists a ... More >>

Too Good to Be Stew: Haunted by the memory of a Pakistani delicacy

Best and Worst Easter Candy Countdown: Hershey's Solid Milk Chocolate Eggs, Best

As Easter Sunday creeps closer, Gut Check dreams of baskets piled high with pastel-colored candies, chocolate shaped like baby animals and, oh sweet Jesus, Cadbury eggs. We remember well the ritual of sorting the bounty bestowed by the big, weird Easter Bunny: Would it be good stuff...or crap? Want ... More >>

Best and Worst Easter Candy Countdown: Jolly Rancher Sour Bunnies, Worst

As Easter Sunday creeps closer, Gut Check dreams of baskets piled high with pastel-colored candies, chocolate shaped like baby animals and, oh sweet Jesus, Cadbury eggs. We remember well the ritual of sorting the bounty bestowed by the big, weird Easter Bunny: Would it be good stuff...or crap? Want ... More >>

Pink Slime: You Know You Want It -- Here's Where to Get It!

It's easy to say you want to know all about what's in your food and where it comes from. You know -- farm-to-table, sustainable agriculture, heirloom parsnips and all that. But we all know that sometimes our go-to guy at the farmers' market is fresh outta parsnips, heirloom or otherwise, and more to ... More >>

Jackpot! With Epic Pizza & Subs, ex-casino honcho Todd George goes from counting dough to baking it

USDA Requires Nutritional Facts for Raw Meat and Poultry

On Thursday, March 1, a new rule implemented by the United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service requires that packaged raw ground or chopped meat and poultry be labeled with nutritional information. The rule, which was originally announced on December 29, 2010 ... More >>