3 /5
Média de Avaliação
★
★
★
My boyfriend and I came to this place during our visit to St. Louis after reading rave reviews about it online. We went in well-dressed and excited with high expectations, but unfortunately were left feeling extremely disappointed and underwhelmed. Dining at the restaurant definitely taught us a lot about the ozark history. I have a lot of respect for the time and enthusiasm the owner put into researching the history, arranging youtube videos, and conveying this information to the guests. His concerns about the environment and zero-waste efforts are also very laudable. His direct interactions with all of the guests and attempts to answer questions were refreshing. The food, however, was very lacking and mediocre. The concept of watching your food being made is fun and exciting. Understandably, they can’t make everything and plenty is prepared in advance. Except they really didn’t seem to make much of anything at all. A few grilled mushrooms here, and a delicate but also pompous plating there and that’s it. I know there’s probably a kitchen in the back and they work throughout the day as most kitchens do, but this gaudy element of pseudo showmanship missed a serious mark. Again, that’s fine. It’s an aesthetic and part of the bulrush experience. What annoys me is the price tag and the faint whiff of haughtiness that comes with it. The kitchen hands also looked apathetic, disinterested, and lacked focus. They didn’t look like professional chefs, just professional food assemblers. I did not trust that they knew to prepare food properly and that was evident in what was eventually served. The food was either too plain, too sour, too salty, or overall a very big disappointment. The steak had so many big chunks of fat in it that I was only able to eat about half of it. The poissants were cute but definitely not something I would pay that much money for, especially given that there were only about two small pieces of it on our plates. The beets, brussel sprouts, asparagus, fried onions that we were served, I can find and reproduce in my own kitchen. For the amount of money we paid, I expected a lot more flavor, unique ingredients, and creativity. I asked the owner why Ozark and he admitted it was an entrepreneurial strategy to stand out. He loved to repeat to our audience that night that “no one else” is doing it! Well when you taste the food you can kinda see why? I can’t deny though that the chefs know how to make something look appetizing in pictures. That’s what initially attracted us to the restaurant. The pretty platings and colorfully spectacular arrangements were what got us in the door. The experience has been worth it in the sense that for all that we paid for, we got a good lesson to not eat with our eyes, and a funny story to tell our friends back at home.