St. Louis Bar & Grill has several locations in the GTA; the one we visited was at 595 Bay St. in the Atrium on Bay, although it’s actually closer to Yonge. It borders the north side of the Atrium on Edward St. A block n. of Dundas. It has a modern interior with bluish lighting and large-screen TVs, is not too loud and was pleasant enough.
St. Louis has three AYCE specials. Two are occasional, one of which is inactive as of this writing, and one is ongoing but only on Mondays, so call first to find out before going. They are:
1) Wingsanity / AYCE Wings + Fries – Mon.-Thurs - $23.99
2) Ribsanity / AYCE Ribs + Fries & Coleslaw – $27.99 (currently not running)
3) All You Can Meat Mondays / AYCE Boneless Wings + Fries or Nachos or Veg. - $20.99
Wingsanity / AYCE Wings
Mishy had sweet Asian barbecue and I had mango chipotle dry rub for starters. We both liked our own better than we liked each others’ and I really liked mine! They even have malt vinegar for the fries, and we both loved the fries even though it's not what we came for. In fact, they were probably among the best fries we've ever had as they were not oily at all, and crisp and delicious and light. They are beefsteak fries and we ended up buying them from our grocery store regularly after this. There is only one round with fries; after this only wings are offered.
For round two we tried the plant-based wings, buffalo ranch and Cajun and both were excellent... I would never have known they weren’t real chicken.
Ribsanity / AYCE Ribs
Ribsanity is AYCE full/half-rack pork ribs with several varieties of BBQ sauce. First order is a full rack of ribs with fries and coleslaw. Only half-rack ribs are available from this point on, so make the sides last. A "devil's pint" 23 oz which is just under two pints can be had with this order for $6.99, but only Molson Canadian (yech!) and Coors Light can be ordered, so I opted for a Diet Pepsi instead. It’s $3.49 and of course not AYCD given the locale... selling drinks is the entire business model.
Fries, as before with the chicken, were so good they were the ones that inspired Mishy and I to buy beefsteak fries for home. Coleslaw was certainly less than inspirational, but at least it was something green to go along with all that pork and provide some fibre so I tried to appreciate it. It didn't have very much flavour though, and given the strong flavours of everything else, it need more sauce to keep up.
A full rack is a lot larger than I expected which covers a bar plate end-to-end and weighs a couple of pounds. The ribs are absolutely delicious, and so tender, fall-off-the-bone perfectly cooked and less fatty than I expected... and much tastier. Smokey BBQ is certainly smoky and was delicious with sweet and mustardy hints, a really great start which I am glad of as it was the full rack. Memphis BBQ was a smoky/sweet mix with neither really standing out. I had it last and definitely preferred the other sauces.
Two sauces are special for this promo: Carolina Gold BBQ is a well-balanced mustard-based sauce with only a hint of the mustard flavor otherwise it would overpower. It was quite good. Pineapple Chipotle BBQ I figured I would like the best just by the description, and I wasn't disappointed. It was delicious and not excessively sweet and full of flavour.
After four rounds, I didn't get to try Mississippi BBQ and Louis '92 BBQ because I was full!
All You Can Meat Mondays / AYCE Boneless Wings
This option also has a choice, unlike the others, of either fries, nachos and salsa, or vegetable medley. I went for the latter. Like with the ribs, only one side is offered per session, not refillable, so make it last through the main course chicken refills. Many sauces and dry rubs are available, the same as the AYCE wings.
Smokey BBQ sauce was sweet and not overly and not hot with a nice finish and wonderful strong smokey flavour. Creamy dill dipping sauce is included with each round, and was delicious; I tried it with both the chicken and veg. Mango chipotle was awesome, as it was with the wings, not too salty and a wonderful subtle flavour blend. Garlic parmesan is a creamy sauce and was also excellent with an intense flavour that was also well balanced. Buffalo ranch was good, although I seem to have lost my taste for it over the years... it was an interesting flavour with all sorts of other hints and quite interesting. Once the lemon pepper dry rub arrived the sauce packets stopped, but it was another excellent flavour balance. That was enough for me anyway.
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All of the offerings were better than I expected, although the pop is rather dilute and overpriced and the rather mediocre coleslaw didn’t help. But all the main courses were still quite enjoyable and a good value, even the ribs as it could have been easily twice as much from a equivalent dedicated BBQ house for the same quantity... if one can handle the monotony of the repeating main course albeit with differing sauces (which I certainly can.)
Rating 8 - 8.5 / 10
