My Mom came down to Saint Louis to help me move out (she's a packing genius, everything I owned in the apartment was packing and ready to go in like 3 hours), and she was kind enough to take my boyfriend and I out to dinner. I got to pick the place so I decided on Pastaria. Pastaria opened last year in downtown Clayton and got rave reviews for its homemade pasta and unique dishes. But its notorious for not taking reservations and being really expensive. So I thought on a Tuesday night this would be the perfect place to go. We weren't disappointed! When we got there they told us it would be a 20 minute wait, but a table opened up and we were seated in 5. The menu had a lot of extremely interesting pastas of all different shapes and flavors, as well as a large pizza selection. We decided to order risotto balls to start because every review of the place raved about them (below). We were not disappointed! They were so creamy and absolutely amazing. They came with two excellent dipping sauces, a garlic one and a marinara (which was so good it made me wish I'd ordered something with marinara in it for my main course). I mixed them together to make an even better sauce.
For my main meal I ended up with the pistachio ravioli (above), the only vegetarian pasta on the menu. It. Was. Amazing. The pistachio, ricotta, lemon flavors melding solo well. The sweetness of the cheese and nuts were balanced by the sour lemon in a combination that I loved. That plate was spotless by the time I was finished, every stray nut snapped up. For dessert we decided to try the homemade gelato, though we were so eager to eat it I forgot to take photos. My boyfriend and I each got a small with two flavors in it. I got the pumpkin cheesecake and my boyfriend got basil and cardimon (It's been awhile since we were there so I forgot the other flavor that I each got :P ). I have to say it's the best gelato I've had in years, and definitely one of the top two I've had in the U.S. The lady who was working at the counter was incredibly nice. She let us sample whatever we wanted, and gave us helpful advice and suggestions about flavors. A wonderful dessert to top off a wonderful evening.
Thoughts on this Restaurant:
- Our food came out incredibly quickly, we tried to stretch the evening out with the appetizer and dessert. And we succeeded and we were the last patrons in the restaurant. We thought this was most likely because the place is usually super busy and they are used to moving things along. This is a good thing if we ever decide to go on a weekend.
- As expected it was a bit pricey, but not as outrageous as I thought. And I'd definitely go just to get gelato!
- The gelato was not just amazing it was fun too. The way it works is you go up to counter and taste and pick flavors at an ice cream shop. Then they bring it out to you in fancy bowls to your table. So fun.
It was a wonderful night and a great place. I thought it lived up to the hype. And the fact that we didn't have to wait probably helped out with that ;)
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