The Brass Rail — Restaurant in O’Fallon

I work not too far from the Brass Rail and I was HIGHLY recommended by my boss to try this place out ! With in weeks of trying it the first time I had already been there multiple times because of the amazing food! MY favorite dish was the Cajun chicken and shrimp pasta. I am Italian, so I have had my share of homemade pastas that were the BEST , so it saddens me to say this. . . Me and my 5 co-workers ordered from there on 6/8/16 and two of us ordered there regular Chicken Philly and the rest of us ordered the Cajun Chicken and Shrimp Pasta since that was my fav and I highly recommended it to them as well. I went to go pick up the food, food was ready, no wait, nice environment, nice staff who assisted me. Got back to work and passed out all the food orders and finally sat down to begin to eat my pasta as I had been waiting for the one day out of the week we usually order EVERY week spending at least $70-$100 all together. All of a sudden as I'm about to dig in, my co-worker comes running to my office , disgusted, and yelling "There is a bug in my pasta!!!" In disbelief, I ran over to see for myself if it was really a bug, and SURE ENOUGH it was a medium sized bug with antennas that you couldn't miss in the pasta! Although everyone who ordered pasta immediately rummaged through there meals to see if there were anymore and didn't find any, we still were very disgusted and did not want to partake in the lunch we ordered AT ALL! My boss, who ordered the food, immediately called back up to the location and explained the scenario to a young lady (don't remember her name exactly) and she was not helpful at all and then put on her manager (ROY) to speak with my boss in which he said we would need to bring our food back up to the restaurant in order to get our money back because he didn't believe us and thought maybe we were trying to get free food. SMH! We gladly have paid for $10-$12 meals PLENTY of times before so that was not the case AT ALL, if anything this was our new "favorite lunch spot" before anything and we wanted to support their business. My boss mentioned how we wouldn't be able to clock back out and run the food back up to them and the manager said he would send someone out to us to collect our ENTIRE order before they could return our money, which is understandable to investigate, however. . . the tone he used and the way it was said was if so we were trying to simply get a free meal. They came to pick the food up, my boss pointed out the bug to the driver and was told our money would be refunded to all of us. Now we have to wait more than likely 3-4 business days since we all paid with credit/debit cards which sucks even worse ! After, my boss was disgusted with the bug in the food and the way the situation was handled by the workers and management there he wrote a review before this one, after which, the manager called him BACK and mentioned the review he wrote and said there was nothing he could do, he was frustrated and blamed his vendor for the food and continued to mention on how he should take his review down and they have done all they can ! Talk about crazy ! I have been to many of places, but NEVER have took out the time to write ONE review until NOW because this is very upsetting. In my opinion, they still have good food and mistakes happen in kitchens, however, having a bug in your food leaves a nasty taste in...

I'm not normally one to type out a bad review. But I gotta be honest here. We've eaten at the Brass Rail multiple times and multiple times it's been really really good. Except when I order a steak.

I can order a medium steak anywhere and get a medium steak. Doesn't matter if it's a top scale place like Tonies or Kris's or less upscale like Texas Roadhouse, or even cooked in my own home, a medium steak is always the same, deep pink/red center, no purple. But when I ordered a medium filet mignon from the Brass Rail (twice) I've been told that I needed to order medium well. I'm not sure if they have a hard time cooking it because it's so thick or maybe they just don't know what medium is or maybe I got unlucky twice but I feel like if every other steak place in town can cook my steak the same when I say medium why am I being told to order medium well?

This isn't the first time I've been frustrated after eating at the Brass Rail. Their food is 90% of the time fantastic. But sometimes the hostesses and serving staff are rude. I don't necessarily think it's intentional but if you work in a service industry, you have to have your game face on ALL the time. So when we come in, greeting us should be immediate yet sometimes we don't even get a "hello" we wait 5 minutes for the hostess or server to seat us and another 5 for a drink order. And there have been times when we've walked in and the hostess is chatting on with another hostess and continues until they reach a stopping point instead of immediately stopping whatever it is they are doing to provide great customer service. I just feel a lot of the staff is snobby. Not all, just a dominant portion. And I don't mean to be offensive or rude, I just want to share my perspective.

We used to come here a lot but I never have an above average experience. If the staff were overly friendly, and did things like taking off a drink sku if I had to send my steak back, just generally above and beyond nice customer service things, it would go a long way with customers, I believe.

Once our brass balls were sent under done, we didn't complain, we did notice but it's just fried cheese and the manager on duty brought us an entirely new order, some how knowing they were under done. He didn't wait for us to complain,( I'm assuming he found out somehow, maybe the cook staff or waitress mentioned it) and went above and beyond to make sure we had a great experience.

Don't rely on your great food to keep customers. We want customer service too. And don't undercook my steak and tell me...

This is a MUST when my husband and I travel to St. Louis. The steak is so good it is mind blowing. Seriously it doesn't make sense and defies logic on how excellent the steak is here. Equally as good is the Cajun Shrimp and Chicken Pasta. The Monterey Shrimp appetizer is excellent as well. Please do yourself a favor and give this place a try. You definitely won't regret it. Keep doing what you're doing Brass Rail. You nail it consistently EVERY SINGLE TIME!

Update: Recently visited this establishment after a long break due to the pandemic. Met the new owner, April who was very sweet and professional. As always they knocked it out of the park with service, selections and impeccable quality of their food. We requested the manager to let him know how amazing our experience continues to be when we visit. Jamie came to our table and remembered us. How wonderful is that when one of the restaurants you adore remember and appreciate you as their customer. This continues to be an absolute MUST stop when we're in this area.

Update (3/23/23): This place is STELLAR - do you hear me?!? The food and service is to absolutely die for. My husband and I were in town for personal reasons and as I've repeatedly stated above this is a MUST when we visit. To the point where we'd delay our return home to eat here. Jamie, Ryan, Alexis and Ellie were truly at the top of their game - as always. It is extremely difficult to run a restaurant with consistently great service, high and consistent quality of food and very caring staff, but they make it appear effortless. We ordered smoked wings, filet w/ loaded mashed potatoes 🥔, sautéed spinach and Monterey Shrimp, Brass Balls (spicy cheese appetizer) and IT WAS ALL AMAZING 👏! Everything was flawlessly executed and this is why we return to this establishment time and time again. Everyone at Brass Rail we truly appreciate you, salute you and adore you. Please keep up the EXCELLENT work you're doing. Thank you so much for giving us your best EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. We can't say enough about this wonderful...