Grace Pick-up Window — Restaurant in St. Louis

I have to say, I was excited for this one having just moved St Louis. It was one of the places I had earmarked to try out. The location's great, right in the Grove where there's cool vibe and a lot of good places to eat. Place itself is kind of cool, sort of Boho-Pinteresty vibe. It also smells great as you walk up.

Unfortunately, the reputation and the vibe didn't quite match the experience. Most of the staff feels pretty disinterested in being there. There are a couple guys that stood out, and they seem to be the ones doing all the cleanup and maintaining the place. Placing an order was not what I would call joyful.

Perhaps I just expect too much, but you know, a little smile or even feigning interest in helping somebody while they place their order would be welcome. No guidance whatsoever for a first-timer and really no interest at all in whether we ordered or not. Oh well, at least the food's going to be great. It smells great.

Not so much. It wasn't bad by any means, but it was definitely not what I expected. The ribs were, interesting. Dry rub and decently cooked, fairly moist and decent flavor to them. But they were a bit salty and the "barbecue sauce" that came with him was one of the strangest things I've ever tasted. I couldn't tell if they were going for an Asian sweet and sour or a Carolina vinegar base? It was just odd. Not bad, just odd. I'm kind of glad they were out of the full rack so I was forced to get a half rack. I'm not sure I would have wanted to eat a full rack.

My wife got the chicken fried chicken which looked amazing, but man was that salty. Again not completely terrible, you can tell there was some good flavors underneath the salt. It was just really oversalted.

We thought for sure the peach cobbler shake would make up for the other two, but when that was delivered the girl delivering it said "we were out of whipped cream so we didn't put any on there" as she put the shakedown on the table. No real apology or any other option or anything, just kind of "there you go, sorry about your bad luck."

I know many people love this place, so it could have been a bad day. I think we'll give it another try in a month or two, but for this first visit it was definitely underwhelming. I think a friendlier, more attentive staff would have made a huge difference.

*On another note, the little hot dog window across the street was great. I was still hungry after Grace so I jumped over there and grabbed it Frito dog. A little pricey, but very tasty and it's owned by a young entrepreneur. I like helping young...

Ugh, this place. I love the idea of it, especially in a to-go heavy pandemic life. The chicken is very good, certainly in the top 3 in the city (I favor Southern above this, and I find Byrd & Barrel to be quite close - this is probably a touch better as I find the other to be too salty sometimes.)

The tenders by the pound are an exceptionally good deal. At this time they are $12/lb, with (supposedly) two included sauces. Truly a steal for this quality.

However, lots of other details are misses. In the past, they offered a whole selection of sauces, now tenders simply come with ranch - supposedly "two sauces" for a lb, per the online menu, though my last order contained just the one. It's a decent ranch for this purpose, light and tangy, not at all cloyingly heavy. But I find the loss of options to be a downgrade, and the absent mindedness of 2-3tbsp of sauce for 8-9 tenders really detracts.

Mac and cheese is reasonably good - not reinventing the wheel or mastering any techniques, but a totally decent version. Greens are a bit salty, but overall acceptable. Cornbread is painfully dry, not to mention a poor value - about a 2.5 square inch serving for $2.5-3, depending how many sides you're buying.

A blueberry hand pie looked and sounded lovely online, but turned out to be completely grease soaked. While I am not shy about chowing on some deep fried goodies, this was so wet it was translucent, with a flavor more of the fat it was fried in than of pastry or blueberry. To be fair, ordering a deep fried dessert to go was partly my bad. As this thing was invented in a to-go only time, I was hopeful for an elevated version of the packaged supermarket or donut shop hand pie, while what I got was a...

Grace Meat Three was voted Best Chicken in St.Louis, not sure if it was Feast or Sauce Magazine. Today was the day we tried it out, first, if you go before 5 pm there is little or no traffic to deal with thank God. We ordered the Half a Chicken Orginal as they offer Spicy too for those who prefer Spicy. The Chicken was so tasty. Not greasy at all and the Breading was nice and crunchy, but not too crunchy. The flavor was so good not sure what spices they use, the inside was so moist and delicious. They give you sauce with the Chicken, a Texas slice of Bread, and Pickles too. The sides were just as good, only disappointed they didn't have their Whipped Garlic Mashed Potatoes. I opted for the Smoked Asparagus, Macaroni, and Cheese along with Cornbread. Asparagus was so tasty with the smoke flavor and cooked to perfection, not overdone or undone definitely recommend it as a side. The Mac & Cheese could be a little creamery and hot, but not a bad side. Cornbread, lordy it was so yummy the honey taste perfect and was not crumbly so great to be able to cut it to my size. The large piece that's for sure a great side to choose. Prices are reasonable, the staff was warm & knowledgeable in their job by suggesting another selection to save money. The biggest thing I loved they are for sure eco-friendly with their containers Kudos to them for caring. Overall fabulous food, we ordered take out I can only imagine how good the food is dining in. Sorry no pictures of the sides, I was in too much of a hurry to eat, ha ha. Next time for sure, but didn't forget the Chicken, phew. Half a bird...