Retreat Gastropub — Restaurant in St. Louis

I have been a customer of Retreat Gastropub since November 2015 (it opened in October 2015). When I first had dinner here I was truly impressed by everything: interior design and decoration, politeness of the staff, menu and food quality. They had/ still have some unusual items on the menu that I loved trying out, and was never ever disappointed. HOWEVER, this changed about a couple of months ago, when I went there with my husband for his birthday dinner. He ordered a Farmhouse burger, something he had a lot of times before; I ordered Salmon Cake Sandwich, which I had once before. I took a bite of his burger and was very disappointed because this burger tasted nothing like the one he had before: meat was very dry and unseasoned (not underseasoned but UNseasoned), the spread they used for buns was not nearly as tasty as it was before, and white sauce that comes with fries did not have the same taste either. My salmon cake was also very very dry, and overcooked. I went back a few weeks after that, and had Mac and Cheese and Brussels and Cauliflower which were both fine, but Mac and Cheese was NOTHING SPECIAL- I could make it taste 10x better in my own kitchen. What's the point of eating out if you yourself can cook same items in your own home for much cheaper price and better quality? It was just Mac and Cheese, that's it. Bland. Today, we went there again, and got disappointed again. My husband had Artichoke flatbread (we had that before), and I had House salad with steak. This flatbread drastically shrunk in size since the last time we had it (late Spring 2017), and it was literally paper thin. It had two little specks of goat cheese on it, and a few pieces of fried artichoke, almost no sauce at all, very dry and looked kind of poor and sad, almost like a 5-yr old kid made it. My salad was horrible- it was very oily and soggy- like it was made an hour earlier and waited on someone to order it. Steak in the salad was stinky! Last time I ordered it the steak was fresh off the grill, and you could see it was left to rest a few minutes before it being cut into strips. Well, this time the steak was pre-cut and then cooked, and meat tasted like it was left to rot a little before it was put on grill. I am not planning to be their regular customer anymore, but will most likely come back in a few months to check if they managed to change anything for the better. I am very sad to see food in this restaurant go down, because I absolutely loved it! Another thing- when it comes to staff, they either hire whoever or these people truly believe that they should be the center of attention for some reason- they were all very loud, making jokes amongst themselves, and behaved like they're in their own house. Very unprofessional. Last time the waitress that served our table was not friendly AT ALL, she behaved like a robot- no smile, no personality. I like the fact that they don't bother you and kind of leave you to finish your meal in peace and don't come every 5 minutes to ask if everything is OK, but it wouldn't kill them to smile at their customers from time to time. They just seem very arrogant. For the price tag one is paying when eating here, Retreat Gastropub should take a good look at every aspect of hospitality business and make things right. Please fix these problems; I want to be a happy...

After reaching out on social media and getting no response, I wanted to share my experience here so people know what they may be getting themselves into when visiting this restaurant. First off, the food was delicious. I'd love to go back and eat again, but after my experience I'm hesitant.

My friend and I showed up on a weekday (Thursday I think) at 5 without a reservation. The hostess said there were reservations at 6:15 inside, so we could eat inside if we're good with being finished before then, otherwise the sunroom and outside were open. It was one of those 100+ degree days, so we chose the sunroom. We ordered drinks and a bunch of apps to split, and all were delicious. We decided to order another round of drinks to enjoy while still working on our food. Shortly after getting those drinks, our waitress swings by the table and says it's getting close to 6:30 and asks how we'd like to pay. My friend and I look at each other, extremely confused, and tell the waitress we don't know what she's talking about, they said the reservations were for inside. The waitress said this isn't the first time the hostess has not told guests about reservations they'd need to be finished before. The waitress went to talk to the manager, and their only solution was to have us go outside on the patio in the 100 degree heat. We declined since it would've been so uncomfortable and just paid and left. I chugged 3/4 of my drink and we left uneaten food on our plates. The manager never came by, they never offered anything else for the rude interruption of our meal, nothing.

I loved the food, but I'm wary of returning since I don't want to be kicked out of the restaurant mid-meal again. If you do decide to dine here, triple check with the hostess and waitress before you...

My husband and I have certainly found a new favorite! We visited for dinner with our friend Ms. S earlier this week and had some fantastic food that has convinced us we will need to return again and again!

To start, we shared some appetizers. The cheese plate was fine - it came with a jam, peanuts, brittle, sun-dried tomatoes and bread. But I think the candied bacon and brussel sprouts stole the show! I was worried the bacon might have a hard candy shell. But instead, it is nice and soft and covered with what I would call a sweet BBQ rub. It is served with thin, long crackers. So Yummy! The brussel sprouts were delicious with the saltiness of the romesco sauce. And while I'm usually hesitant to mix my brussel sprouts with sweet flavors, I quite enjoyed the apple that was cut into little matchsticks and lightly sprinkled on top.

My friend Ms. S ordered the Kale Caesar Salad and said she enjoyed it - she mentioned that it didn't taste overly fishy, but just right!

My hubby and I shared the Farm Burger. It had two "smashed"(/thin), juicy patties, bacon that was seasoned in some festive way that I can't quite put my finger on and a very easy egg. (The menu says it also included a cheese sauce which I can't remember seeing/tasting.) We absolutely loved the burger! The patties reminded me of The Dam, but with swanky, fancy bacon on top. The fries were also quite delicious! We enjoyed using the fries to wipe the left-over burger juices off the plate.

For dessert, the bread pudding. An enormous bowl was sat down in front of us. Inside was a huge piece of bread pudding that was absolutely swimming in a POOL of CARAMEL!!! Sitting on top was a petite scoop of pecan ice cream. This was, by far, the best bread pudding we...