Sassafras — Restaurant in St. Louis

What an utter downgrade. They tried renovating to make a new and improved visitor center at the MO Botanical Gardens, spent millions on it, have several large "Purina Visitors Center" signs all over the brand new glass building in which they have fake flowers all over the ceiling, and yet they ripped out all the magnolia trees and every ounce of foliage around it, and now have metal signs basically saying what they're going to plant there but haven't. On top of it, tried to take my mother out for a good lunch at the cafe and after a 45 minutes wait where everyone who came in after us got served before us (and one other table that had been there longer than we had), they served us cold quiche that was runny and not cooked all the way through. The nearby gift shop was a joke compared to the old one, hardly any plants to buy that didn't look like they were already dying, and their poor employees at the register had to use a beat up book of barcodes that would barely scan in order to get half of what we bought rung up (one of the sales associates couldn't even get the computer to let her log in). But yes, by all means, make the ceiling lights look like flowers rather than actually selling any. Maybe go back to...

I ate here during their brunch hours and I was impressed by their offerings. I opted to get the Belgian waffle with pecans, fresh berries, syrup, and whipped butter. It also came with a side of pineapple, watermelon, and cantaloupe slices. It was better than I expected. However, what I didn't enjoy was that they mixed small pieces of crushed pecans into the waffle mix. This results in every other bite of waffle feeling like you're biting a small rock because the texture of the pecans were very hard and kinda hurt my teeth. I didn't order anything else, so I can't comment on their other offerings. I wouldn't get the waffle again, but it's wasn't the worst thing I've eaten. Prices were about what you'd expect, it was about $10. It's a good option if you don't want to leave the garden. Employees were...

Service was awful, food was very slow (took over 45 mins) and arrived cold, and order was wrong. Not sure how else they could screw this up to be honest.

You know what's not great about a grilled cheese? When it arrives cold so it's basically a hunk of cheese wrapped in soggy bread.

The value is atrocious as you get about half the food you think you will for the privilege of paying twice the price you should pay.

Another plus to going here is if you miss the days when you used to work in a restaurant you can relive it because you have to clean your own table if you want to find a clean one to eat at.

Replace this place with vending machines and it would improve...