stlbites.com – st. louis food blog of bill burge

A Peek at Araka

Oct 15, 2007 restaurants, reviews

Menus and quick thoughts after the jump.

I forgot my wallet today and in it lied my badge which I need to get into various areas of the building at my job. Fortunately, Ellie works close, and as she was going to bring it to me at lunch, I instead twisted her arm (easily of course) into meeting me at Araka so I could score the elusive menu with pricing that the Chowhounder’s covet.

Boy am I glad we did.

First of all, wow, what a beautiful restaurant. Someone spent some serious money to make this restaurant happen and it shows. It has easily set a new standard as one of the coolest in St. Louis, and even the flat panels at the bar didn’t detract as badly as most because they were mostly hidden from view around a curve from the regular dining area. As for seating, the restaurant has one level at bar level, a recessed area in front of the kitchen that is open but behind glass, and an upstairs that appeared to probably be for private dining.

Service was outstanding, and while I could easily chalk that up to the lack of diners in their early luncheon days, my biggest reason for thinking so was simply that they properly served plated foods from the right and took them from the left. It’s the kind of thing that isn’t a big deal to most people, but for those of us who do notice, it’s a little touch that leaves a lasting impression about a restaurant’s attention to detail.

And for those of you thinking to yourself “he’ll hate the food” or “Bill doesn’t seem to like the food at any restaurant.” It’s just not true, because the three things we had here today were truly outstanding.

That soup pictured above is listed on the menu as Butternut squash and apple soup, crème fraiche, pumpkin seed oil. Silky smooth, and with the apples adding just the right amount of sweetness, it also had pepitas. I don’t know why they didn’t mention them because their nuttiness was definitely what took the soup from being simply very good and catapulted it into the elite class of best soups I’ve ever had. It was just fantastic, and at only $5, we were flabbergasted at the quantity. They could easily have given me half as much and I wouldn’t have balked at the price one bit. I can’t wait to eat it again.

I also had the Wild salmon, white beans, rapini, preserved lemon. What could have been a flat dish overwhelmed by the bitterness of rapini was brought to life by the sweet acidity of the preserved lemon. Just like the soup it was uncomplicated, full of flavor, and perfectly seasoned.

Ellie had the Smoked turkey panini, brie, apricot butter, spicy mustard. When they tell you something is hot at Araka, you best listen, because this sandwich was on fire. It was so nice to have a bite of panini where the thing was left on the grill long enough to actually get warm all the way through. The apricot was a nice change of pace for the classic combination of turkey and brie. So often served with apples, it is always a home run if coupled with the right acidic sweetness, and it was nice to see someone do something different for a change.

Overall, the name of the game at Araka, at least on this quick luncheon visit, seems to be balance. They have it in spades, and I can only hope that a full dinner delivers in the same manner.

A quick note on the wine list: I was handed the full list without the wines by the glass initially, and it was another area where you could quickly see money had been spent. They are certainly gearing themselves up for awards, and I only wished I had had more time to peruse it, as well as the knowledge to fairly comment. It was impressive. Wines by the glass were plentiful (about 15) ranging from $8 to I believe $15. Our server incidentally told us that the by the glass offerings had already changed quite a bit because their hope is that they will one day offer 50 wines by the glass. (That’s not a typo, it’s fifty.) I’d love to see that, but I’m not sure many places, even outside of St. Louis, can sustain that.

Here is a PDF of the menu, both lunch and dinner, with pricing.

Here are photos of the lunch menu the way it actually appeared today:

Tags: Araka, beautiful-restaurant, butternut-squash-soup, Clayton