Pasteria

One of the perks of my new work location is being able to visit restaurants in the Clayton area, which now includes Pasteria! Even though there was a 30 minute wait at lunch, the hostess was very apologetic, which surprised me since there has been a wait ever since the restaurant opened.

Luckily, this gave me plenty of time to study the menu although I’ve been reading a lot of reviews and quizzing friends as to what their favorites have been so far. I already knew what I wanted to order before I got there and luckily my friend Beth snuck over to check out the gelato case while we were waiting so that our dessert order was ready to go as well.

Since I never know when I’ll get back to a restaurant (there are just too many to try in St. Louis), my plan was to order as many types of food as possible. So for a starter, I ordered the Crispy Risotto Balls, which were so wonderfully cheesy on the inside! The other highly recommended item that I’ve been reading about is the kale salad because the creamy anchovy dressing gives the kale a proper kick in addition to a healthy covering of pecorino on top.

I admit I was stuck when it came to ordering the main course. There were just too many pastas to try and so many good reviews about different ones, that I decided to go for the easy way out and just select a pizza. While there are just as many pizza selections, I was able to whittle my way down to the flavors I liked. I’m not big on having too many meats, and while there wasn’t one loaded with vegetables, I went with the Four Cheese instead. I knew I couldn’t go wrong with something completely covered in a ton of cheese.

I do admit that a Neapolitan style pizza is not my most favorite since I love a lot of tomato sauce on my pizza. I did enjoy all the cheese for sure, but I ended up sticking my crust in the dipping sauces for the risotto balls. Without sauce, that style of pizza is a little dry.

Fortunately, my friends did order a couple of pastas so I could get a little sneak peak. I tried the Pappardelle, which has long, thick, rounded noodles buried in smoked pork, mascarpone, and apples for a very rich flavor. It was like having noodles in the middle of a bowl of pulled pork in heavy sauce. The pork flavor was too strong for me but I loved the thickness of the noodles.

My favorite pasta to taste was the Italian Ramen, which consisted of thin spaghetti noodles with a poached egg on top. Egg on top makes everything better! So next time, I think I’ll get a pasta for sure.

The best part was the gelato though...homemade and just out of this world! We ordered the Milk Stout German Chocolate and although my friends preferred the Salty Caramel, the chocolate was hands down the stand out in my book! It is very tempting to just make that your meal for sure.

Resources:

Pasteria = http://pastariastl.com/