If you're looking for a cozy yet hip locale to grab some food and drink with your main squeeze, Molly's in Soulard, St. Louis is pretty great. It's both a bar and restaurant (aka the “bistro”) within 2 separate buildings and also includes an outdoor patio area. My husband and I took the opportunity, while visiting St. Louis, to leave the kids with Nana and enjoy a night out. Molly's in Soulard features a creole style menu inspired by Louisiana, but not quite as overly spicy as true Cajun food (that makes me happy!).
I loved the decor. The walls are a rich, dark red paint and the furniture is an antique black with a tin ceiling in the bistro – gorgeous! There are accents of handmade class and days gone by throughout the place. Red velvet booth benches, period style posters and images, old brick with hints of signage from previous venues still painted right on the brick along with various chalkboards and pretty handwriting add a touch of style. Even the lighting is gorgeous.
Molly's also regularly hosts a variety of live entertainment – you can check out the schedule on their event calendar.
The food was delicious. Not your typical steak and potatoes or burgers, yet they do have both. We tried some new flavors and some classics we both really love…
The food at Molly's is good
I enjoyed the entire meal. I enjoyed the appetizer the most. It was full of yummy unexpected flavors and seemed to be cooked just perfectly. There was a creole type sauce combined with a smoked BBQ flavor along with perfectly cooked shrimp and really big fried green tomatoes. It was so good! I started my meal with a ceasar salad while my husband had the soup. The french onion soup was rich and thick and delightful. It's one of his favs and he thoroughly enjoyed it with the real french bread cut nice and thick and the cheese perfectly melted on top.
For our main courses, I had the eggplant parmesan and hubs had the jambalaya. While the eggplant parmesan was beautiful to look at and I loved the addition of cherry tomatoes in this classic dish, there was a bit too much of it… so much cheese and sauce the eggplant was lost. My husband really liked the jambalya. It was full of flavor, the rice was cooked perfectly and there was a nice array and quantity of meat with onions and a variety of peppers. I don't do spicy much, so just tasted a bite of crawfish – yum! The servings aren't too big, but big enough that we were stuffed before we even got to dessert. However, dessert is my fav, so we had to stay and try a bit. Although I loved the sauce, the beignets were on the tough chewy side… not the “New Orleans” doughnut I had expected although I don't think I've had a beignet before, so I had nothing to compare to. It was all tasty enough that not only would I go back, I'd try these same dishes again.
The Soulard neighborhood is pretty neat. It's an older part of town, the streets are lined with old French style row houses that have been converted into townhomes and apartments. Over the past 10 years the area has slowly grown into a hip little community for the young professionals. You'll find a variety of small restaurants and hangouts near Molly's including the 1860 Game Room, right across the street.
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Molly's in Soulard website
We asked our server if there was a “Molly” representing the namesake of the restaurant, and he said… nope. The place was named after the original owner's dog. Way to go Molly!
