April Clubs Council: Veritas Gateway to Food and Wine

From the President: 

For our Clubs Council dinner the host is supposed to choose a restaurant that is one of his or her favorites. Unfortunately I learned too late that Sreenu had actually never been to his selected restaurant, Veritas Gateway to Food and Wine. He just could not take the time to read the second sentence of my two sentence email to him. He is a busy man. However, I learned that a number of my colleagues from work really love this place so I was interested to give it a try.

We did have some service issues. At first we felt a bit rushed but eventually it became clear that we were encouraged to relax and enjoy our food an wine. Our server, Blythe, was very sweet but she made some mistakes. She forgot to enter one person's entree. This mistake was not recognized until the entrees were brought out and one of us had nothing to eat. By then, the restaurant had run out of the entree that person had ordered. Because of the time it took to make the desserts, we also ordered our desserts at the time of our meals. She did not put any of those in so by the time that was noticed, they had run out of what most of us had ordered. In fact, when a couple of us arrived at 5:30 for drinks before our meal, they had already run out of 2 or 3 items on the cocktail menu (which I thought was prepared daily). The good thing was that the manager or owner came over to apologize and insisted on paying for our meals. Things are always going to go wrong here and there at a restaurant, we are all human. What makes all of the difference about how you feel about a restaurant is how they take care of the problems. In this instance I thought the owner or manager went overboard to make sure we were taken care of and I appreciated her concern. That being said, however, diners gave Veritas a disappointing 2 spoons for service.

There are several menus available at the restaurant which all had interesting and tempting options. Everything that I had was delicious and I have been raving to my colleagues about the grilled cheese and bacon sandwich I got as my entree. Diners agreed that the food was good and gave it a solid 4 spoons.

The restaurant is fairly small but I think they have made good use of the space. It is sectioned off into a more casual bar area, the formal restaurant area, a small retail area and a bar that overlooks the kitchen. Some of us sat at the bar overlooking the kitchen. I was surprised at how much we enjoyed watching the food preparation. The restaurant was warmly decorated. We did ask to switch tables because the chairs at our first table were uncomfortable. Parking was easy. Diners thought the atmosphere at Veritas was good and gave it 4 spoons.

Overall, I enjoyed my meal and the cocktails were pretty good. I believe our group had a good time. Diners overall gave Veritas a fairly good rating at just under 4 spoons.

What do you think of Veritas? Please rate and review below!

April Good Dinner: Annie Gunns, 4/11

From the President:

I was excited when Sreenu chose Annie Gunns for our April dinner. I work close by and my co-workers are always raving about how great it is. I often purchase sandwiches and other goodies at their Smokehouse Market next door and they have some amazing selections. It's far west out in Chesterfield so I knew we would not have many of our regulars but we had a good group.

The atmosphere at Annie Gunns is unimpressive. It is dark inside and just looks like your basic pub. We were seated in a portion of the restaurant that was an enclosed patio which would have been much nicer had the weather been warm enough to open it up. Diners, however, gave Annie Gunns 4 spoons for a nice atmosphere.

I thought the service was great from our time at the bar through the dinner service. Our waiter, Bryce, was generously accommodating with special requests without hesitation. However, diners gave the service 3 1/2 spoons for fair to good service. I believe there was some confusion as the servers respectfully waited for us all to finish our first courses. We had a really lively conversation going so there was a delay before I realized and asked them to go ahead and serve the entrees despite the fact that I was still finishing my salad. I wouldn't rate the service at closer to 4 1/2 or even 5 spoons.

I had not realized it was really a steakhouse and that was about all that they had: beef, beef and more beef. I just did not feel like a heavy meal so I opted for soup and salad. A couple of additional options on the menu would have rounded it out perfectly for diners such as myself. Their "world famous potato soup" was okay as was the salad. Based on other diners' experiences, Annie Gunns does best with their focus: the beef. Other diners commented that their steaks were the best they had ever had. While drinking at the bar beforehand the bartender introduced me to his off the menu creation which was delicious. Diners gave Annie Gunns 4 spoons for good food.

Overall, Annie Gunns did not live up to my expectations. However, I realize that I put myself at a disadvantage by not giving one of their steaks a try. Also, for the pricing, I expected a more effort in the decor. However, other diners were impressed with the quality of meat being offered and we all certainly had a great time. Diners gave Annie Gunns a solid 4 spoons overall, a good restaurant.

What do you think of Annie Gunns? Please rate and review below!