La Bonne Bouchee Saint Louis

La Bonne Bouchée is one of our favorite restaurants. We've been going there so long that we are quite familiar with the menu. This place is a treasure. You really can't find a bad item on the menu, but I have my favorites. When we go for lunch, I like to get the cup of soup and the half sandwich on the menu. You can always have the French onion soup, which is hands down, the best in St. Louis, the others are only pretenders to the crown. There are at least half a dozen sandwiches on the menu, and half a sandwich is often the equivalent of a whole sandwich elsewhere. I like the smoked turkey and havarti and the tuna salad, but there are other choices. But the soup of the day is often a winner, too. This is definitely southern French cooking and the spices used to flavor the soups differ from thyme to white pepper, beef broth to sherry. Everything is planned to make your dining experience fabulous. In the summertime there is a large, charming outdoor area with umbrellas, fountain and cafe chairs and tables, lovely flowers, hummingbirds, the works. They understand good service at La Bonne Bouchée. As soon as you are seated, someone brings you fresh, delicious bread rolls, butter, and if you wish, coffee and creamer, and the coffee is wonderful, not too strong or weak. Your order is soon taken, and if there are two courses as with soup and sandwich or salad, one thing arrives first, and they wait just until you finish before bringing the next thing. There are always little bouquets of fresh flours on the table. And price, our lunch today of coffee, soup and sandwich came to $20 for two people. But I am not finished. Not only is this a fabulous hot kitchen, it is also a fabulous French bakery. If you arrive in time for breakfasts (before 10:45), there is a display case full of french croissants, stuffed pastries, tarts. Flavors range through apricots, apples, raspberries, on the one hand, and cheese, ham, spinach on the other. Tender, flaky crust. And these are just the everyday pastries that we can have. There are amazing cakes, cookies, tarts for special occasions, and a complete line of "hundreds of flavors" of macaroons. There are so many good things about this restaurant, good parking, easily accessible, that I have probably left something out. Yes, definite French ambiance, an Eiffel Tower, pictures of Provençe, but I have probably left something out. Excellent service. If you haven't visited La Bonne Bouchée, you owe yourself a trip, there is something there that you will find yourself craving and will bring you back again and again.

Food was good and reasonable. Service was good but atmosphere in the cafe a little cold. The patisserie side had amazing looking items, but no prices on most things. Had to draw a number and wait in line just to ask for some pricing and they were so busy, that was very inconvenient for me and the worker who had to give me pricing. Not sure why they couldn't put the price under the item name. That was very frustrating and made us not buy anything. There's something about not disclosing prices that seems a little shady to me. Items looked delicious though, I would have loved to try something.