Review: Mandarin Bay in St. Louis

Editor's note: Mandarin Bay has closed.

After nearly 30 years as a writer about restaurants, the Guru has developed a certain routine, or operating procedure, when it comes to visiting them. In the days when I wrote for the Post-Dispatch, I always made reservations under someone else's name – anyone else's name. These days, writing biweekly instead of weekly, I use my own name almost all the time. It's more honest, and besides, the name of the diner-to-be seems to have little effect on the quality of the meal.  

I prefer to visit twice, reserving a table on a weekend night when I want to make sure I won't wait. The other is a midweek visit when I hope to stroll in and see what's what. If I can't get a table within 10-15 minutes, I quietly leave because I usually have an alternate place available.

St. Louis is known as a "weekend town" where the restaurant business is concerned, and that fact was never proven better than on a couple of recent visits to  Mandarin Bay, the newest downtown restaurant and  the most dramatic dining space to arrive in that neighborhood in a long time. With billowing, gauzy drapes that double as room dividers, high ceilings, blue lights above the bar and banquettes that are the size of beds, the large room has a trendy aura, much as might be seen in Miami Beach, or in the pages of a magazine.

On a busy weekend night, the dress code seemed to demand considerable cleavage, and also to make socks optional as long as there were Weejuns, or other loafers, on the men's feet. The crowd was noisy, the music had a rowdy beat, and there was a modest line at the reservation table.

But on a Thursday, at 8 p.m., we walked in to find a deserted dining area, about a half-dozen people at the handsome bar and a few other folks talking at what was about to become the registration desk for the hotel. Once the headquarters office space for Edison Brothers, the building at the corner of Fourth Street and Washington Avenue has undergone a major renovation that now has a large handful of rooms as the WS (for William Stallings) Hotel. As time goes by, there will be more hotel rooms, and some apartments. And although the armchairs in the front windows are comfortable, the only view they provide is of that fading palace to privilege, the Missouri Athletic Club, across the street, or of the valet parkers either at the wheel or on shank's mare heading to or from the parking area.  Better to take other seats and watch the customers. When we left about 100 minutes later, several small parties had arrived. One had eaten and left, too. The bar was down to one or two visitors.

Anton Keller, who once had the eponymous Anton's at the Chase-Park Plaza, is the executive chef, and Max Taouil, formerly of "O," is the man in charge. The menu shows an Asian influence, and promises some things it does not deliver. Before wine, dinner is in the $40 range, with service one would expect at those prices.  Servers seemed highly professional, with no evidence of the attitude that trendy decor occasionally brings.

The wine list is rather short, with only two choices older than 1998 (a ‘97 Jordan cabernet at $88 and a ‘97 Indian Springs merlot for $63). Martinis, real and in their various disguises, seemed the drink of choice on the busy night.

Entrees arrive with a variety of vegetables – on one visit, a steak was accompanied by whipped sweet potatoes, bok choy and some long stalks of broccolini – and include a couple of chicken choices, lamb chops, two styles of salmon, tuna, shrimp and sea bass. Ginger is a popular marinade and/or sauce, and fruit joins a few sauces. Except for the filet mignon, which is grilled with five peppercorns, every main dish has a marinade, or a sauce, or both. And the dishes received a handsome presentation. Food was displayed to entice the diner and to heighten the appetite, and in most cases, it did.  

A couple of the disappointments included a filet mignon that arrived as two separate and distinct pieces, neither shaped like the filet with which I am familiar, both with a slightly foreign texture and one that was far closer to well done than to the requested rare.  Another was a first course billed as "morel and crab tempura with kaffir lime broth." It arrived as a broth that showed a delicious, and overpowering lime flavor and a number of inedible kaffir lime leaves. It also carried a single, bite-sized dumpling that displayed minimal mushroom or crab flavor and none of the crisp lightness that is the joy of tempura batter. While I like lime, its flavor here was too dominant, especially in a dish where the tempura receives top billing

Bean sprouts and snow peas, arriving in a few dishes, had been poorly trimmed, leaving long strands that interfered with the eating pleasure and forced a finger-in-the-mouth removal that is not considered de rigeur in a fine-dining establishment.

Lamb chops, perfectly cooked and served with a mustard vinaigrette, were the hit of the evening, tender and flavorful, nicely set off by the same vegetables that accompanied the steak. A couple of other entrees, one  boasting of "ginger creamy curry," and one of ginger marinade, lacked sufficient influence of the fine, tangy spice. The chicken and salmon were excellent, well-prepared and again, presented handsomely, but they were mostly bland. The salmon, advertised with a "ginger creamy curry mussel sauce," had some tired mussels and a pleasant cream sauce, but not much ginger or curry.

A shrimp-snow pea-mango salad was delicious and quite spicy, and beef carpaccio benefitted from a pesto that showed a proper influence of ginger. Satays, of shrimp, beef and chicken, were very good, bolstered by a nicely tangy peanut sauce. Tuna carpaccio was handsome and made a fine match with some slices of Asian pear, but was too icy cold to allow all the fish flavor to come through. Lobster mango summer rolls also were extremely pleasing, but crab cakes showed minimal evidence of crabmeat. Perhaps having been in the same building at the same time is sufficient exposure to use the title, and then again, that's about the proper proportion of shellfish as is offered in most St. Louis crab cakes.

The dessert list continues the Asian influences, entering realms St. Louisans don't often see, and providing different tastes and textures. Most traditional – and not an Asian dish -- is an Opera Chocolate, a pet of pastry chefs in France, where it has classic status. The pastry involves layering of cake and a mocha cream, topped with delicious dark chocolate, and was a highlight of the meal. The Asian influence came from a little kiwi and a small slice of partly frozen mango. Lemongrass parfait, with a mousse-like texture, was tasty and interesting, benefitting from a good hit of the spicy vegetable and some delicious pineapple salsa that came alongside. The ubiquitous creme brulee was satisfactory and so was a white chocolate Bavarian.

Down the road, after some work in the kitchen, Mandarin Bay may turn out to be the downtown showplace is should be, but for the time being, it seems too much like all too many of our city's downtown projects – expensive and not up to what is promised, or expected.