Walnut Grill – Family Gathering

As usual when we visit St. Louis Missouri, especially during the Holidays, we have a family gathering at a local restaurant.  Sometimes it involves 20 or more family members of all ages.  It all depends on timing and who’s doing what already.  Over this past Thanksgiving Holiday, only 7 of us met for dinner and family updates…

Laurie’s sister Bonnie picked the Walnut Grill in Sunset Hills for our meeting site.  She told us that the food was good and the prices reasonable…plus it was well located for all attendees.

(Note the outdoor dining patio for fair weather dining)

Walnut Grill is a small chain of family style restaurants based in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania.  They have 3 locations in the St. Louis area plus 4 others around Pittsburgh.

At this time of the year, it was all about dining indoors.  Walnut Grill has a nice U shaped bar with several obligatory TVs for sports fans.  For that matter, TVs doted the walls throughout that portion of the restaurant.  Overall, the atmosphere was warm and welcoming and service was above average.

I’ve published many photos of Bonnie and Bill as well as of Laurie and yours truly…so I skipped us for this post. (In any case, Bill had to work and missed the dinner)

Cousin Johnny and his wife Rose joined us for the evening.  Johnny’s dad’s brother (Bob) married Laurie’s mom (Doris) and Laurie’s dad’s brother (John) married Laurie’s mom’s sister (Lois)…thus creating a plethora of double cousins! (Kind of makes my head spin!)

This is Laurie and Bonnie’s sister Karole and her husband Bob.  They rarely miss one of our gatherings!  Laurie is the only sister that has left the St. Louis area…all because she married some old guy who had a retailing career.

So…how was the food at Walnut Grill?

The Roasted Beet Salad was a popular choice for the ladies. ($4.00 with an entrée) This salad was assembled using field greens, fresh roasted beets, caramelized walnuts and gorgonzola cheese topped with an herb balsamic vinaigrette.  If I understand the menu correctly, a small Roasted Beet Salad ordered on its own would cost $7.00 and a large dinner salad would be $10.25.

Everyone who had a Roasted Beet Salad really enjoyed it!

A couple of us chose a Caesar Parmesan Salad for our side with our entrée. ($3.00) It was the right size and it was quite tasty… This salad is available in 2 sizes as a stand-alone item…$6.50 small and $10.25 large.

At least 2 of the ladies at the table paired their Roasted Beet Salads with this big bowl of very flavorful Lobster Bisque. ($8.00) They treated their soup as their entrée for the meal.

In addition to my extra side, the Caesar Salad, I ordered the Soup du Jour which was a very nice large cup of Broccoli Cheese Soup.

Entrees at Walnut Grill are served with a choice of a side and a seasonal vegetable du jour.  Pasta entrees are served with a choice of a Garden Salad, Caesar Salad or Soup du Jour.

For my entrée, I ordered the Shrimp Scampi…shrimp with vermicelli pasta, lemon-garlic scampi sauce and garlic-basil tomatoes. ($18.75) This was a very satisfying bowl of comfort food.  As you can see, there were lots of shrimp with the pasta!

The sisters’ cousin Johnny opted for the shaved Prime Rib Sandwich with French dip sauce, hot pepper rings, mushrooms, and provolone cheese on a French baguette. ($13.50) Sandwiches include a side too and Johnny chose a baked potato.  He really enjoyed his dinner!

Bob and Karole ordered identical meals…the Yankee Pot Roast. ($12.25) The pot roast is braised for 24-hours and served with baby carrots, celery and onions in a nice brown sauce.  They were a couple of happy diners!

The pricing at Walnut Kitchen is definitely wallet friendly and the serving sizes are more than reasonable.  Everyone enjoyed their meals and we had a great time catching up too.

FYI, the Walnut Kitchen in Sunset Hills/St. Louis is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  The menu is fairly imaginative with items like Korean BBQ Bowls, Greek Pasta, Thai Pork Mac ‘N Cheese, a Blackened Salmon BLT with candied bacon, Lettuce Wraps, Fried Brussel Sprouts and more.

The Sunset Hills Walnut Kitchen restaurant is located at 10797 Sunset Hills Plaza in St. Louis Missouri.  Phone: 314-858-9392.  The company’s website is at https://eatwalnut.com/.

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave