Lou Boccardi's on the Hill

For dinner, I had chicken marsala, with a nice side salad and pasta with marinara.

The location was serendipitous- I did a little research this afternoon, trying to find an interesting Italian place we hadn't tried yet, but came up empty. Everything looked either average and run-of-the-mill (key indicators: heavy use of Provel; exceptional reliance on pizzas and toasted ravioli) or intriguing but pricey (small plates; $260 bottles of wine (pdf)). In the end, we just went to the Hill and drove around, and somehow came across delicious Italian magic.

Lou Boccardi's had the lost-in-time feel I like in family-run Italian restaurants. The silver tinsel garlands, Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack, and neatly clad waitstaff added to the atmosphere. The menu listed slightly toward the Provel-and-toasted-ravioli end of things, but with one big difference- they did it really, really well. Jon ordered some toasted ravioli as an appetizer, and they were amazingly crispy and chewy and delicious.

The salad was pretty good, a typical iceberg affair with a tomato half, grated Provel, and house Italian vinaigrette. Their other house dressing is "anchovy celery", which Jon tried. It was interesting...it needed more lemon juice or vinegar to cut the fish flavor- and I LIKE anchovies.

The marsala was incredible, but not at all marsala-ey. The sauce looked suspiciously thick and glossy, but it tasted like pure essence of chicken, like the best chicken soup ever. The only thing I can figure is that lots of chicken fat was involved.

The pasta side was the only disappointing part of the meal. The marinara was thick and exceptionally good, but the pasta was seriously overcooked. I don't blame the restaurant, considering no one in St. Louis seems to know the meaning of al dente. It was just a surprise because they were above average in so many other ways.