Bridge Tap House And Wine Bar Takeaway. All ‘Bout Charcuterie & Drinks. Not my favorite restaurant. My $16 5.8 / 10 ban mi sandwich sums up my experience with price and quality. I'm not meant for poorly lit, fancy-vibe places known for charcuterie and drinks. Focaccia bread was the standout for me. I don't drink and don't like to share food, so take everything I say with that in mind.
The running joke at the table for the night was the poor service from the bartender, who seemed upset he had to make drinks for the 12 of us. Our server, Joel, on the other hand, was top-notch and responsive.
Bridge has a grown-up, date-night wine bar feel to it. I don't fit in well with sweatpants and T-shirts. Street parking in this part of downtown was easy on a Thursday night.
Bridge Tap House And Wine Bar Experience Summary
Before reading further, you really need the context of my visit to Bridge.
I had a great time.
We came here for dinner after doing an escape room for a friend's birthday party. The host picked the restaurant, and I had a great time with the party and the people I was with.
Under the same circumstances, 100 out of 100 times, I'd come to the party again.
It's just that Bridge is not a restaurant I would ever pick for myself. You should know:
I wear sweatpants for 95% of winter.
I do not like sharing food at restaurants because my mom used to steal my meals.
I don't like fancy cheese.
I like eating in bright lighting because food tastes better to me when I can see it.
I don't drink.
So, going to a fancy, date-night bar that mainly serves charcuterie plates you're supposed to share is the antithesis of my gastrological identity.
The best part of the meal for me was the focaccia bread.
My banh mi sandwich came in at 5.8 / 10. I couldn't get any weight measurements. And this isn't a sandwich shop, so it probably shouldn't be considered for my list of the best sandwiches in St. Louis.
For some reason, no one at the table liked the bartender. Everyone said he was grumpy and disappointed that our party of 12+ came in on a Thursday night. Like he didn't want to make money serving drinks.
He did have an awesome mullet.
Our server, Joel, was the exact opposite. An upbeat, friendly guy who went out of his way to make jokes and talk to us the whole night. A+.
The Food At Bridge Tap House And Wine Bar
I'll walk through what I tasted and the opinions of the table, as they had way more food and drinks than I had. A bit of this is hearsay from the people sitting next to me.
Let's start with my banh mi sandwich. I got it because of the pretzel bread, and I didn't see anything else on the menu that looked great. Furthermore, Yelp reviews seemed totally off, like they changed the whole menu from what other people have had. But Yelp did mention the chips and the pretzel bun, so I thought it would be good.
It wasn't great.
The pretzel bun tasted like something you'd get a Schnucks. They had the pretzel smokiness, but not enough of it and not fluffy enough. Not nearly as good as the pretzel sticks from Urban Chestnut. The best part was the BBQ sauce, but you're not making a killer sandwich when that happens.
All in, I'd give it a 5.8 / 10 sandwich score.
The sandwich came with homemade potato chips. Bridge seasoned them with too many herbs and not enough oil, which made them basically inedible to me. It's rare I stop eating chips like that, but I didn't like them.
Next up, I tasted the Wagyu pastrami off the charcuterie board because it sounded fascinating. I'd say it tasted like a worse version of Nomad's pastrami. Very smokey, with a ton of fat, but a little tough and not meaty enough.
Lastly, I snagged a piece of focaccia bread, and this was the winner of the meal for me. It had the proper amount of oil on the outside mixed with Italian herbs that complimented the bread instead of overpowering it. Add to it a light, fluffy middle, and you have some top-notch focaccia.
The best meal item, according to the rest of my table, was the spicy crab bisque. The soup of the day had a bit of a bite and paired well with the focaccia.
Several people got the Gateway Cassoulet, and I mainly heard that it was good but not like they expected. I didn't know what a cassoulet was a priori, so I didn't know what to expect either.
The charcuterie board centered around a bunch of cheese that everyone else enjoyed thoroughly.
Everyone loved their drinks. They ranged in price from $12-20, and people had two or three.
Again, I think if you come here knowing and looking for this kind of food, you'll enjoy it.
Bridge Tap House And Wine Bar Atmosphere And Miscellaneous
The high-level vibes at Bridge are a date-night wine bar. You're getting lower levels of lighting with a cozy, high-end feel. The bar is fully stocked and sets the backdrop for the rest of the restaurant.
When you walk in, you immediately notice the stairs in the back to the second floor. It almost feels like an old-world European library, with the bottles behind the bar acting like books, and the stairs are a walkway to a reading room.
At least, that's how I felt.
The running joke at the table was how angry the bartender was to be working. I never spoke to him, but everyone was commenting that it seemed like he didn't actually want to be serving drinks on a Thursday night. I'm hoping he was just having a bad day.
The rest of the service was great. Our server was super engaged and friendly. The service might have been a bit slow, but the conversation was so good I didn't notice.
Parking At Bridge Tap House And Wine Bar
We parked on the street near the restaurant. It wasn't an issue around 7:30 PM on Thursday night, but it might be a bit harder during prime weekend dining hours.
I have never really been to this part of downtown, so I don't know any secret parking tips besides the meters stop at night.
Bridge Tap House And Wine Bar Receipt
