Tuesday, August 10, 2010

IceKitchen Restaurant and Vodka Bar

IceKitchen Restaurant and Vodka Bar
302 Westport Plaza Drive
St. Louis, MO  63146
314.542.2000


A couple of girlfriends and I ate at the IceKitchen last Friday night before heading out to the Muny.  I made online reservations at Open Table and it worked great.

Located in Westport, right across from the Trainwreck, it has a huge outdoor patio and quite a few seats inside.  I felt the decor was a cross between a swanky nightclub, an urban loft and '70's vibe.

We ordered the Antipasto Platter (8.75) as an appetizer.  It came with a few pieces of thin, crusty bread, olives, carmelized nuts, sausage and a thin swipe of some type of pesto.  I didn't even think about the fact that I can't eat pork when we ordered it so I didn't get to taste the meats on the plate.  The nuts and bread were good but, overall, I thought it was a bit pricey for the amount of food that was on the plate.



For dinner, I ordered the Chicken Lollipops (7.75) and an IceKitchen House Salad (4.25).  The salad was beautiful with the ribbons of carrot sitting on top of a bed of lettuce.  The dressing was a rice-wine vinaigrette that had a taste of ginger to it.  It was sweet and savory.  I have never tasted a dressing like this before and it was quite tasty. 


The Chicken Lollipops were marinated in Asian spices and sriracha with a pear-ginger sauce.  Since the wings were grilled and not fried, some of the skin was a bit chewy and not crispy but the spices and marinade on these chicken drummies was delicious.  The pear-ginger sauce was sweet, sour, tangy and spicy.  Loved it!


Our dinner reservations were at 5:30 so we were there in time for happy hour.  They did have some pretty good happy hour specials.  Quite a few of the Small Plates were half off (I got mine for half) and all of the martinis, specialty drinks, pitchers of sangria and domestic beers were half off.  I split a pitcher of red sangria (21.00)with one friend and was excited to get it half off.  I, personally, felt there was a little too much peach schnapps in it but at the happy hour price it was well worth it.

I would like to go back to the IceKitchen on a weekend and sit out on the patio.  I wasn't overly impressed with the food but I think the place could be fun on a nice summer evening.