Reviews Element Restaurant And Lounge

This place is in a very interesting location. The food was pretty good. I like that the menu is only one page long too, I hate having to read a tome to eat dinner. Make sure to eat outside because you have an awesome view of the St. Louis Skyline.

The Ribeye was perfection!. I've been wanting to try this place for a while now and the Living Social coupon finally got us in the door! And I'm so glad we went!! My husband and I went for dinner. We started with the cheese and charcuterie plate. There were two meats, two cheeses, a pear jelly, and a house-made mustard. The cheeses were delightful - gouda and cheddar. The meats were a wild boar honey ham and a pork belly terrine. The latter (the terrine) isn't usually my thing, but I really enjoyed it! The texture was perfect and the rosemary provided nice flavor. The former was delicious! - it had a slightly different texture than ham and was slightly darker in color. But the salty sweetness struck the perfect balance! For the entree we shared the Ribeye and oh-my-goodness-it-was-amazing!!! It was cooked and seasoned to perfection! It even had a nice, crispy char on the edges! It was served with greens and carrots. The carrots were cooked, but still had a nice crunch to the them. And the greens - I don't know what they were cooked in, but they were bursting with flavor! To top everything off, a cool and cream sauce was drizzled over the plate. My husband and I have eaten some pretty fine plates of meat in our time and we both agreed that this plate was near the top of the list! We can't wait to go back and try more!

Liked it overall but..... My mother in law and I both had the steak. We both agreed the steaks were too salty. Aside from that, the rest of the food was delicious. My father in law had the ox tail which had fantastic. My wife had the scallops with squid ink and liked it. I tried their house made sodas and enjoyed both flavors I tried. We would definitely go back but would specify how we would liked our steaks seasoned.

Really great restaurant. Service was friendly and patient. Food was outstanding - everything we ordered was delicious and when one thing was slightly undercooked, it was immediately and apologetically corrected. Definitely try the pork chop! Patio was lovely. The music could have been my own personal playlist.

Potential.. I visited Element's lounge on the third floor, not the restaurant yet, so this review is going to revolve around my experience in the bar.

First, the good: Decor, ambience, and lighting is top notch. I love everything about the design. Style/layout-wise, it crushes area competition.

That being said, Element needs a lot of work in terms of efficiency and management. I'm going to be as detailed as possible with this review so that the owner(s) can improve and help this place grow to its potential.

1) I called to make sure they were open before going (apparently they close the lounge often for private events, so it's best to call ahead). The person who answered the phone simply said, "Hello?" like a lazy teenager who was playing video games and got interrupted. Thinking I may have dialed the wrong number, I asked, "I'm sorry, I may have called the wrong place. Is this Element?" She responded "Yah" rather curtly. So I said, "Forgive me, should I be calling a different line, you're giving me the impression that I called a fax line or something." Her response, "No, this is the number." So far, she hasn't identified herself, the establishment, or asked how she can help. Finally I just came right out and asked if they were open. "No, we have a private event tonight. Tomorrow we'll be open." I decided not to ask any more questions, and let her get back to playing Xbox.

2) Moving ahead, we went there on a Friday evening. Upon sitting down at the fully stocked and beautifully designed bar, we asked for a cocktail menu. Whoops, the three bartenders looked at us as if we asked for drugs or something. Their response, "We can make you whatever... We don't really have a drink menu." Ok, why build a gorgeous/trendy lounge and not offer a list of creative cocktails?

3) The bartender was aloof at first, but warmed up to us and then became very friendly and helpful. He concocted something he thought we'd like, and was spot on.

4) Out of nowhere, the group behind us was served fried oyster appetizers. We asked the waitress where the food came from since there were no menus in sight. She replied, "We serve apps and desserts up here." This is probably something the bartenders should mention if menus aren't readily available. Common sense if you want people to give you more of their money, right?

5) We asked about the desserts since only appetizers were listed on the menu. The waitress said, "I have to recite those to you because they're not printed anywhere." (Ugh, are you beginning to see a trend here?) So she comes back after 5 minutes and reads her notes off to us, and we ask about one of the items, to which she responds, "I don't know, I've never actually seen or tried our desserts." Oh, she's probably new -- nope, she just hasn't ever seen or tasted the desserts during the entire time she's worked there!! (Good god, who is running this place?)

6) Were I not an honest person, I could have walked right out without anyone even knowing we had drinks. When I went to the bar to pay, none of the bartenders knew what I ordered or how to operate the point-of-service device. It literally took all of them about 5-6 minutes to figure out how to ring us up...

In summary, here's my overall impression about Element's lounge: Amazing potential, but lousy execution at the current time. It's painfully obvious that the people who built this place have zero experience operating a restaurant/bar... which is fine, just hire someone who can do that for you. Unfortunately, whomever they've hired to handle aspects like employee training, should be immediately replaced by someone who actually knows what they're doing. Otherwise this establishment will be relegated strictly to event space.

So if you're the owner and you're reading this... GREAT job on the appearance, but I strongly encourage you to re-evaluate the inner workings of the business to help it thrive and expand. I want this place to be ultra successful. It would be a travesty to see it fail. St Louis needs a bar with this kind of pizazz.

Great Start. Had chance to be part off opening weekend. Here is my take aways, first the Space is awesome. The Lounge and Patio #1 are wonderful, I can't wait to waste away some evenings or late afternoons. The main dining room with it's open Kitchen and Patio #2 are also wonderful. I would suggest a bit of background sound.

Food was excellent, for their first big night service was choppy, but frankly they got their A...es kicked when 100 plus all came in for the opening night party -- I expect that to even out. Did I mention the awesome food - Pork Roulette and Scallops were my Favorite, ah, oh maybe the beef cheeks were or the Goat. You get my point!

My first experience at Element was great but it doesn’t compare to my second visit. The food and service was top notch. Sitting upstairs in either the lounge or patio before dinner is the way to go, and if the weather is nice their downstairs patio is amazing and well worth it for the views of downtown St. Louis alone. Drinks are fantastic, food is better.

We were here a few months back for a rehearsal dinner, and I could not have been more pleased. We had both our 2 year old (ring bearer) and 9 week old with us. While we were looking forward to a fabulous meal, I was dreading the thought of trying to keep them both quiet and seated for the duration of the evening. While the food was as absolutely delicious as I expected (and more), I was completely blown away by the service. Upon entering, I was quickly approached and offered 'anything' for my son. Knowing the fish and beef options may not be the most appealing to a 2 year old, they promptly made him his own cheese pizza which he loved. Midway through the night, I needed to leave to feed my 9 week old and had planned to go out to the car. I'm not sure how he knew, but the nicest man (who I assume was the manager) discreetly tapped me on the shoulder and offered me a private room. I could not have been more grateful. My 2 year old also loved watching the climbers at Climb So iLL that we could see from the second story. What could have been a disastrous meal turned into a wonderful and memorable evening. I could not recommend more!

My wife and I went here for a little celebratory dinner, and the dining room was closed for a party. We ended up going to the lounge, on the top floor. It was very interesting, and the wait staff was very good. That could be because we basically had the whole lounge to ourselves. We ordered the "Leave it to Us" option from the menu, and were treated to a wonderful selection of interesting dishes; ox-tail tortellini, rainbow trout, lamb chops, key lime gooey butter cake, carrot cake, and a few other dishes. It was worth the price for a unique experience.

My wife and I celebrated our 5th Anniversary, and we could not have loved our experience more. The staff was great and friendly, recognized my reservation immediately and discretely, and gave us some extras and a personalized dessert to really make the night special. All of the food was incredible. I cannot thank the entire staff, as well as Chef Josh Charles for making our night a memorable one.

Amazing.. interesting place.. building..decor.. fancy good eats..great LIVE music by the Soulard Island Dudes!..WOWZ.. very cool! Oh yeah.. rooftop view of the area at sunset..ooh..