Malt Shop

good ice cream, nice people, simple operation done well! I could actually taste the mint in my mint cookies n cream concrete! They have plenty of picnic table seating too. We’ll definitely return for more treats

what a good chocolate malt. creamy consistency, good recipe, delicious. really like the neighborhood vibe.
we will definitely return to try more of the menu.

The Malt Shop is located on Smizer Station Road, which runs roughly parallel to 141. The menu is pure Americana: burgers, fried food, and ice cream.
It’s not a dine-​in restaurant. You’ll order at one window and pick up your food at a second window. You can eat your food at one of their picnic tables or in your car. Of course, you can always take it to go. Well, not always. They are open seasonally and seem to open in April and close in October. :)
My husband has been going to The Malt Shop for years, and it’s always been pretty much the same. However, the business was sold a couple of years ago. It looks like the new owners spruced the place up a bit. The menu boards have a neater appearance, and they seem to actively update their Facebook page.
Until today, I’d only had ice cream here. Eating a meal here never appealed to me because I’m not a fan of eating outdoors or in my car.
Today, however, the husband wanted to go to The Malt Shop on his lunch break. He ordered a regular, plain double, fries, and a mini concrete. I didn’t order anything because I’m on a diet, but my husband was nice enough to share his food with me. (Everyone knows that calories don’t count if you eat less than half of something.)
Everything was made to order. Prices seemed reasonable, but if you want lettuce and tomato on your burger, they’re $ 0.35 each. That’s kind of wack.
I had two bites of the burger and two fries. The burger was great and had a nice grill flavor. The fries were crinkle-​cut and were a little thicker than most crinkle fries I’ve had. I thought the order of fries was small, but maybe the paper container was deceptively deep.
I had four or five. .. or six bites of the mini concrete. They have soft-​serve ice cream, not custard. We went with peanut butter and peanut butter cups, and it was delicious.
It’s hard to go wrong with the ice cream here, and although I only had a few bites of my husband’s lunch, it was enough to make me realize that I’d like to have my own lunch here sometime, enough to make me wish I’d been eating here the whole time I was getting fat, and enough that I probably do not want to skip my workout this afternoon. I hit that concrete a little hard.

I get the whole old fashioned walk up window thing… but do not think you are going to get food worthy of the word «old fashioned». We didn’t try any of the ice cream offerings, just food.
The highlight… sort of, was the cheeseburger. We got the regular Dbl. cheeseburger. The first huh was they charge 35 cents for lettuce! Yup, half a piece of iceburg lettuce. It had a good flat top sear taste, but two who tried it didn’t like the rubbery, chewy texture. I think it was a good burger besides that. It is served on a regular grocery store bun with toppings you request… tomatoes 35 cents, lettuce 35 cents. At least the ketchup wasn’t extra.
Pork tenderloin was pretty boring and also chewy. My wife’s first bite had some connective tissue in it so she stopped at one bite. Mine wasn’t as terrible as Circle 7’s tenderloin, but not to far behind.
Fish sandwich… the worst of the bunch. The first bite had 10, yes TEN bones in it. Tried another bite from the other side of the sandwich… YEA! No bones. But had a horrible flavor, needless to say we passed on the rest of the sandwich. Good thing there was a basically uneaten pork fritter sandwich my wife had retired early in the first inning!
Chicken breast sandwich… decent frozen food service patty, cooked just right. All the food we got was cooked good… just REALLY low quality materials to work with I guess.
Chicken strips… Preformed white meat strips that where once again cooked beautifully… it was just a low quality preformed chicken product.
Fries for 1.90…hand full of crinkle cut cafeteria fries with no salt on them… to dry once we got them for the salt to stick. The girls did put salt packets in there without us asking. We had two fries and two onion rings for six of us… ate about three quarters of the FF and ALL the Onion rings.
All the onion rings… must of been great right? NOPE! There were four onion rings in each $ 2.35??? order. Boring, breaded frozen rings with a sweet overtone like Sonics… but bone free…
It was almost 50 bucks for really generic foodservice frozen foods. Not a single thing was «special» in any way (The burger may be the exception???). To compare, we spend 54 bucks at Five guys and get more food and WAY less bones and connective tissue!!!
We went here at 11:30 on a gorgeous sunny Sunday with temps around 73 degree. On the way down we were amazed how busy so many places were. Stake and Shake, Buffalo Wild Wings and even McDonalds. At Malt Shop… there was one couple sitting at the picnic tables with a little toddler… that was it! After ordering, finally another couple came up and ordered a shake to go. One more older gentleman placed a small food order. We pulled over to the back of the parking lot and ate our food (well, some of us did!) not a single other customer came before we finally left at 12:30.
The two nice girls working there did as good as could be expected with what they had to work with… which in my opinion wasn’t very much. ESCPECIALLY for $ 50.
Maybe the ice cream rocks???

Can’t go wrong with The Malt Shop. Great ice cream, and good food too. A Fenton classic.

Been going here since I was a little girl! Great malts.

I discovered this little gem while on my lunchbreak. It’s a great retreat from a stressful day at the office, and makes it easier to go back and face the rest of your day. Nothing really calms me like a delicious shake, and the Malt shop has some of the best. The burgers and fries are great, so far I’ve craved them so much I forget to try other things on the menu but will make it a point to sometime soon. More than anything I love that it’s not your typical restaurant chain around all office buildings it makes me feel a little less ordinary and dull when I reflect on how I spent my day (silly I know but it works for me). If I lived closer I would def take the advice of the other Unilocalers and spend a summer evening chilling at the tables with friends. It’s def a welcome re-​treat from the heat during the summer.

The secret to enjoying the Malt Shop is to go with 6 – 7 friends right before it closes, buy a malt and occupy a park table just outside for hours on end. It’s like you have the Malt Shop all to yourselves. You’re bound to make yourself some great memories.

Oh Malt shop! Many, many memories here!
I used to frequent the Malt Shop as a kid since my old dance studio was located in the basement. Good behavior at dance class = a chocolate shake from the Malt Shop! Let’s just say I was always on my best behavior.
The prices are cheap, the shakes, malts, and ice cream are of old school goodness, and the burgers are extra greasy and taste like a good ‘olé fashioned diner burger. Be prepared to wait on the burgers, they take a bit as they are made to order and don’t have an abundance of staff.
They are window ordering only with no inside area, but take it to go or eat out on the picnic tables. Must make a pit stop at the Malt Shop if you’re in the Fenton area on a warm summer day!

The only reason I’m giving a four is because it’s not that cheap for a burger joint after burger fries and drinks it past 10 $

This is an old time ice cream shoppe. You can only eat outside, but the food and ice cream is delicious! The food is so inexpensive ranging from burgers and fries, to fried cauliflower (so good!) and onion rings. You can get almost any topping from m&m’s to oreo, and I promise this is one of the best chocolate shakes in St. Louis.

I can’t believe nobody has reviewed this place yet! I created a Unilocal account specifically for this place!
The Malt Shop is a walk up ice cream window, with some options for food (hot dogs etc) The ice cream here is to die for! Ted Drewes may have the ‘best frozen custard’ but they are nothing compared to The Malt Shop. The service is quick and the menu is straight forward.
I would suggest getting reeses peanut butter cup concrete with extra peanut butter cups! But they have a huge variety of options as well.
After you order you can leave or enjoy the day on one of the picnic tables. This place is great! You owe it to yourself to give it shot.