The Frenchman’s Widow

I just had the most amazing lasagna I have had in my six decades on this earth. The serving was enormous and it had the best mix of herbs I’ve ever encountered in Italian food. Thursday night is pasta night at The Frenchman’s Widow, and I highly recommend it. I will no longer have to travel to The Hill in St. Louis to get great lasagna. My wife had the fried fish with onion rings. The fish was very tasty, but the onion rings were outstanding. Will be back often!

I have determined that the widow is, due to the starvation of the Frenchman. Arrived at 6pm, was seated promptly and provided menus. Our drink orders placed, and began scanning the menu. Server returned in about 5min to advise they were out of Pibb. Not a big deal, but apparently this was just one tooth broken in the cog which would be our experience. Food order was placed shortly afterwards, but our server returned to our table 10min later with two menus, and word for two in our party that the restaurant was out of their choice. A change is choice was made, and we waited for our server to return. I don’t know how much time past, but enough to be too much. A member of our party had to go to the bar to order. The server said they had forgotten. Just short of 7pm, our food finally arrives by way of two servers, who place the setting and quickly leave without any inquiries. The food was cold, and the fries were also stale. By this time our drinks were already empty, and I was unable to eat, having only been provided with forks when I also required a knife. Some ketchup would have been nice for some members of our party also. After waiting a while, again, for our server to check on us, at which time we would have requested the desired articles, we gave up. I refused to hunt down a server again. The server returned later, only to begin clearing plates. I requested a box to take home my untouched dinner, and the check. When the server brought the check, I had my debit card waiting, and provided it without even taking possession of the check. I knew there was no telling how long I would have to wait for the server to come back and collect the payment. When the receipt was brought back to sign, the server then asked if we needed drink refills. I gave this place the third star just because the building and décor were aesthetically pleasing.

Love that Herrin has this restaurant — good food, gorgeous patio to sit on when the weather is nice, and friendly staff!

Mrs. and I were looking forward to our second trip. The first trip was a pleasant surprise and success. Great service, food, and drinks in the mid-​afternoon. We arrived mid-​afternoon this time as well, driving out of our way, looking forward to another great time. Instead, the service downstairs was non-​existent. The place wasn’t crowded and we never were waited on at the bar. We moved upstairs and found the service better, we were the only ones there. The Food was barely fit to eat. We ordered an appetizer, burger, and fries. Cold, cold, cold. They may get one more chance with us, maybe not. 3 stars based on both visits.

Really disappointing. We were greeted by a pretty rude young woman who seemed flustered that we had 5 adults and a baby. We started out with a couple adult beverages and looked over the menus. It seemed like 90 percent of the food was fried. Nothing fresh and exciting. We ordered four appetizers. The mozzarella sticks were completely hollow because all the cheese came out. The spinach artichoke dip was good, and I liked the chips with blue cheese. The fried mushrooms were incredibly greasy. Inedible. I had the shrimp basket, they were fine. Underwhelming. Nothing great. My husband had the fried fish and it was utterly disgusting. The fish was mushy, and we all agreed something just wasn’t quite right. The fries were really terrible. They tasted like they were dusted with lowry’s. I ordered my one year old a hot dog, and although pretty greasy, she enjoyed a few bites. I really wouldn’t recommend this place to anyone unless you’re going for a few drinks. The strawberry daiquiris were pretty great.
I will add that our service upstairs was great, despite our food being pretty awful.

Beautiful building and look, but food is sub par and pricey for Herrin… don’t know how this place will ever turn a profit… I think it is just a tax write off for owner of Walker’s Bluff… bar staff very unfriendly and couldn’t care less if I ordered something or not… 2^nd time here, was here over
18 mos. Ago and thought I’d give them a 2^nd chance… nothing has changed… stay away.

Good place to get great food and good service. Love the atmosphere and the new balcony. The menu is limited mostly sandwiches. Endless wings on Wednesday and Saturday. The happening place in Herrin.

Food was good, drinks were… meh. I had the Reuben, and it was quite good. The seasoned fries were lackluster. I ordered a bourbon neat and it came on the rocks, then I had a gin and tonic and it came in a rocks glass, finally I had a gin martini, and had a few problems with it. First the glass was pretty small, second, it came extra dirty and third, the olives were the standard small Spanish olives instead of the larger ones you would expect to find in a martini. In a place set up as more of a bar than a restaurant I would have expected the drinks to outshine the food, unfortunately that was not the case.