The Vine

This place has closed and is out of business.
There is a new place in this location named Bella Vino.
Check them out.
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4 of us had dinner at The Vine Saturday nite. We had reservations which were honored to the minute. I ordered the Ahi Tuna, my bride ordered a Crêpe, our friends ordered the Salmon and a beef dish. we had no complaints at all. My Ahi Tuna was killer good. Even the bread was special. The wine list is the best on Main Street and priced very fairly. We had a SCHUG Pinot Noir that rocked. Our server was very attentive, a little «weird» but very attentive and efficient. We are going back.

I never give five stars … five stars are reserved for the rare Monets, the Van Goghs, and the Edward Hoppers of the world… but The Vine is the culinary equivalent of the Sistine Chapel. Small and magnificent. The service was quiet and understated (so refreshing) and the food was classic and delicious. Bouillabaisse to rival any served in the south of France; really this was the best I’ve ever tasted and I can’t believe I found it in St. Charles Missouri!
On a beautiful Sunday in June, we returned to The Vine, only to find it «closed for the day,» but the ladies at the tea room next door informed us that it’s been closed for several weeks. We hope it isn’t permanent! The Vine was one of the best-​kept culinary secrets in the St. Louis area, and considering the quality, definitely one of the best values west of the Mississipi!

Hands down the BEST Salmon I have ever had!!! Subtle fusion at its finest! Pecan-​Almond Encrusted Salmon atop Saffron Risotto and finished with a Hazelnut Cream Sauce? Could it get any better!??
Aside from that, great wine selection, ADORABLE atmosphere (chic meets historic meets boutique), and service was fantastic too! The Chef came out to talk to us, even let us sit on the floor next to the fireplace with our bottle of wine! We had the best girls night ever!
I’ll post a simple mobile upload of the dish! It’s a must try!

We got a sitter! OMG, we got a sitter!
My wife and I finally crawled out of the Toddler Fiefdom that has taken over our house, and we treated ourselves to a lovely (as cliché as it sounds) Date Night. We were going to have an adult dinner, with adult plates, and adult drinks, and some adult dessert. Then we were going to be adults and smuggle candy into a movie that was free from Muppets and Letters of the Day.
The Vine was a lovely place to start. Using our handy dandy Unilocal app, we were able to find good reviews, secure a reservation, and find our way there. Thanks, technology!
This restaurant is cute. So cute that it almost fits in your pocket… almost literally. It’s a small venue, so wrap your mind around eating next to another table that is nearly at your elbow. However, we didn’t mind the proximity of other diners so much; it was our baby’s usual sleep time anyway, so we were used to speaking in hushed tones…
The server was good. She recommended a good wine based on our entrée choices. We started off with Lobster Stuffed Portabella Caps, and I had a Steak & Wild Mushroom Risotto. The food was delicious! I had also ordered a Lobster Bisque, but the server had forgotten to put the order back. A harmless mistake, nicely rectified by the manager when he sent out a dessert sampler after our dinner.
Overall, it was a very lovely evening. I wouldn’t come here if I had a large group of people. Not that it wouldn’t work, but I really think a large group of people would generate too much sound for the little dining room. This place is perfect for a intimate dinner with someone special. Or if you are just a refugee from a toy-​strewn living room and an energetic toddler.

Edit: Bummer, they’re closed! :(
The Vine is a wine bar on Main Street and hands down, one of the best if not THE best restaurants on Main… I know, I am basically reiterating Sean M.‘s review, hehe. It’s not difficult to be the best or one of the best on Main because the competition’s food is kind of… well, mediocre in my opinion. The only other restaurant with halfway decent food on Main is Stone Cellar, and they’re still in their infancy, plus only open a few nights per week, so I go to The Vine when I want a wine bar with the «city» flare of places like Ernesto’s.
They obviously have their crap together in the kitchen, which is 100% why I go to a restaurant anyway. Not for the ambiance, especially if the food sucks, which is why you will NEVER find me at Lewis & Clark’s… in fact I really wish they’d either go out of business and have someone who knows what’s up in the kitchen fill their space, or maybe just get their crap together. I know that sounds horrible, but I always think I’d want to go there if only the food didn’t suck worse than Applebee’s, and I actually don’t mind Applebee’s on occasion!
Anyway, I digress. The Vine is pretty dang good, although their menu could stand to be changed up once in a century. I know the building they’re in is probably at least 100 yrs old, but their menu doesn’t have to stay the same for 100 years either! ;) I went here about 1 – 2 years ago with a friend and the menu still seems to be the same to me, or maybe I just have bad memory, I dunno.
On my most recent trip, I had the roasted red pepper hummus. It did not come with pita bread, but that’s OK because the sliced bread it DID come with was AMAZING. I dunno what the heck they do to make it both soft on one side and crunchy on the other, but holy crap, I don’t care, because it’s so good!!!
Only gripe is that I felt like our server didn’t really come back to our table after we got the food and I wanted another glass of wine but I ended up not getting one because I was about done eating. If she had come back a little sooner, I would have bought another. Oh well. I hope their wine menu expands some as well as the food menu, and I wish they’d get Eschelon pinot grigio because it is so amazing (first tried at Ernesto’s recently) and no other place seems to have it, I think only Randall’s in the city.
One other gripe – the prices. Seems really overpriced to me, especially the entrees. I only paid $ 14 for one of the most amazing pasta dishes of my life at Ernesto’s in the city, so why do their dishes cost upwards of $ 22? I mean, the pasta dish I had even came with lobster, shrimp, and scallops and it was a decent sized portion, enough to fill me! I think because they’re on main they know they can charge more? I dunno.
It probably won’t stop me from going back, though, because like I said, if I am tired and I don’t want to make the drive into the city for decent, non-​chain, food, and I want a little ambiance with my dinner, I would so hit up the Vine!
Also I LOVE the fact that the inside is NON SMOKING. Hallelujah! If only they could make the patio non smoking too, I would so sit out there, but it’s hard to eat your dinner and enjoy wine when you’re coughing in a cloud of cig smoke, ew. I can’t wait for St. Charles smoking bans!

Went here last weekend for a bachelorette party dinner. I never really head to Saint Charles, so I has no idea what to expect.
The food was great! We started off with a great cheese plate — I highly recommend the Manchego cheese; which was paired with apples, olives and fresh bread. We also enjoyed their tomato hummus, as well as their Lobster Bisque which I highly recommend.
The entrées were decent sizes, and everyone loved what was set in front of them.
The only complaint I had was that the staff seemed a little clueless at times, and made a mistake on the bill — which she said she was going to correct.
And on my 45 minute ride home I realized she did not correct it — even though I reminder her during the meal, when we were finished and even when I got the bill in my hand. Obviously partially my fault for not reading it closer before signing, but I surely thought «how can she forget that after I asked so many times?»
I would still go back, and recommend it — but just warn people to look at their breakdown list before throwing the credit card in :)

Let me start by saying that this place is by no means «bad,» it just was a disappointment in several ways that made it a «meh» experience.
The Good:
The Vine has a romantic ambiance, though the Christmas lights taped to the ceiling do seem a little tacky or dorm-​room like. The chocolate torte is AMAZING and ridiculously decadent. The salads are served with real greens (not that iceberg crud). The servers are very nice and attentive.
The Bad:
The hubby and I ordered the lobster macaroni de gratin and risotto with steak and wild mushrooms. The macaroni tasted like mac & cheese with itty bitty pieces of lobster in it. Good, but not special either. The risotto had hardly any mushrooms in it at all, with the mushrooms being used more as a garnish than a side (which I had high hopes for). There was also no bread served with the meal, which seemed oddly missing.
The Ugly:
This was Oktoberfest weekend, so it seemed like the restaurant might not have been prepared for the extra traffic. They ran out of several items on the menu, including the cheesecake with chocolate ganache that we ordered. It’s just no fun when you keep ordering things to hear that they are not available any longer :(
The tables were also extremely close together. I was celebrating a wedding anniversary with my hubby and we were hoping for some romantic conversation reflecting over the past year. It’s hard to have that kind of conversation when you’re practically sitting on the lap of the people at the table next to you. I felt like my every word could be heard, because it could!
Overall, the Vine was just alright. Maybe our experience would have been better on a different (non Oktoberfest) weekend and with a selection of different entrees. The table next to us ordered a filet which looked great, and another table had a delicious fish main course. I’m not steering you away from the Vine, but in terms of value for your buck… at least on this visit, the food just wasn’t worth it.

We had not been here in at least a year for dinner as the change in ownership (multiple times?) seemed to have decreased the quality of the food and the wine list. The final straw was ordering a glass of wine and getting the 4.5 oz catering glass only half full.
I am happy to report that the current owners/​managers/​people in charge have made great strides and it was a lovely meal. We arrived on a Friday evening relatively early and were able to secure a table on the front patio. Our server arrived quickly and presented water and menus quickly. The menu was almost completely new (a few welcome hold overs from our last trip) but the good news was the wine list. The wine list was now appropriate for a place called «The Vine». Choices were organized by varietals and «interesting» whites/​reds. Prices were from $ 30 for county/​region bottles to $ 65ish for high end choices. We settled on a Three Saints Chardonnay (semi local, thank you Dierberg family). REAL wine glasses were presented and properly filled. Okay, we bought the whole bottle, but still…
We had the hummus plate (one of the hold overs from the previous menu) that was a perfect amount and very tasty. Entrees were the Chicken Chasseur and Pasta alla Puttansesca. Both were amazing! The chicken was tender and flavorful, the pasta was cooked correctly and the sauce was enough to give flavor but not drown in. The only suggestion would be to give it a little bit of spice for a small kick, but that is a small suggestion. During our time there we repeatedly remarked at how much improved the whole experience was compared to our previous visits. At this time the patio was almost full and the number of servers available was appropriate for the crowd level. The service was prompt and not overbearing, allowing us to enjoy the meal and watching the world walk by.
Overall, a great experience that we hope to repeat on a regular basis. The Vine has reclaimed its place in our rotation of dinner spots on Main Street and we look forward to our next visit!