City Gourmet

Assortment of foods is impressive, from sandwiches and wraps to assemble-​your-​own stir fry. And of numerous dishes, ALL were delicious. Five stars! Will be back again and again and…

Part grocery store, part DIY-​restaurant, City Gourmet is a great place to grab lunch downtown. They offer customized stirfry, sandwiches, burritos and salads, as well as some pre-​made selections. Herbivores can get a great stirfry with tofu, as many veggies as one can fit in a bowl (customer chooses them), and a variety of sauces. It tastes good AND it’s fun.
The only tricky part is getting out without blowing too much money on the gourmet snacks (chocolate-​covered pretzel sticks, delicious dark chocolate bars, beautiful cookies and cakes). They’re placed right by the register, so good luck!

Great place for a delicious deli sandwich, wrap or stir-​fry.
Had the Pepper Turkey Club today. Very good! I’ve had the wraps before, as well, and I have not gone wrong yet. Lots of freshly prepared food on the menu.
The beer and wine selection is a great bonus, too. You will probably find something that you’d have to search around for otherwise.
They have a few freshly baked and wrapped desserts that will definitely put a smile on your face. Maybe not as good on the wasteline, but they sure are tasty! (Take the 4“x4″ gooey butter bars, for example…)
I would recommend putting City Gourmet on your list of places to get lunch during the week.
The one thing that I did notice, though, was the upstairs seating area could use some attention. It’s a good place to relax and eat your lunch and they do have some plush seating and plenty of tables, but I wish that they would add a little more to spruce up the environment. It felt a bit empty to me.

I’ve been to City Gourmet a few times and loved it, so we decided to order cupcakes from them for a family party we’re having later in August. I’ve had a few different flavors of their cupcakes before and they are terrific– possibly the best in St. Louis. Never dry, always good flavor, decorated beautifully.
Thus far, Melisa and Karen have been great to work with when trying to plan a large «catered» order. I’ll update my review once the party has passed to let you know how it all worked out!

City Gourmet and I go way back – to 2007. :)
Ah, the good old days, when I could pop in for snacks and drinks before headed to Forest Park. When I would stop by for lunch daily and spend way too much on their amazing salad bar and decadent desserts.
I was surprised – and worried – when I heard that City Gourmet would repurpose itself with the arrival of Culinaria. Would they make it?
Turns out, yes, yes they can.
While I mourn that salad bar, I do love the stir-​fry, burrito, and sandwich bars that replaced it. The seating is still available upstairs, the beer and beverages didn’t leave, and the desserts, thank goodness, went nowhere. Neither did the staff – they’re still as friendly as ever.
City Gourmet is a great lunch spot. I’m so glad that they survived the Culinaria onslaught – I think they came out of it a better place with a more focused purpose.

Had a lunch meeting here today and went back to my usual stir fry. Tasted just as good the second time as the first!

Great beer selection, good food, stellar prices!
I’ve been here a number of times for a quick snack before a Cardinals game, some breakfast before morning photo taking, and some Mom’s Originals, which are delicious little chocolate and nut covered pretzels.
Yays:
— Large beer selection, including a huge mix-​a-​six section
— Lots of good cupcakes, cookies, etc., all for far, far less than Cupcakery or Sweet Art
— Large cold drink selection, including one off cold beers if you want to grab a drink with your food
— The food. The dinner and lunch stuff is good — including a make your own stir fry and some spectacular burritos. The breakfast, though, is awesome. For a couple bucks I got a huge biscuit and plenty of gravy to go with it. (I didn’t need the gravy, but yes. :))
— Local, organic, and tasty for most stuff.
Nays:
— I’d like a more diverse sandwich selection, but I understand there are lots of sandwich places downtown.

All I can say is «wow» what a pleasant surprise! Stopped by this adorable little market within 20 minutes of arriving in St. Louis and after a long flight I was famished!
The staff was pleasant. I ordered from the menu and pretty much changed the entire sandwich, my mother did the exact same thing and there were no complaints. The food was excellent. They make salads and sandwiches to order and also have an array of prepared salads on hand. And don’t even get me started talking about the beer selection!
Way to go St. Louis!

Stopped into City Gourmet for the first time today. I liked it!
It’s definitely a weird place, though. You walk in and you have no idea where you order your food, pay, or even sit, really. There’s about three times as much space as is necessary for a joint like this. And there are about a million different kinds of beer inexplicably lining the walls, but no plain old bottled water.
But beyond that, though, City Gourmet seems like a great place to stop for a reliable lunch if you’re in the area. I had their tuna salad sandwich, which featured a delicious avocado and pico de gallo spread. The potato salad side fit right in, too. (Wow, I really was on a mayonnaise kick, it seems.)
The menu, unfortunately, is a little pricey. A sandwich, side, and Vitamin Water cost me just under $ 10.00. I’d be more of a fan if it had ran me around $ 7.00; those few extra bucks can add up.
I guess they were one man short today, as the same guy was hurrying back and forth between the sandwich station and the cash register. If I was on a 30-​minute, I would not have been all that happy.
Fortunately, though, the comfortable and convenient upstairs seating made City Gourmet a fine place to relax, eat, and people watch. I’ll be back, if I find myself in that area!

So, as it says, «Yay! I’m a fan!»…because I am. Let me note here that I’m basing this review off of the one thing that I have gotten here each and every time I’ve come (which is 8 times now)…the stir fry. I can’t avoid it… today I went in thinking, «I’m getting something else. Salad? Sandwich maybe?.» Nope. I don’t know if anyone else sees it, but I swear there is a light that shines from above the stir fry bar, thus illuminating the glorious selections and rendering me unable to choose anything else. So… I get the stir fry.
As others have explained, it’s a build your own… you fill the bowl up with veggies, pick the sauce, protein, and starch… then pass it onto the dude who sets it on fire. **Note about the filling of your bowl… there’s a strategy to this which I am perfecting the more I go, it’s all about placing a layer of ‘flat’ options on the bottom (zuchinni slices, onion slices, etc.)…a foundation, if you will. Then, apply larger items, such as broccoli. Top this off with the small items, such as peanuts, as those will simply make their way into the remaining crevices. Get your money’s worth… why not??!***I will say, the past two times I’ve gone, my lunch has come back to me looking almost void of sauce. No problem though, they’ll kindly throw some more in there for ya. The veggies (which I LOVE) are always cooked just right, it’s all real fresh… good stuff.
And now… I’m confused. There’s some other reviews on here that have raved about the groceries here… I ain’t seein’ it. Yes, there are a few specialty items, but not NEAR enough to do most or even some of your grocery shopping. Unless you live off of salsa, crackers, and spaghetti sauce. I’m going to agree with one reviewer though that they have an AMAZING beer selection. I wandered over there today while waiting for my stir fry and it blew my mind! So many great breweries, all in one place. O’Fallon, Bells, Schlafly (of course), Mattingly, as well as a TON of other craft brewers. Blew… my…mind. Seriously.
By the way, they pull a fast one on you and put out some seriously LARGE backed goods right where you pay for your lunch. Giant cookies, brownies, gooey stuff, and cheap too. They got me once. They almost got me again today.
So… I love stir fry. Healthy, filling, oh yeah. Next time I swear I will get something else. Or not.

As a Downtown resident, I’ve very happy that City Grocers (and their insanely overpriced groceries — thank you Culinaria!) has risen from the proverbial ashes as City Gourmet (with reasonably priced prepared foods).
The beautiful wife and I, in a breakfasty mood, headed down there this morning. The fellow working the burrito bar seemed to be a bit overwhelmed (not your man Anna, don’t worry!), but he managed to create a couple of gigantic breakfast burritos for us.
And they weren’t just big — there was quality to go along with quantity. It’s always terrifying to see a pot of scrambled eggs being scooped out — how are these going to be? Too dry? Too wet? Too fluffy? Too flat? (is that the opposite of fluffy?) Anyway, there was no reason to have any fears — the eggs, along with the rest of the ingredients were flavorful and tasted fresh.
With one exception: the potatoes. Now, I love having potatoes on my breakfast burritos, _​but _​quartered new potatoes aren’t the right way to go here. At least cube them up! But instead, there were these giant hunks of in the burrito, and they really had more of «I should eat these with a steak, not at breakfast» taste about them.
But that’s just a minor issue — next time, I’ll simply avoid them (if they’re prepared the same way of course).
One other issue was the guacamole — we were there at 10:00 am and the guac was getting really brown. Now, I know it’s a pain in the ass to keep fresh and nice looking, but it looked really nasty.
All said, two burritos, an O.J. (just Minute Maid), and a Boylan root beer (that’s the wife for you) came out to $ 10.11. Not bad, not bad at all.

City Gourmet was kind enough to host April’s Unilocal Elite event and the staff was so nice and courteous that I knew I would have to come back and return the favor. So on a Friday afternoon when my co-​workers were being bums about lunch, I made the trek over by myself to check it out.
But before reviewing my lunch experience, I have to reiterate that this place kicked major ass for the Unilocal event. Everyone was so nice and they had a nice upstairs space for the event. Staff members even came out and served various different varieties of stir fry.
Speaking of which, when I returned for lunch I went straight for the stir fry. If there’s one thing I hate, it’s awkwardly trying to figure out the proper protocol when trying something new. I have had stir fry before, but this setup was a bit unusual. To save readers of this review potential hassle and awkwardness let me explain it to you how this works:
1) Walk over to the burrito/​stir fry bar. Grab a bowl from the bottom shelf and fill it up with as many vegetables as you can fit.
2) To the left of that will be a notepad and pencil for you to fill out with your choice of meat, starch, and sauce.
3) Turn it in and wait. You can get it to go or to eat there.
My stir fry was very tasty, but I am not a huge vegetable person. Instead of being like half vegetables and half meat/​rice (the real tasty stuff) I would’ve preferred like 25% vegetables and 75% tasty stuff. But I was still pleased. The price was right ($ 7 bucks and some change) and it was done quickly enough that I had plenty of time to walk back to the office and enjoy my lunch. I will definitely come back to check out their burritos and sandwiches, both of which were raved about by a fellow customer while I was waiting for my stir fry. They had some prepackaged Sushi that looked interesting too.
The grocery store portion of this store is excellent. They seem to highlight more unique offerings, in what I assume is an attempt to compete with nearby Schnucks Culinaria. But the beer selection — WOW! I already feel like a kid in a candy store walking down any beer aisle in any grocery store. But this place has an awesome selection of individual beer bottles, with the option to create your own six pack. Hell yeah! This isn’t an original idea, but their selection is incredible.
City Gourmet is a great downtown lunch choice, and great stop for some groceries too, especially if you love beer. The employees are super nice and the store is very well organized, modern, and clean. If I lived downtown, I would be here nearly everyday. Mad props City Gourmet!

Cool little specialty grocery store. If you’re looking for something organic, or something homemade from a mom and pop shop you’ll probably find it here. The bakery is excellent, the stir fry bar is cool, and beer and wine selection is very ecletic. Here’s the kicker, it’s not crazy expensive either. It only get 3 stars for it’s lack of variety and selection, but like I said «specialty grocer,»

I am sad. It seems I have found the *perfect* store to totally cure my grocery/​supermarket phobia and it’s a 3-​hour drive from where I live. What am I supposed to do? Relive the moment! Write a review!
City Gourmet is as close to a NYC Korean market as you can get, but it’s even better. Why? It is shockingly affordable. As in, you can actually do the bulk of your grocery shopping here, especially if you like the specialty stuff like I do, and it won’t set you back as though you might as well have eaten out. This is an appreciated contrast to most gourmet markets I’ve been known to blow a paycheck in.
What’s more, they have made to order sandwiches, salads and stir fry stations that remind me of those days when I was happy to have left lunch at home, no matter how hard I was attempting to save money. Nothing like a made to order fresh lunch!
I had one of the stir fry dishes. You pick out the vegetables, protein and starch (this is just *made* for picky people like me who shudder when there are onions, carrots or bell pepper in my stir fry!) In other cities, I have rejoiced when this option was available and gladly paid the 10 dollars it cost so that I could get exactly what I wanted (broccoli, snow peas, white mushrooms, bamboo shoots, sprouts, hot chilis and tofu). At City Gourmet, this feast is about 3 dollars cheaper than I am used to paying.
Moving on to the baked goods area (really, I shouldn’t), I marveled over the size of the cupcakes (carrot and red velvet among others). And then I saw the price. Less than 2 dollars – WHAT? I also saw very tempting cookies and slices of cake, as well as one of my favorite things in the world: pretzel bread. Sadly on this day I was being good and trying to stick to just vegetables.
They have a good selection of soft drinks, juices and my favorite Stevia sodas in the beverage area, along with a variety of vitamin and plain waters. Many organic choices.
I didn’t look at every area, but what I saw was artfully arranged and of course I dig the fact that they have some good wines available, too.
Comfy seating area with tables and chairs upstairs where you overlook the store below.
City Gourmet, I beg you, please open a store in Downtown Kansas City!!!

I am a bit biased I must admit, just because my fiancé’ works there… but the food is absolutely fantastic! Everything is fresh and made to order. My man works the burrito/​stir fry station, and does he hook it up! I believe in the last review, the girl said he was pretty cute, young, and ladies to check him out. Well ladies, don’t check him out… he’s hot I know, but taken and has a baby girl due any moment! Anyways, as far as food goes, you can mix and match, substitute, add on or leave anything out you want! The cold and hot sandwiches are pretty tasty as well, especially the roast beef sandwich! They sell many types of liquor, beers, and wine. They do of course also have non alcoholic beverages and a fountain soda machine. The deli case is always full of interesting and fresh and healthy dishes. Soups are fantastic, and desserts are to die for! They also sell gourmet coffees. If you haven’t stopped in, you definitely should check it out — you won’t regret it!

There is much to love about City Gourmet! Previously known as City Grocer before Schnucks Culinaria moved in up the street, City Gourmet has gotten rid of the specialty and overpriced groceries and now concentrates on making yummy, filling meals.
Ultimately, I go to City Gourmet for three things:
* veggie burrito
* or veggie stir-​fry
* followed by a Mom’s Originals chocolate-​caramel-​covered pretzel.
The burritos are absolutely delicious! There are suggestions on the board, but they’re stuffed with pretty much whatever you want. I always get the Alcupulco burrito (Did I spell that correctly? Probably not. Oh well, too lazy to look it up this morning.). The quantity of each ingredient is just right. There’s never, say, too much salsa or too little cheese. The City gourmet folks know how to make a good burrito.
I usually get a burrito, so I’ve only had the veggie stir-​fry once. It was excellent. You go to the little stir-​fry ingredients shelves and plop whatever you want into a provided bowl — rice, peppers, those weird tiny ears of corn, etc. Hand it to the guy (probably the same guy who makes your burrito), who fries it all up and serves you hot goodness.
There’s one particular burrito/​stir-​fry guy there who is absolutely awesome. I keep meaning to get his name. He’s super-​friendly, young, and makes damn tasty food (he’s also pretty cute, ladies). Moreover, he’s helpful! He’ll suggest trying different burrito sauces with different vegetables, or adding more of a certain topping for a different taste. One time, I didn’t put a ton into my stir-​fry bowl — I wasn’t feeling that great but still needed to eat, so I only wanted mostly rice with a few peppers and hardly any sauce. This guy didn’t know my tummy was weird, so he was adamant that I put more veggies into my bowl so I could get my money’s worth. He was trying to GIVE ME MORE FOOD! Love!
At the checkout counter, City Gourmet carries individually wrapped Mom’s Originals pretzels in both dark and milk chocolate. You have to read my Mom’s review to get the full scoop on this item, but I love-​love-​love that I can pick one up as my after-​dinner treat.
The general ambiance of City Gourmet is quite pleasant. I love a mix of store plus coffeeshop plus eatery. There are tables where you can consume your vittles while reading various publications, and there’s wifi if you need to do work. Personally, I just like sitting near the window and watching life happen as I eat. There’s seating upstairs, too.
The only thing that’s a little confusing is that there are two food-​making stations — one for wraps/​salads (which I haven’t had yet) and one for burritos/​stir-​fry. The wrap counter is the first one you see, and it’s the one with the cash register. Naturally, this is the one you’d gravitate toward. However, if you want a burrito and the only worker available is behind the wrap counter, you can get a little confused about what’s going on. Is the burrito counter closed? Is the unseen burrito worker taking a break? Why is there no cash register there? Etc. After you see everything in action once, it becomes obvious that if you stand at the burrito counter, the wrap guy will make his way over there. You just feel dumb when you don’t know what’s going on.
City Gourmet also carries deli items, sweets, soft drinks, beer and a very few grocery items. I don’t deal with any of these, so I can’t comment.
Two more incentive to go: They have a frequent buyer’s card where if you buy a certain number of entrees (I think 12?), you’ll get one free. Also, City Gourmet is close to the 8^th and Pine Metrolink station, which makes it easy to stop by for dinner after work or for office workers to grab a quick lunch. Rock on.

If you don’t know, this is the old City Grocer. Basically City Grocer was the only grocery type store to service us downtown dwellers, until Culinaria moved in across the street. Sucks for CIty Grocer, but they adapted, so bravo to them for their years of service and best of luck to them.
I like what they have done, gotten rid of the groceries and focused on prepared meals, sandwiches/​wraps and added two really great, unique featues:
–A build your own burrito bar. I love burritos and these are actually really good, 3 kinds of tortillas, 3 kinds of meat and add whatever you want from like 20 other items
–Stir Fry (think mongolian bbq) — pick your veggies, fit them in a bowl and pick out your meat, rice/​noodle and sauce
Also have a really, really extensive selection of beers baked goods and items created locally.
Also serve breakfast