Red Lion

After reading a few of the reviews of this place several months ago my girlfriend and I went and love this place. All of the food is really tasty and fresh.
The burgers are the S**t! The Cajun burger, the pb&j burger, the red lion burger. Anyone who enjoys a good burger will be seriously happy here.
Also a couple of the sandwiches are killer the Frisco beef eater and the buffalo chicken, and the turkey bacon melt. Must try’s!
The soups are all great as a guy who hates soups as they are the only soups I eat. My faves are the Tomato bisque with the grilled cheese sandwich to dip in it, and the loaded baked potato.
All of the specials they post up are really amazing. Adam only posts it up if it is great.
While they have salads this place isn’t a health food restaurant. If you looking for baked tofu you probably won’t be happy. If your looking for great food this place is the bee knees.

I had high hopes for Maplewood’s newest gastropub. I was disappointed. On to the review! The Good: Atmosphere, very mellow, deep reds, a lot of space for a shotgun bar. The patio outside was slightly charming. My Red Lion Soft Cheddar Burger: amazing, the cheddar was perfect, carmalized onions were flavorful, the brioche bun was perfectly toasted, and the burger’s flavor was tantalizing. Good happy hour, too.
The Bad: I ordered my burger medium and got it well done. I served tables for eight years and know what it should have looked like. The Ugly: Everything else. Our service was atrocious. It took five minutes to meet our waitress. She didn’t apologize for the wait, ask us how we were, or tell us her name, just rudely asked us if we were ready to order. The waitress did not check on us to see how the food was. Not once. After we ordered, she came back once to clear our plates. We had to go inside to get our check from her. And guess what she was doing? Rolling silverware! Get your priorities straight. Terrible service, and I could tell the other diners were having some of the same issues. My friend got a ‘flatbread.’ I wasn’t quite sure what flatbread meant, but now I know that it means Mama Lucia’s Frozen Pizza. No exaggeration, this thing tasted exactly like a Mama Lucia’s pizza. Suck it, Red LIon.

The Red Lion Burger is the ish! The burger of my DREAMS! It’s that serious!
The Red Lion Burger… AWESOMENESS on a bun! ½ Beef, ¼ Lamb & ¼ Pork, bacon, caramelized onions, soft cheddar cheese and BBQ sauce… gosh my mouth is watering writing this! They also have the best sweet potato fries. Crispy on the outside, meaty, slightly sweet and piping hot on the inside!
The service is horrid (hence the 4 stars), but I deal with it because the burger is soooo darn good!

Meet several friends here for lunch, and I must admit I was pleasantly surprised. Being closely bonded with these friends, we shared our entrée experiences.
I had the Stuffed & Grilled Portabella Sandwich — FANTASTIC! (the favorite of all) I loved the combination of red pepper, asparagus, and avocado was amazing and the waffle fries were better then a steak cut french fry.
My friends had the Fried Chicken Salad and the Red Lion Soft Cheddar Burger, and both were very good.
The combination of beef, pork and lamb in the RL Burger adds a kick of flavor that will take you by surprise.
The Fried Chicken Salad, is a huge salad with Chicken Tenders on top. I have said it before, this is not for a dieter.
The staff was friendly and made our lunch a fun experience.

I really want to like The Red Lion, I really do. It has a cool vibe inside, a nice patio, a nice looking drink list (note I said nice looking), and a slightly hip menu using «pommes frites» to describe the french fries. Usually sounds like my kinda place! The truth is, though, the few times I’ve been here, I’ve been less than impressed.
Without a doubt, the servers we had either didn’t know the specials, didn’t know what was even on tap, and in some cases — didn’t speak English? We couldn’t understand a word they said, and just nodded along.
It seems like whatever my first drink option is, they’re out of. They then seem to always be out of my second option, as well. It would be nice for the servers to know this ahead of time, ya know — so it doesn’t take half an hour for my beer.
It’s been the same way with the food here, as well. Order a pulled pork — «oh, sorry, we might be out, let me check». They’re out. Order a «fill in the blank» — «yeah, we just ran out of that». I’m really not even kidding about this — this has happened to my boyfriend and I no less than three times. Honestly, if you’re out of stuff and it’s only 5pm (seriously!) — then someone needs to be doing better management of your food (or you need to get your cooks in earlier, I don’t know).
I think the best things we’ve had here is the sausage platter, and the onion brick — which as other people have mentioned — is definitely a must-​order.
So, for now Red Lion, I will probably hang out at other places down the block until you get some of your shiz together. Step it up and I definitely would want to come back.

If you’re interested in checking out the Red Lion, I suggest you get over there quickly. If business doesn’t pick up from where it was last Saturday night, their days are very seriously numbered. The crowd was so small, I was actually happy there was just a 3 man band, because there was almost ALMOST no way they would outnumber the customers. At least not until our part of four left.
The Red Lion is actually a nice little space, with original artwork and a sleek, minimalist décor that would be a nice surrounding for an upscale restaurant. The problem is, I don’t think anyone would walk in without seeing this as a bar first, restaurant second. This being the case, I think some kind of whimsical or fun décor would be in order. Something fun to look at if your eyes wander, such as the swings at Boogaloo’s bar just down the street. Anyway, enough bashing for an establishment that’s about to go down…
Okay, one more bash: If you call yourself a gastropub, you might want to have more than three beers on tap. It’s even more important to make at least one beer accessible to someone who wanders in off the street. The three beers here were an IPA, a Hefeweizen (sp?), and a «breakfast stout.» We liked the IPA, which came in an O-​Fallon glass — not sure if they are the brewer. The breakfast stout might have been the nastiest beer I’ve ever tasted. The two best descriptions we came up with were 1) someone scraped the char off a piece of very burnt toast into a Guinness OR 2) They successfully translated the taste your mouth has the morning after smoking a few cigars into a liquid form.
We only had drinks here and the server was attentive and friendly. It’s a fine place to go for a quiet night with friends. The band was also pretty good. Bring someone you don’t like and buy them a breakfast stout.

Dropped in here last night with Stephanie B to grab a bite to eat. The bar was pretty full, but the restaurant was not overly crowded. Our waiter Brian stopped by and took our drink orders and let us peruse the menu. Sitting right next to the kitchen I had my eye on one of the various burgers. I finally settled on a burger that I quite honestly can’t remember the name of. Perhaps it was the Cajun burger, but I can’t tell as it is not on their on line menu.
Then the wait began. I know we were not the only ones in the place, but does it really take 30 minutes to get 2 burgers out to a table? I ended up only eating half my burger as I just wasn’t that hungry by the time if finally arrived to our table.
The plus side here is that the burger was pretty good and cooked properly. The sweet potato fries were yummy, but I think the crinkle cut seasoned fries would have been better with my burger. I’m sure Stephanie can attest to that as I kept stealing her fries: D
Overall I will say it was an enjoyable experience, by the time we were leaving there was a live band playing a jazzy, blues mix that was easy on the ears. If you cut our wait time for our burgers down to a more reasonable amount of time they would have easily gotten four stars, but the service was just spotty at best and the food just took too long. I am willing to chalk it up to an off night and give them a second chance if I find myself in the Mapplewood area looking for a good burger.

Meh.
That about sums this place up — for me. It’s not great. But it’s definitely not terrible. It just is what it is — which, to say, is not a place I’d take anyone for a particularly unique meal.
Granted, the hubby loves the soft cheddar burger (which is a pretty unique — and, according to him, delicious mix of lamb, pork and beef) — and I have to be fair in saying that I’m not a big burger person, which this place is probably better known for. Each time I’ve been there, the food has been decent, and the environment is pretty cool — minus the one time they had a Rat-​Pack Type singer there, who kept sidling up to us as we were trying to eat. Have you ever tried to enjoy a Grilled Chicken & Avacado Sandwich while an ever-​so-​slightly balding man sings «Fly me to the moon» from across the table? It’s awkward. Like, really awkward.
On the plus side, the beer specials and happy hours are pretty awesome, and there’s a nice little patio out back if you need to escape Frank Sinatra Jr. — I mean, erm, go outside for some fresh air. All in all, I’ll probably be back — just not any time particularly soon.

I’ve hit the Red Lion now for drinks once and a separate visit for a whole meal. Overall, this is a pretty solid place. Décor is nice with a red pressed tin ceiling (I am sucker for these aesthetically), dark wood, a good sized bar, booths and a seating area with tall tables and chairs in front of a projection screen. There are also 2 large screen TVs flanking the bar and if you are lucky like we were and get the right booth, both you and your companion can see each screen to watch the game while conversing; they also pipe in the game audio so it’s not just visual and is loud enough to hear but still converse — Awesome.
Draft beer is a small but well chosen collection — Thelonius Monk, O’Fallon 5 day and a Hefeweizen, 4 bucks a draft. Domestic bottles are $ 3.50 and imports $ 4.50, so reasonable pricing. We started with some wings which were good, fried with a classic butter/Frank’s hot sauce sauce. They also have 2 other varieties. For our meal, my companion got the soft cheddar burger with a beef, pork, lamb patty which was very tasty and cooked to a true medium rare. I got the lamb burger medium which was well cooked and mighty tasty; it is extraordinarily rare for me to eat a burger without ketchup (I am addicted, I blame public school lunches in the 80’s – hey it’s a veggie!) but I did not put a drop on this. Sweet potato fries were crisp and flavorful and not dried out. Yum.
We went crazy (hey, the Rams were winning!) and got dessert too — ordered the deep fried twinkie and ice cream. They were out of plain ice cream and subbed another dessert which is ice cream rolled in crushed oreos and fudge. The twinkie was extremely overly breaded (served with a nice berry sauce) but the ice cream balls were nice.
Service was good overall and we were not rushed (my peeve), impressive given our waiter was the bartender who was negotiating a full bar and about 3 – 4 booths on top of that.
I would not go here to enjoy super fancy drinks or groundbreaking mixology, but they make a competent Manhattan. If you are into it, they prominently display a lot of flavored vodkas. Wish they had more draft selections.
We will be back, awesome game day destination.

I’d been talking about going to Red Lion for quite some time and found myself here not once, but twice this week. How funny…
The first time I was here, it was for a late lunch on a Tuesday. Most bars/​restaurants are dead around 2 – 3 pm and Red Lion was no exception. I sat at the bar and ate a fried chicken salad — it was good! The service was fine too, especially since I was working on my laptop while eating and I don’t know what the bartender could have done to make my salad any better. Prices were reasonable, especially for the amount of food that was served.
Came back on Wednesday night after the Unilocal event — this place was bangin’! There was a band playing inside, but they were way loud (even for this half-​deaf girl), so my friends and I sat outside on the back patio. We waited and waited for the waitress to come out but after about 20 – 25 minutes, I just went inside to get a drink. Draft beer selection is A-​OK — as long as there’s an IPA on tap, I’m a happy girl. AND they now have the O’Fallon pumpkin ale available — oh how I love thee, pumpkin beer!
I would totally come back for drinks or light appetizers again — not sure what all of the other reviewers are complaining about. But I haven’t been here for dinner so not sure what the dinner service is like. If it’s anything like the waitress after dinner, I could see where that would be a problem. But like I said, drinks and late lunch were more than OK in my book!

We went to the Red Lion on a recommendation from a fellow Unilocaler. We were looking for a nice laid back pub to kick back on a Friday evening after a long week at the office. And that’s what we got.
The Red Lion was what I was looking for. It was clean, not too loud, and the food was decent. They do have a great happy hour that lasted until 7pm where drinks and appetizers were ½ price.
I was a little bummed that they didn’t have the draft selections they advertised online and in their menu. Particularly the Red Lion Brown Ale and the Schlafly Summer Lager. Instead they had Blue Moon (which I love, but wasn’t new to me), Moose Drool, and some other wheat beer. After expecting one thing, but having to choose another really put a damper on things.
We ordered the Onion Ring Brick (having seen its write-​ups on Unilocal), and it was pretty good. Very messy, and hard to dip, but otherwise good. It’s a lot for 2 people, though.
Following my rule of thumb to order the house special in a new place, I ended up asking for the Red Lion Soft Cheddar Burger. It’s an 8 oz. burger that is ½ beef, ¼ lamb, and ¼ pork. It was good. A little busy, but good. However, I do have one concern. I ordered it to be cooked medium, which it was, but in retrospect shouldn’t the lamb and pork be cooked thoroughly? Who knows? If it should be cooked all the way, shouldn’t the waiter or cook correct me? I don’t know.
I heard the California Burger was pretty good. I may get that next time if we revisit.
The sweet potatoes were good, but not be-​all-​end-​all of side items (as it was built up to be via other Unilocalers). They tasted just as good as the frozen ones we occasionally cook at home.
The wait staff was fine. At first, I didn’t care much for them. We arrived around 5:30pm, and it took three of them to assemble a to-​go order while I waited for him to look our way. But after that order left the building, he was able to focus his attention on his section (and he did apologize for being occupied with the to-​go order).
The space is actually pretty great. The art on the walls is modern, and easy to tune out. The tables and bar were nice. The music was a bit loud, but not overbearing. The bathrooms were clean (although it wouldn’t hurt to put some potpourri or air freshener down). The patio looked nice as well.
My only suggestion would be to add a few more draft selections. 2 or 3 would be nice. And get the Brown Ale back. My interest is piqued.
I hope this place does well. It was a little slow for a Friday night, and you never want to see a good restaurant like this suffer because of low sales.
I would recommend this place for a visit.
Plus, it’s always fun to tell folks that you are going to a Gastropub. Is it outpatient surgery or a good time? Who knows?

I probably shouldn’t even give them one star since I didn’t actually eat but I had to give them one to do the review.
Hubby and I walked in on a Sunday night and the place was medium full. No one to greet us… No sign saying wait or seat yourselves …
Stood there for a few waiting to see if someone would say something … Nada !!
Walked back to a booth and spent the next 10 minutes trying to figure out who worked there. After a guy who appeared to be helping another table walked past us without saying a word … We got up and left. Never spoke to anyone or saw a menu !!
This is the high crime for me at restaurants and shops !! I’m not going to give my money to anyone who clearly doesn’t care if I’m there or not !!

I’m gonna go ahead and say this: best sweet potato fries I’ve ever had.
That’s a pretty bold statement, but I wasn’t even hungry and I destroyed a whole plate of them. They’re crisp without being burnt, and flavorful but not soggy or greasy.
The menu here is clever, although those with simpler tastes might not find much to their liking (looking for a regular burger? good luck).
The bartenders are also clever. They’ll put together drinks that you’d never even think of, much less order — and they’re delicious. Also, I finally got to sample some Absolut Boston, which is just plain amazing in iced tea.
I’ll have to come back in order to make a judgment call on the atmosphere — we stopped by on a Sunday morning, and it wasn’t super crowded, but I can see how this place would get packed on a weekend night.

My wife and I live down the street from The Red Lion, and we were blown away by the eclectic menu, and friendly staff we found here. Since the very first time we stepped foot in the door, they’ve treated us like family.
We’ve worked our way through their diverse food menu, (and drink menu… LOL) and have found some amazing dishes that bare repeating again and again. The Toasted Ravs are huge and made in-​house, the Tenderloin Strips are a step above chicken, and the Cajun Burger and Lamb Burger will take you to another level of happiness… At least they do for me. And the ingenious drink specials will remind you that «booze is delicious»… LOL

Barry, the proprietor, is usually there with a smile and a friendly greeting. He really makes you feel at home here, and has put a really great idea into motion… «Above average pub grub», doesn’t begin to prepare you for the journey your mouth will go on when you visit The Red Lion. The salsiccia lasagna (which was one of the fabulous, daily «chalkboard specials») was better than lasagna I’ve had on The Hill, (which is known for their Italian).
Adam, (their chef) is a culinary master, who’s addition to the Red Lion family has assured their place as a staple in the restaurants we bring our friends and family too.
If you’re looking for a great place to spend an evening with 2 or 20 of your friends, who wanna have a great time and eat great food… Then the Red Lion is for you.

Great little local neighborhood bar. I was there on a Sunday (I believe), and I was pretty impressed. There was a all day Happy Hour.
Got to watch a game on the large projection TV. while watching a hockey game on the smaller TV. behind the bar.
The toasted Ravs were awesome, and the burger was thick and juicy (possibly maybe the best in St. Louis) (Blueberry Hill is way overrated).
Decent beer selection, but the wine and spirit selection is slightly lacking. Overall, I liked it.

Laid-​back bar meets gastropub-​level food.
Cozy booths.
Good crowd.
Specials every day of the week.
These are a few of my favorite things (when it comes to finding the ideal bar, anyway) :)
My cousin and I wandered into the Red Lion on a lazy Sunday evening (thanks to a quick search on Unilocal,natch). We were quite hungry, and in the mood for a good beer. His only real requirement: a bar with TVs suitable for catching the football game. Well, Red Lion has a huge projection screen and a few plasmas so no suffering was endured.
Our server gave us the best news of the night: happy hour specials run all day on Sundays! Half off all beer and appetizers… score! We split the toasted ravs (not your mama’s toasted ravs, mind you, these are filled with pork and beef and served with a cheese dipping sauce). We then moved on to California burgers for both of us. The burgers were delicious and cooked to perfection, our only gripe was that we didn’t see/​taste any of the promised avocado paste on ‘em. Still very good, though.
Service was super friendly and despite having only three beers on draft, they’ve got a decent bottled beer selection. Love the New Belgium 1554!

The place is designed well and looks great. The menu seemed interesting. The toasted rav’s are awesome. Burgers & Flatbread ok… But the dining experience sucked!
Our first waitress went on break after our drink order, but before the food order. So it took forever for anyone to come over and finish the process. The new server then took her time and had attitude. Never checked back to see how things were or refills. We had to go to the bar to get any new drinks, condiments, etc. The bartender didnt seem to worried about what was going on either.
Overall…terrible first impression and doubt Ill ever be back.

The Red Lion is a small, tidy bar/​lounge located on Manchester in old town Maplewood.
Pros:
Dim lighting that’s not too dim
Live music that adds flavor, but doesn’t overpower
Comfortable booths and seating
Terrific late night happy hour (weeknights 10 PM)
Attractive, unpretentious crowd.
Super-​HUGE projector TV
NON-​SMOKING
Cons:
Limited parking
I was pleasantly surprised by the atmosphere at Red Lion. Cozy, social, nice, unpretentious. Just the way I likey. Drinks at 10PM on a Friday night were cheap. I ordered a rum & diet and Bud Select and paid a total of $ 4. Yowza!
The décor is new. It has a slightly upscale British pub feel. I noticed the mouthwatering special on the chalkboard (rack of lamb with roast potatoes and spaghetti squash) and wished I had ordered here and not at Schafly Bottleworks down the street. I’ll be back for dinner soon. I highly recommend Red Lion as a nice, low key watering hole.

Mmm. A+, man.
Went to the Red Lion this evening after receiving a coupon in the mail for $ 5.00 off $ 15.00 spent.
It’s located in Maplewood, in their little strip of sorts (across from Shop N Save, on the same side of the street as Jive N Wail).
I LOVE the atmosphere. Very laid back, dim lighting, very cool. Nice seating, and everything was nice and CLEAN. And non-​smoking! Awesome.
I ordered the Cajun burger. Topped with pepperjack cheese, cajun spiced with ranch, onion straws, and jalapenos, all on wheat bread. YUM. I chose the sweet potato fries to accompany my burger, and they were DELISH!
Boyfriend ordered the grilled chicken salad and was pleased with that.
The service was pretty good; however, my one and only gripe is about my burger. Although it was good, I requested for it to be cooked medium. It came back well-​done. WHY IS IT SO HARD FOR RESTAURANTS TO GET THIS RIGHT?!? I’ll never understand. However, the burger was still tasty, so I’ll only subtract one star.
We left just as the band was setting up. I wish we would have stayed for the live music. Next time! I’ll be back again soon, I’m sure.
One more thing: they have happy hour M-​F from 4pm-​7pm, and 10pm to close. On Sunday, happy hour is all day. They offer half price beers and appetizers during these times.

So I’ve been holding out on reviewing this place until ACTUALLY GOING but I’m going to go on a limb and say that this place is pretty awesome after only having eaten cold half eaten burgers and soggy sweet potato fries that the lady brings home.
That’s right. Their cold half eaten burgers and soggy sweet potato fries are DELICIOUS. That, and I lead a pitiful life of scrounging after my wife’s leftovers after a long hard day at work.
Having had the cajun and the California burgers, they’re ginormous. The patties were well seasoned, nicely charred, and cooked to an awesome medium (dunno if she ordered it that way). It’s just plain delicious, from the bread, to meat, to the bacon and toppings. On top of that, a burger and fries is about 8 bucks? You might think that that may be on the high side, but after seeing these monstrosities you’ll think it’s a solid deal.
I don’t even know if I want to have their burgers and seasoned waffle fries hot and fresh. I don’t know if I can handle it.