Stefanina’s Restaurant

Stefanina’s Restaurant in O’ Fallon is as popular as ever. This place has been putting out good food for years. So, while the lovely Rebecca and I were out running errands last Saturday we thought we would stop in for lunch.

Lunch Crowd

The place was crowded but that is not surprising on a Saturday during the lunch crunch. The young man at the Hostess desk (I guess it would be a Host desk then) seemed a bit overwhelmed. But he did get us a booth as requested. We prefer booths to tables. I don’t know why. I am sure there is some deep seated reason going back into some meaningful event in my life. Or it just could be that I like booths more than desks. I mean sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

Menu Choices

Our server showed up immediately and brought us our drinks. We were ready to order. I had to have the meatball sandwich. Meatball sandwiches are one of my favorites. Not every restaurant can get them right. But I had eaten a meatball sandwich here before. I knew I was safe. The lovely Rebecca opted for the small house salad.

We sat and discussed world events for long enough that I looked at the clock. It had been 15 minutes since the server took our order. In a few minutes she showed up at out table to apologize for the delay in getting served. She explained that there was only one cook working.

Missing Cook

The restaurant business is a painstaking business. Running a successful and efficient kitchen is a tough task. Having a cook missing a shift can be a catastrophe. Now I do not claim that this rose to the catastrophe level but it sure made things unsatisfactory. It took almost 30 minutes for our order to arrive.

Sandwich “Yes” Salad “No”

The meatball sandwich was everything I expected. It came on a fresh bun. It was slathered in marinara sauce and had cheese melted over the meatballs. It came with fries. I could finish the sandwich but that only left room for a few fires.

The salad was disappointing. The iceberg lettuce showed clear signs of age and probably should not have made it on to a salad. The dish was also devoid of the promised croutons. That made a difference to Rebecca. I do not like croutons so I would not have cared.

I’ll Go Back

All in all I would give the experience a 5 on a scale of 1-10. I know Stefanina’s can do better. They were having a bad day. I still recommend it and will certainly return.