Stone Cellar Fondue & Wine

Stone Cellar has found a way to create a great fondue experience without making a customer spend a big portion of their time cooking their food. At Stone Cellar the meat is already prepared and cooked so you don’t have to spend some of your time waiting on your selected meats to cook in oil or broth. As far as ambiance Stone Cellar is a very small and intimate restaurant, seating approximately 25 people total so you definitely need reservations. They’ve created some unique fondue options such as the breakfast fondue which has brown sugar and cinnamon in it and the ballpark fondue which has items such as waffle fry’s, onion rings and hot dogs. Both sound crazy but taste great! I’m definitely sold on Stone Cellars take on fondue and will continue to come back bringing others with me.

I was highly impressed with this venue. I picked this location sight unseen for my sister’s bachelorette party (she’s a classy lady who is 30 and we’re just not into wild drunken nights). This place had a lovely atmosphere, romantic vibe, and knowledgeable staff. No one in the party had been to the location and all thought the food was great. I was very happy to find a place that was memorable and decently priced! Best of all it was a local small business :)

(this was an unfinished review from August last year). This was an excellent time with Unilocal friends, thanks to Kate B. Very cozy kind of place and everyone agreed it would make a great date place. Very reasonably priced compared to the competition and the build your own option worked out well for us. I liked the setting and the small space. Great for an intimate dinner for two or for a group of close friends. I will go here again.

Still lovin’ it.
I was having an epic shitty day (on Valentine’s Day, go fig) as I was really sick and pretty much stranded without my car since Sean’s car was under repair and he needed to get to work. Yep, he was scheduled on Valentine’s Day despite having practically every other Thursday off this month. I was also starved as it was a busy day at work and I had literally no time to eat! So yeah, now that I’ve set the stage for my mood prior to going to Stone Cellar… lol…
By some miracle, Sean was able to leave work early and so I immediately grabbed the phone and dialed up Stone Cellar to see if *by chance* they happened to have any reservations left for the night. By this time it was already about 8:30pm but I knew they did late night happy hour so I had my fingers crossed we could still nab a table for 2 and do that. And by another miracle, they happened to have an opening at 9:30pm. So I hauled ass and got a shower and we headed over.
As Barbara K. mentioned, they had awesome rose petals all over the floor when you walk in and red candles and lanterns lit up everywhere with a lot of good songs playing. (Good in both my opinion and Sean’s…a feat hard to accomplish.) Great ambiance for the night. I am not usually one to give many fucks about Valentine’s Day, but I must say I was impressed. (
.my perpetually inappropriate heart just skipped a beat.)
We ordered the sweet brie cheese fondue. The owner remembered I preferred to add the sugar at my leisure from the first time I went there, which impressed me! I think they got their recipes figured out by now, though, because I added the entire cup full and it was spot-​on perfect amount of sweetness. They were also very flexible about what dippers I wanted subbed. Yay.
We opted for the Heavenly chocolate fondue for dessert and they were also flexible when I asked to do half milk half dark choco since Sean prefers dark choco. We also demanded (I mean asked politely for) some more cheesecake because cheesecake is the bomb dot com backslash your mom. I love how it’s still chilled/​frozen ish and then when you dip it in the warm chocolate it’s SO perfect. Amazing combo.
At the end, they gave me a red rose (which I then shamelessly teased Sean about because he didn’t buy me any flowers… not that I wanted any, really, it’s so much better to just wait until a day or two after when they’re 50% off and you can pick ‘em out yourself anyway… just sayin’) which was really awesome of them. Really made the night (and day) muuuuuch better for me as a whole, which rocks.
Another aspect that rocks: for both of us, our total bill ended up at something like $ 33 or so including tax and tip. Not bad for a Valentine’s Day dinner or any romantic date night.
So yes. Stone Cellar kicks ass. I wish they were open more nights, still, but only a minor gripe. I’m kind of surprised that others have had bad experiences there because as you may have noticed from my mobile check-​ins displayed at the top of my review, I have been there no fewer than NINE times. And of those 9 times I have never had a shitty experience. So yeah. Just putting those statistics out there for ya, o’ skeptical ones.

I had been to this restaurant shorty after they opened and had a great experience. THEN visited for a second time the day after valentines day and made the decision to definitely not go back for a third time. Despite nabbing one of the last remaining reservations a week in advance they seemed to be unprepared for the increased business. We had to wait about 15 – 20 after our reservation time to be seated. It was fine because one of the owners brought out a small fruit and cracker plate complimentary which was nice. Once seated we were really hungry so we ordered an appetizer and entrée, but It took a solid half hour to bring the sliced apples, broccoli, bread, etc. out for the appetizer. Nonetheless, we thought our entrée would come out shortly. It then took about another 45 minutes for the entrée to show up. Our reservation time was 7:15pm and we walked out around 10:00pm, and not because we were sitting around talking and drinking. We also left without dessert (which I was really looking forward to) because we didn’t want to spend another half hour waiting. We politely asked two of the servers about the delay and they didn’t apologize but instead just said «fondue takes a while» and they «weren’t expecting the increased business». I understand fondue sometimes takes a while to eat, but since they put the cheese fondue together at your table and the dippers consist of pre-​cut vegetables, etc. I’m not sure it should take quite that long, and certainly didn’t on our first visit. Not to mention others in the restaurant seemed to be equally frustrated. The managers/​owners never approached us. After close to three hours at the restaurant we had to stop somewhere else on the way home for more food and less wait. I’m all about supporting small business, but this one needs a bit more efficiency or hope for customers who have all night to wait around for service.

We were so excited to try this restaurant, that we booked it for Valentine’s Day, despite the couple of less than stellar reviews. I am SO glad that we did!
Before we even walked in the door, we were greeted with white and pink rose petals on the ground, and they were all over the floor when we walked in… what a special touch for our special day. The place is small, and very romantic. You can tell that they took great care in choosing each plate, painting, and curtain, to give it the perfect atmosphere.
Our server, Jamie, was so nice and explained everything. We asked for information and recommendations, and she answered each in detail and with a friendly smile. The whole night, she really made us feel relaxed and welcomed.
We ordered a bottle of wine, and the «Around the World» special — appetizer, main course, dessert and champagne. All of it was super-​delicious. She explained every ingredient that she put in the fondues, and even told us the best way to prepare it if we decided to try it at home. At the end of the meal, she brought me a rose. Stone Cellar though of each little touch. It was a perfect evening.
We would definitely go back — any day of the year.

It’s a nice little place in downtown St. Charles with a romantic ambiance. It was my first time trying fondue, and I didn’t like the food. I’m not sure if it’s fondue I don’t like, or their fondue in particular. The I got the classic fondue as an app and the Mediterranean for the entrée. Both fondues tasted strongly of chardonnay. It was so overpowering to me that I barely tasted the cheese. I asked the manager if that’s normal, and she said yes, they all taste of alcohol if the base is wine and beer if the base is beer.
Not sure if I’ll try fondue again. My husband has gone to Melting Pot, and he said the fondue dipping sauce is more like a soupy broth and it tastes really good.

Well this review is going to make me sad. The girls were looking for a great spot to host our Christmas HH and we heard about this new spot in St. Charles. Since STC has the wonderful Christmas lights and characters walking the streets around Christmas, we figured it would be a perfect spot. When we decided on Stone Cellar, I checked out their website to see the menu and I noticed that you can submit your info for a free drink ticket they will mail you, cool! So we all submitted our info (on ¹²⁄₆), and when it was time for our HH on the 22^nd, none of us had received the coupon in the mail. So I just called in to ask what I should do and, I got major attitude from the manager. I explained to her that we hadn’t received our vouchers yet, and she told me to resubmit the information online and she would take my name down. She said she would check her list to make sure she received it, so I asked her if she didn’t have my name from before to which she replied ‘I have a restaurant full of people right now I don’t have time to even check on that’ super rudely, so I was put off. Even so, no big deal, I can let little things slide. When we arrived for our HH it was really hard to find this place. I didn’t see any signs and you have to go down the stairs on the side of another establishment, even then I didn’t know how to get there, but we found it. The inside was cute, very quaint and dim lit but MUCH smaller than I was expecting. There are probably only 6 – 8 tables inside. I liked that it was intimate, but there is only one tiny bathroom in the same area where the waiters get on the computers, so it was very crowded. Our waitress was awesome, I think her name was Meredith. She was very friendly and helpful. The food was also good, we started with the two cheese appetizers and everything was good. On a side note, the four of us could have ordered one or two appetizers for 2 people, not four, because you get so full. Then we ordered the main course and we all had 8 dippers. Everything tasted great and again, tons of food. Order less than you think you’ll need! We ended with the dessert fondue and it didn’t disappoint. For the drinks: you can easily order a bottle of wine instead of going by the glass, its cheaper that way. We ordered two bottles of wine and by the end of dessert, we were finishing up the last of it and letting our food digest, when the manager approaches our table. We are thinking that maybe she’ll thank us for our business (we spent $ 300) and possibly ask us how our visit went, but OHHHHH no. She just comes over and says ‘we have a reservation coming in and we need this table, so you are welcome to stay and move over to the bar area (which is nonexistent b/​c of the size of this place) but I need this table.’ UMMMMM WHAT??? Seriously, we were shocked. We made reservations for that night weeks in advance and I don’t care if that table stays for 30 minutes or 2 hours, but if they are spending money in your establishment (good money in our case) then you NEVER ask them to leave for someone else to come in. It’s just rude and tacky. I’ve never been asked to give up my table, EVER. Go figure this is the same manager who for some reason gave me attitude about the drink situation. I’m not sure what to think here because if it wasn’t for her, I would have given this place a ⁴⁄₅. At the end of the night after a great meal, it just put a bad taste in all of our mouth’s and ruined the whole experience for us. Literally as soon as dessert was being taken away, we were asked to give up our table. UMMMM sure, let me just down this ½ glass of wine I have left after spending tons of money at your restaurant and be on my merry way! I mean, I guess since we were done ordering, we weren’t needed anymore! WOW. Horrible customer service, I would never treat someone that way ever. Again, props to our awesome waitress, she was so friendly and nice. Maybe the management should take tips from the employees they hire. I won’t be back because of my experience and I know none of my friends who came with me that night will either.

This place is soooooo good! I’ve been here a few times, once when it opened and a couple since. Each time I come back the service, quality, and overall experience gets better and better! I totally pick them over the Melting Pot because it is a cute little quaint spot and is reasonably priced. I can actually afford to go here once in a great while. haha
It is definitely a good spot for some girls to get together or a romantic little date. The atmosphere has low lighting and the menus come with a flashlight attached to them just to make sure you can read it ok, but, it really isn’t too dark for comfort. It is a very small space and in a cellar hence the name but that’s part of the charm. The tables are somewhat private-​ish which is also nice.
It is a little awkward to get to. The first time I came here I was completely lost and nearly walked past the place since the sign is not really visible (or does it exist? I’m not sure). (Side note: they did offer to go upstairs and find one of our missing friends who was lost in the street! That’s called great service!) You have to walk into this courtyard garden like thing that looks like you’re entering into someone else’s establishment. Then you see some stairs and you go down them. It’s not necessarily clear what door to go into, and if you’re anything like me you obviously pick the WRONG door initially! haha. Anyways, once at the bottom of the stairs you go RIGHT and into the little cellar place and there is someone there to seat you.
The food has always been quite good; plenty of options to choose from. They are very much into providing great service and will work with you to provide you with anything and everything you could want. I have yet to have a fondue (cheese or chocolate) here I don’t like! :)
I can’t wait to visit this place more and more in the upcoming years — esp since they keep getting better and better!
FYI: they are only currently open Th-​Sat 5 – 11 pm. They do have a special deal after 9 pm though!

I had my reception dinner here this past Sunday, October 7^th. Krista and her husband were wonderful, especially since I had made a reservation for 20 people just a few days earlier. The setting couldn’t be more perfect and intimate. No one had tried traditional fondue before and they did an awesome job of briefing us before they brought out the hot cheese. I would definitely recommend this little spot and my husband and I will definitely be returning for future date nights.

I visited Stone Cellar last night with a group of Unilocalers and organized by Kate B. I was really looking forward to it, as I love fondue. I’ve never been to the Melting Pot, because it is a chain, looks expensive, and a lot of the meals include meat (I’m a vegetarian). Stone Cellar looked a lot more flexible with the menu.
The place is tucked into a basement, but I found it by looking for the street address and the signage. So cute! I walked in and it is a small, stone cellar. Who knew? The name isn’t deceiving. You can sample different wines, but I went with the sangria. It came with oranges and strawberries in the glass and was REALLY good. It really hit the spot.
I love the options here. For a somewhat picky eater, I love to be able to choose the details of my food. You can choose a fondue with dippers that come with it or build your own with a huge variety of options for dipping. Mallory and I split the traditional Swiss fondue and opted for 6 dippers: roasted veggies, grapes, french bread, pretzel bread, roasted potatoes, and apples. They brought out a plate with a LOT of dippers for us. There were definitely enough to get full. I liked the fruit, potatoes and veggies the best. The pretzel bread was great but I didn’t like it as much with the fondue. The french bread was a little hard but not a huge deal when dipping into cheese. The fondue was creamy and stayed hot on the heater it was on. There was a bit of flavor in the fondue that shined more with the bread that was stronger than I wanted. It might have been the cherry liquor that they put in. I would ask next time that they not use it I think. The flavors of the fruits and veggies combined with it better.
There’s no way we could’ve visited a fondue place without doing a dessert fondue. There are about 6 different ones, including cheesecake, white chocolate and more… we got chocolate butterscotch. You get two choices for dipping plates: one is all fruit, and the other, which we opted for, had an amazing array! It had: bananas, cheesecake bites, brownie bites, caramels, strawberries, ginger type cookies, ripe krispie treat bites, and marshmallows (that look homemade). Wow. just wow. It was amazing. I was in heaven!
Service all night was awesome. Our server explained everything to us, was knowledgeable, friendly, and split the bill between 5 of us easily and quickly. Both our server and support staff kept our glasses full and our dirty dishes cleared.
I’d definitely come back! In fact, I’m already planning to. They have some deals, like a free drink (sign up for their mailing list on their website), a card for $ 5 off dinner for 2 (go to the bathroom for one! they gave me one on my way out too), and $ 10 for fondue or dessert fondue after 9pm.
Can’t wait for my next visit!

This was our second visit here and both experiences were very good. The space is in the lower level of a historic building on Main St. in St. Charles (below Figuero’s). Given the outside temperature in triple digits, going into the basement was a great change of pace. The room is small, we counted seating for 25. There is a small tasting bar at the back of the room to sample wines before deciding what you would like to have with your meal — a nice touch. There are tables for 2, 4, or 6. I am not sure about larger parties but i am sure they could figure something out.
So, the wine list. First word that comes to mind is small, about 10 bottles red & 10 bottles white, BUT they have a nice spread of varietals to match the fondue choices. I would like to see a few more Old World red wines but the price points are VERY reasonable and I see no reason not to have a bottle rather than just a glass. We settled on a California Chardonnay for our meal. The glasses were real wine glasses (not catering size or low quality) and the presentation was good, though it would have been nice to have had the chance to make sure the bottle was good with the traditional «taste before pour» but that’s OK.
The menu was pretty much unchanged from our first visit, but that is a good thing. They have five different fondue themes with a couple of choices of cheese for these entrees. We went with the In The Mediterranean fondue which was lovely. It is a goat cheese based fondue that is served with chicken, bread, peppers, spinach tortellini, cherry tomatoes, and olives. The chicken and pasta were our favorites with the fondue but all of the selections make sense. It was plenty of food and sadly left us no room for dessert. In our two visits we have not taken the plunge but have vowed to do so on our next visit. Compared to the other fondue restaurant/​chain in St. Louis, the Stone Cellar is an amazing deal in terms of price and the fondue quality is as good or better!
Our server did a great job of preparing the fondue, explaining the ingredients that went into the fondue and suggestions for how to dip the chicken and pasta to maximize the flavors. The usual server tasks were also done efficiently and unobtrusively. There were 3 servers working on this evening, one of which was the proprietor. All were sharing responsibilities for the tables and they were enthusiastic about making sure you enjoyed your experience.
The Stone Cellar is a great addition to the dining options on Main Street. For a fun evening or a romantic date for two it is probably your best option. I can only imagine them getting better and more creative in their fondues. We hope you go there soon to show that St. Charles can support higher end dining and make sure you try to save room for dessert!
Bön Appetit!

Went here on 6÷1÷12. Very romantic for a date. But… I will not be going back. Took an hour to get our food, small portions and our waitress didn’t tell us anything about the food. Other tables were getting big explaintions but we were left in the dark.
Only seven tables, don’t see how they can make a living on that many.

My wife and I ate at this little restaurant in St. Charles. It was charming and the food was pretty good. We also brought in a bottle of champagne and they didn’t charge us a corking fee.
The staff was really friendly and receptive. I like to joke around with the wait staff, and they had a good sense of humor about them.
We enjoyed our time at this place and would consider eating there again. They could probably expand their menu and they don’t have much space (can seat around 20 – 24), but it was a positive experience. Their pricing is very competitive and although I am also a fan of The Melting Pot, this place is locally owned and operated.

I hate writing this review, I really do. I love the opening of new businesses in St Charles, particularly a cute place like this one. Unfortunately, they need to get their act together if they want to survive on Main Street.
The restaurant offers 4 – 5 «set» fondue options with one cheese (you can only do one cheese at a time) and set dippers. Or, you can do a build your own where you pick a cheese and then pick your dippers (and pay a higher price the more you choose). We went with the swiss cheese and apples, bell peppers, french bread, pretzel bread, sweet sausage and chicken.
The Good:
— Parking was super easy, we parked in a free public lot on Riverside drive and walked right up to the building.
— The restaurant itself was absolutely adorable. Six tables in all, a cozy (but not cramped) cellar with a very homey feel. Loved the plates and the unique napkin holders
— The staff (all two of them) were incredibly friendly (when we saw them. more on that later). We had an issue where we didn’t receive our bell peppers and the owner (?) immediately took care of it and gave us a drink coupon for a return visit. Well done on that one.
— The dippers were for the most part good. The sweet sausage was a yummy Italian sausage. The breads were both soft and tasty.
— The wine prices by the bottle were very reasonable and I was extremely happy with the sweet Moscato we ordered — bonus point for free samples!
The Bad:
— Like I mentioned before, we ordered 6 dippers and only received 5. By the time we were able to flag down our waitress the cheese was gone and it was too late.
— The cheese was very heavy on the garlic (which may be good for someone people, but was a little overwhelming)
— The portion seemed so small compared to The Melting Pot. We definitely had leftover dippers with 5 selections
— The chicken was dry. It tasted good, but was just dry.
— Our wine arrived and was placed on the table with two glasses… aaaaand there it sat until we finally gave up and poured it ourselves.
— Our waitress came and made our fondue. We told her we’d been to the Melting Pot before so she totally skipped the whole intro and telling us what was going into it. so she puts it all together, stirs. and then let it sit in front of us while it cooked. So we got to stare at this huge pot with an inch of liquid cheese bubbling in it (and we were starving at this point). That was kinda cruel.
— Nobody asked if we wanted a dessert and oddly the check was split without us asking. Granted, we would have asked any way but that was incredibly presumptuous to assume two women wouldn’t want to share a bill.
The Ugly:
— Once we did get our dippers. the cheese just wasn’t great. It was runny and clumpy at first. So thin that it was hard to actually cover the dipper and kept dripping on the table. By the end it was oddly grainy and tasted even worse (like, pure garlic. and I actually really like garlic, so for me to notice is saying a lot)
Overall, unfortunately I just cannot justify going back to this place when there are two Melting Pots in town. I sincerely hope that my experience was just the result of only being open for 3 weeks. It definitely has potential but this night’s experience just didn’t do it for me.
3÷26÷2012 ETA: I honestly felt bad writing this review, which is why it’s so long. I do not want to trash a brand new business but I wanted to give my frank opinion. Then I noticed five «5 star» reviews of this place pop up with in 24 hours of my review. Mostly from first time Unilocalers. Coincidence? I think not. Shady, shady, shady. I really hope you didn’t have anything to do with this, Stone Cellar. I don’t feel so bad about my review now.