Grounded in St. Louis

I read the reviews and almost didn’t eat here. Glad I did! The burger and ingredients were fresh and made to order. The curly fries were tasty. It gets a bad rap and it shouldn’t based on what I had today. It’s better than McDonalds, not as good as Five Guys. But good enough for airport food.
Service wasn’t bad and staff was friendly.

They promote their Shakes, yet they are out of one of the two flavors. Really???
Surly service.

Worth the wait??? No way. Cheap product and about the worst burger I’ve eaten in 10 years. Bad service too. Skip the meal and starve. You’re better off.

Given the lack of options in Terminal 1, I’m not sure why the reviews are so poor. I got a massive, fresh Cobb salad for under $ 10 – at an airport! I asked for it with no cheese, and they got the order right. No complaints at all – again, at an airport!

The staff this morning 11÷5÷15 were in rare form. Definitely felt like I was bothering them to make a sandwich. They also had no coffee and expressed that they had no coffee sternly like I should have known or that it was my fault. It’s ok though because the lady was as rude to the lady behind me also so it wasn’t just me. The people who work here are awful.

So I waited in line behind ONE person for 15 minutes to place an order for chili cheese fries. I asked how long it would take and was told about 15 – 20 minutes… Really? Now there was ONE person waiting for food, one person in front of me and yet 15 – 20 to pour a scoop of chili on top of fries and top it w cheese? The crew sadly had to be incompetent and didn’t really want to wait on anyone, hence the long wait times. Makes me wonder how can a place like this be in business at an airport? It isn’t like we come to eat here and intent on spending a lot of time.
If it could give zero or negative stars I would. Unbelievably horrible!

Can’t believe I got tricked into going here twice. The first time I came here, my burger had cold buns. I just assumed that whenever you order a burger from any restaurant, they would never just slap a patty on some cold buns that came out of the refrigerator. It was very disappointing since the wait took a while too. The curly fries were good though.
Second time I came here, the wait was even longer than before. My burger had actually come out sooner, but since there was only one cashier/​prepper, she had to finish taking orders before packing the rest of the finished meals into their bags. It was unfortunate because it took like 15 minutes of waiting around. My mushroom melt was sloppy when I got it. It was not worth the wait. Curly fries were again, pretty good though.
I won’t be fooled a 3^rd time though. This is going on my banned list.

Very mediocre food and the counter help is awful! Rude, not helpful or even friendly and she kept wiping her face as she handled the food. The two people behind me just walked away.
It’s too bad St. Louis doesn’t have any decent restaurants in terminal A.

Would love to rate their food, however I stood at the register for five minutes while three girls stared at me from the kitchen (while simultaneously not acknowledging me). One girl finally skunked her way out from the back only to stand three feet away from me in order to ignore me. After a few moments I figured it would be best to go over to Brioche Doree and get a great sandwich. If managers/​owners read this, all three girls behaved the same at 2:15pm on October 7^th. It cost you one sale and by looks of it all other potential customers think your restaurant is closed.

Had I seen any reviews prior to going here, I would’ve eaten at the Dunkin Donuts across the way.
The lady at the counter looked like she was about to fall asleep, and I could barely understand anything she said because of her whisper level mumbling. I got through ordering and waited about 5 – 6 minutes after ordering the «Grown up Grilled Cheese», with bacon added. That ended up costing 8.55 for a dinky sandwich that did absolutely nothing for me.
The taste of the sandwich itself wasn’t bad, but for 8.55 without any fries or a drink, it was a complete ripoff. Stay away.

Stopped here before my flight. The long line peaked my interest in the potential of a good burger.
I ordered 4 things on the menu (not exaggerating) before I chose something that they weren’t «out of,» or as the extremely quiet hostess might say «we ain’t be surrrrvin dat tday.» Yikes!
Poor service, and a 40 minute wait gave way to a good burger, however!

The only reason they are still open is because there are really no other options. The staff here act as if their faces would crack and fall off they can anywhere close to producing a smile.

This burger was apparently worth $ 6.99. They got my order wrong (I ordered the Indulgent, so where’s my bacon??) and I don’t see much of a difference between this and a kids hamburger at McDonalds. Very disappointed.

The food is good however the cash register lady (184 466 Tseganes-​pregnant lady) was rude to three different guest/​customers while I was waiting for my food. One of the unhappy customers asked her to flip over her badge so she could get her name and the lady refused so the customer politely asked her name and she refused and got even more rude moving on to the next customer. Very poor customer service. Disappointing since the food is good.

My dreadful burger streak continues, this time in St. Louis.
Grounded has got a lot of nerve in trying to market themselves as a gourmet, independently owned chain.
For 7 bucks you are not getting what you paid for. In fact, this burger was probably worse than McDonalds, and I’ve had better at BK. The meat was so bland, dry, and the patty was incredibly thin. The baja crunch was far from being crunchy. I asked for extra avocado but it seems like they did the reverse as there was barely any. The tortilla chips in it were soggy and everything was thrown together on top of a few pieces of lettuce.
Don’t fall into the trap of the branding or name — it is no where close to being gourmet or worth the $ 7 price tag. At best, a burger like this should only be found on a dollar menu.
The only thing I can agree with is that they serve «handcrafted» burgers, because a burger this bad can only have been handcrafted on purpose.
Avoid at all cost.

Stopped here for what sounded like a great breakfast sandwich on the menu… but turned out to be the absolute worst sandwich (not just breakfast sandwich) I have ever had. It was supposed to be a spicy veggie with egg, avocado, spinach, jalepeno monterey jack cheese, and pico. What I got was a greasy hamburger bun with a tiny amount of egg, spinach, slathering of an avo concoction, and cheese (with no spicyness). When i went back to ask where the pico was, I was told that it was mixed in with the avo concoction. Unfortunately, no tomatoes were present.
You might be wooed by the name of this place and thoughts that you are supporting a small business, but I can at least attest that the breakfast is awful. Not to mention the horrible customer service.
Get a breakfast sandwich from Starbucks instead.

Stopped here on my way out of the airport for a burger to eat on the way home. I wanted a mushroom burger with grilled onions but alas they were out of mushrooms. It was almost closing time but still, that was a tad disappointing. Instead I went with their original burger. I liked the bun which was just the right amount of squishy and the lettuce and tomato were both fresh and good. The burger patty itself was a wee bit skimpy but adequate and had some nice crispy edges. The star here actually was the curly fries which were crispy and really good– although pricey. I do always expect to pay more than normal in the airport but this place was almost 2x as much as an equivalent meal at 5 Guys. I’d try again to see if I like the mushroom burger but with Shannon’s a few steps away, that one had better blow me away or I’d just sit at the bar at Shannon’s instead for a significantly better experience.

Best part about Grounded– the food.
I didn’t have high hopes after my interaction with the staff, but it was actually pretty decent food. Not anything to right home about, but miles from bad.
The staff on the other hand– WOW! It seemed to be staffed with people on work furlough from the local jail. The cashier gave us major attitude, and kept giving us dirty looks. I almost asked for a refund before receiving my food, because she was literally that rude. I’m not a sensitive person either, I’ve got thick skin.
The cook had a bandage on her arm which grossed me out a little, because it was just gauze with tape over it. She was super confused the whole time I was waiting for my food. My brother and I ordered the same burger with different sides. You would think that would be simple, but the cook was just sure that the cashier had mistakenly put in the same order twice and kept asking, «Should I make two burgers or just one.» I guess good help is hard to find in St. Louis.
Bottom line is, I don’t want to eat somewhere that has staff like this. I don’t trust them with my food, and I would never eat here again. They have a great concept, if they would just fire these horrible employees and hire some quality people, this place would hit it out of the park.
Whoever owns Grounded needs to wake up, before it’s too late.

While waiting for my flight home, I stumbled on Grounded. It’s just a counter with one of those magical Coke machines where you pick whatever flavor combo you want and it concocts your beverage (i.e. nowhere to sit).
The cashier was hanging out in the back with the cook so it seemed unmanned, but after about 13 seconds of staring at the both of them through the window, they asked if I was ready and the cashier came out front.
The signs say «We won’t get started without you,» and «made to order,» but my hamburger patty was definitely sitting around a bit. The assembly didn’t happen until I ordered, but considering my meal was ready by the time I filled up my fountain drink, the patty and bacon were definitely already cooked.
I ordered The Indulgent: cheddar, bacon, Bibb lettuce, and garlic mayo, with a side of curly fries and a drink. The prices are standard airport food prices.
Verdict: despite the patty being a tad on the cool side, the burger itself was pretty darn good. The meat is seasoned well, the bacon isn’t super thick but it’s not the thin pre-​cooked wafer that you get at other places, and the fries are fresh and delicious. I would eat here again, and I would rate it: «I was so hungry I forgot to take a picture before I inhaled it» good.

Was really hoping I would like this place.
It kinda reminded me of BurgerFi, the décor was hip and there was a variety of burgers.
Though I was sadly disappointed. My wife and I ordered the mushroom burger along with an order of fried green beans. The mushrooms and onions on the burger were fine, but the patty tasted like it was something that I would buy frozen from a grocery store. The fried green beans needed some salt, there wasn’t really any taste to them. Just tasted like batter basically with a small hint of green beans. (Oh well at least I got some vegetables in on that meal: P)
The place looks cool, but I wouldn’t recommend it.