Walkers Restaurant and Bar

Make sure your waiter writes down your order and you should have a good experience. My wife ordered the meat loaf. I opted for a chicken sandwich and hold the onions. The waiter wrote nothing down and left. After what seemed an unusually long time the waiter came back and asked if i had ordered the fried fish sandwich? Another unusually long wait and the food came out. Chicken sandwich WITH onions. Meatloaf was good. The beer was very cold. Management should purchase some paper and pens and they would get an A-​OK.

I had a burger with their house made bbq sauce. Outstanding. My wife loved the fish tacos, the special of the day. I got the fries as a side, which were good. My wife had rice. The rice was too spicy for her, but I loved it. We will come back, hopefully frequently.
The fried pickles were a delicious choice for an appetizer. Enjoy!

I am in LOVE with every food item on their menu! They offered delicious hummus a few months prior… The pita that came with it was amazing, as was the veggies grown from their garden! The mashed potatoes with the special gravy is to die for. My relatives tried the spinach artichoke dip and said it was great. Their specials are always great. They have live music on the weekends, which is a nice addition to the dining experience. Once again, I am going to rave about their food. Unilocal rated it $$, but for the amazing quality of the food offerings, it’s more appropriate to rate it $. My friend is a hot wing «snob», and she said they served one of the best she’s ever tried. Definitely the type of food to dine with a first date/​someone you want to impress.

The is a great little place to get dinner for carryout. It’s close to home and delicious. The homemade bbq sauce that comes on the Dodge City burger is nothing short of amazing. The only complaint I could have is they never have the peach cobbler that’s listed on the menu when I order. If that’s the worst, then it’s not too bad at all.

Another Friday night, another dilemma… where to go?
We resorted to searching Unilocal for some direction. Why we don’t do that more I don’t know. We’ve not been disappointed yet.
So, based on zipcode and stars, we decided on Walkers. None of us had heard of it even though we eat in this general area almost weekly. Two of our party live only 1 mile away… how could we have missed this one???
There were five of us on the Friday before Christmas. Seven o’clock was our appointed time. The place was about half full (which isn’t a lot of people as it seats, in the dining area, about 20 people. The bar probably can do another 20.
There was live light jazz/​blues in the bar which is a nice touch, but not for one of our party who has a hard time hearing conversation with that much background noise. But it was workable. We all ordered the burgers since that seemed to be the highlight of the reviews we read and we were NOT disappointed! De-​lish! Perfectly done, quality cheddar, substantial slices of bacon, awesome «spring mix» garnishment! Just YUM! We also had an order of fried pickles as an appetizer and they were, hands-​down, the best we’ve had! They come with two dipping sauces, one a traditional ranch-​style, the other a zippy hot one. And I do mean ZIPPY! Make sure you have some water ready.
And the mixed drinks were reasonably priced. Our waiter was casual but fast and friendly.
All things considered, it was a very positive experience. We will go back.

Every dish I try here is better than the last, each with a distinctive palate that I can only describe as perfected meticulously. Love love love their mashed potatoes w mushroom gravy, the meatloaf is amazing, and on a Saturday night their Jamaican jerk chicken wings are a perfect match to the Fox Barrel Pear Cider!

This could be one of the most WTF dining experiences I’ve had in St. Louis. But in a very, very good way.
This little bar with dining room looks unassuming and the menu seems pretty standard — at first. Then you notice the little eccentric touches: the mashed potatoes come with rosemary gravy, the special that night is butternut squash salad — not typically what I think of as bar food. And, damn, it’s good.
The WTF part: We got there on a Saturday, about 8 p.m. The band setting up in the bar area. We go into the tiny dining room and are the only people in it. My husband says, «Is this a bad sign?» But I saw several people eating at the bar, and we’re meeting another couple. «Let’s stick it out,» I say.
My husband alerts the attractive female bartender that we’re in the dining room and an, um, imposing bearded young man appears with menus, silverware and a spiel about the specials. Not a ton of beers available, but the Schlafly’s coffee stout and a tasty pear cider.
We order a pound of Cajun wings. The other couple arrives, we all get our drinks, no wings yet. We talk and talk, no wings. We’re about to give up on the wings when out come a pound of the best wings we have ever had in this town. Really. Blazing hot, crispy skin, delicious Cajun rub. Blue cheese dressing appears to be homemade.
We order the squash salad. Again, it takes a little while. When it comes out, it’s obviously freshly roasted squash with dried cranberries on good greens with a light vinagrette. Delicious.
It dawns on us what’s going on. They don’t expect a huge crowd. They don’t prep tons of stuff beforehand. They make everything themselves and only cook fresh stuff.
So, we had a burger with wild mushrooms, freshly dipped and fried onion rings (the waiter actually said, «Yeeesssssss!» when I ordered them), and a meatloaf special with a silky mushroom gravy and fresh tender/​crisp green beans.
Dessert was ice cream cookies — a scoop of ice cream on freshly baked — as in baked after you order — homemade chocolate chip cookies. Even the coffee was fresh and delicious.
The band, by the way, played soothing folk music and didn’t get loud at all.
I guess the other WTF part of this is — why isn’t this place packed???

At the beautiful wife’s recommendation, we visited Walkers tonight. I feel like I could write 1,000 words about Walkers* — it’s a wonderful conundrum of a place. And that, indeed, is a compliment.
Let’s start off with the only bad thing:
For as great as the food is here, the beer offerings are just sad. Their four taps were PBR (that ain’t right!), Blue Moon (ugh), Newcastle (look, Newcastle and I have issues), and a pear cider (I think this was Wyder’s). Bottles again are mostly macros, though they do have a couple Schlafly’s, Guinness, and Fat Tire. If they only had a tap with Founders or Stone or something a notch above, they’d get a 5^th star. One nice touch was they pour the bottled beer into glasses before serving, at least they did for my Guinness.
That’s really it on the bad. On to the good:
Fried corn dogs — it sounds like ultimately horrible bar food, but you can taste (per their menu) «all breadings, batters, and dips are made from scratch.» I thought the coating on these was incredible — light and crisp, just awesome. The hot dog part, well, it’s a hot dog.
Now on to the BEST:
I had the burger titled «The Hangover.» And I was sober (really). But this puppy is a beauty — it’s basically a slinger burger (over easy egg, cracked black pepper bacon, chili and cheddar cheese), but take the best slinger you’ve had (which hopefully, was when you were hungover or in the process of getting there), and multiple it by a gazillion. This is real deal burger territory — as in, there are places that are «known» for their burgers (and where I’ve raved about their burgers) and I’d forsake many of them to go back and get another Walkers offering.
The accompanying fries were fresh cut and crisp — very tasty (though I’m mad that I didn’t order their onion rings based on other reviews).
Service was great — the bartender was our server, though when she was originally busy when we first came in, one of the owners took our drink and appetizer order.
There’s enough awesome food on the menu (and plenty of specials) that we’ll be coming back, beer selection be damned.
*379 words in case you were wondering

According to the friendly host (owner?) at Wildflower, St Louis has a somewhat unique tradition of pubs that have chefs and try to present pub food that has some creativity, going beyond the usual. I have no way of confirming if this is unique to St Louis because I’m sure there are gastro pubs in most cities, but he recommended Walker’s to us and we decided it was time for some upscale pub food. Our friends the D’s joined us.
I had read the menu on line before going and found it fairly simple with a few sandwiches and a list of burgers along with some appetizers and sides. It definitely appeared to be avoiding excess and fru-​fru. Pretty straightforward stuff. When we arrived, we were surprised at the relative lack of patrons for a nice Saturday evening. The bar area was about half full and the dining area, though small, was nearly empty.
We discussed our options with the enthusiastic server. She announced some non-​menu specials that did not sound like pub food; chicken Alfredo, a steak, roasted chicken. I think we had prepared ourselves for pub burgers and such so that is what we went with.
We started with a pound of wings and the spinach-​artichoke dip. The wings were just barely done, but were decent. I liked the jerk wings, the others preferred the Newcastle Barbecue, but both were well above average. The spinach-​artichoke dip came with fried pita bread which was awesome with the dip or even alone. A person could eat way too much of this. There is plenty of onion in the dip, but I still liked it and would order again.
Ms T ordered a seared chicken sandwich with fries. This was the weak point of the meal. She even spoke up and commented to the server at the end of the meal that the chicken was a little dry and completely without salt or seasonings. We wondered if they just missed it.
Ms D’s Southwest Burger looked great, loaded with so much stuff that she literally could not pick it up and ate it with a knife and fork. It had black bean salsa, bacon, cheese, greens and avocado. Mr D and I had the Dodge City which was also very good. They cook the ground beef to true medium, but it was not dry. Ours were topped with onion rings, cheddar, pepper jack, bacon and some of the Newcastle barbecue sauce. The burgers are large (advertised as 8 oz) and after the appetizers and sides, I only ate half. There was a minor misstep when an overzealous kitchen guy tossed my other half, while our server was looking for a take-​home box. Another comment; this is a place that got the bun right. It fits the meat and provides a way to eat it. It was not dry or enormous as you get some places.
A couple of side dishes deserve some of the spotlight. Ms T had fries, which I would skip. Go for the onion rings, which are house made, unevenly yet charmingly coated with a very good batter. They are sweet and delicious. To be honest I’m not sure I have ever had better. Ms D ordered these, but I had the ones that topped my burger. They are a must. Mr D had the fried corn on the cob. Being the Iowan that I am, I love good sweet corn, but I am not sure about the fried thing. He said it was good, so I trust him. I had to try the mashed potatoes with rosemary mushroom gravy, which could not have been much better unless you gilded the potatoes in melted butter before topping them with the gravy. I loved them. They used red potatoes which were perfect for this application, not grainy. They are only coarsely mashed and the skins are left on. The cream gravy was perfectly seasoned with rosemary so it is not medicinal as rosemary can be and the mushrooms added earthiness as well. I dislike the overused term «comfort food», but this fits that category. Some cold winter night I will be back for a burger and mashed potatoes AND O-​rings, followed by a coronary.
Everything was well made (except the pan-​seared chicken on Ms T’s sandwhich). Nothing is good for you. The burger is as good as I have had in St Louis. The O-​rings are as good as I have had anywhere. At the close of the meal our server genuinely asked us for feedback and we were honest. This was not the typical, «…and how was everything, Hon?» I hope their business supports them, they are worth patronizing.

Three stars seems low compared to the others, but remember – it means «A-​OK,» and I can’t really say «I am a fan» (4 stars). A-​OK means I will go back – especially if I want a good burger.
It’s really nothing to look at, but you can go somewhere else if you want to look. It has the appearance of not being fully decorated or thought out yet. But it was clean and the dining room was nice in that they had linens on the table, covered by white paper, on which you could draw. I like something under my plate – it feels cleaner that way. I did appreciate those touches.
On a Thursday night at dinner time, my husband I were the only ones in the dining room. The bar was full of people eating and drinking. We each had burgers-«Just a Burger» it’s called. We had a long wait; our waiter was the bartender, and he explained that everyone came in at once and ordered food. He gave us a free beer to make up for the wait. That, coupled with a coupon in advertising, gave us a very low bill. Always a pleasure. I think a dinner at Hardee’s would have cost about the same!
The burgers were good, but my fries were limp and greasy – like they had sat around a bit. I really can’t say I like them, all limp like that. I don’t think that was the intention. My husband got the onion rings as a side, and they were really big and obviously hand dipped. The batter was thick and maybe a little odd – was there corn meal in it? I thought the batter was a little too thick, as you could hardly taste the onion inside.
THe peach cobbler sounded really good, but we were quite full from our large burgers, which I couldn’t finish actually. I felt kind of sick later in the evening, and I attributed that to the greasy fries. If I get them like that again, I will definitely send them back.
I hope this doesn’t sound too negative, especially with my last comment. I will go back.

Well normally I don’t throw around 5 star ratings but here it goes…
THIS IS THE BEST BURGER IN ST. LOUIS!
Yeah, I said it. Prices were a little steep, however, everything is made from scratch. the onion rings were amazing and damn just was delicious. I will definitely go back before I have to move.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Nice atmosphere, cozy & dark, just the way I like it.
Menu is pretty much sandwiches & burgers, but with their own special twist. It was hard to decide, but I had BLT Turkey Avocado w/​their house made cranberry mayo. It was huge & yummy. I actually shared my sandwich & an order of wings. I ordered the cajun dry rub wings which imo were way too salty.
I will definitely go back & bring some new customers!

I stopped in Walkers very late one night. It was like walking into the Twilight Zone. How did I get here? Should I stay? I am pleasantly surprised to say «yes» I did stay and had a great time. Beer prices were very good but have not tried the food yet. I got there too late for all of that. However, just the casual South City ambience is enough for me high tail it back for more.

After reading a review of Walkers I figured this spot would a safe bet and man was it. Being a fellow Southsider myself I like to support my local businesses and I will definitelybe a regular here.
What can i say… I’m a philanthropist.
Anyway we got the wings Cajun Dry Rub with two sided sauces the Newcastle BBQ and curry six pieces $ 5 bucks. Both sauces were really flavorful and the wings were hot and crispy with a nice spicy to with the Cajun dry rub. We tried to do a little something different and ordered the The BIG GRIFF $ 7 which is a sandwich of Bananas foster, peanut butter, grape jelly and brown sugar maple bacon on French toast but no luck, no bananas :(
So we went with burgers, the Dodge City $ 8 which has Cheddar, pepper jack cheese, cracked black pepper bacon, crispy onion rings and our house made Newcastle BBQ sauce and the Southwest Burger $ 9 Mixed greens, black bean salsa, cracked black pepper bacon, pepper jack cheese with avocado. One had a side of Hand Cut French Fries, nice moist and crispy not a bad one in the bunch. The other sides were Southern Green Beans and House Made Pasta Salad. The pasta salad was really good, just lightly dressed not smothered in mayo. I know that it must look like just bar food on the menu but they did also have something like 4 specials one in which was fried chicken and 2 sides which I hope to have when I go back.
The place was pretty empty so service was prompt with pretty much 1 bartender and 1 waitress running the show. It’s a pretty cool place too. When you walk in you figure oh it’s just a bar but they have a pretty «fancy» dining area on the side also, well «fancy» for Southside standards. All in All this place is a winner. Great prices as you can tell, great service, great food.

I took my uncle here after the Unilocal party at Brio for some yummy drinks and food. Two south city titties, curry wings, onion rings and a muddled manhattan later and we were having the best of times.
Just noticed on their FB page that Walkers is getting into the american roots and blues music scene, bringing in Brian Curran last Friday, could I really love this place any more?!
still no BBH tho ;)

This place is great. With all the crappy bar food that is found at every bar in St. Louis its great to have a place that has healthy and tasty food made with care from scratch. The 2 owners (who walk around to make sure that you are happy) take great pride in their bar and the «vibe» there is casual and welcome. The portions are big and the prices are small. Totally laid back place with little fanfare, but the food and cheap prices make up for that… if a group of surfers opened a bar/​restaurant in STL, this would be it.

Five stars for this place accomplishing exactly what it’s trying to do. Is this the fanciest place in St. Louis? Absolutely not. The most extensive menu? No. A hole in the wall bar, with great bar food with a local spin… cheap drinks… and no pretense? Yes.
Five stars for getting that exactly right. SO glad we saw the review in St. Louis Magazine, or we’d have defintiely passed this place by (It’s actually on a stretch of Gravois we typically miss, even though we live pretty close by… it’s in between the two roads we normally take to get onto or cross Gravois). The décor is nothing special, and the menu on first glance isn’t either. But the food… FANTASTIC. Had a lengthy chat with one of the brothers/​owners, and with one of the bartenders and really appreciate what they’re doing with this place. Glad to have it in the neighborhood!

Walker’s Restaurant and Bar just opened in the former home of Mamacita’s/Theodore’s on Gravois in South City. They are a bar that serves mostly homemade pub grub (sandwiches, salads, & starters).
The menu is small, but everything is made from scratch including breading, batters, and dips. We started with the curry wings ($ 5), which were good. The BLT Turkey Avocado with hand-​cut fries ($ 6) was a HUGE sandwich that was AWESOME! The «never frozen fish» sandwich wasn’t the greatest and there were no offers to replace or discount the barely eaten sandwich. However, the southern fried green beans side that came as a side was delish. We finished with homemade peach cobbler with ice cream and chocolate syrup. Wish it was warmer, but it was YUM!
Overall, this place is an improvement from Mamacita’s. Fresher and nicer looking. It could use a bit more personality inside and the dining room definitely needs better lighting and other touches. But, if you’re looking for an inexpensive neighborhood bar with better than average food, this is a good option! They are open Tuesday-​Sunday and they serve starters until the bar closes.