Pappy's Smokehouse - St. Louis, MO

Pappy's Smokehouse was our first stop in St. Louis after checking into our hotel which luckily enough was less than two blocks away from this famous BBQ place.

Having read numerous reviews, I wasn't surprised to expect a long line.  However, I was thankful that the line was mostly indoors thanks to some rerouting because it was quite hot this Fourth of July when we visited.

I think the line took us a good 45 min-60 min before we were able to order.  After waiting in line for quite some time, we were hungry.  Not hungry enough to eat all the food we ordered, but hungry enough to definitely taste it at least.  Being a bit indecisive, we opted for the Adam Bomb combination dinner which is enough to feed at least four to six people.  Being only two people, we had a lot of food leftover, but this was the best way to taste a bit of everything.

The sides were decent, but the fried corn that was frequently mentioned in the reviews, was something I could do without ever trying again.  I don't know what it was, but I hated it.  My favorites in this combo were the ribs.  They were more of a dry, smokey rib.  They were tender without falling apart.  The smoked chicken was my next favorite.  The brisket was tasty, but surprisingly wet.  The pork was pork.  My husband loved the frito pie and the ribs the most.

Oh, and I broke the no soda rule to try a Fitz's root beer to go along with all that meat!  It was a good decision on my part.  Fitz's was definitely tasty and made digesting all that food a bit easier.

Next time in St. Louis, we will visit Pappy's again, but we'll stick to the ribs and chicken.  Sides optional.  It was worth the wait though.

Snooze - Denver, CO

We had a short stay in Denver after exploring some of the more beautiful areas of Colorado such as Aspen, Breckenridge, and Boulder.  Denver left much to be desired in my mind overall, but we had some good dining experiences and the sunset from the baseball stadium was pretty incredible.  We finished our Denver visit with a breakfast stop at Snooze.

Snooze was a bit of a walk from our downtown hotel through some not so great areas of town, but it was definitely worth the walk.  Our visit was on a weekday around 9:30 AM, but even then, there was a bit of a wait, so, we opted to eat at the bar.  I really would have liked to have eaten at one of the funky booths, but time wasn't on our side.

The inside of Snooze was delightful. It was cheery and colorful.  The staff was friendly and welcoming and the food was quite delicious.  I had some simple scrambled eggs and hash browns with one chocolate chip pancake.  Believe it or not, this was the first time this chocolate lover ever had a chocolate pancake and it did not disappoint.  It was fluffy and light and as chocolatey as one could hope.

My husband had the chilaquiles benedict and he loved the combination of flavors.  The barbacoa beef and the ranchero sauce made him very happy that morning.  Satisfying his tastebuds at breakfast can sometimes be a challenge, but not at Snooze.  This was a meal that we both enjoyed immensely including the service, atmosphere, and food.  If we are ever in Denver again, this will be our first breakfast stop and maybe the only.

Nuet Nigenough - Brussels, Belgium

We found this restaurant through the Tripadvisor app on my iphone.  Brussels was one of the cities on our most recent trip that we didn't have a guidebook for, so, we kind of played it by ear. Finding the city guide app by tripadvisor proved to be a mixed blessing.  Most of the time it steered us right, but there were a few hiccups.  This was not one of them.  In fact, this turned out to be one of our best meals on our trip that included Paris and a number of other towns.

My dish was the beef stew with rochefort beer sauce.  This dish reminded me a bit of a Guinness stew that I had a number of years back.  The flavor was rich and the beef was tender.  The stoemp that I chose as my side was the perfect addition to the meal. It reminded me of bubble and squeak from the UK.

My husband's dish wasn't on the menu, but was one of the specials of the day.  He loved the sausages and the sauce that accompanied them.  These were the first of many sausages he'd eat on this trip.

Overall, this restaurant was a win.  The food was delightful, portions ample, and it was quaint and cozy.  That being said, it could be hard to get a table here as there weren't many.  I think I recall only 11 or 12 in total and a number of those were two tops.  The website says they don't take reservations, but we saw one local come in and reserve a table for about an hour later when we were about to leave.

By the way, it seemed one of the most popular things at this restaurant was their beer selection.  There was another American eating at the table next to us who was thrilled to find his favorite which he claims is incredibly hard to find.  There was an extensive selection, but we didn't try any.  We stuck to entrees this time around as they were accompanied by bread and a nice salad to share.  Dessert would be a waffle or something chocolate on the way back to the hotel.