Cheese-ology Review

There’s a new Macaroni and Cheese restaurant in St. Louis.  If you haven’t already grabbed your keys and activated your GPS in a glory-induced frenzy, please keep reading.  Cheese-ology is the name of this unique establishment that recently opened up shop at 6602 Delmar (in the Loop).  When my heterosexual life partner, Dino, suggested that my wife and I join him there for lunch, the answer was an unwavering   “yes”.

What little we knew was, “It’s next to Blueberry Hill” and that tidbit of information will get you there without a problem.  Cheese-ology shares an intersection with Blueberry Hill on the same side of the street, where “Pizza Haus” used to be.  When you walk in, the furniture stands out as being so modern that it’s actually fairly boring, and there are no booths, just tables for 2.  There’s a counter where you order that’s fairly straightforward and they bring your food to you at your table when it’s done, so you can relax and enjoy the company of those that accompanied you or people watch through the window.

When you place your order, that’s when the real problems start.  You’ll begin by saying, “I’ll take the 4-Cheese, please” (Provolone, Gruyere, Muenster and Goat since you were going to ask) while still staring at the menu.  With your eyes starting to wander, you’ll immediately regret that decision and ask if you can change it to “The Hill”, which consists of Provel cheese and Salssicia topped with marinara.  As the cashier waits to press any buttons since they’ve seen this before, you again decide that perhaps “Bacon, Bacon” is more your style and lock that in as your final answer.  The next choice comes in choosing your size (Small or Large) and choosing whether or not you want to partake in breadsticks at $.30/each.  Between the three of us, we ordered breadsticks, The Hill,  the Black and Bleu, and the Philly Cheese.  The only disappointment came with the breadsticks because they literally had no flavor whatsoever.  As for the M & C, it’s served in the skillet it was cooked in and it was every bit as good as you would expect it to be from a restaurant that specializes in it.  I was surprised that it wasn’t as thick as I anticipated and this is where I take back everything I said about those breadsticks.  The ingeniousness of them is that they have no flavor because they are to act as a doughy sponge with which you clean your skillet.  The fact that there’s meat cooked in with the M & C for some dishes also makes it just greasy enough to balance out the rich cheese flavor. 

Out of the three dishes we had, I would say that “The Hill” took top honors although all of them were quite amazing.  With all of this good, the only “bad” that I can point out is that it cost slightly more than I was expecting (click here for a menu and pricing), although to be fair, the prices are reasonable for the portions that are served.  Cheese-ology would make a perfect lunch date or a delicious quick dinner before a show at The Pageant.  Overall, I give it a B, 4 out of 5, 8 out of 10 and 1.6 thumbs up.  So the next time you’re in the loop and looking for something different, try Cheese-ology and you won’t be disappointed.

By the way, I wrote an entire article about a Mac and Cheese restaurant and didn’t say how “Gouda” it was one time….Damn.