Dinner at the Triumph Grill

Bill and I are probably like some of you out there: we don't go out to eat often so, when we do, we end up hitting the same old, but favorite, places. For us, those rare restaurant nights out are just so precious that we're kind of reluctant to potentially waste one by experimenting. But, we're always open to trying new restaurants when we have dinner plans with friends, which is what we had last night. Bill and I met our friend Laura for dinner at the Triumph Grill, which is located on Olive near Grand Center and SLU. Another relative locational tidbit is that the Triumph sits across from the Moto Museum. Thus, the name Triumph, as in the Triumph Motorcycle. The moto influence on this place should be noted before you go. No, it thankfully doesn't have "moto" inspired dishes on the menu. But it does have a sophisticated moto decor, which I think will limit the clientele, I hypothesize, to three main groups of people here: SLU kids (although it seems too expensive to be the usual beer and burger hangout), arts people (with clubs, the Fox, and the Symphony all within walking distance it's the perfect before or after dinner/drink spot), and, obviously, moto people.

If it occured to you to be worried about the statement about the clientele, don't. Not a problem. Wish I could say that for the dining my experience though. Since I'm not a food critic I'll keep my comments short. It wasn't a fabulous dining experience but it was an okay one. I left with two chief compliants, but they're important ones. First, our waitress was terrible. Very forgetful. Too "in-your-face" at the beginning of the evening and too "where-the-hell-did-she-go" by the middle and into the end. My rare burger was horrible too. Did I mention that I ordered it prepared medium-well? I actually sent it back to be cooked more, which I hardly ever do. And, I'm very convinced of this, they cooked only the edges to fool me into thinking that the whole thing had been cooked to my liking. Why? When I bit in, it was still rare. Perhaps had the lights been dimmer or had I had more wine ....... On the other hand, Bill and Laura had perfectly pleasant experiences with the Cowboy Steak and Shrimp Risotto. Overall the Triumph was just so-so and the menu and atmosphere not nearly interesting enough to give them another try.