11631 Olive
Creve Coeur/Olivette
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314-994-1080
Average Main Course: $20
Reservations: Certainly
Chef: Frank Gabriele, chef and co-owner
Dress: Moderately gussied up
Does excellent service make a restaurant’s food taste better? We’re talking impeccable, perfectly timed service. Friendly, professional, present at just the right times, nearly invisible otherwise. Hard to say how much that figures into what’s on the plate at Il Bel Lago. A fixture of West County for a few years now, its upscale Italian cuisine is equal to the very best anywhere in St. Louis. So the fact that eating there is also a course in the art of service is just a bonus.
The atmosphere inside is startlingly, rewardingly incongruent to its strip-mall location. It’s all soft, earthy tones, grand swaths of cloth overhead to control noise, crisp linen, big, comfortable tables and spaces adroitly controlled by a wall of wine racks, cozy alcoves, and a very cool glass plate cascading a veil of water. Alfresco dining on the patio affords patrons a view of a beautiful fountain and a charming vista of the parking lot and neighboring Kinko’s. A small, comfortable bar with a few tables is attached. It’s so quiet and intimate, some regulars always dine there.
Appetizers arrived properly, about 10 minutes after they were ordered. (Bread arrived before that; it is the only major flaw here, insipid and bland as a loaf of the Bunny stuff. Too bad, because both the inky vinegar and olive oil for dipping are superb.) An antipasti plate is loaded: gossamer slices of prosciutto, vinegary artichoke knobs, sweet marinated red peppers, sticks of pungent pecorino. It’s perfect for sharing. Pay attention to the description of the house-made ravioli appetizer, which changes daily. Bite if they’re dangling the version stuffed with veal. An herb broth studded with chunks of fresh tomatoes decorates another nice starter of particularly sweet, plump, and juicy mussels and clams. The latter are farm-raised littlenecks. The clams and mussels showed up again later with shrimp, all perfectly cooked, tossed into a big bowl of linguini, and dressed with a subtle white cream sauce that tasted beautifully, aromatically, like the sea.
The salmon-pink sauce that dresses a platter of ziti tubes is tasty: creamy, silky, with a hint of tomato that adds color and taste. Tossed in are baby vegetables and a sprinkle of toasted pine nuts, lending a welcome texture. Playing-card–sized pasta squares of tortelloni (what the more familiar tortellini grow up to be) are wrapped around veal, then splashed with a sherry-infused cream sauce with slivers of shiitake mushrooms, peas, and nibbles of salty ham. Il Bel Lago riffs successfully on the classic bombolotti all’ amatriciana. Big, thick, ridged rings of bombolotti pasta are tossed with hog-jowl guanciale, sweet San Marzano tomatoes, basil, and onions, along with a magic sprinkle of salty pecorino.
Seafood gets loving treatment here, from the artfully simple to the extravagant. Hefty Gulf Coast shrimp are skewered, slathered in a Puglian olive oil, then grilled. Can it be any less pretentious than that? Puglia’s oil has a unique, almost bitter, grassy taste that adds a spiky contrast on the palate, offsetting the sweetness of the shrimp. Baking a meaty fillet of swordfish after a brief grilling is appreciated. The grill sets the flavor; baking roasts the meat to succulent tenderness. A ladle of white wine reduction sauce peppered with capers goes on the swordfish; alongside are crispy strings of fried zucchini.
Il Bel Lago’s version of chicken involtini is almost frighteningly luxurious. Breast meat is flattened and rolled around salty leaves of prosciutto, asiago cheese, and spinach, then cooked in butter with a dusting of bread crumbs. Fragrant meat juices mix with the gooey goodness of the cheese and the sharp, mineral tang of the spinach. It’s delicious and among the must-try—and most formidably rich—dishes in any St. Louis restaurant.
Accompanied by a piped swirl of buttery mashed potatoes and a couple of sprigs of asparagus, a beef filet is expertly grilled, tender and full of flavor, and drizzled with a syrupy Barolo sauce that adds little to the meat. A New York strip steak is offered, but why? Are there diners for whom Italian food is just too exotic? A veal special changes daily. On the regular menu, it’s best represented by a lusty 16-ounce chop, broiled and topped with a wine reduction that’s swirled with chunks of wild mushrooms and chopped shallots.
A Caesar salad is satisfactory. Better bet: a satisfying take on panzanella, with roasted peppers, olives, tomatoes, and mozzarella served with crunchy, toasted bread points. Better still: a fine Caprese salad, pleasantly simple, with fresh mozzarella slabs, juicy tomato slices, olive oil, and a perfumed splash of balsamic vinegar.
Desserts work without overwhelming. A dense chocolate cake satisfies. House-made sorbets offer a lighter finish. Suggestion: Order with a tiny glass of tawny, amber port that goes down with all the warmth, brightness, and lingering enjoyment of an August sunset.
Il Bel Lago’s wines—served in Reidel-like wine glasses, not the enormous clown props currently popular—are varied and reasonably priced. From the wine rack that doubles as a room divider, our waiter selected a bottle for another table: “How do you know what’s where?” we asked. “I don’t,” he said. “They just asked for ‘a good bottle.’” (Note to editor: That’s the kind of expense account we’re talking about.) There is a gamut of French, Italian, and domestic in all price ranges, so large you are well-served to ask your waiter for a suggestion. Alternately, this is a splendid place to reacquaint oneself with Chianti, like the Ruffino Aziano here. Its advantage is that it pairs perfectly with many of the dishes, a purply, smooth reminder that great wine doesn’t have to taste woody as a baseball bat.
Il Bel Lago’s menu rates among the top Italian restaurants in the area. In terms of the service? None do better.
Bottom Line: Excellent Italian fare in pleasant, formal surroundings.
