El Maguey - Hwy 94 and Jungermann

Yes, El Maguey is a chain restaurant, but they each one is very individual and different. Tonight, we went to the one at 309 Centre Pointe Drive, St. Peters, 63304. With five good friends, we had a great outing, with great food.



This El Maguey location is larger than most of the others. It has a wide open seating area with plenty of room for large groups. There's a large skylight overhead that makes the room feel even larger. In the back of the seating area, there's a wide opening to the kitchen, where you can see the cooks working hard over hot stoves. They even had a magician for the kids!

The menu is as you might expect...the usual tacos, tostadas, burritos, fajitas and of course, margaritas! They have a lot of entrees with shimp...to misquote "Forrest Gump," they have shrimp tacos, shrimp nachos, shrimp fajitas, shrimp burritos...!


I chose the chimichanga with beef, covered in queso sauce. The beef was actually beef tips rathe than pulled beef, which was a nice surprise. Friends shared fajitas-for-two, and gave them a huge thumbs-up.

A pleasant experience, great food and drink. I'd definitely recommend El Maguey in St. Peters for an inexpensive evening out.

Java G's Coffeehouse

Java G's came to St. Charles when there weren't a lot of coffeehouse options in town. They have a great location at 2031 Old Hwy 94S (63303), in a strip mall with pretty good parking. They're a little hidden by Sonic, so if you're heading down Hwy 94, you may not catch a glimpse of it.

We stopped in at about 1:30 PM on a Sunday, and we were one of three groups of people hanging out. One group of four was enjoying the quiet of Java G's large meeting room (which is available for reservations any time), and the other seemed to be some kind of meeting of six people sitting near the window.

I only bring up the groups because Java G's is a wonderful place for groups to meet. It's large, has a big meeting room, a good amount of seating, and offers a wide variety of food and drink. If you have a Bible study, committee meeting, planning meeting, or anything that needs a centralized, comfortable location for discussion, this is a great place. In addition, they have a separate children's room with windows to the main dining area so that you can bring your kids and they can have a good time while you're discussing business.

They have a large menu with lots of lunch-type offerings: hot and cold sandwiches, soups, wraps, and salads. For breakfast, it's mostly continental - bagels, pastry, yogurt, fruit. Everything is very reasonably priced - no item is over $6.95, and you can even get a cup of soup for less than $3.00. We had regular coffee, and a piece of coffee cake. They serve Kaldi's Coffee, which is local to the St. Louis area and features regular, organic and/or free trade blends. The cake was good sized, and reasonbly priced, but was dry. Their pastry and bagel offerings were a bit small for a coffeehouse. Next time, I'd probably go for the soup. If I do, I'll update the blog!

We sat in the comfy chairs near the fake fireplace (fake!). While it was relaxing, it was the only place with comfortable chairs in the dining room, and there were only four. The glass on the fake (fake!) fireplace was full of fingerprints, there was a fork under one of the chairs, a potato chip on the end table, and generally it was a messy area. They weren't busy at all, and I did see them wiping the main counter a couple of times, so I'm not sure why the dining room was not clean that day.

Assuming that was a fluke, I'd say that Java G's does offer a good place for meetings and groups, especially if you have kids.

Gingham's Homestyle Restaurant

If there's anything I love, it's a great homestyle breakfast. Since they opened their doors in 1991, Gingham's Homestyle Restaurant (1881 Sherman Drive, 63303) has been one of the most popular places in St. Charles to get one.

We headed out for a late breakfast at 10:15 on a Saturday morning. Despite the late hour, the waiting area was full. They moved quickly, however, and our wait was a mere 10 minutes. If you go to Gingham's and see a full waiting room, do not hesitate to ask about the wait time - it might look like it will be longer than it actually is.

Hot coffee was on our table almost as soon as we asked for it. In a place as bustling as Gingham's, it was a relief to have coffee brought in a carafe, to avoid having to wait for subsequent cups.

The menu is large, and contains breakfast, lunch and dinner, which are served 24 hours a day. There is an ample kids menu, containing fourteen selections for kids. If you have ever taken kids out to eat, you know that's a lot! There were quite a few breakfast specials, ranging from approximately $4-$10.

My classic breakfast (two eggs, toast, sausage links, and a ton of hash browns) was $6.99, and the average omelette is about $7.49. My eggs were prepared over easy, and they had nice runny yolks, but the whites were solid. The hash browns were crisp on the top, and soft on the bottom.

My husband's ham and cheese omelette was large, taking up half the plate. It had plenty of meat, peppers, and onions, although the vegetables were large and could have been chopped to about half their size for easy eating. The omelette plate also include a large amount of hash browns.



The atmosphere and decor of Gingham's is definitely that of a homestyle restaurant, with both booths and tables, and homey wallpaper. Our waiter, Danielle, was friendly, efficient and attentive. The restrooms were clean and stocked, and the waiting area was comfortable with plenty of seating. The parking lot was average - there were only a couple of spots open when we arrived. There were several families and large groups eating while we were there. The staff was very welcoming to all sized groups.

All in all, Gingham's delivers a delicious homestyle breakfast at a nice price. If you're looking to enjoy a relaxing morning of good food in a comforting family-owned atmosphere, definitely consider Gingham's.