It was Thanksgiving Day 2015 and we thought we would try a long time local favorite for our holiday lunch, Miss Sheri's Cafeteria in Warson Woods. They advertised a $9.75 traditional Thanksgiving meal with turkey, sides and dessert, along with Roast Beef, fried chicken, ham or fish options for those not in the mood for turkey. Plus we thought it would be fun to visit an old fashioned cafeteria style restaurant on Thanksgiving, since it seemed like a very traditional kind of thing to do on the holiday.
We arrived well before noon and there were maybe 30 or 40 cars in the lot by Miss Sheri's. It seemed odd that the huge lot by Dierberg's was completely empty, since you never see that except on holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. We initially entered and walked the wrong way, we had to be redirected to open the correct door on the right to get to the line for the food. There was no waiting line at the time and we were able to walk straight to the cafeteria line and make our selections.
They have a lot of selections, but they were mostly the typical cafeteria fare. My son and daughter were both tricked by the enticing servings of shiny red jello at the beginning of the line. I knew better and passed them up along with anything that resembled a vegetable. I had spent many more days in lines at cafeterias than they ever had (school cafeterias are nothing like they used to be) and I passed all those introductory salads, veggies and jellos and went straight to the main entrees. I decided to try the fried chicken and also selected a side of stuffing. I also picked a roll and then for my vegetable I decided on a large piece of chocolate cake which seemed close enough to a vegetable to me. My son also selected the chicken but he and my daughter both selected the broccoli with cheese. I believe one of them also selected mac and cheese. My wife also selected some mac and cheese as well as a serving of tuna salad, a roll and pecan pie. My mother-in-law was the only one who went purely traditional with turkey, stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce and pecan pie.
The seating area was very large and we selected a comfortable round table near the front of the restaurant. We were promptly met by the server for that area who was a very animated and talkative older lady. We spread out dishes out on the table and placed the trays on a nearby table where the server lady quickly whisked them away. We all tried our food and it was not too bad but not all that exciting either, pretty standard cafeteria level food like from any college or hospital from the 1970's through the present times. What college and hospitals do not have, however, was our strange serving lady who kept coming back to talk to us and demonstrating how to "hang loose" with hand gestures. My son wanted a refill on his soda and we told him that cafeteria's like this do not give free refills, so he had to go and refill his glass with water instead. However, the crazy serving lady actually came back once and told us she could refill drinks if we wanted. Oh well, he did not need to drink more soda anyway! This is not his college cafeteria, and even the Griesedieck cafeteria at SLU is going to be replaced with a brand new dining hall to be completed within a couple years. I ate at his college cafeteria in September, and they definitely have more "stations" and more entree options than what is available at Miss Sheri's, and you do not have to wait through a standard cafeteria line (and you can go back for more!)
We looked around the Miss Sheri's dining area and noticed although there were some people under the age of 60 present, the vast majority of those "younger" people were all accompanied by older folks and there were other tables just consisting of senior couples and groups. Miss Sheri's clientele was definitely primarily older groups who wanted a quiet, affordable Thanksgiving meal out with their families. The cafeteria style menu makes it easy for everyone to get something they are happy with including dessert. By a little past noon the place was filling up and a line was forming with people having to wait a few minutes to get to the tray area. They definitely did a pretty steady Thanksgiving business with many larger family groups.
As for my food, the chicken was not bad, although I would have liked more spices in the coating, the stuffing was okay, but nothing special, and the cake was actually pretty moist and tasty, but I would have preferred more icing. I tried my wife's tuna salad which was very weird and pickle flavored. My wife and mother-in-law both liked their pecan pie, and everyone finished off their desserts without any problems (although nobody ate their red jello!)
So overall the food was nothing special or exceptional, but Miss Sheri's is primarily catering to the seniors who want standard staples that are the same as they were in cafeterias 30 or 40 years ago. The service was actually quite attentive in the dining area too, as long as you did not mind a server who was a bit eccentric and bizarre. It is worth visiting every now and then just to show the children what institutional food was like back years ago before university dining looked more like mall food courts.
Food Quality
Nostalgia Effect
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