Spiro’s West can be seen in several ways. One is as a pleasant, mostly middle-of-the-road restaurant for lunch or dinner. Another is as a semi-Greek restaurant, its heritage obvious in the rather tasteful wall decorations. It’s one of those places that seems larger once you’re inside. One dining room leads into the next, a fireplace or two set in stone walls, all reasonably well lit, not always a given these days. Some quiet family groups, a few business folks: All in all, the sort of clientele that, unless the joint is really jumping, allows a dining party to have a quiet conversation. The menu covers both Greek and non-Greek dishes, with appetizers from saganaki, the fried cheese dish that’s dramatically flamed as it is finished tableside from a guerdon, the long serving carts still seen in fine restaurants around town, to shrimp cocktail and toasted ravioli. An Athenian salad, lettuce, a little tomato and red onion, some cucumber, a pepperoncini and, of course, feta cheese, was mild rather than zingy from its red wine vinaigrette, but quite fresh. Mushroom caps stuffed with shrimp and bread crumbs showed good evidence of the ground shrimp, the bites being chewy but not gluey. The winner was, of all things, the calamari. Lightly sprinkled with bread crumbs before it was fried, it had been tossed, obviously very briefly, in a piquant tomato sauce. The crumbs stayed crisp, the sauce tangoed with the seafood. A simple dish turned into a delicacy. No lamb kebabs here, only beef, although there are broiled lamb chops and a rack on the menu. So we headed for the lamb shank, large and tender, in a rich tomato-laced pan sauce with some rather innocuous rice pilaf on the side. Forget the rice; this was a good shank. Veal piccata didn’t fare as well, making its appearance wearing a light brown gravy that was considerably less lemony than one would expect from a kitchen whose cuisine is normally generous with the tart juice. The meat was tender, certainly, amply sauced and bolstered by some pasta alfredo alongside, but we borrowed and used the lemons that garnished several of the plates of our group. Calves’ liver ala Misho, however, made up for the lemon deficiency. The thickened pan juices were generously seasoned with it while the thin slices of liver, still slightly pink inside, sat on what was, if not a bed of onions, at least a cot, along with more pilaf and some sauteed spinach, also anointed with lemon. Spiro’s moussaka is a different version than we’ve had before. It seemed to have much more beef than lamb in its ground meat, and almost no cinnamon. We also found more zucchini than eggplant in it, and the whole thing was topped with a thick layer of bechamel, or white sauce, so dense someone in the group thought it was mashed potato. Baklava was light, crisp, very walnutty and only moderately sweet, something we always applaud. Galactoboureko, the custard-filled equivalent of baklava, had fewer layers of filo pastry, to the point where we thought it an open-faced version. The filo had sogged into invisibility, and while it’s the nature of custard to soak through a crust, whether it’s pie dough or filo, this was particularly noticeable. Still, it tasted good. A chocolate cake layered with chocolate mousse that looked great and was no better than okay finished things off, along with some Greek coffee, not on the menu, but prepared at a diner’s request. There are several Spiro’s in town, all run by various members of the Karagiannis family. This one is most closely affiliated with the Spiro’s in St. Charles. Spiro’s West 1054 N. Woods Mill Rd., Chesterfield 314-878-4449
Lunch Mon.-Fri., Dinner nightly
Credit cards: Yes
Wheelchair access: Good
Smoking: Yes
Entrees: $14-$25
