Rating: 8/10

St. Burch Tavern is on the University of Iowa campus, seven stores away from Z’mariks*. St. Burch is an interesting two-story corner restaurant. The oyster bar and main restaurant are on the main level. On the lower level is their bar, or as they call it, The Den. When I checked it out, the Den was dark and lit with an eerie red light. Meanwhile, the restaurant had a bright, nautical look. St. Burch seemed like an expensive, fancy, sit-down restaurant.

Out of the many sandwiches on their menu, the first thing that popped out to me was the Atlas mac n’ cheese. As the server came to our table with my food, my mouth watered at the sight of the hot sizzling ceramic bowl of mac n’ cheese. The Atlas mac n’ cheese was exceptionally good. My first impression was that it was very oily, gooey, and crusty. The top of the mac n’ cheese had a thin, crispy shell. It added a fire-grilled flavor that complemented the thick cheesiness. The elbow noodles were very soft-they practically melted in my mouth as I chewed! On the other hand, the noodles that were stuck to the edges were tough and hard to chew.

The cheese was soft, gooey, and super creamy. It had a light black pepper flavor that added to the sharp white cheddar. Honestly, the cheese almost tasted like Cheez-Its. Out of curiosity, I asked the server what their cheese is made of and she said fontina and white cheddar. Fontina is a cheese with a stronger taste and white cheddar has an incredibly soft but slightly sharp flavor. I thought the two kinds of cheese collaborated very well with each other.
St. Burch serves their baked Atlas mac n’ cheese on a blue ceramic dish for eight dollars. Personally, eight dollars is a little too much for the amount of mac n’ cheese that they give you. In the end, St. Burch simply satisfied me. There was nothing unique or over-the-top about it. The atmosphere was nice, the setting was well done, and the mac n’ cheese was conducive to the atmosphere.

St. Burch social media

• Instagram: @saintburchtavern
• Facebook: @stBurchTavern

Contact

• website: https://www.saintburchtavern.com/
• telephone: (319) 341-7700

*see the Z’mariks post for my review