Restaurants >>

• Best New Restaurant
  Franco
  Owner Tom Schmidt and executive chef Justin Keimon didn't reinvent the wheel when they opened Franco late last year in Soulard's stately old Welsh Baby Carriage Factory. The menu fits squarely into the lightly French-accented modern bistro mold so beloved by the city's better restaurants. Though... More >>
• Best Restaurant Trend
  Offal
  "Sweetbreads" isn't a scientific term. It's a euphemism some clever chef long ago gave the thymus gland and pancreas of veal, pork and lamb. Veal sweetbreads (which you're most likely to encounter in a restaurant) look something like white-meat chicken, when seared. Their flavor is very mild and... More >>
• Best Restaurant When Someone Else Pays
  Pomme
  Is there a compliment more backhanded than to say a restaurant is the best — but only when someone else pays? What does that even mean? It means the restaurant is likely opulent. It's a good spot, exotic, perhaps, and definitely an experience worthy of consideration — but only if... More >>
• Best Local Chef
  Gerard Craft
  Gerard Craft isn't St. Louis' best chef because he might serve you bacon ice cream. That just makes him a badass. No, Craft is St. Louis' best because he's likely to pair that bacon ice cream with that hippest of hip meat cuts, pork belly, to a create a dish that isn't simply a clever joke or a... More >>
• Best Kept Secret (Restaurant Division)
  La Dolce Via for dinner
  Remarkably, La Dolce Via remains open for dinner only twice a week. This must mean our plan is working! Once we sampled chef Ramon Cuffie's brief, market-driven menu, we knew we didn't want to share it with anyone else. It's an informal meal, the "dining room" very much the café that La... More >>
• Best Outdoor Dining
  Terrene
  Imagine: Seated at a table, you're sipping a crisp rosé that dovetails admirably with the local tomato, fresh mozzarella and bibb lettuce panzanella at the business end of your fork. Missouri hawthorne trees surround the table. The brick-lined patio is landscaped with slender reeds that... More >>
• Best Dining Concept (1 Comment)
  Veritas Gateway to Food and Wine
  "We say it's everything for the table," says Stephanie Stitt, explaining Veritas Gateway to Food and Wine. "It's about being at the table with really good friends and everything you need for that experience." Not a restaurant, not a wine store, not a cooking conservatory, Stitt's Veritas is... More >>
• Best Dining Destination (2 Comments)
  Columbia
  If your memories of dining in Columbia are hazy and tinted the hay-bale shade of cheap beer, then you already know that a tour of this college town's eateries must begin (or end) with visits to Booches Billiards Hall (110 South Ninth Street, Columbia; 573-874-9519) and Shakespeare's Pizza (225... More >>
• Best Breakfast
  Rooster
  Nothing says "thanks for last night" like a good breakfast. Pancakes are solid, but if you could pull off cr�pes, well...cancel the cooking class, Broseph. Rooster has your back. This downtown café offers sweet and savory crepes, plus basic breakfast sides and Kaldi's coffee. While the... More >>
• Best Breakfast with a Hangover
  Courtesy Diner
  Hangover's a bastard. Dude drops by your apartment unannounced, drinks all your beer and tells your girlfriend something so outrageous you won't get laid for a week. Then after waking you up by playing the TV too loud and slamming the bathroom door whenever he goes in there to puke, Hangover has... More >>
• Best Coffeehouse
  Kayak's Coffee
  Kayak's Coffee, named after a courageous Canadian, coffee-consuming Siberian husky, boasts a warmly welcoming lodgelike atmosphere complete with freshly prepared food and a doggone good mood. Lengths of logs run up and down the space, while murals of mountains adorn the walls, but customers need... More >>
• Best Dim Sum
  Wonton King
  How do you know you're at a good dim sum restaurant? Keep track of how many times you say, "No, thank you," as the carts roll past. By that accounting, Wonton King is one great dim sum restaurant: You might not speak those words until you're ready to burst — even then the temptation to try... More >>
• Best Sunday Brunch
  Eau Bistro
  Nothing makes more sense than the build-your-own-omelet station at Eau Bistro's Sunday brunch. A table set up with two burners with skillets atop each, a bowl of eggs and an assortment of meats and vegetables draws a small crowd. Behind the table, a cook stands pleasantly awaiting orders. OK, so... More >>
• Best Lunch Specials (1 Comment)
  Mi Ranchito
  Most fast-food joints now offer a 99-cent "value meal." But where's the value in a small serving of food you wouldn't serve your cat? For a real value, check out the lunch deals at Mi Ranchito. From 11 a.m. till 2:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday you can choose from nine combination meals —... More >>
• Best $6 Lunch (1 Comment)
  The Tiffin
  So hungry. Need lunch. Have...six dollars. (Where does it all go?) Could eat a sub. Don't want a sub. Could have a protein bar and a wheatgrass shot. Could also remove own toenails with rusty pliers. Good Lord, so hungry. Hmm. Six dollars. Hmm. Gokul Snacks and Sweets! Perfect. Cruise up Page... More >>
• Best Lunch Counter (1 Comment)
  Spencer's Grill
  How quintessentially American is the humble lunch counter — content, comfortable, devoid of pretense. It comes with no surprises. The patty melt you had last week will be the same patty melt you'll have next week. Populated with happy yet harried waitresses ("More coffee?") and loyal hungry... More >>
• Best Soul Food Restaurant
  Imperial Palace Restaurant & Lounge
  Located just north of Grand Center, the Imperial Palace is perhaps best known as a 30-and-up nightspot, but its soul-food lunch specials bring out the locals and a few curious patrons. The emphasis here is on the soul: the booming sound system pumps out timeless Quiet Storm slow jams and bubbly... More >>
• Best Indian Buffet
  Flavor of India
  The all-you-can-eat lunch buffet is as much a part of the Indian restaurant experience as naan, pappadam and tandoori chicken. But you can't compare buffets by the same standards you use to compare the restaurants as a whole. Some great Indian restaurants treat the buffet as a breather; some... More >>
• Best Chain Restaurant
  Chipotle Mexican Grill
  This was the year Chipotle Mexican Grill finally rode into town from Denver, lassoed longtime believers and new converts alike and herded them into the best fast-casual dining experience — period. There's really not much to it. Chipotle makes burritos. Tacos, too. It's an assembly line,... More >>
• Best Chinese Restaurant (1 Comment)
  In Soo
  You will eat at In Soo tomorrow. You will deem it the best Chinese restaurant in St. Louis, bar none. You will have the pot stickers to start. Hot and sour soup, as well. You will love both. In fact, you will love anything you order at this joint. You will order the crispy eggplant.... More >>
• Best Sushi
  Nobu's
  Sushi has become such a fixture on the American dining scene that stepping into Nobu's feels like traveling in a time machine — and not just because it's located in an old IHOP. (The unexpected setting does help, though.) The location, the serene atmosphere and the preternatural elegance... More >>
• Best Indian Restaurant (1 Comment)
  Indian Food
  Nihari is unlike anything you've had at an Indian restaurant. Sure, its basic flavors are firmly rooted in the subcontinent: cardamom, curry, nutty ghee. But it begins with an explosion of ginger, lime and cilantro that wouldn't seem out of place in a Southeast Asian or Latin American dish.... More >>
• Best East African Restaurant
  Meskerem Ethiopian Restaurant
  This category couldn't have existed in 2006, but the past year has seen a boomlet of East African restaurants opening in St. Louis — none more welcome than Meskerem. The first Midwestern outpost of a very small chain (there are two locations in New York City and one in Charlotte), Meskerem... More >>
• Best Thai Restaurant
  Blue Elephant
  Thai food, when prepared well, is nothing less than majestic, which explains why the main school of cookery is called Royal Thai Cuisine. And there's no better place to be served a kingly plate of Thai flavor (without the Thai heat, unless you want it — but we know of few non-Thai people... More >>
• Best Vietnamese Restaurant (1 Comment)
  Lemon Grass
  The fabled Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has the phrase "Don't Panic" inscribed on its cover. Lemon Grass would be wise to do the same with its menu. At most Vietnamese restaurants, first-time diners and aficionados alike fret as they skim the 100 or 150 or 200 choices. Where do I even start?... More >>
• Best Korean Restaurant (2 Comments)
  KoBa
  Korean cuisine is reputed to be the healthiest in the world. Keep telling yourself that as your server at KoBa places slices of fat-rich pork belly on your tabletop grill. Of course, once that pork belly commences to sizzle, you won't care whether you live till tomorrow. Kalbi, marinated beef... More >>
• Best Restaurant Neighborhood
  South Grand
  "Where should we eat?" is never an easy question to answer. For residents of Tower Grove South and East, it takes on the mind-bending complexity of quantum physics. Choosing to dine at any one of the restaurants on the stretch of South Grand between Arsenal and Gravois means choosing not to dine... More >>
• Best Strip Mall for Dining
  Jeffrey Plaza
  Strip malls are so uncool it's not even cool to mock them anymore. (We have big-box stores for that now.) But foodies know that more than a few strip malls hide restaurant gems: run-down joints that just happen to serve the best burger or chili in town; the only Peruvian (or Mongolian or... More >>
• Best Comfort Food (1 Comment)
  Hwy 61 Roadhouse and Kitchen
  The subject of the blues may be misery, but the result is often comfort. By sharing our pain with one another, we begin to heal. Some gooey, stick-to-your-ribs grub usually helps speed along the process. You'll find both the blues and the grub at Hwy 61 Roadhouse and Kitchen in Webster Groves,... More >>
• Best Diner
  Café Manhattan
  People say they go to diners for different reasons, whether it's for the like-they've-always-known-you service, a dinner so good Grandma could've made it or a cure for that wretched hangover. Yet no matter what specifically motivates folks, they truly hit up these home-style spots for the... More >>
• Best Place to Get Fatter
  Tiffany's Original Diner
  This city has plenty of greasy spoons, but there is one destination that, ahem, takes the cake. Tiffany's Diner in Maplewood is a pint-size slice of deep-fried Americana. The diner is open 24/7 and the employees put on a show all day long. Here you are guaranteed a heaping helping of Attitude... More >>
• Best Italian Restaurant (Cheap) (2 Comments)
  Guido's Pizzeria & Tapas
  Forget for a moment that Guido's cooks up some of the best, most authentic Spanish dishes in town. (It's hard, we know. Try hypnosis, if necessary.) The Carreteros may originally be from Madrid, but they happen to serve pasta dishes as tasty as just about anything you'll find on the Hill —... More >>
• Best Italian Restaurant (Not Cheap) (2 Comments)
  Acero
  Step through the front door of Acero and you might think you've left sleepy downtown Maplewood for one of New York City's hippest 'hoods. The unflappable hostess telling you there will be a wait. The bustling, black-clad waiters. The noise. Yeah, Acero's loud, but everyone's talking about the... More >>
• Best Greek Restaurant
  Olympia Kebob House & Taverna
  Sometimes restaurants, not unlike a partner of many years, still have the power to surprise from time to time. Olympia Kebob House is such a restaurant. You could order nothing but the flaming kasseri cheese and a gyro or shish kebab and baba gannoujh and dolmades for the rest of your days and... More >>
• Best Middle-Eastern Restaurant
  Café Natasha's Kabob International
  Why isn't Persian cuisine better known? It's elegant, sophisticated and delicious. All three attributes are on display at Café Natasha's Kabob International. Those with a taste for Middle-Eastern cuisine will find excellent falafel, hummus and baba gannoujh, but husband-and-wife owners... More >>
• Best Bosnian Restaurant
  Grbic
  "Bigger is better" has never been our motto here at Best-Of HQ. We seek treasure in the tiniest nooks and find greatness in the itty-bittiest crannies. But part of Grbic's charm owes to its sheer size. While most ginormous restaurants are unpleasant locales like industrial cafeterias and... More >>
• Best Tapas/Small Plates
  Erato
  Chef Kevin WillmannEmploys the "small plates" conceptTo its best effect.His dishes aren't mereAppetizers disguised asTapas or small plates.He treats each like aMiniature work of art:Plump cubes of tuna,Sushi-grade, served witha streak of truffled mustardflecked with balsamicCandied into... More >>
• Best Mexican Restaurant
  Señor Pique
  So you want to eat at an authentic Mexican restaurant. Your friends would like a place that caters to American taste. You can waste time arguing among yourselves, or you can head to Señor Pique, which is a great Mexican restaurant and a great "Mexican" restaurant. An "M" next to a dish on... More >>
• Best Taqueria
  La Vallesana
  La Vallesana packs some of the tastiest — and cheapest — food in St. Louis into a squat structure not much bigger than your average backyard shed. Here you can feast on the best tacos in town, bar none. Several different meats are available, but the absolute best taco you will eat in... More >>
• Best Place to Eat Out with Grandpa
  Eat-Rite
  If there is one person who likes to keep it real, it's Grandpa. He's been known to smack strangers with his cane. Anyone under age 50's a "whippersnapper." Grandpa don't take no shit. Neither does Eat-Rite. St. Louis' most storied diner is about as real as you can get, with no-nonsense servers,... More >>
• Best Place to Eat Out Alone (1 Comment)
  Atlas
  "Are you having dinner at the bar tonight?" Owner Jean Donnelly's question never fails to surprise. Of course you're having dinner at the bar. As usual, the restaurant's packed, and you're too self-conscious to request a table for one. But Donnelly's welcoming smile makes you feel like the pater... More >>
• Best Seafood Restaurant
  Wapango
  Tired of shrimp cocktail, grilled salmon and crab cakes chock-full o' filler? Shake up your seafood routine at this pan-Latin restaurant. A ceviche of ahi tuna will spark your taste buds with its mixture of tart lime, fresh tuna, coconut milk, pickled onions and cilantro. Tired of tuna? There's... More >>
• Best Power Lunch
  Bristol Seafood Grill
  When one thinks of "power lunching" in St. Louis, a few well-known names spring to mind: Cardwell's, Kitchen K, Kemoll's. For those who work in the Westport area and its environs, though, Bristol Seafood Grill tops the roster of places at which to woo out-of-town clients, talk serious business... More >>
• Best Primal Eating Experience
  Tamarind Crab
  Kim Son Vietnamese Bistro
  Order the tamarind crab (cua rang me) at Kim Son Vietnamese Bistro, and the kitchen does some of the dirty work for you. Though the plump Dungeness crab appears to be whole when it arrives at your table, the shell has been separated from the body, and the body split to reveal the hunk of... More >>
• Best Steak House (2 Comments)
  Mike Shannon's Steaks & Seafood
  Look: Most steak houses are the same at heart. Steaks. Potatoes. Salads. The rest is just atmosphere. And frankly, the stuffy, men's-clubby atmosphere of most steak houses is too much for us. Give us the raucous postgame crowd at Mike Shannon's, the air thick with hatred for the Cubs, a... More >>
• Best Vegetarian Restaurant
  Crazy Bowls & Wraps
  Can a chain restaurant that serves chicken, beef and fish wear the crown of vegetarian eateries? If that chain restaurant specializes in fresh vegetables accompanied by beans, rice and tofu, yes. Crazy Bowls & Wraps has been marching across the metro area like a, well, like a popular fast-food... More >>
• Best Service in a Restaurant
  Trattoria Toscana
  It's not often your server gives you her business card. Her head shot, maybe. A flier for her day job walking dogs or selling stuff on eBay. But if Jackie waits on you at Trattoria Toscana, she just might hand you a business card with her name embossed below the restaurant's. "Ask for me the... More >>
• Best Sommelier
  Chris Hoel
  Cocky though he may come across, Chris Hoel does sport this town's million-dollar nose. One of only two St. Louis sommeliers certified "Advanced" by the London-based Court of Master Sommeliers, the 33-year-old took a crack at becoming the world's 125th "Master" this past March. Alas, Hoel didn't... More >>
• Best Wine List in a Restaurant
  Acero
  Acero's wine list isn't comprehensive. Every wine offered at this fantastic new Italian restaurant hails from Italy. That's the beauty, though. Rather than force you to choose from a bewildering variety of varietals and producers, or allow you to fall back on a reliable favorite, Acero's list... More >>
• Best Restaurant for a First Date (1 Comment)
  Eleven Eleven Mississippi
  We don't have to tell you how important a first date is. But we will anyway: The night sets the tone for the second, third and fourth outings (if things go well), and if things go really well, this date could be something you both talk about for the rest of your lives. You need to make it... More >>
• Best Desserts (5 Comments)
  Jasminka Homemade Cakes
  Jasminka Malnar used to bring her homemade cakes to work. Her co-workers raved. They raved so much, in fact, that Malnar decided to open her own bakery. Now you can see for yourself how fantastic her desserts are: Bosnian sweets so rich and decadent that you should probably plan on only a (very)... More >>
• Best Music to Dine By
  Dewey's Pizza
  A meal at Dewey's is like an afternoon spent with your college roommate's CD collection. We know. College students don't collect CDs anymore. That's the point. Dewey's music suggests a distinct personality — someone who came of age in the 1990s, when the tunes of Ben Folds seemed edgy in a... More >>
• Best Dinner Theater
  Lucas Park Grille
  You never know what show you'll see at the hottest of Washington Avenue's hot spots. The ribald adventures of a bride-to-be and her bachelorette party favors? A comedy of manners about someone's wiggling rear and its proximity to your $30 entrée? A tragic tale of convention attendees... More >>
• Best Décor
  Wapango
  Even before you step inside the front door, you know Wapango won't be anything like the shopping mall that surrounds it: Spheres streaked with glowing light sit outside the restaurant's patio. Inside, a strange picket fence-like structure cuts a large swath across the massive space. Behind the... More >>
• Best Comeback
  Balaban's
  Don't call it a comeback? Balaban's been here for years? Well, yeah. That's sort of the point. When Brendan Marsden (of Modesto) and his partner Harlee Sorkin bought the Central West End institution late last year, they could have banked on the inertia of the past three and a half decades.... More >>
• Best Never Left
  Harvest
  How long has Harvest been open? A few weeks? A couple of months? No — longer than that. Dinner there runs much too smoothly for the restaurant to be brand new. The servers know the menu and the wine list. Courses are perfectly staggered. Dessert isn't a tacked-on afterthought. It's divine.... More >>
• Best Restaurant to Die in the Past 12 Months
  King Louie's
  King Louie's, located improbably but splendidly amid a scrappy swath of Chouteau Avenue just west of 39th Street, would have celebrated its 13th anniversary this fall. Would have... Should have... With its outdoor brick oven, top-flight wine cellar, expert wait staff, charming bartenders and... More >>