Restaurants >>

• Best New Restaurant
  An American Place
  How does "Best New Restaurant in the Past Four Decades" strike you? When we learned last year that American-cuisine pioneer/ James Beard acolyte Larry Forgione was en route to STL to open an eatery in a corner of the spiffy but iffy Renaissance Grand Hotel downtown, our hearts went pitter-pat.... More >>
• Best Local Chef
  Tom Coghill
  St. Louisan blood don't run much thicker than the hemoglobin that pumps through the veins of Iron Barley chef and proprietor Tom Coghill. A north-side native previously best known for manning the stoves at Frazer's Brown Bag (one of the true feathers in this city's culinary cap), Coghill opened... More >>
• Best Restaurant When Someone Else Pays
  Arthur Clay's
  Successful freeloading is equal parts poker, theater and ballet. It doesn't begin when the check arrives. Rather, the curtain rises when the plans are made, and a well-rehearsed script is a must. Got a birthday coming up? Win an award? Have a baby? Anything will suffice. Just casually mention it... More >>
• Best Service in a Restaurant
  Seki's Japanese Restaurant
  Dunno about you, but some days it seems like it should be enough to haul our sorry ass out of bed and drag it to the office. Showered and presentable and on time? Are you kidding? These are days when we know we're unqualified to make even the most trivial decision. (Answer the phone, or wait for... More >>
• Best Wine List in a Restaurant
  Eleven Eleven Mississippi
  Wine, we are always told, should pair well with our meal. It should complement our food, tease out the flavors, make our free-range chicken/New York strip/seared bay scallops feel good about themselves. At Eleven Eleven Mississippi, the equation is turned on its head. The wine selection at this... More >>
• Best Place to Get Fatter
  The Black Stallion Room
  Aaaaaaaand they're off! Thursday Night has been training well lately here at Fairmount Park's Black Stallion Room, and with the odds stacked against Dusty Benches, Seven Bucks Entry Fee looks ready to deliver. Dollar Beer is definitely a crowd favorite, but don't discount Hot Wings just yet!... More >>
• Best Décor
  Red Moon
  Two décors live under one gilded roof at downtown's chic, fast-paced Red Moon, the first foray into the local market by a pair of Chicago-based restaurateurs. In the main dining rooms, boldly painted concrete walls sporting odd bits of stenciled graffiti stand in textural contrast to the... More >>
• Best Coffeehouse
  MoKaBe's
  The last time we were in MoKaBe's, in the dead middle of a too-hot Thursday, a couple began an impromptu waltz. He was all feet and good intentions; she added a step-breaking shimmy to the proceedings and laughed. Everyone around watched, giggling into their coffee cups. The midday waltz was a... More >>
• Best New Coffeehouse
  Perc on the Park
  It is a fact of urban regentrification that no neighborhood reaches its sociocultural peak until a new coffeehouse opens there. Which is why, despite all the lovingly maintained houses, despite the perennial popularity of Arcelia's and SqWires and despite the glorious park from which the nabe... More >>
• Best Breakfast
  Soulard Coffee Garden Café
  Fast-food value meals got nothing on Soulard Coffee Garden Café's "Breakfast á la Dan." Named after a restaurant regular with impeccably frugal and distinguished tastes, the breakfast includes scrambled eggs, two slices of bacon, seasoned home-fries and a choice of toast or English... More >>
• Best Eggs Benedict
  Juniper Grill Bistro and Wine Bar
  When Juniper Grill opened its doors this past winter, adventurous restaurant-going folk were grateful not just for the offbeat location (a brand-new, with-it bistro in Soulard?) and the gracious prices (seared sea scallops for $17.95?) but for one dish in particular: the Kings Eggs. A happy... More >>
• Best Sunday Brunch
  Shangri-La Diner
  If Holly Golightly had practiced her insouciant brand of hedonism just a few years longer -- waiting out the goody-two-shoes good times of the late 1950s and early 1960s and helping herald in America's groovy, post-JFK counterculture -- she wouldn't have had any more breakfasts at Tiffany's. She... More >>
• Best Dim Sum
  Wei Hong Seafood Restaurant and Bakery
  The tapas-restaurant craze is great, but the Chinese have known for centuries how to make small-plates eating even better: Do it for brunch. That's basically what dim sum is, and the dim sum at Wei Hong, which relocated over the winter to a former movie house along a low-down stretch of Olive,... More >>
• Best Power Lunch
  Kitchen K
  Whether you're a mover/shaker or just like to be in their company (those sharp suits! those constantly ringing cell phones! those knowing nods across the room!), Kitchen K is the power-lunch place for you. The lunch crowd comprises what in this big small town passes for a heady mix, from... More >>
• Best Lunch Counter
  U-City Grill
  Accolades don't get any more literal than naming U-City Grill "Best Lunch Counter." Besides a pair of two-tops crowded along one wall, a lunch counter is literally all there is. From behind the elbow-shape counter, which seats fewer than a dozen diners, owners Mr. and Mrs. Sim -- who will smile... More >>
• Best Place to Eat Out Alone
  Papa Fabarre's (in Famous-Barr, second floor)
  The Great American Novel is waiting to be written from behind the green velvet curtains that frame the row of booths in Papa Fabarre's. That is where St. Louis' next literary giant will begin to assume his or her place in line behind William Burroughs, Maya Angelou and Jonathan Franzen,... More >>
• Best Cajun/Creole Restaurant
  The Gumbo Shop
  The Gumbo Shop's hubby-and-wife owners, Sid and Mary Roberts, enjoyed long careers as U.S. Customs agents before dedicating their retirement years to a higher calling: crawfish étouffée. To say they make the best crawfish étouffée in town would be an insult; with its... More >>
• Best Soul Food Restaurant
  Sweetie Pie's
  As a singer, Robbie Montgomery shared the stage with such A-list icons as Ike and Tina, Dr. John and Gladys Knight. Her star-studded history now graces the turquoise walls at Sweetie Pie's, Montgomery's soul-food joint in north county. Since opening the buffet-style restaurant nearly a decade... More >>
• Best Chinese Restaurant
  In Soo
  There was a dark, dark time -- a time before St. Louis, before our salvation -- when the mere thought of Chinese food filled us with tremendous ennui. Our shoulders slumped at the sight of orange-lacquered shrimp. Well-meaning offers of egg rolls were met with world-weary sighs. Everything... More >>
• Best Italian Restaurant (Not Cheap)
  I Fratellini Caffe & Rosticceria
  If the regulars at I Fratellini could keep the place to themselves, they would. Perhaps they'd even employ a little subterfuge: "What? What Italian restaurant? That's, um, a tarantula store. Look out!" And we could hardly fault the devotees for their deception: The beautiful, postage stamp-size... More >>
• Best Italian Restaurant (Cheap)
  10th Street Italian
  When was the last time you ate spaghetti and meatballs? Too long. Get over to 10th Street Italian, stat, and chow down on a humongo, heaping, Atkins-be-damned helping of the stuff, a glorious pile of soft pasta complemented by a quartet of honest-to-goodness homemade meatballs, prepared with... More >>
• Best Mexican Restaurant
  Pueblo Solis
  Um, hi, Pueblo Solis. Look, there's something we have to tell you. Remember last year, when we gave you Best Guacamole and Best Margarita? We were trying to get our nerve up to say that we really like you. A lot. Maybe you've caught us doodling RFT + PS on our napkins, and maybe you want to know... More >>
• Best Guacamole
  Tortillaria
  What malevolent force keeps guacamole from being a more omnipresent foodstuff? Lesser dips and spreads -- ketchup, mustard, all things "ranch" -- force their way onto our table as if it's their birthright, when truly, guacamole, it is you we'd like to eat every day. But all is not lost, because... More >>
• Best Tapas
  Modesto
  Fitting, really, that Modesto is located on the Hill, home of so many Italian-restaurant workhorses. Those places, they try. Modesto? Modesto just does. Lets the food speak for itself, with very little gussying-up given to Spanish ingredients. Allows parties to meander their way through their... More >>
• Best Bosnian Restaurant
  Taft Street Restaurant and Bar
  Depending on which direction you're coming from, Taft Street Restaurant and Bar marks either the beginning or the end of the Bosnian district that surrounds the Bevo Mill. More than that, though, it's the signature spot for the revival of the Gravois business district, a place for mayoral press... More >>
• Best Greek Restaurant
  Momos
  Just when this corner-eatery storefront off the beaten path of Delmar Boulevard looked like it was consigned to life as a cursed restaurant space, along came Momos. Just when the fuss over fusion-tapas was reaching a fever pitch -- and at the same time, feeling woefully played out at... More >>
• Best Greek Lunch
  Assumption Greek Orthodox Church
  Located next door to the Missouri Athletic Club's Town and Country outpost, the Assumption Greek Orthodox Church feeds hundreds and hundreds of working stiffs every week with its massive Friday luncheons. Bring ten bucks (at least) and arrive between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. on any Friday (except big... More >>
• Best Indian Restaurant
  India's Rasoi
  Indian cuisine -- at once spicy, sweet and savory -- is a true gastronomic delight. What's even more delightful is the sheer volume of awesome Indian food available in St. Louis. While we have fever dreams about House of India's excellent chicken biryani and crave the cheese paneer at Gokul,... More >>
• Best Vietnamese Restaurant
  Banh Mi So #1/Saigon Gourmet
  Black or white, hoosier or epicure, any soulful mortal's stomach swells with the same satisfied feeling after a meal at Banh Mi So #1: "Mmmmmm! Home cookin'!" Maybe it's the Vietnamese eatery's brilliant neon sign, a beacon of comfort on a dark strip of South Grand. Or the momentary difficulty... More >>
• Best Thai Restaurant
  Rearn Thai Restaurant
  It's time for a confession: We're having an affair with Thom. It started out casually: He got fresh with us. It escalated to a quickie here, a dinner there. Now it's a full-blown obsession. We've been sneaking out of the office to see Thom on our lunch breaks for a while now, and, God, is it... More >>
• Best Sushi (1 Comment)
  Cha Yoon Sushi & Elixir Tea Bar
  Once upon a time, there were some people living in a French-sounding town who were a little slow to adapt to the international ways of the world. Then one day a Japanese restaurant opened, and this mystified and terrified these people. Eventually, though, these finicky, timid people grew to like... More >>
• Best Spring Roll
  OR Juice & Smoothie
  It's the Bragg sauce that really makes this spring roll. Trademarked under the name Bragg Liquid Aminos, it's a soy sauce made by Live Food Products of Santa Barbara, California. It tastes like regular, sushi-joint soy sauce, but with a piquant, pungent kick. (There're doses of lysine, glycine,... More >>
• Best Calamari
  Trattoria Marcella
  You can't swing a DeLonghi deep fryer without hitting a plate of calamari nowadays. The critter has wandered onto the menus of chichi downtown bistros, mom-and-pop Greek tavernas, south-side sports bars. Given the relatively unrefined American palate, it's a bit surprising that we gobble down... More >>
• Best Toasted Ravioli
  Finale
  When it comes to hometown favorites, toasted ravioli is the Cardinals baseball of local culinary specialties: extremely near and dear to the hearts of many, and something to be taken very seriously. To which the folks at six-month-old restaurant Finale say: Lighten up! The T-rav is but a trifle,... More >>
• Best Desserts
  Atlas Restaurant
  Like a smash Broadway show whose popularity necessitates an extended run, the superlative desserts at Atlas Restaurant deserve their own spotlight. And because someone out there loves us (we suspect it's husband-and-wife co-owners Michael Roberts and Jean Donnelly), Atlas stays open late on... More >>
• Best Outdoor Dining
  Sofia Bistro
  With all due respect to Bar Italia's verdant, lushly landscaped courtyard -- a nationally recognized jewel for al fresco dining -- this past summer we found ourselves drawn more toward the unlikely environs of Bulgaria than the Renaissance-style splendor of Italy. Sofia Bistro is the brainchild... More >>
• Best Vegetarian Restaurant
  Everest Café
  The litmus test for a kick-ass vegetarian restaurant is simple: Take an omnivore there for a meal, and afterward casually drop a "Hey, did you know that place is vegetarian?" Watch the expression on his face change as he realizes he just stuffed his piehole with a bounteous feast of happy,... More >>
• Best Steak House
  The Best Steak House
  "Next!" "Next!" "Next!" And the cooks point down the line, further and further, faster and faster, demanding orders. It's half past noon on a weekday and you're at the Grand Center institution that is the Best Steak House (established 1964), a cafeteria-style restaurant teeming with workaday... More >>
• Best Seafood Restaurant
  Cardwell's at the Plaza
  Finding a great seafood restaurant in St. Louis is like finding a good hamburger joint in India; because of its place in the world, it's a long shot. That said, air freight has transformed the game; it's now possible to get fresh seafood in landlocked Missouri (even if coastal skeptics scoff at... More >>
• Best Chain Restaurant (1 Comment)
  Romano's Macaroni Grill
  Cars surround the Romano's Macaroni Grill in Brentwood like pigs at a trough. The Macaroni Grill's conceit -- chain restaurants live and die by them -- is northern Italy: aged plaster walls, Mussolini, olive oil, fresh Parmesan cheese. Ignore the externals, though. This is a chain, so a measure... More >>
• Best Diner
  Chili Mac's Diner
  When the discussion veers toward the best chili-mac in town, rarely do debaters touch upon Chili Mac's. Maybe that's because they're not sure what exactly to call it: The signs outside these two diners read "Ed's Chili-Mac Diner," while the takeout menus are labeled "Chili Mac's American Diner."... More >>
• Best Place for Late-Night Dining
  Eat Rite Diner
  We love using the word "dining" ironically. Like when we show up at the Eat Rite at 3:25 a.m. with a caravan of skunk-drunk friends, all of us feeling locked and loaded after a night of suds-slinging in Soulard or clubbing on Wash. Ave., and we're all "No! Sleep! Till Sauget!" That's when we... More >>
• Best Restaurant Restroom (1 Comment)
  Savor
  Folks often knock before entering the restrooms at Savor, the global-cuisine emporium that opened this past spring in the Central West End. Sometimes they'll even call out "Hello?" as they cautiously push the door open. That may seem odd, given that Savor's bathrooms are multi-stalled. But the... More >>
• Best Restaurant to Die in the Past 12 Months
  JaBoni's Bistro
  Who would have guessed that the "Best New Restaurant" of 2003 would require an epitaph in 2005? Back when Forest Park Southeast was barely habitable, Jann Brigulio and Bonnie Stevens blazed a trail on Manchester Avenue. The restaurant reeled us in with a gorgeous interior straight out of a... More >>
• Best Restaurant Trend
  Rising to the top
  Recently, an RFT writer's uncle sent her an e-mail saying he'd be coming into town on business. He asked where he should take his clients for dinner. "When I think of St. Louis, all I think of is Applebee's," he wrote. That may have been the case a few years back, but not any more. St. Louis now... More >>