Restaurants >>

• Best New Restaurant (1 Comment)
  Aya Sofia
  It was a comparatively low-key year for new restaurant openings. Whereas the recent past brought marquee debuts (Larry Forgione's An American Place) or neighborhood-regentrifying sizzle (alas, poor JaBoni's, we knew you well), this year's fresh crop was more discreet. Which is not to say the... More >>
• Best Restaurant for a First Date
  The Boathouse
  A first kiss can take your breath away. But that all-over-tingling sensation requires a good first date, and a good first date requires a good venue. Enter the Boathouse in Forest Park. Meet at the Boathouse around 4 p.m.—evening dates are so 2005. And bring the dog: The restaurant provides... More >>
• Best Place to Get Fatter
  Busch's Grove
  They call em fat cats for a reason. The hey-big-spenders who traditionally sup at Busch's Grove—and we do mean traditionally, as this bastion of all things gluttonous has been around since the century before last, aside from a three-year dormancy that ended earlier this year—do so with... More >>
• Best Restaurant When Someone Else Pays
  Monarch
  "Sharing food with another human being is an intimate act which should not be indulged in lightly," proclaims Monarch's Web site. To which we would add, "or with your own money." There are competing theories on milking your patron. The first is to order light, with the hope that you're jumping... More >>
• Best Place to Eat Out Alone (2 Comments)
  Moxy
  Even if you're alone at Moxy, you're not really alone. The teensy bar is so close to the open-air kitchen that you can easily carry on a conversation with the chef while he or she is making your meal. What's more, Moxy stays open throughout the afternoon, making it a quite lovely place to catch... More >>
• Best Place to Eat Out with Grandpa
  Mike Shannon's Steaks and Seafood
  Poor Grandpa. By the time you pick him up from the Retirement Castle or drag him off the golf course, you and the rest of your family have argued your appetites away deciding where to take him for dinner. Of course, he'll accept whatever you pick, but he always mutters about the Place Located... More >>
• Best Power Lunch
  The Cedars at St. Raymond's Maronite Cathedral
  One high-ranking city official who asked not to be named in print describes the Cedars at St. Raymond's during its weekly lunch (which it has been offering for 39 years) like this: "It's definitely the place to be seen on Wednesdays if you're in political circles. I don't go over there much... More >>
• Best Wine List in a Restaurant
  Riddles Penultimate Café & Wine Bar
  There are other restaurants that make impressive showings with their wine lists —Tony's, Eleven Eleven Mississippi, Sidney Street Café—but none with the underdog panache of Riddles. Because a place like Riddles just isn't supposed to have such a mind-blowing wine list. It's a juke... More >>
• Best Wine Bargain
  Charlie Gitto's
  The biggest deal about going to Charlie Gitto's is that it isn't. On a Sunday in July, a person can escape the humidity and sunshine and enter a low-lit enclave that's romantic and classy. You're greeted at the door by a suit who looks genuinely happy to see you. He mentions that on Sundays,... More >>
• Best Wine Bar
  Copia Urban Winery
  We, uh, spent a good deal of time mulling over this category. Our ruminations were extensive, our comments varied. "Hmph," we said, then "ernf" and "thppt." Not expressions of dissatisfaction, mind you, but of inner turmoil. This city is blessed with wonderful wine bars; to pick just one seems a... More >>
• Best Cheese Plate (1 Comment)
  Sasha's Wine Bar and Market
  When we learned recently of a friend's lactose intolerance, we responded with an amount of sympathy usually reserved for dengue fever, elephantiasis or an allergic reaction to sunshine. "No milk?" we asked incredulously. "No ice cream?" And then, gripping the table with dread, we whispered:... More >>
• Best Steak House
  Citizen Kane's Steak House
  Oooooh, they have a rib-eye. Forgot they had a rib-eye. That sounds good. No, wait—what about the New York strip? Hmm. A filet might be nice. But I had a filet at home the other night. I should have come here; they give me bloody when I ask for bloody and rare when I ask for rare. What... More >>
• Best Seafood Restaurant
  St. Louis Fish Market
  Start with some oysters and/or sushi, then chill awhile over a cup of chilled shrimp cocktail before venturing into the hot apps: steamed Prince Edward Island mussels, Maryland-style crab cakes with roasted-corn salsa, lobster bisque shot through with a splash of brandy. A half-dozen chicken and... More >>
• Best Vegetarian Restaurant (1 Comment)
  Shangri-La Diner
  We're gonna live forever; we shall feast like kings. For the rest of our many, many days, we shall indulge in beans, tofu, salmon, whole grains, broccoli, fruit and little else save the occasional baseball-size iced cupcake made with real butter and sugar. Our mortal shells shall reap the... More >>
• Best Soul Food (4 Comments)
  Sweetie Pie's
  Great as it is, the original Sweetie Pie's has always suffered from three things: location, location and location. The trip out to the original shop on West Florissant Avenue in Dellwood can take longer than the meal itself. Owner Robbie Montgomery's collard greens are worth the trip, but what's... More >>
• Best Service in a Restaurant
  Eleven Eleven Mississippi
  It was New Year's Eve 2003. Four friends with no plans for ringing in 04, other than to do it together, to do it casual, but to do it right. One pipes up about this new place, Eleven Eleven Mississippi, in Lafayette Square. She manages to snag a late reservation. The foursome converges upon... More >>
• Best Décor
  Busch's Grove
  Entering the newly refurbished Busch's Grove is like walking through a wardrobe and into Narnia. In the Grove's case, the two-story colonial looks like a farmhouse from Clayton Road, but as you turn into the parking lot, a $10 million heaven is revealed. Holy moly. It's like they transformed a... More >>
• Best Outdoor Dining
  Terrene
  Like so many of us, Terrene lost a few tree branches to the Storms of the Century in July. Thankfully, outdoor dining here remains topnotch. What with the lovely brick pathways and the enticing aroma of the wood stove busily smoking bacon, this shady, secluded space—thanks to a still-lush... More >>
• Best Place for Late-Night Dining
  Roxane
  Ordering a midnight meal typically goes like this: "Yeah, can I have the number-three with a Sierra Mist? And, uh, a large fry, and a bacon-jalapeño cheeseburger combo?" At Roxane it sounds like this: "We'll start with the Yukon gold potato-leek soup, the salad niçoise, and the quiche of the... More >>
• Best Breakfast with a Hangover
  Pat's Bar & Grill
  Figuring out a way to get over a hangover is like trying to figure out how the great pyramids were built: Everybody's got a theory. Maybe back in the day, after some wine-soaked feast for Ra, ancient Egyptians cheered each other on saying, "I swear to Osiris! Just get your ass lifting some... More >>
• Best Sunday Brunch
  La Dolce Via
  Dunno why, but every time we eat Sunday brunch at La Dolce Via (which is more than a few times a year), we act out the same sequence of events in the same order, á la Groundhog Day. First we drive around looking for a parking spot, marveling at how it's become harder and harder to find one,... More >>
• Best Breakfast (2 Comments)
  Chris' Pancakes and Dining
  Mexican places give you a basket of tortilla chips. Family-friendly restaurants appease screeching tots with tin pails of popcorn. Bread—that's everywhere. But at Chris' Pancakes and Dining, at any time of the day, you get cookies. Warm, half dollar-size, macadamia-white-chocolate-chunk... More >>
• Best Coffeehouse
  Coffee Cartel
  Ten years in, Coffee Cartel's still so picturesque, so inviting, it looks like something out of a sitcom. The outside patio is airy; the inside seating is spacious. The entertainment offerings are endless—wireless Internet, computer consoles, a pool table, Magic Touch—and don't even... More >>
• Best Barista
  Beth Soeder at Starbucks
  It's easy to tell a lot about a barista if you know where she's from; each coffeemaster has a distinctive flavor particular to her land of origin. Beth Soeder's winning personality was grown and processed in the metro area, but she has a particularly rich cultivation of flavors, having worked at... More >>
• Best Diner (1 Comment)
  The Buttery
  For so long, we've had so many questions about the Buttery. What kind of a diner name is that? Does anybody actually go in there? And most important, why haven't we gone in there? So we did, and we weren't disappointed. The Buttery boasts one of the best cheap breakfasts in town (served anytime,... More >>
• Best Lunch Counter (2 Comments)
  Jennifer's Pharmacy & Soda Shoppe
  What is it about lunch counters that's so dang inspiring? More than any old diner, truck-stop café or other greasy spoon, an old-fashioned, honest-to-goodness lunch counter can make the spirit hum with all of mankind's dizzying benevolence. Passing a paper napkin to the stranger seated next to... More >>
• Best Bosnian Restaurant (1 Comment)
  Taft Street Restaurant and Bar
  It's Friday night, a few hours past most Midwesterners' suppertime, and Sadik Kukic's cozy Taft Street Restaurant is just beginning to fill with people. Read the posted hours and the diners' presence seems rude—this place is set to close in twenty minutes. But here the posted hours don't... More >>
• Best Greek Restaurant
  Colossus
  Doesn't it seem like the Gods of Restaurant Hipness have been all, "Hey, Greek food, why don't you get sexy for us? Howzabout a little fusion-hybrid-tapas-slutty-bo”te tap dance?" To which Colossus would reply, "Hey, Restaurant Gods, why don't you bite me? Or better yet, why don't you bite into... More >>
• Best Mexican Restaurant (4 Comments)
  Casa Lupita
  At first glance, St. Louis might not seem like a repository of topnotch Mexican fare. But look again, and here's what you'll find: Cherokee Street. This strip, just west of Jefferson Avenue, is stuffed like a piñata with Mexican businesses, including restaurants—and Casa Lupita leads the... More >>
• Best Guacamole
  Maya Cafe
  Cilantro and lemon—these are the two ingredients that make Maya Cafe's guacamole so fine. Just the right amount of each, playing off each other as a zippy duet, the acidic bite of citrus foxtrotting around the soft, round-flavored notes of coriander. And texture—oh, the chunky-smooth... More >>
• Best Italian Restaurant (Cheap)
  Trattoria Branica
  "Cheap" is such a crass word, so let's call Trattoria Branica "inexpensive." But let's say it with seductive Italian flair—inexpensioso, perhaps?—and let's talk about just how much fantastically, classically prepared Italian cuisine you can get on a plate at Branica for less than... More >>
• Best Italian Restaurant (Not Cheap)
  Lorenzo's Trattoria
  It's rare to find homemade gnocchi in St. Louis. Rarer to find homemade spinach gnocchi. But both can be found on the Hill at the delectable Lorenzo's Trattoria. Small, pillowy and, believe it or not, light, Lorenzo's gnocchi is...perfect. This pasta also happens to be one of owner Lawrence Fuse... More >>
• Best Middle Eastern Restaurant (1 Comment)
  Sameem
  Just when you thought the ethnic eats along South Grand couldn't get any more diverse—the place is like an EPCOT food court with parking meters—in comes the Afghani restaurant Sameem. Owner Qayum Mohammad and his family are 100 percent devoted to their enterprise, covering front and... More >>
• Best Tapas
  Mirasol
  Tapas is a dining concept based in Spain, yet Mirasol serves Latin American food. But the restaurant pulls off this bit of fusion with such panache, it's easy to forget that it's a stretch. Maybe that's because Mirasol's owners had already mastered the true-tapas trade at Modesto, their... More >>
• Best Indian Restaurant
  India's Rasoi
  There's stuff going on in the food at India's Rasoi that Western tongues can barely fathom, frankincense-and-myrrh-type stuff that adds a complexity touching on magic and makes every other area Indian joint in the area—and there are a lot of good ones—fade into the background. The... More >>
• Best Sushi (1 Comment)
  Cha Yoon
  Life is too short to eat subpar sushi. That's what brings us, again and again, to tiny Ch‡ Yoon. The restaurant more than makes up for its postage-stamp space with a larger-than-life menu. Sashimi is fleshy, tender and full of flavor, while seaweed-wrapped thin rolls and reasonably priced medium... More >>
• Best Korean Restaurant (3 Comments)
  Hangook Kwan (a.k.a. Korea House)
  Hangook Kwan looks like the quintessential semifinished basement of the 1980s: spacious, equipped with a wide-screen television, a fish tank, a few photos and an it's-OK-if-you-spill-down-here air. The décor plays an indifferent supporting role to top-flight Korean cuisine. Start with the spicy... More >>
• Best Chinese Restaurant
  House of Wong
  The sleek LA-meets-Shanghai interiors of House of Wong's two locations suggest an aesthetic far from the stereotypical Chinese joint of old. As goes the décor, so goes the cuisine as well. It's MSG-free and deliciously fresh. The crisp, green scent of cilantro practically greets you at the door,... More >>
• Best Dim Sum (1 Comment)
  Lu Lu Seafood Restaurant
  A passion for dim sum is like any great love affair. You plan the next encounter before you're even out the door, you vividly go over each feverish moment, and —this is the hardest part—you learn to say no. To say yes too often is to diminish the experience. You can't just grab at... More >>
• Best Thai Restaurant
  Manee Thai
  Sometimes the package isn't as nice as its wrapper, but that's far from the case at Manee Thai. Gorgeous gold-beaded tapestries line the walls of the restaurant, and the waitstaff wear lovely elaborate ensembles—yet the food is even more beautiful. Take the yellow curry: Perfectly sweet... More >>
• Best Vietnamese Restaurant (1 Comment)
  Banh Mi So #1 — Saigon Gourmet
  Banh Mi So #1 began humbly back in 1994, selling its namesake pork-and-pickle-stuffed baguettes from a shrouded storefront on far South Grand. In twelve years it has slowly evolved into—well, a slightly sizier hole-in-the-wall. Owners Lynne and Thomas Truong still offer a smaller menu than... More >>
• Best Spring Rolls
  Pho Saigon
  There are two kinds of spring rolls in St. Louis: the fat kind that look like Asian burritos, which are good and everything, but nowhere near as great as the other kind, the freshly rolled little ones the size of a Twinkie. We like the rolls at Pho Saigon, located at the intersection of Grand... More >>
• Best Spinach-Artichoke Dip
  Café Balaban
  Fairy-tale time: Many years ago, in a land not so far from here, a spinach leaf met an artichoke, and they hit it off. You see, in the vegetable kingdom, size doesn't matter, so although Madame Artichoke was much larger than Sir Spinach, he could not resist her big heart. After an old-fashioned... More >>
• Best Desserts
  Niche
  It's a good thing Niche serves its desserts at the end of the meal. Sure, it's customary to do it this way, but if pastry chef Mathew Rice's sultry sweetness came out first, no part of the feast following would be able top the dessert course — not even at Niche. The dessert list here, dubbed... More >>
• Best Chain Restaurant
  Steak n Shake
  You hear the sizzle first, juices popping so sharply that, for a moment, you don't even notice the other families clamoring for a table, their children squealing for an adult-size milkshake this time, Mommy, please. Sometimes you imagine you can hear it from the road, that famous Steakburger,... More >>
• Best Restroom in a Restaurant
  Baileys' Chocolate Bar
  Everybody pees. To take the truism a step further: Everybody pees during a night out at a bar, and a large percentage of the Great Peeing Everybody do so more than once. So it would stand to reason that bar owners—perhaps the keenest observers of human nature—would provide clean, comfy... More >>
• Best New Restaurant Concept
  Destination Dining
  Jim and Cathy Hoyle nearly opened a Moroccan restaurant last year. Lucky for St. Louis, they canned that idea. Instead, the couple, formerly of west county, debuted Destination Dining, a radical new restaurant concept—here, or anywhere—in which a region-inspired menu changes every... More >>
• Best Restaurant Trend
  The prix is fixe
  When Niche opened its doors late last year in Benton Park, it carved out an instant niche thanks to its prix-fixe dinner option. While the menu was arranged a la carte, diners were welcome to curate their own three-course meal—appetizer, entrée, dessert—and pay only $30 for the... More >>
• Best Local Chef
  Mike Johnson
  As we testify to the beyond-impressive run of seductive and successful restaurants Mike Johnson has had a hand in, we must also bid him a farewell of sorts. This spring he debuted his double-whammy concept of side-by-side restaurants in downtown Clayton, contemporary-global spot Mira and frisky... More >>
• Best Restaurant to Die in the Past Year
  Caribbean Sun
  There's no comprehending the restaurateuring gods. There's no pleasing them and no use questioning them. There's no good reason Caribbean Sun shuttered its doors this summer after all of a year-ish in business. There was nothing bad to be said about Caribbean Sun's oxtail stew, jerk chicken,... More >>