St. Louis: Your Must-Visit Midwest Dining Destination

Consider St. Louis a welcome modification of yard to the clime of big - city dining . " Farm - to - table " is not something that ’s often advertise here in the STL , because it ’s assume that if you ’re a chef here , you personally know all your suppliers , husbandman , and butchers , as they ’re close to home . We do n’t take fine dining too seriously , and there is no eating place that , even on an incredibly engaged Nox , would ever turn aside a hungry visitor to the city .

Our dining scene is thriving . go are the days when dining out meant just solely eating at restaurant support by Cardinals players . The eating house boast here range from a James Beard award achiever to an exceptional java house to an altruistic sad sack .

Although the metropolis may be best known for a certain all - encompassing brewery , an explosion of exciting , delicious , and originative pocket-sized - scale local beer producers have begun to revel success . Consummate craft cocktail measure have become indicatory of the local drinking scene . Here is our list of the top places in the Lou devoted to solid food and drink that make us most excited about what is currently happening on the gastronomic scene , and what is yet to make out .

Byrd and Barrel

Byrd and Barrel|Holly Fann/Thrillist

Byrd & Barrel

Fried chicken places have been popping up all over St. Louis in the last yr , but the standout is Byrd & Barrel . The restaurant ’s buttermilk fry chicken is a glorious cryptical golden brown and the meat is remarkably juicy with genuine domestic fowl flavor , something leave out from most Gallus gallus these day . B&B ’s chef / owner Bob Brazell descend from a fine - dining background and offer unexpected , complex entrees and sandwich . “ The Chicken and the Egg , ” pairs pillowy gnudi ( gnocchi - similar dumpling with ricotta cheese ) , chicken thigh confit , and bleak yolk , while the banh mi , adulterate with deep-fried crybaby livers and theater pickle veggie , is strangely titillating . Although Brazell seems like he has his lingua firmly in cheek , you may taste his exuberance and joie de vivre in every bite of his bird - found cuisine .

Mai Lee

There are a multitude of unbelievable Chinese , Vietnamese , and Siamese restaurants in St. Louis , many of them in University City on Olive Blvd . However , THE restaurant wildly popular with locals and restaurant manufacture type likewise since 1984 has always been Mai Lee . The ever - roll staff serves up over 200 dishes that are super - fresh , burnished , flavoursome , and so systematically perfect it is almost worrying . Pho savant and chef / owner Qui Tran will help pass you through the epic Vietnamese , Thai , and Formosan card , but dishes like the salt & pepper calamari and rarified beef marinated in lime and peppiness are a must . The day-to-day specials like the crispy bottom Elmer Rice bowl with seafood cooked in a clay tidy sum are so choice , and DO NOT pass on the life - giving elixir that is Mai Lee ’s pho .

The Libertine

There is an inviting earnestness to the food created by chef Matt Bessler of The Libertine . No spumescent , burbling foams atop alien plot nitty-gritty here . Instead , a menu of tallness - of - season element prepared using solid classical proficiency issue in satisfying , munificently portion dishes . A monumental starter of roast bone marrow and gripe cheek with Medjool press and apple frisee salad is a head turner and will have you ( a act frantically ) scraping the very last nubbins of goodness from the bones . Polenta made tableside and served with a rich ragu is stand for to be shared . Not to be miss here is the popular , ever so cheeky Tiki cocktail computer menu . Although the maudlin , yield - spear , umbrella - donned crapulence arrive in fresh coconuts , presidential busts , and watercraft shape like turkey leg , they are well craft , balanced , and dead ambrosial .

Earthbound Beer

“ Makers of unearthly beer ” is a stately cognomen to be sure , but only if that beer is weird and delightful at the same time . Nothing is weird or more toothsome than Earthbound Beers ' offerings , with names such as Fuzzy Pickles , Jeffeweizen , and Extinction Level 630 . The team of three beer maker also put up awe-inspiring description for each of their six little - batch beer . Take their Dead Druid King , “ calamitous straw beer brew with oak tree leave , base on some ancient - ass brewing chronicle from Bavaria . Original formula was legit see in a grave . ” This fall , Earthbound is moving into the massive historic Cherokee Street Brewing building build in 1866 . It will house a try elbow room with 17ft - high vaulted ceilings , a full - service restaurant , a bar , and a zymolysis , bottling , and packaging surgical procedure . delay tune to see how weird Earthbound will become with its expansion .

Elaia

on a higher floor from its small casual sister bar , Olio , Elaia has an upscale dining room that ’s trance , while thin – the place you go to get the all aesthetic dining experience . The peach at Elaia are a modern , highly composed mosaic influenced by chef Ben Poremba ’s lifetime of travel . The Mediterranean - sharpen eatery offers dishes like olive rock oil poached cobia ( a fish known by many names ) with Citrus paradisi , pomelo , watermelon , serrano , and rosewater . The parfait of foie gras and chicken liver mousse pair a damn aphrodisiac liver mousse with a mix of greens , pickle hamachi mushroom , blueberries , and cut of fresh black truffle . The wine menu , meticulously cultivated and organized like a locomotion templet , with wine regions account as winsomely as a novella ( and about as long ) , is not to be pretermit .

Five Bistro

“ Five , ” as it ’s called , is altruistic in its practice both source and serving solid food . Concepts you ’ve surely heard before , “ hyper - local , ” “ seasonal , ” “ classical techniques , ” really translate here as consistently unbelievable repast . The menu changes daily , but the charcuterie has the power to cause eaters to swoon and speak in tongue . Both a choice of cured meats and a tremendous offering of pocket-sized farm cheeses are paired with house - made pickles , jams , and breads . Located on The Hill , Five is not in a blistering or voguish region and does not receive consistent care from the press , but it is always busy – pack on weekends – with a immense loyal pursual of diner appear for center over scene and a consistently pander dining experience .

Planter’s House

Craft cocktail whisperer , motley drink maestro , alien elixir police captain Ted Kilgore has been sent fan mail , several time . After enjoying a libation or five at Planter ’s House , the wiliness cocktail bar and eating place located in the Benton Park neck of the woods , you may experience compelled to write a letter of the alphabet of adoration yourself . The snappily dress yet modestly reserved Kilgore and his magnetized married woman , Jamie , open Planter ’s House on annulment daylight , December 5th , four years ago . A cultivated tippler ’s Eden , the space also houses the Bullock Room upstairs . An cozy second ginmill candlelit and lined with red velvet brocade wallpaper , it offers an even gravid cocktail menu . Kilgore is an adroit completist , gallant to offer over 100 dissimilar character of whiskey and over 400 variety of spirits .

The Side Project Cellar

Sitting in the 50 - seat savouring room at the Side Project Cellar can make you sense like a chip of a dullard if you have , say , an “ average ” amount of beer cognition . accommodate a 100 - point grudge and regarded as “ domain - form ” by BeerAdvocate , it ’s enough to make anyone sense like a novice . Do n’t sweat it . At the Side Project Cellar there is a outstanding deal of serious crazy fermentation chattering but it ’s a welcoming position ( maybe even more welcoming ) for someone new to barrel - cured and sour beer . If you see yourself a beer expert , you too will find geeked - out felicity at the Cellar . Most of the offerings concentrate on spirit gun barrel - aged saisons as well as glowering / wild ales . Take the time here not only to relish prize - winning data-based beer , but also to apprise the nuanced , finely detailed way in which they are serve . From taps that are individually temperature programmable to lambics served in the traditional lambic basket so as not to disturb the yeast in the bottle , this is a office that defines outstanding forethought in brewing , lay in , and serving world - class beers .

Sidney Street Cafe

Kevin Nashan , the chef and owner of Sidney Street Cafe for almost 15 class , makes mantrap that are learned , innovative , and mindfully constructed . One of the most important and influential chefs in St. Louis , Nashan was utilizing seasonal , local ingredient before it became part of the fine - dining organization . The Chef ’s tasting menu is specially complex and ripe but has playful and clever elements as well . A la carte dishes like the kombu - cured fluke with charred pea plant , puffed rice , pickled green strawberries , and a chocolate sauce vinaigrette are deliberately esoteric but also remarkably yummy . Delivering both a cerebral and aesthetic dining experience , Sidney Street continues to be a vital pioneer in St. Louis fine dining .

Cleveland-Heath

There is nothing precious about the food offered at Cleveland - Heath . The only pair of tweezers to be found in the kitchen are for pull out pin bones from Pisces . Having trained at The French Laundry and Ad Hoc , chef / owners Jenny Cleveland and Ed Heath could have come to St. Louis wear pair of tweezers holster – they jazz their stuff . Instead they came with the careful intent of opening a extremely approachable , echt , and straightforward eating house . By proffer both the dejeuner and dinner party carte du jour during , well , lunch and dinner , diners have the option to get a sandwich like the explosively flavorful BLT or the ethereal foie gras on Gallic goner . Generous with portion sizes , the gasp - inducing giant pork porterhouse chop weighs in at about a pounding . Cooked by diligently basting the nitty-gritty with hot clarified butter , it arrives , topped with a shimmering fried egg , looking like a juicyJoy of Cookingcenterfold .

The Mud House

A great coffee berry house should have , first and first , excellent deep brown . Second , the food and pastry should be equally as practiced . While St. Louis has a bevy of umber houses serving excellent and interesting coffees , The Mud House fend apart as adequate parts owing coffee house and remarkably stellar restaurant . pastry let in standard like scone and gem but also fragrant sericeous dark-brown butter moneyman . The bill of fare includes a democratic and convincing English breakfast alongside items like grits & greens and an ever - changing daily Dat Hash . A pork confit sandwich is Midwest goodness and served with chowchow . Although The Mud House has been labeled by some crippled Yelpers as being “ too rose hip to function , ” the always - bustling atmosphere thread both human behind and withdraw hairlines with stellar coffee bean and profoundly satisfying chow .

Reeds American Table

beating-reed instrument American Table is an example of the young vanguard of chefs who are opening restaurants to great anticipation in St. Louis . Matthew Daughaday ’s eatery has no ironical touches , nor is it uber - chic . It miss Edison lightbulbs which embellish every new eatery , but it is a beautiful and just outfitted outer space with pragmatic touches . The food is also settle in substance rather than vogue . The roast chicken is almost self - effacing in its simplicity but it is also a beyond - textbook exercise of what a absolutely cooked poulet boob should appear , smell , feel , and smack like . Beyond life sentence - change chicken , the eclectic dishes deliver paying attention ingredient combinations and flavors that comfort . The gluey glazed porc paunch with kimchee fried rice and green onion aioli sauce is at once Modern and dynamic as well as cordially intimate , and the bacon - fried cornbread may have you bat from the small cast - iron dish it ’s served in .

Farmhaus

Farmhaus is an minimize outer space seat 40 with useful steel metro racks holding dishware and other essentials tucked into the recess of the dining room . In the bar area are Kevin Willmann ’s discreetly displayed James Beard semifinalist awarding for Best Chef Midwest . Having spent a large part of his life as a fisherman along the Gulf Coast , Willmann ’s Pisces the Fishes dishes are prepared masterfully but with the same easy style the intact carte du jour shares . Traditional item like The Butcher ’s Plate – a monumentally generous collection of family - made charcuterie and local cheeses – are offer with item like sweet Solanum tuberosum and blue tall mallow “ nacho . ” Willmann ’s seven - track try out carte du jour is tout ensemble more serious and indeed James Beard award - worthy . Farmhaus lack pretense and high polish while delivering civilize fine - dining flavors .

Sucrose

When you take the air into Sucrose , you could prescribe an espresso ( it help excellent St. Louis - based Blueprint coffee bean ) , or you could simply beeline it to the two large ice bakery cases in the center of the workshop . Aaron and German - born Agi Groff , the married man - and - wife team behind Sucrose , broil everything utilizing classic Gallic and European technique . Frangipane tarts are fulfill with gleam seasonal fruit while Greco-Roman cakes like Opera and Sacher Torte stomach tall and fancy . Crumb - top fruit Proto-Indo European , custard - filled eclairs , effete umber croissant , and a survival of the fittest of over a twelve different flavour of the supreme macarons are just a portion of the day-to-day offerings . Upon your first profiterole , bite of citrus fruit lavender European olive tree oil cake , or earl grey macaron , you ’ll agree the pastry is profoundly good – otherworldly in force – and it will forever exchange you .

Bolyard’s Meat & Provisions

Offering hand - cut , pasture - set up porc , chicken , squawk , and lamb from topically source farms seems like a no - brainer . However it was n’t until former chef - turned - butcher Chris Bolyard opened his meat shop in the Downtown Maplewood neighbourhood last fall that there was one reliable source solely offer selfless meaty goodness . Everything is hand - cut here . require a Flintstones - sized pork chop shot ? Ask Chris and he will trim down you a 3 in chop shot . Hungry meat eaters who do n’t want to falsify themselves can enjoy any of the smoked meat and poultry offering or charcuterie prepared with a chef ’s skillful precision . Also noteworthy are the daily lunch sandwich , the remarkably flavorful osseous tissue broths , and the varied provisions ( including phenomenally impudent prepared lard ) . Ethically sourced marrow paired with literal service and skilled butchering equals a business organization that has established itself as essential in less than a year ’s sentence .

Taste

taste perception is built solidly on slyness cocktails that range from impulsive to intellectual as well as outstanding small plate . People watching on the patio is the perfect opportunity to try the vivacious “ No More Tangles ” – St. George Terroir gin , Dolin Genepy , passion fruit , lime , peach , and cucumber , or the schmaltzy “ How Fucking Romantic ” – blueberry - infused pisco , Aperol , hibiscus , lemon , and lilac-colored beloved . ensure to arrive hungry as well as athirst as chef Heather Stone ’s offerings are as thoughtfully craft as the drinks . A cup of tea of green , sloven font croutons , strawberries , rhubarb plant , and walnut is the adept face you ’ve ever taste while the sweetbreads with blistering sauce , celery ascendant , and shallots is indisputable to be the best thymus gland secretor you ’ve put into your mouth .

The Gin Room at Natasha’s

The definitive place to enjoy and absorb noose from around the world , The Gin Room is locate inside Cafe Natasha , a Persian restaurant on South Grand . Masterfully run away by Natasha Bahrami ( yep , the restaurant is list after her too ) , it offers quite peradventure the most complete , thorough , curated assembling of over 100 gin to be establish in the US and certainly the Midwest . “ The Gin Girl , ” as Bahrami is foretell , is a true ambassador of the spirit , and her enthusiasm over the history , distillment process , and particular qualities of the different gins she offer is infectious to anyone with a soul . She is gracefully willing to share all her knowledge with you if you are concerned , or she ’ll just swarm you the most high-minded snare & keynote you ’ve ever tasted and leave you be .

Pappy’s Smokehouse

Visit the Arch . Go to a Cardinals plot . Eat at Pappy ’s . This is the list of essential “ must - do ” for anyone visiting St. Louis . Pappy ’s smoke up a variety of substance daily , but the pork barrel sister back ribs are reason alone to call the city . smoke for 14 hours over fruitwood , Pappy ’s ribs are a glorious , tender chomp of meaty succulence . Not cloyingly sweet or dripping in sauce , they keep up the southerly style of BBQ with a juiceless rub and a hit of glaze to finish . The melodic phrase that forms around the construction daily is testament to its continued popularity amongst not only topical anaesthetic but many out - of - land visitors as well .

Mai Lee