The Best Places in St. Louis

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1. AAA Three Diamonds

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The bar at Au Cheval is the part of the diner you can sit at without a two-hour wait, assuming the wait stays tolerable, and the whole place runs on dim lighting, a cocktail list, and the knowledge that a griddled burger with a fried egg is coming either way. It's a moody, no-frills diner-bar, and the cocktails do real work while you stare at the people who got the table. Difford's Guide gives it four stars.

1. Difford's Guide 4 stars · Difford's Guide
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1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

The twice-cooked pork here is the thing to order first: thin, crispy cutlets in a glaze that toggles between sweet wine and sharp vinegar, a signature dish of China's Dongbei region. This casual Chinese cafe in University City has become a go-to for regional cooking that doesn't smooth its edges for anyone, with bold Chengdu chicken and hot crisp fish rounding out a menu that makes the drive from anywhere in St. Louis feel like a reasonable life choice.

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1. AAA Three Diamonds
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Northern Thai cooking in a city that already loves Thailand but tends to stop at the central-region classics. Chiang Mai focuses on the distinct traditions of the north, and three aunties running the open kitchen with unhurried precision are the main event. The bronzed pork sausages and green papaya salad are there for the familiar, but the menu goes further than most St. Louis Thai spots dare.

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1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

The charcoal smell hits before you've found your seat, which is a fine way to set expectations at this intimate dinner spot on Delmar. The open kitchen keeps things honest, the lighting keeps things romantic, and a dessert cart actually wheels around the room like it's 1974. Dishes are stripped back on purpose, a few components, no fuss. The clay pot Negroni is a good place to start deciding you'll come back.

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1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds
2. St. Louis Magazine Best restaurants in St. Louis

A server in a druidic robe strikes the floor with a staff, lifts a smoking lantern, and produces your cocktail from inside it. The theatrics are a genuine feature, not a phase. Frazer's is a comfortable neighborhood restaurant in Benton Park, the kind that holds steak frites and pork schnitzel alongside a rotating specials board and a serious seafood selection, while the bar is clearly having the most fun in the room.

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An old-school deli in St. Louis's historic Italian-American neighborhood, Gioia's has been feeding the same families for so long that when a James Beard America's Classics award arrived, locals mostly just smiled politely. The hot salami sandwich, made from a house recipe of beef, pig's head, and spices and sliced to order, is what everyone comes for. Pick your bread, pick your cheese, and try not to overthink it.

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1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Four Diamonds

A chorizo-washed mezcal margarita is a strong opening argument for the bar program at this Spanish pintxos spot on Locust. The menu runs the classics, pan con tomate, patatas bravas, a Caesar buried under microplaned manchego with a paprika-spiked dressing, and the kitchen handles them with enough care that they feel like discoveries. The crowd tends to stay later than planned, which is more or less the point.

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Roasted corn lands on the table before you've even opened the menu, which is a good sign at this Peruvian restaurant tucked into Old St. Charles. Chef Andrew Cisneros runs a menu built around ceviche, fried seafood, and slow-cooked pork, with shortbread alfajores from a local bakeshop closing things out. The room draws a crowd that looks genuinely happy to be there, which in St. Charles on a weeknight is its own kind of achievement.

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Wood-burning oven margherita pizza and tortellini en brodo share a menu at this family-friendly pizza and pasta osteria, the kind of place that makes you wonder why anyone ever chose between a slice shop and an Italian trattoria. The chef collective behind it, a genuine collaboration rather than a celebrity vanity project, has serious fine-dining pedigree, and the result is crowd-pleasing food that doesn't talk down to anyone. Easy parking, which in St. Louis is half the battle.

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Yunnan province cooking, where the flavor map runs spicy and sour rather than rich and savory, is the whole point at this fast-casual spot. The chef grew up near the borders of Thailand and Vietnam, and her handmade dumplings, chile eggplant, and lime-ginger peanut salad taste like it. A veggie sampler lets you graze across most of the menu in one go, which is lucky, because narrowing it down is hard.

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The mini cheese empanadas arrive flaky outside and molten within, and the sampler plate is basically the menu's argument for ordering one of everything. Mayo Ketchup is a casual Puerto Rican and Dominican spot on Olive Street where the tostones come topped with avocado and pickled onion, the taquenos are cheese pulled through pastry dough, and the sauces range from guava to herbaceous cilantro. A good place to lose track of time deciding what to eat next.

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The broth in the tonkotsu is described as the color of the inside of a cloud, which is the kind of detail that earns its place. This ramen and pho shop was built with serious intent: the team behind Vietnamese institution Mai Lee brought in a renowned ramen consultant and worked with Sun Noodle on the recipe. Seven ramen styles anchor the menu, with pho, banh mi, and crab rangoon filling out the rest. A thorough lunch.

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The main dining room of this old-school red-sauce Italian spot is encrusted in crystals, which tells you everything about the vibe before you've ordered a drink. Leo at the bar will talk you into a sambuca shot, Isabella will remember your order from last time, and the owner himself is probably seating you. The menu hasn't changed in years, and nobody's complaining.

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1. AAA Three Diamonds
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The breakfast sandwich here is finished with sea salt that catches in the griddled sourdough's crags, keeping the salty and sweet separate rather than letting them blur together. That level of attention is what drew crowds at Tower Grove Farmers Market before this bakery-cafe had walls. Bialys and sprouted-grain English muffins, milled from local grain, come out of the kitchen the same way: unhurried and precise.

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1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

The piña colada here is not the one you've been avoiding. Yellowbelly is a tropical cocktail bar and restaurant on Lindell where mezcal, rum, passionfruit, and coconut show up balanced and thought-through rather than sticky-sweet. A jungle mural and serious plant situation set the mood, and the food, fish tacos and salmon tostadas and the like, holds its own alongside the drinks. It's the kind of place that makes a Tuesday feel like a decent idea.

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1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

Mai Lee is a family-run Vietnamese restaurant in a Brentwood strip, and it has been around forever. The menu runs past 300 numbered, made-to-order dishes, so ordering feels like a long-form exam you can't fail. Regulars will point you to the St. Paul sandwich, a St. Louis oddity involving egg foo young and white bread. Casual, unfussy, and priced so you can try several numbers.

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Carl's is a two-sided counter with sixteen stools, a griddle, and staff who treat small talk as a clerical error. The burgers are lacy, paper-thin things, so you order a double the way you'd order a second coffee, and the housemade root beer comes along without discussion. The tamales under chili are a pleasant surprise. Bring cash, and if anyone asks about the Shake Shack rumor, you didn't hear it from me.

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1. Spirited Awards 2025 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best New U.S. Cocktail Bar – U.S. Central

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1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

Mainlander is a Taiwanese tasting-menu spot dressed like a midcentury tiki den, all orange-tinted light, Polynesian-style art, and vintage furniture that clearly cost someone a lot of weekends. The menu changes monthly and borrows freely from German, Sichuan, and Missouri pantries. Esquire put it on its best new restaurants list, and reservations open on the first of the month at noon, so set an alarm.

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1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

Akar is a Malaysian fine dining room in Clayton with concrete walls, sparse decor, and the lighting of a place that expects you to lean in. There's no menu online and reservations happen by phone, which in this economy counts as an aggressive commitment to mystery. The curries run rich and layered, the roti arrives in flaky sheets, and the plates cost real money, so dress like you made the call on purpose.

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1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

Mestiza is a counter-service taqueria with orange booths and blue walls, and the angular windows make lunch feel like a slightly cheerful boat trip. It grew out of the taco nights at sister restaurant Malinche. You order at the register, get a free potato taco, and then spend a while negotiating with the tray of salsas. Spit-roasted pork and a cheesy alambre are on the menu, and so is a cactus option for vegetarians.

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1. James Beard Awards 2025 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Bakery

Noto is a Neapolitan pizzeria built around a glowing white oven parked dead center in the dining room, which everyone treats with the reverence usually reserved for a small chapel. It started as a food truck and grew into a certified restaurant in St. Peters, where the crust comes out leopard-spotted and the pasta list gets a fair hearing. Families and pizza devotees share the room, and the burrata upgrade tends to go unquestioned.

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The Stellar Hog is a small South City barbecue joint with a hand-painted celestial ceiling, which gives you something to look at between ribs. It feels like a neighborhood bar where the Budweiser flows freely, then got a psychedelic makeover and let the kids in. The chipotle-honey ribs and brisket come out glossy and well barked. Sunday on the patio is beef rib territory, so clear your afternoon.

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1. James Beard Awards 2025 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Restaurateur · Gerard Craft - Niche Food Group

1. James Beard Awards 2025 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Restaurateur · Gerard Craft - Niche Food Group

1. James Beard Awards 2025 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Restaurateur · Gerard Craft - Niche Food Group

1. James Beard Awards 2025 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Restaurateur · Gerard Craft - Niche Food Group

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

1. Eater The 38 Best Restaurants in St. Louis, Missouri

1. Eater The 38 Best Restaurants in St. Louis, Missouri

Detroit-style pan pizza in a small fast-casual shop on Edwards, where the menu started life on Instagram during the pandemic and somehow held together well enough to become a brick-and-mortar. You can grab a hot slice in house or take a par-baked pie home to finish yourself, which is either charming or suspicious depending on your mood. Toppings lean creative, hot honey buffalo chicken nuggets and fried Brussels sprouts, but the plain pepperoni holds its own too.

1. Eater The 38 Best Restaurants in St. Louis, Missouri

An ice cream sandwich shop in Carondelet where every flavor is named after a literary villain or witch, which is either the most charming concept you've heard all week or proof that a Yale degree can go anywhere. The owners built the place around equitable food systems, so the ethos runs deeper than the frosting. Come for something cold and cleverly named, leave having thought about regional food economies more than you expected.

1. Eater The 38 Best Restaurants in St. Louis, Missouri

1. James Beard Awards 2024 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Restaurateur · Michael Gallina, Tara Gallina, and Aaron Martinez - Take Root Hospitality
2. James Beard Awards 2023 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Restaurateur · Michael and Tara Gallina and Aaron Martinez - Take Root Hospitality

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