Food & Drink >>

• Best Hot Dog
  Usinger's
  Yes, we do love Woofies (1919 Woodson Road, Overland; 314-426-6291). We've composed frickin' paeans to Woofies. We're tempted to write a poem about Woofies, set it to music and force you to listen to it while you're on hold with our receptionist. But this year we're gonna sing a new tune, a DIY... More >>
• Best Burger
  Dressel's
  The only reason every burger aficionado in the bi-state area isn't lined up outside Dressel's is because, well, most folks don't equate "Welsh pub" with "perfect hamburger." But we know the truth, and it's killing us to keep the secret. So if you know what's good for you, you'll head Dresselward... More >>
• Best Burger (Non-Beef Division)
  The Stagger Inn...Again
  The chef in the back builds the Nightmare with a shovel. He dumps a pile of chopped onions in a pot, backs up a cement mixer and pours fifteen tons of veggie chili onto it, pushes a Cheddar cheese log through a wood shredder, and then pours the mixture onto your choice of either garden or... More >>
• Best French Fries
  Schlafly Tap Room
  The kind still with the potato skin on 'em, fried crisp but not too much, so the soft velvety white on the inside is still supple to the touch, still steaming. Oh, sweet starch. A touch of salt, uh-huh. Malt vinegar sprinkled over the pile, just enough spicy ketchup to provide a balanced,... More >>
• Best Sandwich
  The Celestial
  Brian and Brendan Marsden's Mirasol didn't just arrive on the St. Louis dining scene in the spring of 2004, it fairly exploded. Bright, brilliant, exciting and sexy, the dishes at this Nuevo Latino hotspot never cease to amaze. Better yet, Mirasol is open for lunch -- good God, one could eat... More >>
• Best Breakfast Sandwich
  Italian Egg Sandwich
  The RFT owes a debt of gratitude to the breakfast sandwich. Every week the deadline-driven staff meanders in to the office all hung over and hating life, and every week the Italian Egg Sandwich at Fabio's (formerly Salvato's) delivers us on the wings of focaccia -- and it can help you, too.... More >>
• Best Fish Sandwich
  Ahi tuna reuben
  Schlafly Bottleworks' tuna reuben probably could have taken this prize on the basis of creativity alone. A tuna reuben? Well, why not? Served on a slice of Russian black bread (two slices would yield a too-dry mouthful), a tasty piece of seared ahi tuna gets a royal crowning with Swiss cheese,... More >>
• Best Roast Beef Sandwich
  Love at First Bite
  It's just after sundown, and the vampire is stalking his prey. He's been pursuing his meat in the same spot now for more than 100 years. While the lack of variety may seem boring to some, he's experienced a "culinary" awakening in this locale -- a Love at First Bite, if you will. The nocturnal... More >>
• Best Taco
  Taqueria el Bronco
  Taqueria el Bronco would have a much easier go of it if it were located in Austin, Los Angeles, Miami or any number of American cities that embrace, or at least acknowledge, their Hispanic communities. Instead this hole-in-the-wall taco shack is confined to the Mexican barrio along Cherokee... More >>
• Best Frogs' Legs
  Pat's Bar and Grill
  Urban folklore can't get much better than how the hell frogs' legs found their way onto the menu of an Irish dive in Dogtown that's been around since 1942. Problem is, nobody who's alive today really knows for sure how that happened. All that's left to ponder is the end result: the best (and... More >>
• Best Barbecue
  C&K Barbecue
  The C&K Barbecue experience begins and ends with agony. First you have a five-minute wait at the carry-out hut, awash in the aroma of tomato and vinegar. Torture. Then there's the drive home, fighting the urge at every stoplight to tear into the steaming, sweet-smelling takeout containers. C&K... More >>
• Best Fried Chicken
  Diamond Mineral Springs
  Looking for good fried chicken in the city is like searching for a good martini in the sticks. The best fried chicken in the area requires a journey to the Land of Lincoln, to a former summer health resort between Highland and Pocahontas, Illinois, 40 minutes from the Arch. In its heyday in the... More >>
• Best Chicken Fried Chicken
  Nadine's Gin Joint
  Come across a menu item labeled "chicken fried chicken" and you're liable to think typo. Fried chicken's fried chicken, right? Well, not exactly. True, "chicken fried chicken" is a dumb name. But it's got its culinary roots in the Republic of Texas, which plays by its own grammatical rules (cf.... More >>
• Best Chicken Wings (1 Comment)
  The Dandy Inn
  Smarty-pants experts suggest that one of the biggest causes of stress in life isn't the absence of options but rather the overabundance of unsatisfying ones. Take ordering chicken wings. What should be a simple transaction turns into a game of 40 questions: How many? Do you want them mild,... More >>
• Best Whole Roast Chicken
  Boston Market
  At $7.49, a whole roast chicken from Boston Market is slightly more expensive than a similar bird from most St. Louis-area grocery stores, but that extra scratch is worth it just to see your dinner still roasting on the spit, not baking under a heat lamp. Take one home and you'll learn why a... More >>
• Best Pizza (Thin Crust)
  Dewey's
  From now until our sun goes supernova, people will argue about religious leaders, politicians and pizza. This last, of course, is the most universally beloved: No one hides when pizza's at the door. And of all the magnificent thin-crust pies in St. Louis -- Pizza-a-Go-Go and Vito's are also on... More >>
• Best Pizza (Thick Crust)
  Black Thorn Pub
  Why do we bother with this category every year? Maybe it's to take into account the scant possibility that some other pizza joint might come along with a thick-crust that can top the phantasmagoria that is a Chicago-style Black Thorn pie. Pizza this dense, this formidable, this architecturally... More >>
• Best Caesar Salad
  John D. McGurk's Irish Pub and Restaurant
  Like a jazz standard or a symphony, the Caesar salad is a template -- romaine lettuce, Parmesan cheese, croutons, dressing -- and execution is everything. One misstep, one substandard ingredient, and the gestalt is ruined. McGurk's is a St. Louis institution best known for its St. Pat's Day... More >>
• Best Macaroni and Cheese
  Tin Can Tavern & Grille
  Dinner is not a science experiment. There should be no unnaturally bright substances, no combination of the words "microwave" and "E-Z," no transformation from a gritty powder to something vaguely cheese-ish. Comfort food deserves a little TLC -- you wouldn't eat pot roast or green beans from a... More >>
• Best Pork Steak
  Phil's Bar-B-Que
  If your family were to own a barbecue joint, it'd be Phil's. The décor of this little shack -- located on Gravois Road east of Mackenzie, in the neighborhood known as Wilbur Park -- is reminiscent of your grandparents' wood-paneled basement, bedecked as it is with kitschy porcelain pigs,... More >>
• Best T-Rav Alternative
  Bratwurst Pretzel
  If you think toasted ravioli is our town's lone contribution to the culinary arena of meat-filled-dough, might we suggest a trip to Gus' Pretzels? Located in the shadow of the A-B brewery, Gus' has reigned as a south-side institution since 1920. Known best for its hand-rolled soft pretzels, the... More >>
• Best Fast Food
  Big V's Burger Joint
  Seventeen words into this paean to Big V's glorious victuals, and already Vito Racanelli is gettin' sassy: "It's not fast food. It's Big V's." The owner's slogan is understandable -- after all, "fast food" isn't typically synonymous with super-fresh, insanely tasty eats. But lo, Vito and his... More >>
• Best Delicatessen
  Mom's Deli
  It's lunchtime on a Saturday, and Mom's is packed. A line of customers winds through the small shop, around the shelves of potato chips and Hostess cupcakes, past the refrigerated soda case (well-stocked) and the refrigerated beer case (empty, save a few bottles of Miller -- Mom's is honoring... More >>
• Best Use of the Worst Cheese
  Joe Boccardi's
  Sure, Provel isn't a triple-cream French masterpiece of a cheese, but it is our cheese. So how to enjoy it? Not alongside fresh fruit and fine wine -- but that's OK; Provel is a cheese of the people. And we think it sits perfectly when it's melted atop Joe Boccardi's Special Original pizza.... More >>
• Best Bagels
  The Bagel Factory
  OK, OK, we get it already: St. Louis is not New York. It's not even Buffalo. Nowhere near being Albany, even, let alone Ithaca. The consensus is that we hayseeds have nothing to contribute, bagel-wise, to the pool of human thought. Our bagel is usually a tuft of dough rolled wormlike and... More >>
• Best Doughnuts
  LaMar's Donuts
  For 43 years Ray Lamar woke up saying, "Time to make the doughnuts." In the summer of 2003, he finally hung up his apron at the age of 87. By that time, the single doughnut shop he opened in a converted gas station in downtown Kansas City had expanded into 30-plus shops throughout the Midwest... More >>
• Best Bakery
  The Party Pastry Shop
  When is the Party Pastry Shop not the Party Pastry Shop? Well, it's proceeding under the same name that it has been for as long as anyone can remember, but under new ownership since its purchase earlier this summer by the good people from Brick Oven Pastries (who shuttered their Fenton operation... More >>
• Best Bread
  Companion Bakehouse
  Sweet Lord, life has become so much better since the Atkins diet took up residence at the Ch‰teau du Irrelevance. Not that we ever participated in that carb-hatin' fad, mind you, but just the sight of khaki-pantsed businessmen wrapping their hamburgers in lettuce leaves was enough to put us off... More >>
• Best Chocolate
  Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate
  To paraphrase what Chris Rock said about drugs and drug dealers in his groundbreaking 1996 HBO comedy special Bring the Pain, chocolate peddlers don't sell chocolate. They offer chocolate; chocolate sells itself. And it certainly does fly off the shelves at Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate, a... More >>
• Best Coffee
  Kaldi's Coffeehouse and Market Bakery
  The line doesn't lie. It winds awkwardly around the front room of Kaldi's, squeezed tight with irritable junkies. They hold monogrammed mugs, and their minds race with crackhead chatter: "oh lord hurry hurry hurry what's taking so long so I think this morning it'll be a double shot with a splash... More >>
• Best Farmer's Market
  The GreenMarket
  Who are you kidding? You're not a chef. You're not even a sous chef. You're a hack. You can't whip up a walnut sauce on short notice, have never chilled a soup in your life, let alone bisque, couldn't clarify butter even if it got you really high. But the dirty little secret? It's all in the... More >>
• Best Mexican Market
  Carniceria El Morelia
  Comfortably nestled in a strip mall anchored by a hardware store and Doctor John's naughty emporium is one of Bridgeton's best-hidden gems: Carniceria El Morelia. Upon entering you're liable to find owner Judi Florez on the phone or at her laptop behind the counter, but she'll be happy to pull... More >>
• Best Asian Market
  Central Trading Company
  Shopping list, September 28, 2005: DON'T FORGET TO P/U LAUNDRY AND D/O DVD! P/U FR CENTRAL TRADING CO.: Hello Soda cookies, Taiwan Good Taste biscuits, fried paste (2 bags), choco banana Pocky (2 packs), jar o/ The Biggest Plum King, little ink fish, cuttlefish, peeled squid in a can, young... More >>
• Best Takeout (Gourmet Division)
  Kaldi's Coffeehouse
  The Fancy Couple is having a dinner party again. Oh, God, the Fancy Couple, with their Washington Avenue loft (purchased, darling, not rented), their solid walnut furniture and their $1,000 dog that trundles through the living room like a yapping toupée. Last time they had one of these... More >>
• Best Takeout (Grocery Division)
  City Grocers
  Sometimes the standard lunch fare of a bologna sandwich and a hard-boiled egg just doesn't stimulate the palate -- especially when you know that dinner will likely be a frozen entrée that comes in its own microwaveable bowl. Fortunately, City Grocers makes it easy to break free of... More >>
• Best Fresh Seafood Counter
  Whole Foods
  Soft-shell crabs? Check. Tasmanian sea trout? Mmm-hmm. Octopus? Aww, yeah! If it swims, and it's edible, Whole Foods probably has it. And here comes the kicker: Somebody likely netted the little bugger just yesterday. "We are the fastest grocery store there is in going from the dock to door,"... More >>
• Best Cheese Counter
  The Wine Merchant
  Remember when cheese came in two colors, two shapes and either with or without holes? At the Wine Merchant, the days of "American or Swiss?" are long past. The three-year-old French Comté, to which weak-kneed sorts quickly become addicted, arrives on Thursdays or Fridays, and it's... More >>
• Best Meat Counter
  Bull Market
  Ever wonder why the steaks you get at Tony's taste so good? Sure, executive chef and owner Vince Bommarito is a master in the kitchen, but his steaks are some of the world's best. For years those steaks were available only at restaurants and one high-end local grocery store. (Hint: Its name... More >>
• Best Bratwurst
  G&W Meat & Bavarian Style Sausage Company
  "Want a beer?" If that's not the first thing your butcher asks bright and early Saturday morning when you're brat shopping for the afternoon's barbecue, consider yourself a meathead. Put down your sausage. And get over to G&W Sausage Company, conveniently if randomly located off Kingshighway... More >>
• Best Grocery Store
  Trader Joe's
  Have you heard the one about Charles Shaw, namesake of Trader Joe's fabulous -- and at $3 a bottle, fabulously cheap -- wines? Legend has it that the wines are so easy on the wallet because the old oenophile, while in the middle of a bitter divorce, wanted to reduce his vineyards' assets and so... More >>
• Best Place to Buy Chips
  Phillips 66
  A small sampling of the chips available at the Philips 66 on Lindell: Uncle Ray's Onion Flavored Rings, Rap Snacks Hot Sauce Flavored Pork Cracklins, Hooters Hot Wing Flavored Potato Chips (with Ranch), Jays Salt 'n' Sour, Wise Onion Rings, Old Vienna of St. Louis Cheesy Red Hot Riplets,... More >>
• Best Reason to Cook at Home
  Penzeys Spices
  Cooking is so very satisfying, so very sexy -- though you'd be forgiven for not thinking so, given our nation's strange culinary proclivities. Heat-'n'-eat meals, fad diets and telechefs who insist on kicking things up to notches unknown are the foodie equivalents of a cold shower or an... More >>
• Best Beer
  O'Fallon Smoked Porter
  It's all good, of course, so the idea of calling one "Best" is to suggest that others are less good, which simply isn't true. But O'Fallon Smoked Porter comes in a very big bottle, which automatically makes it better than most because there's more of it. Plus, it's a huge beer, this rich, dense... More >>
• Best Smoothie
  Coffee Cartel
  Oh, life, you confound us with your choices! From what university to attend and what class to skip to what low-paying job to take and which days to call in sick, we're nearly overwhelmed. Throw in choosing what cereal to buy in that never-ending aisle and which dirty clothes to wash when you... More >>
• Best Snow Cone
  Concord Lanes & Arizona Action Park
  Tropical Moose Shaved Ice in Kirkwood is a perennial favorite, but the more adventurous among us steer to the Sno-Cone Village at Concord Lanes & Arizona Action Park. This 46-year-old fun farm offers bowling, batting cages, mini golf, a climbing wall...and snow cones. Sally up to the purple hut,... More >>
• Best Concrete
  Banana Pudding
  With all due respect to Ted Drewes -- Your custard is legendary, sir/Your mix-ins divine/But sometimes we're just not up for the trek to south city, sir/And the long wait in line -- Mr. Wizard's knows how to make a damn good concrete. The Banana Pudding is a deceptively simple concoction,... More >>
• Best Ice Cream Parlor
  Serendipity
  Slinging ice cream in a frozen-custard town can be a lonely gig. Good thing, then, that Serendipity owner Beckie Jacobs is a people person. Ted Drewes is a great guy and all, but have you seen him spread the love by, say, whipping up fresh peach ice cream and sorbet using local Kamp's Orchard... More >>
• Best Frozen Yogurt
  Iggy's
  We're already salivating in anticipation miles before your green-and-white stripes finally come into view. Rising out of the asphalt like an enormous Starlight Mint, your roof simultaneously steals our breath away and takes us back to simpler times. You're always waiting for us in the same spot... More >>
• Best Remedy for Insulin Shock
  M&M Double Chocolate Chip cookies
  Few things in life compare to the taste-bud bliss of homemade cookies straight from the oven -- still warm, still chewy, deliciously gooey. Tucked away in its bakery section, Schnucks has miraculously managed to replicate this experience, with M&M Double Chocolate Chip cookies. These chewy... More >>