Food & Drink >>

• Best Grocery Store
  Trader Joe's
  Remember when you were little and your parental unit would drag you grocery shopping and even though the place was filled with foods of all kinds all you really saw were the Dove bars, the KitKats, the mondo-size bags of peanut M&M's? Well, you're all grown up now, but Trader Joe's knows there's... More >>
• Best Burger
  The Village Bar
  Chicks dig me. Marines crave my meat. Even preppies adore getting their piece. My home—"The Village" to those in the know—is a dive next to a wig shop. There's only one waitress, and a take-his-time dude who mans a griddle I doubt has ever seen a good scouring. But that's to your... More >>
• Best Burger (Non-Beef Division)
  The Best Veggie Burger in Town!
  Sweet Lord Almighty, the menu at the Shangri-La Diner can read our mind. We've been enjoying Patrice Mari's excellent veggie burger ever since the Shangri-La opened its groovy doors in 2005. We've tried in vain to find a veggie burger as tasty, as juicy—what the hell, as meaty as the... More >>
• Best Hot Dog
  The guys with the carts
  Here's what you do: Take in a Saturday-night show at the Pageant. Grab a drink or three afterward at the Halo Bar. Tip generously—you're a bon vivant, after all—but make sure to hold back three or four bucks. At about 3 a.m., go outside. Look around. You'll spot a guy selling hot dogs... More >>
• Best French Fries
  Sportsman's Park
  Sportsman's Park offers two kinds of fries: curly and steak. Yes, both come out of a bag, but hear us out. On the appetizer menu, there's an item called "Loaded Fries." It's a megaplate of steak-cut spuds drenched relentlessly in melted cheese and ground beef. Here's why you gotta go try the... More >>
• Best BLT
  City Diner
  Beauty, thy name is Mambo for Cats. Permit us to explain: At City Diner, the sunny South Grand snack stop that manages to be both hip and unpretentious, the walls are covered with film posters and album art. Most of it's seen-it-before décor, but on the south wall is an extraordinary record... More >>
• Best Roast Beef Sandwich
  Amighetti's Special
  Calling an Amighetti's Special a roast beef sandwich is kind of like calling Francis Ford Coppola's Godfather a story about Italians. Piled high with roast beef, ham and salami, an Amighetti's Special makes its mark with the addition of lettuce, tomato, cheese, pickles, onions, pepperoncini and,... More >>
• Best Fast Food
  Chuck-A-Burger
  There's nothing fast about yelling into a scratched-up speaker box from your car window, repeatedly asking, "I'm sorry, say that again? What? Did you get all that?" What then comes forth from the pick-up window minutes later really doesn't resemble food; sometimes it's so borderline palatable it... More >>
• Best Panini
  Panino con Pollo e Pesto
  The panini has become as ubiquitous as Law & Order on cable. There are fast-food versions, frozen varieties (bizarre), and it's probably just a matter of time before a dessert panini arrives. And it is through the dirty lens of popularity that society seems to be losing sight of how fabulous... More >>
• Best Fish Sandwich
  The Ike & Tina Tuna
  Albacore tuna sandwich? Yum. Albacore tuna sandwich named after (in)famous local couple? Great. Albacore tuna sandwich named after (in)famous local couple that incorporates snicker-worthy wordplay? Heh. Among the many delights on Kopperman's excellent lunch menu, the Ike & Tina Tuna is perhaps... More >>
• Best Fried Chicken
  Hodak's
  Just so you know, there are about eleventy billion other things you can order at Hodak's besides fried chicken: an eight-ounce charbroiled rib-eye, frog's legs, fried oysters, a rib sandwich, a quarter-pound frankfurter, a turkey club. But notice how none of those other menu items have found... More >>
• Best Whole Roast Chicken
  Brio Tuscan Grille
  It's a bird, it's a plane—it's an Ohio-based chain! And boy does it roast a helluva bird. She's stuffed with a whole lemon and drenched in a lemon-pepper marinade before going down for a long siesta in the restaurant's wood-burning (oak) oven. The bird, a.k.a. "Whole Oak Roasted Chicken,"... More >>
• Best Chicken Wings
  Brandt's Cafe
  A hotly contested issue, these chicken wings. Some say it's all in the sauce, and that nothing shy of scathing will do. While there's no denying the appeal of huddling around the electric campfire at a sports bar with a plateful of tongue-numbing wings at the ready, gastronomically speaking this... More >>
• Best Takeout Counter (Gourmet Division)
  The Pitted Olive
  Business has proved so booming at the Pitted Olive, it's not just for carry-out anymore; sit-down table service has been offered since the summer. But the Pitted Olive's original raison d'etre was to offer top-shelf take-away meals at reasonable prices, and at this the Pitted Olive excels above... More >>
• Best Takeout Counter (Grocery Division)
  Dierbergs
  St. Louisans who live in the central corridor have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to delicious grocery takeout. You've got your Whole Foods, your Wild Oats and your Straub's, all within a shopping-cart's reach, so to speak. But not everyone can live in such proximity. Should the less... More >>
• Best Barbecue (5 Comments)
  Red the Bar-B-Que Man
  Suckers for St. Louis barbecue could make a sport of tooling around the metro area tracking down their favorite sidewalk vendors. A good sense of smell would be the paramount prerequisite—you can never be sure which corner your top smoker will appear on, let alone the hour. For many years... More >>
• Best Beer
  Schlafly Scotch Ale
  Astrological. Mayan. Chinese. Jewish. Roman. Whatever calendar you follow, tear it up and embrace Schlafly's calendar of seasonal beers. The highest of this calendar's High Holy Days falls in late January, when we devotees shake off our wind-chilled stupor and, as greedy as kids beneath the... More >>
• Best Pizza (Thick Crust)
  Pizzeria della Piazza
  There's thick-crust pizza, and then there's Pizzeria della Piazza, which is thick everything: thick crust, thick cheeses, thick sauces, thick toppings, and a thick to-go box to carry it home in. Thick ain't quick; Pizzeria della Piazza's deep-dish stuffed Chicago-style pies take about an hour to... More >>
• Best Pizza (Thin Crust)
  A'mis
  The only category more controversial in St. Louis would be "Best High School." In this town, thin-crust pizza is cosa nostra—"our thing"—and the contentiousness can reach fistfight-provoking levels. A local chain even advertised with the slogan "out-of-towners just don't get it"—a... More >>
• Best Pizza (Non-Traditional)
  Kaldi's Coffeehouse
  No one needs an excuse to eat pizza. Are you hungry? Broke? Drunk? Did you tie your own shoes this morning; does the day end in "y"? All perfectly good reasons to sink yer teeth into a cheesy, greasy pie. But if you're craving something a bit different—still round, yes, still... More >>
• Best Bakery (5 Comments)
  Missouri Baking Company
  Yes, it's a bakery, and yes, it's located in Missouri, but the goods in those glass cases are international in scope—the Missouri Baking Company offers everything from baklava to stollen to something called a Louisiana pound cake. As befits a bakery on the Hill, what the Missouri Baking... More >>
• Best Bread
  222 Artisan Bakery
  On execution day, in addition to the Cap'n Crunch, buttered artichokes, lobster tail, fried Twinkies, Georgia peaches, a couple shots of Patrón Silver and another couple fried Twinkies, we'll have a entire loaf of 222 Artisan Bakery's whole wheat raisin pecan bread. Sloshed with butter—no,... More >>
• Best Bialy
  Pumpernickles Delicatessen
  Kevin will always be the lesser-known Dillon brother, Matt the star. Even as Kevin makes a name for himself in HBO's Entourage, he remains fated to play the less-famous brother (Johnny "Drama" to Adrian Grenier's Vincent Chase). Think of the bialy as the food version of poor Kevin. It has just... More >>
• Best Bagel
  Pratzel's Bakery
  Ronnie Praztel's grandfather started making bagels in 1913. He passed the recipe on to the next generation, and so on...you know the story. Ronnie Pratzel, who's now in his sixties, makes bagels with that same recipe today. His grandfather, he says, referred to his dough as "concrete dough."... More >>
• Best Meat Counter
  LeGrand's St. Louis Hills Tom Boy Market
  A homey little market housed in the shell of an old Tom Boy (remember them?) just off Chippewa in St. Louis Hills, LeGrand's strikes the first-time visitor as amazingly wholesome. Owner Joe LeGrand seems the kind of guy who says "okely-dokely-doo" without a hint of sarcasm. All the basics are... More >>
• Best Fresh Seafood Counter
  Bob's Seafood
  Good thing Bob's Seafood up and moved since last year's "Best of St. Louis" issue—at least we have something new to say about the place. A perennial leader in this category, Bob's no longer lives in the Market in the Loop. The defection was tragic for those of us who used to walk over there... More >>
• Best Cheese Counter
  The Wine & Cheese Place
  You've been instructed to bring a cheese plate to the potluck this year, and you're way out in the weeds (although you're pretty sure Velveeta ain't gonna cut it). Thank goodness for the Wine & Cheese Place! These guys love cheese more than you love your mother. But they're not going to steer... More >>
• Best Honey
  Stinger's Honey & Beeswax
  Don't ask beekeeper Joy Stinger what makes her honey taste better than country honey. "I don't know what it is," she insists. "It's city honey! It's better!" Maybe it's her yard's sprawling bundles of mint, its linden tree, or Stinger's twenty years of experience. Or maybe it's her enthusiasm.... More >>
• Best Farmers' Market (1 Comment)
  Maplewood Farmers Market
  From 4 to 7 p.m. on Wednesdays during the growing season, the market outside Schlafly Bottleworks in Maplewood lives up to its promise of putting St. Louisans in touch with their food and its origin. What this market lacks in size, it more than makes up for in quality—be it berries and... More >>
• Best Asian Market
  Olive Farmers Market
  The Olive Farmers Market is not a farmers' market—unless someone out there's farming cuttlefish and fresh red snapper. But it does share in the farmers'-market concept of bounty from all directions. As one of the biggest markets in University City's unofficial Chinatown, the Olive Farmers... More >>
• Best Mexican Market (1 Comment)
  El Torito
  Eighteen thousand five hundred square feet. That's a lot of space to fill. That didn't intimidate Hector Medina when he moved El Torito up the street three years ago. Since then he has managed to fill the space in ways that only a Mexican market owner can. As soon as you walk in, you're assailed... More >>
• Best Calamari
  Cardwell's at the Plaza
  "Flash fried calamari, spicy chili-lime mayonnaise." Oh, modesty, thy name is Cardwell's menu. In a world where bastardized bar-food cuisine has dragged squid rings down to the pitiful ranks of potato skins and jalapeńo poppers, Cardwell's offers a beacon of hope and taste. That's in keeping... More >>
• Best Taco
  Neveria La Vallesana
  While traveling in England, we stumbled across the McKorma. McDonald's' bastardization of this Indian dish prompted but one question: What the hell? In a nation with so many excellent Indian restaurants, why would anyone eat McKorma? Then we came to a terrible realization: The taco is the... More >>
• Best Salsa
  Pueblo Solis
  With its airy, year-old addition and charming covered patio, Pueblo Solis isn't quite the elbow-your-way-to-the bar, sit-in-the-laps-of-your-dining-companions affair that it once was. But this authentic Mexican restaurant still packs em in, and deservedly so (cf. "Best Mexican Restaurant" 2005,... More >>
• Best Empanada (1 Comment)
  Tango Argentina Food
  Care for a dumpling, little dumpling? Then you should care deeply about the empanadas made daily at Tango, for each one yields bitefuls of South American resplendence. Go ahead, gorge yourself on whichever savory flavor suits your fancy: creamy spinach, spicy ground beef (too fiery for you?... More >>
• Best Fish Burrito
  Nachomama's
  The fish burrito may not be the institution that the hamburger is, but it should be. Newbies and devotees alike would do well to check out Nachomama's take on this fine conveyance of eating pleasure. Theirs is a near-perfect combination of cool, crisp cabbage, grilled onions, lightly battered... More >>
• Best Pupusa
  Los Catrachos
  Funny how many countries love to stuff food into other food. The Chinese have their won tons, the Italians their ravioli and manicotti, the Mexicans their tamales, the Argentineans their empanadas. In Honduras and El Salvador, the dumpling of choice is the pupusa, a masa patty filled with beef,... More >>
• Best Cuban Sandwich
  La Tropicana Market & Cafe
  What do you get when you take a stack of roasted pork, baby Swiss, sweet ham, cornichons, mustard and mojito (garlic and olive oil), load it onto a split baguette and press like panini? A naughty, fleeting, forbidden pleasure—like the land the Trabancos, of south city's 30-year-old La... More >>
• Best Use of the Worst Cheese
  House Salad
  Welcome to Iron Chef St. Louis! All riiiight! Welcome to Battle Provel, featuring Cheese Challenger Brazie's, who'll duke it out with last year's winner, Joe Boccardi's! Can salad beat pizza? We're going to find out! OK, Brazie's appears to be chopping up lettuce, while on the other side,... More >>
• Best Use of the Worst Meat (1 Comment)
  Spam Musubi
  Here's a fun fact you can whip out at a party sometime: Hawaii leads all states in per-capita Spam consumption. Islanders were forced to rely on the canned meat back in wartime, and what started as a ration turned into a passion. So now there's a little delicacy known as Spam musubi: a slab of... More >>
• Best Delicatessen
  Protzel's Delicatessen
  As part of his court-ordered punishment for alleged anti-Semitic remarks during a traffic stop, Mel Gibson recently paid a visit to Protzel's Deli, located in a tiny eating and shopping district in Clayton, Missouri. His sentencing included sampling a smorgasbord of Protzel's classic deli... More >>
• Best Pastrami
  Lampert's Plush Pig Barbeque
  Our ancestors made pastrami in order to keep the meat from spoiling. Larry Lampert, owner of Lampert's Plush Pig Barbeque, makes pastrami because the man can't help himself. If there's some process or technique or method he can apply to a slab of beef, he's going to do it. With pastrami, that... More >>
• Best Baba Gannoujh
  Pita Plus
  You only need one creamy mouthful of the garlicky, eggplant-laden baba gannoujh at Pita Plus to know that owner Lev Lemashov did a very smart thing when he hired Svetlana Rakhmanova to cook. She roasts her eggplant to velvety perfection and combines it with just the right balance of tahini and... More >>
• Best Recipe for Insulin Shock
  Straub's English Tea Cookie Brownies
  Even before everyone started fretting about the hidden calories in jolts of java, we were conscientious when purchasing our daily fix: nonfat milk in our coffee, no whipped cream on mochas, and absolutely no biscotti tacked on to our order—ever. But the ascetic lifestyle goes out the window... More >>
• Best Gelato
  Gelato di Riso
  During a year when gelato finally found its way into the St. Louis mainstream, no business embraced the sweet Italian treat like Gelato di Riso. Owner Suzy Reis sources two kinds of cherries (one from Michigan, the other from Wisconsin) to make her two kinds of cherry-flavored gelato (one like a... More >>
• Best Milkshake
  Cafe Manhattan
  A great milkshake requires time—time to make, and time to consume. In fact, you might have to hop into the DeLorean and go back to the 1950s, the decade Cafe Manhattan lovingly evokes, to have enough time to finish one of the diner's shakes. You can choose among only a few flavors, but do... More >>
• Best Ice Cream Parlor (2 Comments)
  Serendipity Homemade Ice Cream
  Locally speaking, once you eliminate the frozen custard joints and the chains, there's not much to choose from. That's not to diss Serendipity; it's just a sad comment on the frozen-confection landscape. Be that as it may, we come back again and again for Beckie Jacobs' delicious ice creams,... More >>
• Best Smoothie
  OR Juice & Smoothies
  You just finished your first session at Bikram Yoga St. Louis (see "Best Yoga Studio"). You're sweaty as all get-out, but you feel pretty good. You've downed plenty of water, but holy guacamole, you're still thirsty. OR Juice & Smoothies is right here, and it's just the place for you. Try... More >>
• Best Doughnuts
  St. Louis Hills Donut Shop
  St. Louis Hills Donut Shop is a bright-green stand-alone edifice deep in south city. Like all doughnut shops whose names don't contain the word "Dunkin'" or "Krispy," it's a throwback. For fifteen years husband-and-wife team Larry and Teresa Magnan have run the show. Their current schedule has... More >>
• Best Coffee
  Hartford Coffee Company
  Hartford Coffee Company's java philosophy is referred to as "Relationship Coffee," and the term couldn't be any more accurate. From the instant Hartford's whole-bean display—boasting organic beauties from Bolivia, Mexico, Colombia, Guatemala, Indonesia, New Guinea, Brazil, Peru and... More >>
• Best Iced Mocha
  Kayak's Coffee
  We don't like chocolate milk. Yes, we guzzled the stuff when we were toddlin', but the appeal of chocolate-flavored liquid nourishment waned as we matured. (No, we don't like Kahlua, either.) Not surprisingly, the problem we have with most iced mochas is that they taste too much like chocolate... More >>
• Best Chocolate
  Chocolate Cafe & Coffee House
  The Aztecs were no fools. They knew a good thing when they harvested it, and cacao was their top crop. They'd offer spicy, drinkable chocolate to monarchs and deities as their most sacred gift, winning over kings and Cuaxolotl alike. Is it any wonder, then, that the Chocolate Cafe & Coffee House... More >>
• Best Indulgence
  Berries and Cream
  You know you shouldn't. You just came in for the scone. But oh, dear God, that blackberry is the size of a golf ball! And it's swimming in cool white cream. A rather large bowl of cream, in fact. And in there too are raspberries, little tart cups of delight soaking cream into their hollows, and... More >>
• Best Food Festival
  Belgian Beer & Mussel Mania, July 21-22, 2006
  This year, in this category, the Schlafly Tap Room kicked its own ass. Seriously: We were all set to write about Schlafly's Oyster & Stout Festival, the late-March fete that allows the landlocked to eat bivalves till we're stupid. Then July rolled around, and with it came Mussel Mania. Pshaw, we... More >>