North-American Food and Cooking

Mission Accomplished: Mission Taco Joint spices things up in the Loop

See photos: Inside Mission Taco in the Delmar Loop

The Kitchen Sink's Corn Fritters: One of 100 St. Louis Dishes You Must Eat Right Now

The Gut Check One Hundred is our accounting of the 100 dishes in St. Louis that you must eat right now. These are the best dishes at the newest restaurants and the newest dishes at the best restaurants. These are the 100 dishes that define St. Louis dining in 2013. Our list culminates this fall when ... More >>

Fresh, Bright Vegetarian Fare Shines at Sunset 44 Bistro in Kirkwood

The Veggielante has had it up to here with people bitching that St. Louis restaurants are vegetarian unfriendly. Sure, we'd like to see more restaurants offering more meatless dishes, but there are excellent choices out there if you take the trouble to look for them. We're not here to proselytize ab ... More >>

Olive Boulevard Asian Eateries & Much More: An Updated Guide to Restaurants Along Olive, Westward From University City

St. Louis' neighborhoods are gems in their own right: full of history, great people and, as far as Gut Check is concerned, fantastic food. Each week we'll take you into a specific neighborhood and point you in the direction of the best places to grab some bites. View Olive Boulevard Asian Eateries ... More >>

La Tejana Taqueria's Goat Soup: One of 100 St. Louis Dishes You Must Eat Right Now

The Gut Check One Hundred is our accounting of the 100 dishes in St. Louis that you must eat right now. These are the best dishes at the newest restaurants and the newest dishes at the best restaurants. These are the 100 dishes that define St. Louis dining in 2013. Our list culminates this fall when ... More >>

Siete Luminarias' Guanajuato-Style Carnitas: One of 100 St. Louis Dishes You Must Eat Right Now

The Gut Check One Hundred is our accounting of the 100 dishes in St. Louis that you must eat right now. These are the best dishes at the newest restaurants and the newest dishes at the best restaurants. These are the 100 dishes that define St. Louis dining in 2013. Our list culminates this fall when ... More >>

J. Gumbo's to Rise from the Ashes

J. Gumbo's had been open for only three weeks when a five-alarm fire swept through its building at 3949 Lindell Boulevard in the Central West End. No one was killed or seriously injured in the fire on July 17 of last year, which destroyed multiple floors of apartments as well as J. Gumbo's and the b ... More >>

Vida Mexican Kitchen y Cantina, Arcelia's: Reviews Slideshow

This week, I offer a two-fer of new Mexican restaurants -- or, rather, one new and one newly returned. New is Vida Mexican Kitchen y Cantina (at St. Louis Galleria, South Brentwood Boulevard & Clayton Road, Richmond Heights; 314-863-1150). Newly returned, in a new location, is Arcelia's (1928 South ... More >>

Original Taqueria La Pasadita Closes

In last week's review of Kim Cheese, which took over a shuttered Dairy Queen in Chesterfield, I celebrated the phenomenon of local, independent restaurants moving into closed fast-food spots, including the taqueria that opened inside a former Taco Bell: Taqueria La Pasadita (2336 Woodson Road, Overl ... More >>

Vida Mexican Kitchen y Cantina Now Open at St. Louis Galleria

Vida Mexican Kitchen y Cantina (South Brentwood Boulevard & Clayton Road; 314-863-1150), the new, higher-end Mexican restaurant at the St. Louis Galleria, has its official grand opening tomorrow evening, but a phone call reveals that the restaurant is open for business right now. Vida is located at ... More >>

Review Preview: Laredo on Lafayette Square

This week, I visit Laredo on Lafayette Square (2001 Park Avenue; 314-231-9200), which opened this summer in the former location of Arcelia's Mexicana Restaurant. (Arcelia's, meanwhile, has reopened in Soulard.)

Pi Pizzeria Team Opening Gringo, a Taco Joint, in Central West End

What would Pi Pizzeria (multiple locations) owners Chris Sommers and Frank Uible do next after opening four sit-down restaurants as well as a takeout-only location, expanding to the nation's capital and operating (and then retiring) two successful food trucks? If you said, "Open a taco joint," step ... More >>

Fight Club Burrito Bowl: Chipotle Mexican Grill's Burrito Bowl vs. Taco Bell's Cantina Bowl

"Can Taco Bell Do Gourmet?" and "Think Taco Bell Can't Do Gourmet?" are questions scrawled across promotional materials for Taco Bell's new Cantina Bell menu. As Gut Check reported earlier this month, Taco Bell introduced its new Cantina Bell menu in stores nationwide on Thursday, July 5. It was no ... More >>

The Role Mexican Food Plays in the Immigration Debate

St. Louis Earth Day Festival Food Preview

With more live entertainment slated for the St. Louis Earth Day Festival on Sunday, April 22, than ever before, this year's celebration is bound to knock St. Louis up to the second largest Earth Day festival in the country -- after all we are world champs, at things both big and small (but mostly bi ... More >>

At last, a Korean taco truck. And you're maki me hungry!

Sunday Funday

Iguana's Mexican Cuisine Opening in South City

A reader passed along news that the space at 5641 South Kingshighway Boulevard last occupied by La Sala Mexican Bar & Grill, and before that by another Mexican restaurant, Su Sala, will become...wait for it...yet another Mexican restaurant, this one called Iguana's Mexican Cuisine. The sign hanging ... More >>

First Look: MEDIAnoche

MEDIAnoche (8135 Maryland Avenue, Clayton; 314-725-0719), a new evening hot spot from Mike Randolph of the Good Pie and Half & Half, made Gut Check's list of the five most anticipated new St. Louis restaurants of 2012. We stopped by recently to meet with Randolph and general manager Mike Marquard an ... More >>

Soup Countdown #2: Menudo at Taqueria Durango

January is National Soup Month, which makes sense, considering the first month of the year is typically marked with below-freezing temperatures, snow and slush. What's better than a delicious, hot bowl of soup on a chilly day? A delicious, hot bowl of soup that you don't have to make -- that's what. ... More >>

Top Ten Dishes 2011 #9: Carnitas at La Tejana Taqueria

I'm counting down my ten favorite dishes from the restaurants that I reviewed in 2011. The top dish will be revealed on Tuesday, December 27, and look for a slideshow featuring most of the winners on Wednesday, December 28.Jennifer SilverbergTony and Brenda Garcia, husband-and-wife owners of La Teja ... More >>

Holiday Cocktail Countdown #4: Milagro's Spicy Chocolate Martini

Like any red-blooded American, Gut Check uses liquid medication to cope with holiday stress. Not only does a good winter cocktail make it possible to tolerate family members, say, inquiring about your procreation plans, it helps keep you warm, too. From now until Christmas, we're calling upon local ... More >>

First Look: Diablito's Cantina

Kaylen WissengerThe "Cucuy's Coffee" at Diablito's​"I HATE tequila," says Ami Grimes, co-owner of the brand-new Diablito's Cantina (3761 Laclede Avenue; 314-644-4430). "But when Angie [Cornish, head bartender] started creating the infused tequilas, I was all for it." Which is a good thing, as ... More >>

Food Truck Fever, Part 1: Just because they have wheels doesn't mean they're going to come to you

Man Responds to Understuffed Chalupas with Molotov Cocktail

Screenshot: www.tacobell.com​Stop me if you've heard this one before:The Smoking Gun reports that a man bought two "XXL Chalupas" from the drive-thru window of an Albany, Georgia, Taco Bell. When the man opened his order at home, he thought he'd been short-changed on the amount of meat in these "X ... More >>

The Veggielante Visits Atomic Cowboy

The Veggielante has had it up to here with people bitching that St. Louis restaurants are vegetarian unfriendly. Sure, we'd like to see more restaurants offering more meatless dishes, but there are excellent choices out there if you take the trouble to look for them. We're not here to proselytize ab ... More >>

#76: Shrimp Fajitas at El Matador

Emily Wasserman​Picture the excitement of a Mexican bullfight: A small man in a sombrero waves the red flag, the bull, frothing at the mouth, charges toward him, and the audience sits on the edge of their seats, praying that the man (and his sombrero) survive. Things don't get quite this exci ... More >>

#77: Vegetable Quesadilla at Chava's

Bryan Peters​Chava's (925 Geyer Avenue, Soulard; 314-241-5503) is a great place to mosey up to the bar, plop a lime in a Corona, and, until recently, light up a smoke. But it's the food that brings you back. The salsa is always exceptionally fresh, the guacamole vibrant, nutty and abundant. Bu ... More >>

#92: Cuban Sandwich from La Tropicana

Deborah Hyland​Once the American palate got a hold of Hispanic foods, we ended up with platter-sized chimichangas, guacamole from a jar and nacho cheese from a can. Fortunately, we also got the Cuban sandwich: a hearty, portable lunch born when Cuban immigrants came to Florida. Each Sandwich ... More >>

Are There Good Fajitas?

Ian FroebWhat am I missing?​Recently, as I sometimes do, I drove a major thoroughfare until I saw a restaurant where I've never eaten. Which is how I ended up having lunch at an unnamed Mexican restaurant in a strip mall. (Why I'm not naming the restaurant should become clear shortly.)As most Mexi ... More >>

Mike Ryan of Lola: Recipe for Andouille Corn Dog with Red Beans and Rice

This is part three of Chrissy Wilmes' Chef's Choice profile of Mike Ryan of Lola. Part one can be found here. Part two, a Q&A with Ryan, is published here. Chrissy WilmesAndouille sausage corndog with red beans and rice​When does a deep fried carnival staple evolve into an entree? When Mike R ... More >>

Mike Ryan of Lola

This is part one of Chrissy Wilmes' Chef's Choice profile of chef Mike Ryan of Lola. Chrissy Wilmes​Some chefs fall in love with cooking early. Mike Ryan's infatuation came later - the aftershock of what began as an arranged marriage rather than an organic romance. Ryan's father oversaw resta ... More >>

#99: Beef Taquitos Mexicanos at El Indio

Chrissy Wilmes​ Many Mexican restaurants utilize the same basic menu format: house specialties, a la carte and combinations. The combinations create a rare complication -- we find ourselves trying to find the perfect grouping of sides, and the entree is really secondary. After all, it's all d ... More >>

The Brunch Menu at Milagro Modern Mexican

Ian FroebThe breakfast tacos at Milagro Modern Mexican​Last month, reigning RFT "Best Mexican Restaurant" Milagro Modern Mexican (20 Allen Avenue, Webster Groves; 314-962-4300) introduced a new brunch menu. It's available every Sunday from 10 a.m.-2 p.m., and unless your weekly brunch must include ... More >>

Chips and Salsa Off the Old Block: A Visit to Señoritas Pique

Ian FroebTacos al pastor, with a side of papas picositas, at Señoritas Pique​A Mexican restaurant attached to a Quality Inn in Sunset Hills? The prospect might seem daunting, but what if I told you it's a sibling of one of the area's better Mexican restaurants, Señor Pique in Ballwin?Does that m ... More >>

Review Preview: Rosalita's Cantina

Jennifer SilverbergThe duck mole at Rosalita's Cantina​This week I visit the loft-district Mexican and Tex-Mex restaurant Rosalita's Cantina (1229 Washington Avenue, 314-621-7200).Here's where Rosalita's conflicted personality begins to reveal itself. There are entrées you wouldn't expect to find ... More >>

What Is That? Deciphering Names of Dishes Served at Taste of Soulard

​This Saturday, February 26 and Sunday, February 27, the rousing ramp-up (or debauched downward spiral, depending on your perspective) to Mardi Gras continues with the Taste of Soulard, sponsored by Southern Comfort. For $25, patrons receive a booklet of 7 tickets, redeemable from 11 a.m. to 5 ... More >>

Remembrance of Wings (and Curries and Briskets) Past: The Best Dishes of 2010

Stocking Stuffing: Ian jots down his 2008 Christmas wish list for the local food scene

Cruise Control

Highway 61 Roadhouse and Kitchen is the real deal.

Mississippi Yearning

Robbie Montgomery opens a second Sweetie Pie's, as soul-warming as the original

Boy Meets Grill

Griffins Farmer's Market Cafe could use some time to grow

Wrap-Up Show

Mexican-food lovers should swing by El Burrito Loco

Hall of Flame

Football Cardinal great Jackie Smith promises diners a hot time at his new West County restaurant

Dog Days

In the mood for something a bit out of the ordinary in West County? Taqueria Chihuahua offers authentic Mexican fare in generous and inexpensive servings.

OK by You

Visiting the Crescent City by way of Florissant

Hog Heaven

New Haven's Front Street Grille attracts a clientele ranging from bikers to locals but manages to make them all happy

Side Dish

Local chefs provide their favorite uses for the newly glamorous sausage

Cherokee People

A trip to the South Side is a quick way to go south of the border

Border Patrol