Food & drink
A city built on happy accidents — from toasted ravioli to world-class beer — where you can eat your way across the globe without spending a fortune.
The essentials: four foods born in St. Louis
St. Louis didn't set out to invent iconic dishes. It just kept making mistakes — and they kept tasting great.
Toasted ravioli is the city's signature appetizer: breaded, deep-fried meat ravioli served with marinara and a dusting of Parmesan. Both Charlie Gitto's and Mama's On The Hill claim to have invented it in the 1940s when a cook accidentally dropped ravioli into hot oil instead of water USA Today 10Best. The Lombardo family asserts they brought a fried ravioli recipe from Sicily even earlier — no single claim is definitively proven Wikipedia.
Gooey butter cake is a dense, powdered-sugar-dusted coffee cake with a gooey, almost custard-like top layer. It likely originated in the 1930s when a German baker reversed the butter and flour proportions in a coffee cake The Daily Meal. Park Avenue Coffee now sells dozens of flavors.
St. Louis-style pizza is built on an ultra-thin, yeast-free cracker crust, cut into squares, and topped with Provel cheese — a processed blend of cheddar, Swiss, and provolone with liquid smoke Serious Eats. Imo's Pizza is the style's most famous purveyor Imo's Pizza.
The slinger is a late-night diner staple: hash browns, eggs, a hamburger patty, all smothered in chili and often cheese and onions. It's served at spots like Courtesy Diner and is more a badge of cultural identity than a culinary achievement Atlas Obscura.
Where to eat now: James Beard and beyond
St. Louis had a standout James Beard year in 2026, including its first Best Chef: Midwest win in nearly a decade. Loryn Nalic of Balkan Treat Box won Best Chef: Midwest — the region's first win since 2017 — and her wood-fired somun, cevapi, and pide mostly run $12–$16 St. Louis Business Journal. Robin in Maplewood was a finalist for Best New Restaurant, and Louie in Clayton was a finalist for Outstanding Hospitality James Beard Foundation.
The 2025 semifinalist class included Gerard Craft (Outstanding Restaurateur), Nathaniel Reid Bakery (Outstanding Bakery), Vicia (Outstanding Restaurant), and Jane Sacro Chatham of Vicia (Emerging Chef finalist) Sauce Magazine. Sado and Pavilion, from chef Nick Bognar, topped the St. Louis Post-Dispatch STL 100 for the second consecutive year in 2025 St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
National recognition keeps growing. Food & Wine named St. Louis a "Next Great Food City." Robin was reportedly included on the New York Times list of the 50 best restaurants in America in 2025 Reddit /r/STLFood. Menya Rui's Steven Pursley was named a Food & Wine Best New Chef in 2023 Eater.
Food halls and markets
City Foundry STL was named a Top 5 Food Hall in America by USA Today in 2025, with 17–20 local vendors under one roof City Foundry STL. The lineup spans Yucatecan cochinita pibil at Sur Este, Afro-Caribbean dishes at Chez Ali, Indian street food at Turmeric Street Style, Palestinian dishes at Mazaj Mediterranean, and Neapolitan pizza from James Beard winner Gerard Craft's Fordo's Killer Pizza. Most dishes run $10–$18 City Foundry STL.
A new food hall is slated to open at 1120 Washington Avenue in 2026 with eight vendors, two bars, and a year-round indoor/outdoor patio St. Louis Public Radio.
Soulard Farmers Market traces its roots to 1779 and is often described as the oldest continuously operating public market west of the Mississippi Explore St. Louis. The city completed major roof and masonry restorations on the historic 1929 Grand Hall in 2024–2025 City of St. Louis.
- Wednesday–Thursday: 8 a.m.–5 p.m., roughly 10–15% of vendors, mostly indoor butcher and spice shops
- Friday: 8 a.m.–5 p.m., moderate vendor turnout
- Saturday: 7 a.m.–5:30 p.m., full market with 100+ vendors — the day to go
The international corridors
South Grand is one of the Midwest's densest international dining corridors. Within a few blocks you'll find Meskerem (Ethiopian), Brasilia (Brazilian), Sheesh (Turkish), Basil India, The Vine Cafe (Mediterranean), and Cafe Mochi (Japanese) South Grand. The South Grand business district hosts an annual Dine Around event; check the district's calendar for the current schedule.
Cherokee Street is the city's taqueria row. Taqueria El Bronco won the inaugural "Taco de Oro" competition on Calle Cherokee, according to the Cherokee Street food guide. Also worth a stop: Tacos El Torito (street stand), La Vallesana (patio and full menu), and Terror Tacos (vegan). Most tacos run $2–$4 Cherokee Street.
The Hill is St. Louis's historic Italian-American neighborhood, dense with family-owned restaurants, delis, and bakeries. Landmarks include Charlie Gitto's, Mama's On The Hill, Zia's, Cunetto's, and Lorenzo's — noted for its Northern Italian cuisine The Hill STL.
Beer: a global destination hiding in the Midwest
Side Project Brewing in Maplewood has been ranked the No. 2 brewery in the world by RateBeer in both 2020 and 2023 Explore St. Louis. Its barrel-aged stouts rank among the highest-rated beers on Untappd — Beer:Barrel:Time (Rye 2022) was the platform's highest-rated beer of 2022 Side Project Brewing. The Side Project Cellar was a James Beard semifinalist for Outstanding Bar Program in 2016.
The metro area counts roughly 65–70 craft breweries, though the scene is maturing: notable closures like Earthbound and Ferguson Brewing have been offset by newcomers like Blue Jay Brewing Sauce Magazine. Within city limits, the number is closer to 15–20 Beer Social.
Standout taprooms where a full pour often runs $5–$8 STLBEER:
- Side Project Brewing (Maplewood) — world-class barrel-aged sours and stouts
- Perennial Artisan Ales — Abraxas imperial stout
- 4 Hands Brewing (downtown) — Incarnation IPA and City Wide pale ale
- Urban Chestnut (Midtown and Grove) — German-style lagers and bierhall food
- Schlafly — a pioneer of the modern St. Louis craft beer scene, with two locations
- Narrow Gauge — hazy IPAs
- Rockwell Beer Co. — GABF gold medalist
- 2nd Shift (The Hill) — artful small-batch
Anheuser-Busch offers a different kind of beer experience: the flagship St. Louis brewery, founded in 1852, is a National Historic Landmark District with 19th-century Romanesque architecture, the Clydesdale stables, and multiple tour options including the Beermaster Tour through underground cellars Budweiser Tours.
Cheap eats: full meals under $15
Washington University's 2025 student guide confirmed what locals already knew: you can eat well in St. Louis without spending much Student Life:
- Hi-Pointe Drive-In — burgers
- Seoul Taco — Korean-Mexican
- Fitz's — root beer and pub food
- Blueberry Hill — burgers and music memorabilia
- Nudo House — ramen and pho
- Gioia's Deli — hot salami sandwich
Brunch, coffee, and frozen custard
St. Louis takes brunch seriously. Top spots in 2025–2026 include Polite Society, Songbird, Bowood by Niche, Egg, Hatch'd, The Bellwether, Russell's on Macklind, and Southwest Diner. Ari's Restaurant & Bar is noted by St. Louis Magazine for its brunch buffet value St. Louis Magazine.
Coffee shops worth seeking out: Sump Coffee (specialty, nationally known), Blueprint Coffee (multiple locations, excellent pourovers), Coffeestamp (great empanadas), The Mud House (Benton Park brunch favorite), and Coma Coffee Roasters Sauce Magazine.
Ted Drewes Frozen Custard has been family-owned and never franchised since 1929. Its "concrete" — frozen custard blended with mix-ins so thick it's served upside down — is a Route 66 landmark operating at two St. Louis locations on Chippewa and South Grand Ted Drewes.