The St. Louis area has seen dozens of restaurant openings in the past year, many of which we have come to love. Here, we shine a light on 10 of the most notable new restaurants to join the ranks of the best in town.

Editor’s note: A few high-profile spots opened just after the deadline for this feature, which was part of our December 2024 issue, so be on the lookout for future coverage if your new favorite restaurant is missing from this list.

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Take any representative regional dish, anywhere in the world, and you’ll find big opinions on whose style is best. In West Africa, jollof rice is often the subject of these familiar debates. Ono Ikanone, co-owner of Levels Nigerian Cuisine, knew jollof rice was not to be played with: The rice at his restaurant had to be on point.

According to Ikanone, jollof rice originated in the Senegambia region, a stretch of land between the Senegal River and the Gambia River. Its popularity spread throughout West Africa, where each area put their own spin on the dish. Ikanone built Levels’ version around the recipe for the smoky jollof he grew up with in Nigeria. “We just have tomato, bell pepper, habanero and onions – we blend that and that’s our base for the rice,” he said.

The Party Jollof at Levels comes with beef or tender chicken on the bone, as well as slightly sweet plantains. The signature smoky note traditionally came from cooking the rice over firewood for large events like weddings (hence the “Party” in the name). At Levels, the smokiness is derived from herbs like bay leaves and thyme, as well as the addition of wrapped charcoal placed directly in the pot. Each component complements the next, as the jollof’s layers of heat gradually come into focus.

Don’t miss the efo riro, a stew made with fresh spinach, bell peppers and a spice blend Ikanone buys from Nigeria. The vegetables shine, but the star is the pounded yam that can be served with it. Pounded yam, which is similar to fufu, is made from white yams and has a bouncy texture and neutral taste that is intended to complement the efo riro’s mélange of flavors. “The [pounded yam’s] texture is fluffy and light and soft enough to eat with your hand, but firm enough to use as a vessel for soup,” Ikanone said.

The pepper soup – salty, nutty with heat that has a slow build – is another standout. “It’s usually very spicy and in Nigeria you serve it at events, but it’s also a go-to when you are sick, to clear your sinuses,” Ikanone said. The soup is served with goat meat, cooked at length in a flavored broth, which completely tenderizes the meat as well as mellowing its flavor. Other dishes Ikanone likes recommending to guests include the egusi soup (made with melon seeds, palm oil, vegetables and tomato) or his own favorite, the marinated and grilled whole tilapia.

The response to the menu has been positive, even for the contentious jollof. “I have folks come in that have never had Nigerian food before, and I usually thank them for being adventurous. For Nigerians, they say, ‘I’ve missed this, I’ve been away from home and this reminds me of home,’” Ikanone said.

“It’s inspiring that we have people from all walks of life coming together to try our food. We say food brings us together, but we weren’t quite expecting this – and we’re thankful.”

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Randy and Sally Arcega’s Kain Tayo (“let’s eat” in Tagalog) is the latest local eatery winning St. Louisans’ hearts and stomachs over to the cuisine of the Philippines. The Midtown restaurant offers a menu of traditional, comforting favorites like lumpia (egg rolls filled with pork, onions, carrots and celery with sweet chile sauce on the side), pancit (stir-fried rice noodles with pork and various veggies) and the unofficial national dish of the Philippines: chicken adobo (tangy chicken marinated in soy sauce and vinegar and served over rice). For those who want to dive a bit deeper into the cuisine, the restaurant also has dishes like sinigang, a sour pork soup, and pinakbet, a pork and shrimp stew chock full of squash, okra, eggplant, tomato and more.

All of this deliciousness comes courtesy of chef-owner Sally Arcega. Though new to the Lou, the Arcega family had been cooking up faithful Filipino flavors under the Kain Tayo name since 2019 in Trenton, Illinois. They moved to St. Louis earlier this year to bring their food to a bigger audience, and we’re so glad they did.

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With Deli Divine, restaurateur Ben Poremba is filling the gap for an authentic Jewish deli in St. Louis city. The restaurant’s masterfully executed menu of classics does more than just hold space – it holds its own in the inevitable comparison with favorite delis in Chicago and New York.

Pick your favorite: pastrami, corned beef, beef tongue, gefilte fish, herring, rye and pumpernickel bread can all be had. There’s a panoply of Reubens to choose from, a plethora of kugels and knishes, egg salad, chopped liver – the list goes on and on. The selection of New York bagels and assorted toppings is worth the trip alone. Choose plain, poppy seed, sesame, everything, seeded pumpernickel or marble versions, then top them with a choice of fish – think lox, smoked trout or even caviar – or choose one of the many sandwich options.

smoked salmon pastrami bagel at deli divine // photo by izaiah johnson

Much of Deli Divine’s fare is also available to grab and go, so you can enjoy the deli experience at home. Buy bagels by the half-dozen or dozen, meats by the pound and smoked fish by the quarter-pound. Also, don’t miss the market at the back of the deli, which sells babka, halva and much more.

Poremba aims not only to please palates, but to create a sense of neighborhood and community while honoring the deep tradition and history of the Jewish deli. Deli Divine is rising to each of those challenges – and succeeding.

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The 2020 closure of longtime St. Louis fixture Eat-Rite Diner left a hole in the downtown culinary scene. But when Fleur STL opened in that iconic building in the final weeks of 2022, it was clear that chef-owner Tim Eagan had brought something even better to the table.

Fleur’s menu contains echoes of its predecessor’s diner fare, but a more upscale approach is evident in everything from the classy renovation of the space to the food itself. Eagan’s continual presence ensures a high degree of quality control. “It’s neat here because we’re actually making the food in front of you from start to finish,” Eagan said. “It’s me, the chef, doing all the prepping and cooking – no one else cooks your food.”

Nearly every component of each dish is made from scratch in-house. The fried Brussels sprouts are roasted, flash-fried for a super crispy finish, and seasoned perfectly with bacon, shallots and a sweet-and-sour apple cider reduction that takes a full day to reduce from a gallon to a mere 16 ounces. Attention to detail is clear throughout the menu: The tall stack of hand-breaded onion hay atop Fleur’s slinger is shatteringly crisp and adds a unique touch to the diner classic. Even the fries are special – hand-cut, brined overnight and blanched in the morning, they’re fried to order and coated in a delicious house seasoning that is used in other menu items like Fleur’s highly popular burger. Another standout item is the deviled eggs with a light-as-air whipped filling topped with candied bacon and flash-fried jalapeno.

The succinct menu also features well-made classic cocktails, including an Old-Fashioned, a bloody mary with housemade mix and candied bacon, and an espresso martini with housemade coffee liqueur.

In addition to breakfast and lunch service, Fleur hosts pop-up dinners a few evenings each month (tickets are available online as dates are released) that showcase a wider array of offerings than the daytime menu. “It’s an opportunity for me to be creative,” Eagan said, adding that he occasionally makes items that have been featured at the evening pop-ups if guests request them during Fleur’s regular hours.

Having worked in many large-scale kitchens around town, returning to a smaller format has been a breath of fresh air for Eagan. “I’ve been so used to working in hotels and doing large volumes that I haven’t necessarily seen the people I’m serving,” he said. “It’s been rewarding to get to watch people actually enjoying my food.”

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When it comes to Indian food, West County residents aren’t lacking for choice. Competition is fierce, with newcomers like The Curry Club and Red Chili facing up to stalwarts like Taj Palace. This year, Chesterfield’s Black Salt proved it has the chops to go toe-to-toe with the best, executing crowd-pleasing tandoori classics and serving up surprising fusion twists on staples (think garlic-truffle naan or black miso chicken tikka). Whatever you’re craving, Black Salt has something to match the mood, and enough on the menu to require return visits. These are a few of our favorite dishes.

Thali Platter
Think of a thali platter as a buffet that comes to you. A plate of perfect rice, buttered naan and an appalam – a crunchy chip made from lentil flour – anchor the plate. The rainbow-shaped platter is filled with side dishes in little bowls to eat with the rice or naan. The varied dishes can include aloo gobhi (roasted cauliflower and potato with spices), yellow dal tadka flavored with cumin, or raita, a cooling yogurt sauce with cucumber. It’s an efficient and exciting way to taste several dishes from the menu in one fell swoop.

Paneer Tikka Masala
The paneer tikka masala is a standout among the saucy, gravy-style dishes, with a creamy, tomato-based sauce and big chunks of paneer cheese.

Pani Puri
There are some less familiar favorites too, like the pani puri, an appetizer that is as fun to eat as it is delicious. Four puri, fried, hollow bite-sized puffs are filled with cooked potato, shallots and chickpeas and served on top of a bed of crispy puffed rice. Alongside is a tiny pitcher of pani, a tamarind- and mint-flavored water. Pour the pani into the puri, then immediately pick it up and finish it in one bite. It’s a symphony of textures, varying temperatures, and a lively way to start a meal.

Black Salt cocktail
Choose vodka or tequila as the base for this drink, which is flavored with lime – sour and sweet and fresh – and a confetti of chopped mint and a little dried chile. It’s herbal, spicy and refreshing.

Naan of any kind
Black Salt’s naan is pillowy and soft, strong enough to stand up to the saucy dishes and soft enough so that it pulls apart with ease. Whether the naan comes slathered in butter, topped with chile and garlic, or garlic and truffle for an East-meets-West twist, it is beautiful every time.

Tandoori meat
The tandoori chicken is juicy with a charred crust, a delicious version of a fan favorite. But it doesn’t end there: Minty lamb seekh and tender tandoori shrimp are cooked to perfection.

Gulab jamun for dessert
Gulab jamun is a kind of fried doughnut made with a milk powder dough, dunked in a sugar syrup flavored with saffron. Here, they’re served split and placed on a swipe of citrus-scented mascarpone cheese for a fresh take on a standard that took a beloved dessert to new heights. Enjoy them while they’re warm!

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This pizza restaurant in Wood River, Illinois, represents a triumphant return to the Metro East for Amy and Matt Herren. The Herrens each made their mark on the Metro East food scene in the 2000s with their own venues – Amy with Fond, Matt as the co-founder of Goshen Coffee Roasters and Edwardsville’s 222 Artisan Bakery – before spending most of the past decade traveling the world. Informed by all their experiences and adventures, 1929 brims with an industrious, infectious verve, serving food characterized by simple yet thrilling flavors.

1929 is only open for service three days a week, but the work takes six days. Although the schedule is busy, Matt said the restaurant’s format allows space for a degree of fine-tuning he never had time for with his former bakery. “If I learned any particular lessons from 222 [Artisan Bakery], I don’t feel like we ever did anything well enough,” he said. “There wasn’t enough time to focus on doing one thing to the absolute best of my or my staff’s ability.” At 1929, he only has two responsibilities. “To make really good bread and really good pizza dough,” he said. “I can take my time to truly dial it in to as close to perfect as I can get. And then I wake up the next morning and try all over again.”

The pizza dough is made from a levain starter and cold-fermented over three days. It’s a ritual that demands early rises and obsessive attention to detail, but this is who Matt is. He can regularly be found tweaking 1929’s HVAC system to ensure the temperature inside the building stays consistent while his dough is resting and proofing. “There’s a lot of fluctuations with the temperature inside the building, which we used to see on our Ameren bill, because I want to keep the fermentation very consistent,” he said.

mushroom pizza at 1929 pizza & wine // photo by carmen troesser

So many of the ingredients used here are either produced in-house or grown in the Herrens’ garden when in season: The mozzarella is hand-pulled in the restaurant every day, the sausage is made in-house using meat from Rensing’s Pork & Beef, while the Herrens grow kale, garlic, tomatoes, eggplant and more. The pizza itself is wood-fired, with a generous, chewy outer crust, but it isn’t designed to emulate Neapolitan pizza or any other specific style. The Herrens have eaten a lot of pizza in a lot of places, and 1929’s pizza is the aggregate of their favorites. “It’s the pizza we wanted to make,” Amy said.

The mushroom pizza exemplifies everything that’s good about 1929’s pies: It usually features a blend of cremini, oyster and shiitake mushrooms, along with a Parmesan cream sauce, Fontina, freshly picked thyme and chives and finally a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. Each pizza on the menu is listed alongside a recommended wine varietal for pairing, but you don’t need to order a bottle: house red and white wines are available by the glass for a very affordable $6.

The menu’s tight focus enables consistency and quality, but a weekly rotation of specials and seasonal variations on items like the bruschetta and cannoli keep things interesting. When tomatoes are in season, the bruschetta might look very traditional. In fall, the tomatoes were rotated out; one recent iteration was topped with diced beets, feta, chives, lemon zest and olive oil. “We’ve been doing a butternut squash [bruschetta], we’ve done broad bean and the last green beans out of our garden,” Amy said. The Herrens take it as a compliment when customers tell them to add a certain pizza special to the permanent menu – but that doesn’t mean the customer’s wish will be granted. “They’ll say, ‘I would eat this every week,’ and we go, ‘Nope – just this week!’” Amy said.

As if all this wasn’t enough, each Friday and Saturday, one table per night is held for the reservation-only chef’s table experience, a seven- to nine-course tasting menu with wine pairings. Amy does all of the cooking, while Matt does the wine pairings. The current menu includes a winter caprese, scallops with spaghetti squash and cauliflower puree, ravioli with sauteed greens, ricotta, pesto broth and Parmigiano Reggiano, steak frites and more. “It’s not for the faint of heart,” Matt said.

Amy Herren jokes that she teases customers sometimes, offering them extra napkins and reminding them, “It’s just pizza, after all.” Nothing could be further from the truth.

The post Best New Restaurants 2023 // No. 4 1929 Pizza & Wine appeared first on Sauce Magazine: Intelligent Content For The Food Fascinated.

Tomes have already been written about the culinary prowess of Sado’s chef-owner Nick Bognar. Bognar’s career has thrilled and delighted us since 2017, when he breathed fresh air into Nippon Tei, his mother Ann Bognar’s West County restaurant. His first solo venture, Indo in Botanical Heights, topped our 2019 Best New Restaurants list, blending a unique combination of signature Thai flavors and classic Japanese techniques with a wild sense of fun. Nods from the James Beard Foundation, Food & Wine, GQ and Esquire followed.

Enter Sado. Bognar’s restaurant on the Hill opened a few weeks after the final service at Nippon Tei, which the Bognar family shuttered at the end of February 2023. Less of a move or expansion and more of a Pokemon-style evolution to the next level, Sado serves as a highlight reel of Bognar’s career thus far. Familiar favorites like crab Rangoon and California rolls have made the cut from Nippon Tei’s comfortable Japanese-American menu. There’s a welcome cameo from Indo’s signature dish, the isaan hamachi. This irresistible sashimi dish is dressed with coconut naam pla, Thai kosho and candied garlic. Even the mural from local artist Jessica Bremehr calls back to the beloved Indo bathroom – and yes, we do mean beloved. What other restaurant’s bathroom has its own Instagram account?

thai basil and toro with thai basil pesto, fried shallots and chile oil at sado // photo by izaiah johnson

 Although Sado’s full menu features delightful, delicately fried tempura and mouth-watering A5 Wagyu beef, fish is the main attraction. To that end, the restaurant is best experienced at the eight-seat sushi bar in the front of the space. Diners can feel overwhelmed in the thundering back dining room, but cozier vibes abound in the front room, where you can watch magic happening behind the counter.

Sado’s facilities for dry-aging are more expansive than anything Bognar has had at his disposal at either Nippon Tei or Indo, and the restaurant’s frequently updated fish market menu includes rare cuts like American farm-raised unagi. Consequently, Sado is unrivaled either in its selection or presentation of fish. Each piece of nigiri is treated as a unique dish, popping with bright flavors and sweet-savory balance. You can’t help but think, “Oh, this is what sushi is supposed to taste like?” The robata yaki section of the menu highlights the dry-aged selections like Japanese seabream and Atlantic salmon, grilled to crisp perfection on the binchotan grill using only Japanese oak charcoal.

unagi kabayaki at sado // photo by izaiah johnson

We can scarcely think of another restaurateur that has elevated the culture and palates of St. Louis diners more than Bognar. His approach is refreshingly bold and unapologetic in everything from technique to flavor and service, but he deserves a special accolade for introducing diners to chawanmushi, an irresistibly creamy dashi custard that Sado tops with king crab and blue crab meat and a shellfish bisque with a dash of truffle oil.

For all its many virtues, Sado still feels more like a chapter in an unwinding tale rather than a standalone story. It doesn’t quite feel like the peak of what Nick Bognar has to offer as a restaurateur – and that’s the most exciting part.

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By any measure, the gold standard for bagel making is the New York method: simmering a ring of flour, yeast and malt-based raised dough in hot water, then baking it until shiny and glazed with a chewy interior texture. Given the large number of New Yorkers and Jewish people who have settled here over the years, St. Louis’ relative paucity of traditional boiled-and-baked bagel bakeries has always been a mystery.

After Pratzel’s Bakery closed in 2012 and the Bagel Factory closed in 2022, local bagel lovers have mostly had to endure frozen brands or fluffy bread-like simulations trying to pass for the real deal. But just when we thought we’d never eat another salt or onion or tzitzel water bagel, we’ve seen four new retail bagelries launch in the metro area in 2023 alone. Our favorite is Bagel Union, at the corner of Big Bend Boulevard and South Elm Avenue in Webster Groves. Co-owners Sean Netzer and Ted Wilson do for the modest bagel what they did for fresh baked bread and superb pizza and sandwiches at Union Loafers Café and Bread Bakery. Netzer and Wilson are obsessive about their bagels – their research for Bagel Union took them to New York City, where they drew inspiration from visits to favorite bagel shops including Shelsky’s and Absolute Bagels.

With over 10 types of bagel and a minimum of five varieties of schmear at any given time, Bagel Union will satisfy even the most ardent bagel snob. The classics are present – onion, salt, egg and plain – along with the expected everything, poppy seed, whole wheat and sesame seed bagels. Then there’s the tzitzelnickel, a rolled-in-cornmeal pumpernickel bagel inspired by tzitzel rye bread, a St. Louis classic that Pratzel’s Bakery in particular was renowned for. For a couple bucks more, there’s a cheese bagel featuring a rotating combination of cheeses (Chihuahua and cheddar, for example), available daily at 9:30 a.m. Three non-savory bagels are available: cherry crunch, blueberry and carrot. Bagel Union sources plain cream cheese from Sierra Nevada Cheese Co. – they use this as the base for other flavors like scallion, veggie, lox and jalapeno. Great coffee is a must with great bagels; locally based Coma Coffee roasts a blend of single-origin beans exclusively for Bagel Union.

Several bagel sandwiches and spreadable salads round out the menu, including the taste bud-tingling Iggy sandwich with hot-smoked salmon, scallion cream cheese, Passenger Foods‘ chile crisp, and cilantro salad on tzitzelnickel (or your choice of bagel). If you like Union Loafers’ smoked beet sandwich, the Goldie Lox is for you: It pairs smoked golden beets with cream cheese, pickled shallot, dill and lemon oil. Chicken, egg, spicy tuna, and smoked trout salads are perfect with any bagel you choose.

After years of playing second (or 10th) fiddle to New York bagels, St. Louis is boiling and baking its way toward a bagel renaissance – and Bagel Union is leading the way.

The post Best New Restaurants 2023 // No. 2 Bagel Union appeared first on Sauce Magazine: Intelligent Content For The Food Fascinated.

Owner Matt McGuire and executive chef Cary McDowell’s initial motivation for Wright’s Tavern was to create a restaurant that served the kind of food they wanted to eat. McGuire and McDowell built themselves a place to enjoy a great steak and a Caesar salad, but more importantly, their Clayton steakhouse also tapped into a communal longing: for delicious food and drinks, genuine hospitality, and the unbridled enjoyment that a really lovely restaurant can deliver.

McGuire believes Wright’s Tavern has proved itself a perfect fit for this moment in time. “For this time, for that neighborhood, for that space,” he said. “You never know until you do it, but I think it’s hit all of those things for sure.” Wright’s promises – and delivers – consistency, certainty and comfort in an era lacking those qualities.

McGuire never reads the reviews of Wright’s, positive or negative, but he can take a guess at what irks its critics. “The negative reviews are probably that it lacks exoticism: It’s a French dip roast beef sandwich, a hamburger, steak frites, halibut, salmon, whatever,” he said. “Those criticisms, if you can consider them to be criticisms, are true. But I celebrate the straightforwardness of it. It personally makes me feel very at ease when I’m there.”

People dress up to go to Wright’s, and the servers are sharply attired, but it’s never stuffy: You’re here to feel good, not to feel judged or observed. You’re never far from other diners, and conversation between tables comes easily. This isn’t everyone’s style, and that’s fine, but we love a restaurant where a civilized meal feels like it could imminently spill over into a rambunctious party.

Wright’s is driven by the conviction that the simple food is the best; its ambition is to cook the best version of that food you’ve ever had. The greatest hits collection at Wright’s already includes the shrimp scampi with its addictive garlic-and-chile sauce, the wedge salad with blue cheese and smoked bacon, the perfectly flaky potato-crusted halibut with lemon beurre blanc, and the salt and cream of the heady dauphinoise potatoes. McGuire said the simplicity and familiarity of these dishes creates its own challenges. “You can’t hide behind anything with some notions of novelty,” he said.

Sourcing and execution make all the difference here. Take Wright’s baked crab cake for example, which features colossal lump crab from Fortune Fish & Gourmet in Chicago. “Colossal is just basically the largest pieces of blue crab that you can get,” McGuire said. “There’s not any filler in there.” The crab cake is seasoned with salt and pepper, has just enough egg and dairy for binding, and is plated atop a delicious red pepper remoulade. It’s one of the very best dishes we’ve had this year, and no visit to Wright’s is complete without it.

McDowell has worked in the kitchens of some genuinely top-tier restaurants in New York City; he knows and respects the value of creative, innovative cooking. But at Wright’s, he embraces the pursuit of metronomic consistency and excellence. “I enjoy the discipline and the challenge of staying excited about what are seemingly simple things,” he said.

It’s difficult to rally a kitchen crew’s enthusiasm for making a roasted chicken every day, but McDowell said consistency flows from the application of fundamental principles. He tastes everything, every day. As a result, the cooks know the ingredients are right – and that simplifies the act of cooking. “It was drilled into me years ago, at the very beginning, that was the key,” McDowell said. “Most people are flippant and don’t take the time to do simple things.” McDowell estimates that he’s made every creme brulee that Wright’s has produced to date. So far, only two have failed the taste test. “That’s not bad, if you play the odds,” he said.

The kitchen invests the same level of care in each item, regardless of price or perceived significance. For McDowell, the butter served with your bread deserves as much attention as the rib-eye sourced from Iowa Premium, a co-op run by several family farms producing corn-fed Black Angus beef. “It may not be expensive butter, but it’s good butter, with great salt and great olive oil, done correctly at the right temperature and the right composition, with a really good piece of bread,” he said.

“Variance is not rewarded,” McGuire said. “If you come in and you have something and you enjoy it, and hopefully you do, the way that the business works is that you bring your friend in the next time and it has to be the exact same way that you had it when you were there, otherwise the business doesn’t work.” He puts the restaurant’s pommes frites forward as an example of the rigorous processes the kitchen repeats, day after day: Russet potatoes are cut, soaked in ice cold water, then blanched. The blanched potatoes are chilled again before finally being fried during service. “It’s an arduous process and it’s a little bit of a pain, but it’s also what adds up to be a really good chip [in the British sense],” McGuire said.

As a customer, it’s easy to take a well-oiled restaurant operation for granted – as some do at McGuire’s other restaurant, Louie – but what looks effortless to the untrained eye is the result of years of experience, untold hours of hard work and a diligent, gifted team that includes capable lieutenants. McGuire oversees operations on the restaurant floor, but gives credit to Sean Thomas and Rickey Whalen for leading the front-of-house team, while Sam DeClue and Josh Poletti run the kitchen under McDowell’s overall guidance.

McDowell said being present in the restaurant is another simple but critical part of his, and McGuire’s, contribution to Wright’s success. “I’m confident that I don’t have to be here on any given day, because these guys are prepared, but I also see the benefit of me being here every day,” McDowell said. He talks about his “daily dialogue” with McGuire, aided by the wealth of experience they bring to the table, their understanding of the other’s role, and the deep respect and friendship between them. It’s rare to find a restaurant where the front and back of house are so finely balanced, and the diner reaps the rewards.

Wright’s is earnest about the things that really matter, but isn’t averse to a dash of mischievous fun in the appropriate places. From the indulgent martini (with accompanying sidecar) to the riotous ice cream sundae, the moments of jaw-dropping awe and delight are the cherry on top of a rich feast, served with charismatic aplomb. Whether it’s your place for special occasions, or a weekly haunt, Wright’s Tavern was the restaurant we all wanted to eat at in 2023, and there’s really no debate: It’s this year’s Best New Restaurant.

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