Private Food Tasting Walking Tour in Saint Louis Downtown
Satisfy your culinary curiosity with a private tour that takes you on a flavorful journey through some of the city's most beloved dining spots.
St. Louis eats with a stubbornness that has produced a food vocabulary found nowhere else. Provel, a processed cheese blend of cheddar, Swiss and provolone, blankets the cracker-thin, tavern-cut pizza that Imo's made the city standard. Toasted ravioli, breaded and deep-fried, were born in the Italian kitchens of The Hill in the 1940s. Gooey butter cake came out of a baker's mistake and never left. The slinger keeps diner griddles busy past midnight, and pork steaks grilled in Maull's sauce define a backyard summer. Beyond the canon, the city carries the largest Bosnian population outside Bosnia, so cevapi and burek in Bevo Mill are as local as anything. A new generation, Vicia, Indo, Sado, has pushed St. Louis onto national lists without abandoning the toasted-ravioli soul of the place.
Eat your way through St. Louis
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Food festivals coming up in St. Louis
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St. Louis: Beignet Cooking Class at a Trendy Local Café
Learn to make melt-in-your-mouth beignets from scratch in this interactive cooking class with Chef Legina. Create a rich chocolate filling and a tangy lemon glaze.
Haunted Lemp Brewery Bottle Works Paranormal Tour
Tour the haunted Lemp Brewery Bottle Works as you pass through tunnels and massive spaces you will learn of the horrific events that occurred in these dark and forgott...
Map of St. Louis
Every restaurant, cafe, market and bar we cover in St. Louis, pinned. Click a pin for the page.
Where to eat in St. Louis: editor-picked starting points
5 institutional venues to anchor a St. Louis food trip
- Pavilion - Japanese sushi, chef Nick Bognar
- Vicia - New American, chef Michael and Tara Gallina
- Indo - Thai, chef Nick Bognar
- Sidney Street Cafe - Cafe, chef Kevin Nashan
- Sado - Japanese, chef Nick Bognar
Signature St. Louis dishes
- Toasted ravioli - Toasted ravioli, or t-ravs, are meat-filled ravioli breaded and deep-fried until crisp, served with marinara for dipping
- Gooey butter cake - Gooey butter cake is a dense, flat coffee cake with a sticky butter-and-sugar top, somewhere between a cake and a custard bar
- St. Louis-style pizza - St
- The slinger - The slinger is a late-night diner pile-up: two eggs over hash browns and a hamburger patty, smothered in chili and cheese and topped with raw onion
- Frozen custard concrete - A concrete is frozen custard blended so thick with mix-ins that it holds a spoon upside down
Best St. Louis neighborhoods for food
- The Hill - St
- Central West End - An elegant, walkable district of historic streets and Maryland Plaza, home to Vicia and the city's most ambitious upscale dining
- Botanical Heights - A small, fast-rising neighbourhood near the Botanical Garden, home to Indo, Union Loafers and some of the city's most exciting newer kitchens
- Benton Park - A south-side neighbourhood of brick storefronts near the brewery, home to Sidney Street Cafe, the mosaic-covered Venice Cafe and Gus' Pretzels
Signature dishes in St. Louis
The plates that define eating in St. Louis.
Toasted ravioli
Toasted ravioli, or t-ravs, are meat-filled ravioli breaded and deep-fried until crisp, served with marinara for dipping. They are the defining St. Louis appetiser, born on The Hill.
Where: Charlie Gitto's On The Hill, Zia's On The Hill, STL Toasted, Anthonino's Taverna
Gooey butter cake
Gooey butter cake is a dense, flat coffee cake with a sticky butter-and-sugar top, somewhere between a cake and a custard bar. It is a St. Louis bakery staple eaten any time of day.
Where: Park Avenue Coffee, Federhofer's Bakery, Missouri Baking Company
St. Louis-style pizza
St. Louis-style pizza has a cracker-thin, unleavened crust topped with Provel, a processed cheese unique to the city, and is cut into squares known as the tavern cut.
Where: Imo's Pizza
The slinger
The slinger is a late-night diner pile-up: two eggs over hash browns and a hamburger patty, smothered in chili and cheese and topped with raw onion. It is breakfast, dinner and a hangover cure in one.
Where: Courtesy Diner, Fleur STL, Southwest Diner
Frozen custard concrete
A concrete is frozen custard blended so thick with mix-ins that it holds a spoon upside down. Ted Drewes made it the St. Louis dessert, dense, cold and famously inverted at the window.
Where: Ted Drewes Frozen Custard
Pork steak
A pork steak is a thick cut of pork shoulder, grilled low over charcoal and braised in barbecue sauce, usually the local Maull's. It is the signature St. Louis backyard cookout dish.
Where: Sugarfire Smoke House
St. Louis-style ribs
St. Louis-style ribs are spare ribs trimmed into a neat rectangular rack by removing the brisket bone and cartilage. The cut is now used nationwide but takes its name from this city.
Where: Pappy's Smokehouse, Salt + Smoke, Bogart's Smokehouse
Provel
Provel is a processed cheese unique to St. Louis, a blend of cheddar, Swiss and provolone with a low melting point that turns gooey and buttery rather than stringy. It defines local pizza.
Where: Imo's Pizza
Cevapi
Cevapi are small grilled beef-and-lamb sausages served in fluffy somun flatbread with raw onion and ajvar. They are the heart of St. Louis's large Bosnian food scene around Bevo Mill.
Where: Balkan Treat Box
Gerber sandwich
A Gerber is an open-face sandwich of garlic bread topped with ham and Provel, broiled until the cheese turns gooey and golden. It is a St. Louis lunch-counter creation.
Where: Blues City Deli, Mom's Deli
Crispy snoots
Crispy snoots are pig snouts smoked and fried until they crackle like cracklin, a St. Louis barbecue tradition rooted in the city's African-American smokehouses.
St. Paul Sandwich
An egg foo young patty (pork, beef, chicken or shrimp) griddled in a Chinese-American kitchen, then sandwiched between two slices of soft white bread with mayonnaise, dill pickles, lettuce, tomato and white onion.
Where: Blues City Deli
Restaurants to know in St. Louis
A handful of the places we send friends to when they are in St. Louis.
Pastaria
James Beard winner Gerard Craft's Clayton Italian runs on handmade pasta and wood-fired pizza in a busy room. The most reliable Italian table off The Hill.
Acero
Acero plates handmade pasta and a deep, off-the-beaten-path Italian wine list in Maplewood. It is the quiet, grown-up Italian dinner locals favour.
Louie
This DeMun bistro pairs a fiery pizza oven with a tight Italian menu, and its wood-oven roast chicken is among the best in the metro. A neighbourhood room.
Mai Lee
Opened in 1985 and credited as the first Vietnamese restaurant in St. Louis, Mai Lee runs a vast menu of pho, bun and canh chua that sets the local standard.
Frazer's
A Benton Park gathering place for 25 years, Frazer's pairs a globe-trotting comfort menu with one of the better cocktail programmes on the south side.
Charlie Gitto's On The Hill
A Hill institution tied to the toasted-ravioli origin story, Charlie Gitto's plates red-sauce Italian classics in a clubby room. The t-ravs draw first-timers.
Where to eat by neighborhood
The Hill
St. Louis's historic Italian-American quarter, lined with red-sauce rooms, salumerias and bakeries, and the birthplace of toasted ravioli.
Best for: Italian, Toasted ravioli, Salumi
Central West End
An elegant, walkable district of historic streets and Maryland Plaza, home to Vicia and the city's most ambitious upscale dining.
Best for: Fine dining, Cocktails, Cafes
Botanical Heights
A small, fast-rising neighbourhood near the Botanical Garden, home to Indo, Union Loafers and some of the city's most exciting newer kitchens.
Best for: Sushi, Bakeries, New American
Benton Park
A south-side neighbourhood of brick storefronts near the brewery, home to Sidney Street Cafe, the mosaic-covered Venice Cafe and Gus' Pretzels.
Best for: New American, Sandwiches, Bars
Soulard
The French-colonial heart of the south side, built around the 1779 Soulard Farmers Market and a dense run of historic bars and BBQ.
Best for: Market, BBQ, Bars
Also: lasalle-park
Tower Grove South
A diverse south-city neighbourhood around Tower Grove Park, anchored by the international restaurant row of South Grand and a Saturday farmers market.
Best for: Vietnamese, Persian, Coffee
Also: tower-grove, tower-grove-east
When to come hungry in St. Louis
Peak food season: April to June and September to November, when patios on The Hill and in the Grove are open and farmers markets run. Summer brings pork-steak season and frozen-custard lines.
Local dining hours: Lunch 11:00-14:00, dinner 17:00-21:00. Many Hill rooms and delis close Sundays and Mondays; BBQ joints sell out by mid-afternoon.
Tipping: Tipping is expected: 18 to 20 percent at sit-down restaurants and bars, a dollar or two per drink at the counter. Counter-service spots have a tip jar; rounding up is welcome.
St. Louis food, FAQ
What food is St. Louis known for?
St. Louis's signature dishes include Toasted ravioli, Gooey butter cake, St. Louis-style pizza, The slinger, Frozen custard concrete. See our signature dishes chapter for where to eat each.
What are the best food neighborhoods in St. Louis?
TableJourney editors map St. Louis by district. The Hill, Central West End, Botanical Heights, Benton Park are among the strongest for food, each with its own guide.
Where should I eat fine dining in St. Louis?
Editor picks in St. Louis include Vicia, Pavilion, Sidney Street Cafe, plus the full fine dining chapter on TableJourney.
Are there food tours in St. Louis?
TableJourney covers 5 editor-picked food tours in St. Louis, with what each shows you and how much to budget.
Does St. Louis have good vegetarian or vegan food?
TableJourney's St. Louis dietary chapter covers vegan, vegetarian, gluten_free, halal venues, each editor-picked with what to order and how to ask.