40 cheap eats places in St. Louis, editor-picked. The best low-budget spots in St. Louis: the places editors actually return to. All St. Louis food.
40 places
Order Country loaf and lunchtime pizza
Union Loafers bakes naturally leavened bread and runs a lunchtime cafe of sandwiches in Botanical Heights, a James Beard-nominated bakery and pizza spot.
Order Entremets, tarts and viennoiserie
Award-winning pastry chef Nathaniel Reid makes precise modern French entremets, tarts and viennoiserie in Kirkwood, rated the metro's finest pastry case.
Try Frozen custard concretes
Serving since 1941 on old Route 66, Ted Drewes is the St. Louis frozen-custard landmark, famous for the concrete, a shake handed over upside down.
Order The Original Hot Salami sandwich.
A James Beard America's Classics winner on The Hill, Gioia's slices its house Hot Salami onto fresh-baked bread, a sandwich St. Louis treats as a rite.
Order A hand-made malt and the towering, bacon-heavy BLT.
Open since 1913, Crown Candy is the metro's oldest soda fountain, slinging hand-made malts, a towering BLT and chili in an Old North parlour frozen in time.
Order The muffuletta or one of the New Orleans po-boys.
A Benton Park sandwich counter, Blues City turns out New Orleans-style po-boys and muffulettas with live blues some afternoons, a lunch-only institution.
Order Almond-paste gooey butter cake and cookies
A family-run Italian-American bakery on The Hill, Missouri Baking Company is famous for cookies by the pound and a dense, almond-paste gooey butter cake.
Order Macarons and laminated pastries
Chef Simone Faure's French patisserie in Botanical Heights turns out macarons, croissants and cakes with classical technique. The city's French bakery.
Drink Light-roast filter coffee
Sump built a national reputation roasting light, precise single-origin coffee in South City, served in a spare room that treats the cup seriously.
Order Salted caramel-chocolate cookies and muffins
A tiny Lindenwood Park bakery, Pint Size turns out muffins, scones and a cult salted caramel-chocolate cookie alongside Kaldi's coffee. A peanut-free kitchen.
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Order Apple fritter and red velvet cake doughnut
World's Fair Donuts has fried hand-made yeast and cake doughnuts from a small Vandeventer shop for almost 90 years, the city's classic doughnut counter.
Order Kouign-amann and galettes
Comet's serious in-house micro-bakery turns out kouign-amann and seasonal galettes alongside the espresso, a pastry program that rivals the coffee here.
Drink House-roasted drip and seasonal espresso
The flagship of St. Louis's best-known roaster, Kaldi's DeMun cafe overlooks Concordia Park and pours house-roasted coffee to a steady crowd of regulars.
Drink Filter coffee and seasonal espresso
Blueprint's Delmar cafe is the roaster's original home, a bright design-forward room serving precise filter coffee and espresso. A cornerstone of the Loop.
Drink Espresso and house-baked pastries
Comet pairs carefully pulled espresso with a serious in-house micro-bakery, so the pastry case is as much the draw as the cup. A small spot near the Garden.
Drink Espresso and made-from-scratch brunch
Mike Randolph's Clayton breakfast room marries a focused coffee programme with made-from-scratch brunch, from blueberry pancakes to the flat-iron hash.
Try Hand-twisted soft pretzels
Opened in 1920 near the Anheuser-Busch brewery, Gus' Pretzels hand-twists soft pretzels and pretzel-wrapped sausages, a Benton Park snack-counter institution.
Order The Sicilian sub and a cup of the day's soup.
Mama Adriana Fazio opened this Shaw Avenue sandwich shop over 30 years ago, and her daughters still run it. The foot-long subs are a Hill lunch institution.
Order Tacos al pastor with a chicken chipotle torta.
A Cherokee Street taqueria with a sheltered patio, La Vallesana serves tacos al pastor, tortas and aguas frescas, an anchor of the Mexican Cherokee strip.
Order Mom's Traditional gooey butter cake
Park Avenue Coffee bakes more than 70 varieties of gooey butter cake, the dessert invented here, served with house-roasted coffee in Lafayette Square.
Order Cakes, cookies and seasonal pastries
Whisk bakes cakes, cookies and seasonal pastries from scratch on Cherokee Street with a sustainability focus, a community-minded anchor of the Cherokee crawl.
Order Vegan cakes and cupcakes
Reine Bayoc's SweetArt bakes plant-based cakes, cupcakes and savoury plates with strong vegan and gluten-free options, a longtime favourite now in Midtown.
Drink House-roasted espresso drinks
Kaldi's Central West End cafe sits on the busy West Pine and Euclid corner, a roomy spot for coffee and a pastry between gallery and boutique stops.
Drink Single-origin pour-overs
Northwest roasts on site at its Central West End cafe and keeps a bustling counter with strong outdoor seating, a roaster-cafe for the laptop crowd.
Drink Honduran single-origin espresso
Brothers Patrick and Spencer Clapp roast ethically sourced beans, many from their native Honduras, at this South City micro-roastery near Cherokee Street.
Drink House-roasted coffee and breakfast plates
The Larson family roasts in house and runs a full breakfast and lunch kitchen at this Maplewood cafe, a hub that does coffee and a meal equally well.
Drink Multi-roaster espresso and lattes
A Cherokee Street fixture, The Mud House pairs a rotating multi-roaster coffee program with hearty brunch plates in a brick room full of antiques.
Drink Espresso and laminated pastries
The second Comet sits on Oakland near The Hill, pulling the same espresso and baking the same micro-bakery pastries. Handy near Forest Park's south edge.
Drink Filter coffee and espresso
Blueprint's south-side cafe on Watson brings the roaster's precise filter and espresso to St. Louis Hills, a calm bright room for the neighbourhood crowd.
Try Torta ahogada and tacos
A family-run Overland taqueria, Durango is famous for the torta ahogada, a pork sandwich drowned in spicy red chile, with big portions for cheap.
Try Crispy-edged burgers and root beer
A 16-stool roadside drive-in of six decades, Carl's griddles crispy-edged burgers and pours house-made root beer, a Route-66-era St. Louis time capsule.
Try Bar pizza, wings, and griddle plates
Friendly's is a south-side neighborhood sports bar that keeps its kitchen open to 1:30am seven nights a week, plating pizza and wings for the bar crowd.
Order The Mom's Special with thousand-island dressing.
A St. Louis Hills deli, Mom's stacks the locally famous Mom's Special and made-to-order subs, reopened in 2025 to hour-long lines of devoted regulars.
Order A large bowl of pho dac biet with a side of summer rolls.
Andrew Trinh reopened his family's longtime South Grand Vietnamese in the old Pho Grand space, plating familiar pho and rice plates with a cocktail program.
Order Gooey butter cake without powdered sugar
A decades-old Affton bakery, Federhofer's makes a distinctive gooey butter cake without cream cheese or powdered sugar, plus full cases of cakes and cookies.
Order Seasonal fruit pies and cakes
A small Dogtown bakery, Sugaree specialises in scratch pies and layer cakes, a neighbourhood spot known for seasonal fruit pies. Weekend hours only.
Order Original gooey butter cake
Gooey Louie bakes the city's signature gooey butter cake from scratch in mini and full sizes from a small Clayton Road shop minutes west of Forest Park.
Drink House-roasted espresso
A privately owned cafe and roastery on The Hill, Shaw's roasts in house using green coffees from the major growing regions, among the Italian groceries.
Drink Coffee and gooey butter cake
Park Avenue Coffee pairs espresso with more than 70 varieties of gooey butter cake, the St. Louis dessert it is best known for. Visit the Lafayette original.
Drink Light-roast filter and retail beans
Sump moved its roasting to Old North, where the production roastery doubles as a retail and tasting space for its light single-origin coffees.
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