Sado is a fine-dining restaurant in St. Louis.
Nick Bognar's sushi-forward Japanese room on The Hill plates high-grade seafood flown in several times a week. It shares a building with his omakase Pavilion.
Tip: Order broadly off the sushi and sashimi list and let the counter steer. Reserve on Resy a week or two out.
Address: 5201 Shaw Ave, St. Louis, MO 63110
Once members-only, Blood and Sand keeps an intimate downtown room built around culinary cocktails and seasonal tasting menus with a Wine Spectator list.
Tip: Request the 5- or 10-course tasting in your reservation at least 48 hours ahead; the cocktail program is a draw on its own.
Nick Bognar marries Thai family cooking with serious sushi at this Botanical Heights room, the one that made him a James Beard Best Chef Midwest finalist.
Tip: If dinner is booked out, the hand-roll bar and cocktail counter take the overflow. Reserve on Resy ahead.
Zoe Robinson's Clayton steakhouse plates dry-aged beef and polished seasonal cooking in a handsome Wydown room. The western-suburb special-occasion table.
Tip: Reserve on Resy and ask which steak the kitchen is proudest of that week. The bar pours a serious martini.
Chef Lou Rook's Chesterfield mainstay works as both a serious steakhouse and a market-driven kitchen, with a Wine Spectator award-winning cellar for years.
Tip: It is a drive west of the city but worth it for the wine; reserve a window table. The attached Smokehouse Market sells the meats.
801 Chophouse plates USDA Prime beef, Wagyu and jet-fresh seafood in a clubby Clayton room with a Wine Spectator-awarded list. The expense-account steakhouse.
Tip: Reserve through OpenTable; the bone-in cuts and the seafood tower are the splurges. Jacket-optional but the room is dressy.
A clubby steakhouse inside the historic Chase Park Plaza, The Tenderloin Room has plated the pepperloin and tableside Caesar for generations of St. Louisans.
Tip: Dress up; this is a special-occasion room. The pepperloin is the signature, finished tableside.
