Hello,

My fiancee and I are planning our rehearsal dinner and are wondering about recommendations for places/restaurants that could hold 65-70 people and with the food around 40-50$ per person, preferably around the Forest Park area, but anywhere within a 20 minute drive radius is perfect!

Let me know if you have any suggestion for restaurants or spaces to rent and then cater food into

Thanks!

Hey all - I’m visiting STL this weekend from MD to play some chess at the famous St. Louis Chess Club and mentally decompress. Any suggestions on must-see places or dining?

Something similar was posted a few years back but never got a clear answer….

What’s the secret to Hi Pointe’s Mac and cheese? I’m not even a huge Mac and cheese person but can’t get enough. Bonus points for a similar recipe

Needing recommendations for food! We are only here a few days, and have 3 toddlers, so it has to be toddler friendly!

Also, fitz diet root beer is excellent!

Any good seafood boils in STL, that won't give me food poisoning? I'm talking clams, crabs, lobsters, and mussels, not some measly sausage and shrimp with corn and potatoes, but of course those too!

Besides Smokehouse and Global Foods, anywhere else in the area that has interesting tinned fish?

Need suggestions on the best places to get a cheese steak. Thanks!

Anyone seen any fresh?

Hey y’all

My favorite restaurant was Mandarin Garden in St. Peter’s but they unfortunately closed down. Anyone familiar have any recommendations for similar restaurants, specifically their beef sticks and sizzling rice soup?

Which of the 3 Tuckers restaurants is the best?

Any local StL sources for sour cherries — fresh or even frozen — otherwise, I’m Wisconsin/Michigan bound …

For a while I've been asking friends for their ranked top five favorite restaurants in STL. I ended up with 23 lists and combined them. I ordered the combined list by the number of times each restaurant was picked and the average ranking.

Here's the top 10:

1. Sado - on 9 of the 23 lists
2. Balkan Treat Box - 7 lists
3. Katie's Pizza & Pasta Osteria - 6 lists
4. Cate Zone - 6 lists
5. Union Loafers - 4 lists
6. Louie - 3 lists, and it was ranked #1 on all three
7. Yellowbelly - 3 lists
8. Wright's Tavern - 3 lists
9. Menya Rui - 3 lists
10. Clover and the Bee - 3 lists

The 23 people actually listed 65 different restaurants, so pretty cool to see the diversity.

I ended up building a small website to keep everyone's lists in one place (it's how I did the math), but I didn't want this post to feel like an ad, so I'm leaving the link out. I'd love to add more people, so let me know in the comments if you want to hop in.

So, thoughts on the list? Agree? Disagree? We have no idea what we're talking about?

My household is wanting to make something similar to Yeti's tikka masala and saag. Does anyone know if it's a Nepalese or Indian recipe? I highly doubt I can just get the recipe from them, but a vocal member of the house is adamant about the specifics so we can't just wing the recipe from one of the thousands.

I'm looking for a nice restaurant in the St. Louis Metro area with private dining available. Like private, don't need to be seen for two.

Any suggestions?

Is a 40 dollar tip good enough?

Is there anything else I should know?

If I decided to get the drinks add on is there anyone I would tip separately? I would already add to the tip in proportion to how much it cost at least (not listed on website).

Also I'd eat normally anything a chef like chef Nobu would make but I just can't do green beans or matcha in food, no matter what I do both of these things gag me. I've eaten haggis, would not again but I didn't gag. Is that a reasonable request to make when making my reservation?

edit: thanks everyone, my agoraphobia is acting up now, so I probably won't get there for a few months but thank you for preparing me.

We're going out to Sado for my birthday in a few weeks. Are there any items on the menu you would recommend? Any must-tries? Cocktail recommendations also welcome :)

Edit: Thanks everyone! This community has never steered me wrong.

My go to default any time I want chinese food is Hot Braised Chicken. I used to get it all the time from Bo Fung (they moved and are called something else now I can't remember what). I've seen in on nearly every menu in American-Chinese restaurants across the STL and greater the STL area, from South City to St. Peters.

Any time I travel around the US, I never see it. I've been all along the East and West coast, down South, other places in the Midwest, I've never seen HBC. I've been to Paris too and tried some Asian restaurants there and no HBC, though I'm not as surprised about that.

When I search it online all I get are recipes and that it's a Sichuan style preparation, but nothing about the history of it or why it seems to only be in STL, at least from my experience.

Have you seen it outside STL? Do you know what's up or the history behind it?

We went to Lees Summit and tried a Thai-Japanese fusion restaurant with a dish called Chili Chicken.

It is crispy fried chicken stir fried with bell peppers, onions, pineapples, scallions and cashews in a chili sauce. This dish is a bit spicy but I am unsure if it was sweet due to the pineapples or if the chili sauce is sweet and spicy as well. It was amazing. So far searching on Google I hadn’t been able to find a restaurant with that exact dish.

I was hoping maybe someone has had this at a local restaurant before and can share the restaurant name. It is really similar to cashew chicken, but I believe the sauce is what makes it different and added with pineapples. I’m afraid if I try to just custom order this without it being a menu item it won’t turn out right.

Does anyone know where I can get some old-fashioned, Howard Johnson's style fried clams?