Photo by Laurie Skrivan (Post-Dispatch)
Farmhaus
Few restaurants deserve the “menu changes frequently” tag more than Kevin Willmann’s Farmhaus. There are constants — the nachos, the roasted Ozark Forest mushroom salad, the charcuterie board — and the main courses will feature dry-aged Illinois beef and some of Willmann’s beloved Gulf seafood. But in its particulars, your meal at Farmhaus tomorrow will be so different from what I ate in November 2017 (a grown-up take on broccoli-cheddar soup, jewel-like butternut-squash agnolotti, the aforementioned beef with a puffball mushroom) that it could be a different restaurant. Thanks to Willmann and his team, of course, the experience will be delicious across its many different iterations. The a-la-carte items, shared among a table, are how most diners approach Farmhaus, but at $70 or so per person, the tasting menu is a (relative) steal.
Hours: Dinner Tuesday-Saturday (closed Sunday-Monday)
Last year's ranking: No. 4
Opened: 2010
Must order: Menu changes frequently