Photo by Laurie Skrivan (Post-Dispatch)
Farmhaus
Of the St. Louis chefs who have led the conversation about dining over the past decade or so, none has kept his restaurant as close to its original identity as Kevin Willmann has at Farmhaus. In fact, on my visit this winter, I ordered a dish that strongly echoed my favorite dish from the restaurant’s debut in 2010: escolar simply poached in white wine and butter with two head-on white shrimp from the Gulf of Mexico and grilled broccoli. Then and now, the dish showed Willmann’s seafood acumen, pushing the fish to the outer limits of butteriness and balancing it with the briny liquid from the shrimp’s heads and the broccoli’s grill char. Farmhaus doesn’t look much different now from when I ordered that dish nine years ago — and even at the beginning, the decor was more homey than stylish. It fits the cooking, though. Even the most elegantly plated dish here still conveys an appealingly personal touch.
Hours: Dinner Tuesday-Saturday (closed Sunday-Monday)
Last year's ranking: No. 6
Opened: 2010