Photo by Christian Gooden (Post-Dispatch)
Mai Lee
Few chefs have been more influential over the past four decades of dining in St. Louis than Lee Tran, founder of Mai Lee. She introduced St. Louis to Vietnamese cuisine when she added it to the menu of her Chinese restaurant, and few restaurants of any kind can match Mai Lee’s consistent record of excellence from its original University City location to its current Brentwood home. (I doubt any other restaurant could have not merely succeed but thrived after moving to the ground floor of a parking garage behind big-box stores.) And Mai Lee continues to impress across its expansive menu, from soups to noodles to stir-fries. As always, the place for first-time diners to start is #133, the salt-and-pepper calamari.
Hours: Lunch and dinner Tuesday-Sunday (closed Monday)
Last year's ranking: Rest of the Best
Opened: 1985