Photo by Colter Peterson (Post-Dispatch)
Nixta
Two exciting but tumultuous years seem to have caught up with Ben Poremba’s Mexican restaurant. Nixta weathered the 2017 departure of inaugural executive chef Tello Carreon, whose inspired, soulful cooking brought the restaurant national acclaim, thanks to his successor, Alex Henry, who shifted the menu’s focus to his native Yucatán while maintaining the standard Carreon had set. Henry left Nixta last year, though, and my visits to the restaurant under Poremba’s stewardship alongside sous chef Cesar Correa have found dishes both electric (octopus steamed tender, deep-fried crisp to order and served with a bracing salsa macha) and not (leaden masa dumplings in the sopa de orejitas, bland chicken in a mole negro). What Nixta has already accomplished speaks to its importance and continued potential, but this is a restaurant at a crossroads.
Hours: Dinner Tuesday-Saturday (closed Sunday-Monday)
Last year's ranking: No. 7
Opened: 2016