Sidney Street Café

Kevin Nashan has nothing left to prove. For nearly two decades now, he has kept Sidney Street Café in the highest rank of St. Louis restaurants. He won the James Beard Award for “Best Chef: Midwest,” opened the popular and acclaimed Peacemaker Lobster & Crab Co. and established a second Peacemaker in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Sidney Street could coast — and stepping into the Benton Park restaurant, you might feel as if it could be any evening from the past 10 years (if not longer ago) — but the kitchen is still pushing forward. A winter dinner here nodded to modern appetites (fluke crudo with pops of chile and salmon roe) and showcased singular thoughts (a contrast of beautifully bronzed scallops and a sour-potato vichyssoise). My meal was the chef’s tasting menu, five courses — a substantial beef-cheek dish among them — for $75, an outstanding high-end value.

Hours: Dinner Tuesday-Saturday (closed Sunday-Monday)

Last year's ranking: No. 5

Opened: 1985