Dietary Needs

Whether you’re gluten free (GF) because of celiac disease, just for preference, or anywhere in between, St. Louis has great options! My personal favorite GF bakery/café is New Day Gluten Free, which is about 10 minutes away from campus. They are a dedicated gluten-free, nut-free facility, with dairy-free options also available. They do breakfast all day, and I would highly recommend the French toast. They also have sandwiches and a nice selection of frozen items you can take home (I always get the biscuits to cook later). I even got a cake from there for my birthday — it’s that good!

If you’re craving pizza, Pi Pizzeria has a great GF crust and is good for carry-out or a quick dinner. As for pasta, Pastaria is a great option for a more upscale lunch or dinner. Favazza’s also has a GF pasta, and they can make many of their signature dishes with it (baked ziti anyone?). I also like Café Napoli for date night or when family is in town, as they do great grilled steaks and have GF pasta available. At all the places mentioned above, the servers I’ve had were generally knowledgeable about gluten allergies and helpful with modifications.

Seedz is a vegan restaurant that also has a lot of GF options, and it’s good for meat-eaters and vegetarians/vegans alike! They don’t have a GF bun available for sandwiches, but pro tip — you can get any of their veggie burgers on top of cheesy rice instead. Trust me, it’s better anyway! Lulu’s Local Eatery is also a vegan restaurant with tons of GF options, including tater tots and mac n’ cheese. Seedz and Lulu’s both have GF denoted on the menu, which is helpful. If you’re more of a meat eater, most of the BBQ joints in the area are GF-friendly; I would recommend Pappy’s or Sugarfire. Some sides and sauces are not GF, so you just have to ask when you order. Overall, I’ve been very impressed with gluten-free dining in St. Louis, and there are many more options available. I always check the menu and call before I go to a new place just to double check, but it’s been easy to find!

When my vegetarian family moved to St. Louis in 1996, it was truly a meat-and-potatoes city — we could essentially only eat at Olive Garden, and we could only ever order breadsticks, mozzarella sticks, and minestrone soup. In the last two decades, St. Louis has had a very exciting restaurant boom that caters well to the dietarily restricted population.

I’ve listed some restaurants that specifically serve only vegan or vegetarian food below, but almost all of the fun restaurants in St. Louis have vegetarian options, and many have excellent vegetarian options. Thanks to the recent popularity of plant-based diets, many newer restaurants are cropping up with balanced plant-based and meat-based dishes. For example, I recently went to 58Hundred, a restaurant based on a collaboration between a butcher and a gardener. About two-thirds of the dishes are vegetarian, and everything I tried was excellent.

My main advice is to check the menus before you try a place. I like to check beforehand for restaurants that serve food from cuisines with traditionally fewer vegetarian options, like Chinese food or steak houses (some do have clearly demarcated vegetarian options!), as well as traditional St. Louis establishments that were around before the proliferation of trendy restaurants.

Vegan Places:

• Lulu’s Local Eatery: My favorite vegan place in town! They’re best known for the buffalo cauliflower bites and tater tots. I love how hearty the dishes are while still being very vegetable-heavy.
• Seedz Café: A little pricey with more of a health-food vibe, and a number of their dishes are also raw. I’m not sure if $10 is worthwhile for a smoothie, but it was quite tasty if you’re looking to treat yourself.
• PuraVegan: I haven’t tried this place yet, but the vegan mac and cheese, açaí bowls, and desserts have been highly recommended to me.

Vegetarian Places (with good vegan options):

• Treehouse: This place has a classy modern-American vibe. I think it’s a little bit expensive for the quality of the food, but it might be a fun place to go when family is in town.
• Pizza Head: This is a tiny punk-rock themed, New York-style pizza joint. They only have vegetarian-pepperoni, cheese, veggie, and vegan pizza that you can buy either by the slice or whole, as well as beer/soda. I’m a big fan when I’m in the mood for that kind of thing.
• Frida’s: Frida’s is my favorite vegetarian restaurant in town. They have a good range of vegetarian/vegan/gluten free/raw options. They’re styled a little more like a health food place than Treehouse is, but there are definitely hearty options.
• Small Batch: This is a vegetarian tapas place and whiskey bar. The food isn’t the best I’ve ever eaten, but it’s a lot of fun (and my favorite ice cream place, The Fountain on Locust, is right next door!).
• Gokul: I’ve never been to this place, but I feel like I have to mention it. It’s a vegetarian restaurant that has a vegan buffet on Mondays that the St. Louis Veg Group always attends. I’ve heard that the food is gross but in a cheap and satisfying way, and it might be a good way to network with vegans if you’re into that.

Completely Subjective Other Places that I Like that have Vegan/Vegetarian Options: Lona’s Lil Eats, Tai Ke, Cate Zone, Sardella (for Brunch), 58hundred, Pastaria, Pi Pizza (also has vegan pizza), The Clover and the Bee, The Fountain on Locust, Polite Society, Layla, Nudo, Tower Taco.