Restaurants in Clayton

In 1983, Bar Italia opened as a tiny café dishing up gelato and drinks just east of Euclid Avenue. Today, it's a multilevel Italian restaurant just west of Euclid Avenue. It hasn't moved very far, but now its chefs toss pasta with seafood, season and grill Black Angus steaks, and flame pork tenderloin with brandy before finishing it in a light cream sauce. They also whip up vegan and gluten-free plates, and they still serve housemade gelato created with all-natural ingredients.

Diners can order wine by the glass, bottle, or bathtub to enjoy in the dining room, by the bar, or outside on the sidewalk area, which is pet friendly. Inside the eatery’s entertainment venue, Luna Lounge, white leather couches bask in the glow of colored mood lighting and flickering candles. On Thursday nights, global tunes from the DJ pump through the sound system.

Since emigrating from Taiwan in 1978, Chinese Noodle Cafe owner, Peggy Hou, has cultivated a welcoming restaurant atmosphere brimming with Hunan-style Chinese fare that claimed Readers' Choice awards in the 2008, 2010, and 2012 Riverfront Times. A compendium of fresh ingredients and an absence of MSG keeps the focus on healthy fare throughout an array of traditional dishes such as general tso's chicken, steamed vegetables, and beaver-friendly items such as wooden chopsticks. Noodle soups outfit an already popular menu with spicy, seafood, and meaty discoveries to broaden diners' horizons.

Boat House Forest Park has been launching revelers’ watercrafts across the glimmering waters of Post-Dispatch Lake since 1876. Today, a restaurant fills the high-ceilinged interior space, serving up half-pound burgers and hand-tossed pizzas, among other hearty American fare. Flames crackle in a stone hearth, warming patrons as they clap along to live music or conduct an impromptu performance of “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” with a sauce-slathered barbecue rib. In warm weather, servers transport plates to an outdoor patio with views of sparkling waters. The Boat House also rents out kayaks and paddleboats inside which patrons can tour the lake, catching glimpses of ducks, turtles, and feral Tweety birds, as well as historical landmarks such as the St. Louis Zoo and World’s Fair Pavilion.

Chef and owner Raj left his native Punjab in 1994 to earn his culinary stripes working as a cook in New York City. After a year of training and practice, he relocated to St. Louis, where his expertise in the art of Indian cooking quickly won praise in the Riverfront Times, which dubbed his eatery the city’s best vegetarian restaurant.

Laden with meat-free options, the menu entices taste buds with spiced and nutritious ingredients such as saag paneer’s spinach and fresh cheese, aloo gobi’s cauliflower and potatoes, and chana masala’s tender garbanzo beans. Chefs also throw dairy to the wayside in many dishes, including the vegan mirchi bhajia—deep-fried anaheim peppers stuffed with potatoes and spices hot enough to peel the wallpaper off a doll’s house. A catering menu provides spreads for large groups and flash mobs that rent the on-premises banquet hall.

At Ricardo’s Italian Café, the combined culinary skills of the Adams family, which has run the restaurant since 1989, transport palates to the land of Europe's boot via hearty pizzas, pastas, and meats. Chef Mark Adams and his wife Michelle lead the crew and reward staffers with gold stars cut out of cheese as they whip up Italian classics such as chicken parmigiano and Sicilian-style pizzas. In the dining room, exposed-brick walls and painted murals of Italian cityscapes surround diners in an Old-World ambiance, amid which waiters fill glasses with dozens of domestic and imported wines.

The classic American sports-bar vibe effused by Market Pub House’s memorabilia-covered walls and overhead TVs belies the eatery’s diverse spread of multinational pub fare. Like a cozy bathrobe woven from dark matter, the menu combines the comfortable and familiar with the exotic, dishing out traditional deli staples and hot wings along with tangy greek salads, crusty banh mis, and Latin- and Asian-infused appetizers. Eighteen frosty beers on tap lubricate game-day viewing across multiple flat-screen TVs as well as weekly karaoke and trivia, and an ample outdoor patio hosts guests at more than a dozen wrought-iron tables.