My Top 3 Culinary Experiences of 2025

The greatest thing about the New Year season is that there's so much to blog about! Between reflecting on how things went in 2025 and setting goals for 2026, I could gab forever. While I have a more in-depth blog post about the local restaurant scene cooking on the backburner (stay tuned!), I thought I would jump in really quick and talk about some of my favorite restaurant experiences I had in the past year.

Honorable Mention: Bailey's Chocolate Bar

Bailey's Chocolate Bar, of the Bailey's family of restaurants, has been a classic staple of the Lafayette Square neighborhood for over two decades. As the name suggests, the bar focuses on dessert and is famous for its EXTENSIVE list of chocolate martinis. There are some savory options on the menu as well, but let's be honest, if you're going here, your main priority is to indulge in some rich, chocolatey goodness.

It's a shocker that I had not dropped everything and made my way down there the moment I discovered its existence. But for a couple of years now I've been dying to go and waiting for the perfect moment to make a reservation. Fast forward to April of 2025 when my partner was visiting from out of town (a recurring theme on this list), and we decided that the perfect way to spend our Easter Sunday together was to walk around Lafayette Park and have a late lunch at the Chocolate Bar.

We got the Cheese & Charcuterie Board which was a generous assortment of all types of meats & cheeses and followed it up with the Lover's Plate, basically a perfect sampler for two of SO many desserts on offer. There were strawberries, brownies, blondies, macarons, bruleed banana slices, caramel popcorn, meringues, and two tiny mugs of warm "drinking chocolate", which we saved to drink last. The cocktails were flowing heavily throughout the meal, and I think my favorite of the night was the Dark Raspberry Martini, which was so richly chocolately with the silky undertone of sweet raspberries. It's the perfect little slice of heaven on earth.

3. No Ordinary Rabbit

The newest establishment on this list, No Ordinary Rabbit is a quirky restaurant focusing more on small plates and offbeat cocktails. It opened in early 2025 to a lot of hype, so it was high on my list to check out with my partner when they were in town. The space is fairly small, but it has a dark, cozy atmosphere with amusing rabbit-y decor. I don't wear much jewelry day-to-day but for this date I broke out this vintage-looking necklace I own that has a big rabbit on it. On arrival the waitress complimented my necklace!

I wish I could remember the names of all the drinks we tried, but I think some of them were seasonal offerings anyway, so it's possible they're gone for good. The cocktails I sampled were pretty spirit-forward, which my heathen palate had mixed success handling. Further into the night I stuck to their spritz offerings, of which they had a decent list. We got pretty tipsy!

We got three plates to share - the Tinned Squid, the Mussels, and the Hagfish - and each was more delicious than the last. We were stunned multiple times when we thought we hit the ceiling of tastiness and then the next bite was impossibly even better. At some point I think we were disturbing other guests around us by how loud we were drunkenly "Mmmmm"-ing! At the end of the meal our waitress tempted us with a dessert menu and we ended up having Baklava Cigar Cookies, which, anything baklava is going to be delightful. I am dying to go back again as soon as possible.

Even though they've only been open for a short while, NOR has also gotten into hosting frequent special tasting menus for various occasions, such as holidays or the debut of a new wine label. Most recently as of posting they are advertising a special 4-course meal for Valentine's Day. It costs a pretty penny to get into one, but a girl can dream...

2. Bridge Tap House & Wine Bar

October, being my birth month, is historically dedicated to indulgence and hedonism, and 2025 wasn't any different. This past October I gave myself a little project I called 'Wine Bar Wednesdays'. Every Wednesday after work I would have dinner & drinks at a local wine (and/or cocktail) bar, specifically somewhere I've been meaning to go but haven't, preferably somewhere within walking distance. Overall, the project was a phenomenal success (for my tummy, not my wallet) and it felt good to finally cross some places off my bucket list that had been sitting there for too damn long.

Bridge Tap House & Wine Bar is one of those places, also part of the Bailey's restaurant group by coincidence. It's got everything going for it, being an attractive, rustic establishment as well as only being a few minutes of walking away from where I live. And honestly? I am a huge fool for not having tried this place out sooner. You mean to tell me that a delicious bar with the largest cheese & charcuterie offering I have ever seen existed practically next door to me this entire time??

I decided to sit at the bar, which was the right call because I had some great conversation with the bartender. You've got to be in the right mood for it, but I do admit I love occasions where I get to sit at the bar and be chatty. We commiserated about the state of Downtown St. Louis and I got to hear about his beef with Ballpark Village. To start I got a Beeting Cancer cocktail, an October special that they were having in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month (proceeds went to such-and-such charity). It was very beety, and I couldn't taste the alcohol at all! Dangerous.

Bridge has an array of decadent-looking entrees but I was laser-focused on the charcuterie. On their menu they have a whole page dedicated to an elaborate rubric of meats, cheeses, and other cheese board add-ons in different price points. It's a bit of a daunting task to choose your spread, and I went a bit conservative with my board in order not to overwhelm my wallet; I ended up getting 2 meats, 2 cheeses, and added on olives. Everything was delicious but the true MVPs of the plate were the Wagyu Pastrami and the Focaccia. The pastrami was incredibly tender, melt-in-your-mouth, and paired immaculately with everything else. The focaccia...never have I had such thick, pillowy bread before, with the most addictive salty, herby crust. I could eat that focaccia for every occasion, and Bridge even offers a stand-alone order of focaccia on their appetizer menu, so, you really COULD order it for any occasion. Genuinely I'll just stop in the middle of my day from time to time and think about how delicious that focaccia was.

Confession: I raved about Bridge to my mom and she got jealous, so not a week later we went back there and had dinner together. We got another cheese & charcuterie plate, and it gave me the opportunity to try some different options. The best cheese we got was Sage Derby which is a cheese that's green because it's infused with herbs! It was so delicious. My mom was also curious of the Whipped Pumpkin Ricotta they offered as an appetizer, so we ordered that too. It was creamy and pumpkin-y, less like the innards of a pumpkin pie and more on the savory side. And of course it was paired with - you guessed it - more of that wonderful focaccia!

1. Umami Seasons Hot Pot

And now we come to the big winner, the best-of-the-best restaurant I went to in 2025! A place so delicious that after I went the first time, I went again three more times within the year!

It was possibly inevitable that Umami Seasons Hot Pot would become a favorite haunt, because it presented the first opportunity for me to experience hot pot. I was of course familiar with the concept of hot pot beforehand, being an anime teen reading story arcs in manga where friends share the communal meal, or getting awed by YouTube videos of Japanese hot pot restaurants and their wow-factor presentation. But hot pot restaurants in the U.S. Midwest are few and far between.

Enter Umami Seasons, which opened in the Delmar Loop mid-2024 in the space that used to be a Thai rolled-up ice cream joint called Snow Factory (RIP). It's honestly impressive that a tiny space that used to house just an ice cream counter and a few small tables could transform into a restaurant with 10-13 large tables meant to accommodate large pots of soup. Ever since its opening I had been craving going and finally experiencing hot pot.

I only had one other hurdle to jump to achieve my hot pot dreams: getting someone to go with me. I'm sure it's not a crime to go eat hot pot alone, but that's definitely not the intended experience - hot pot is meant to be shared! I do have a large immediate family which you would think would be the perfect group to rally up for this kind of thing. However, there are two Celiacs among them, so it's hard to convince the whole group to try any new restaurant, especially something that involves communal eating where the cross-contamination risk is even higher.

The solution came with, once again, my partner visiting in April. We made a date one weekday evening out of shopping around the Loop and then having dinner at Umami Seasons. My partner, being from the backwoods of Sweden, also had not had hot pot before. We went in as wide-eyed ingenues and came out with all our expectations exceeded.

I can only assume that our experience with hot pot will sound fairly basic to someone who has had hot pot before. We got broth, we got meats & veggies, we cooked the meats & veggies in the broth. But my eyes were opened to a world of FUN and DELICIOUSNESS! The added bit of interactivity where the ingredients are laid out in front of you and you are in charge of cooking your own morsels is instantly addictive. And the experience is greatly enhanced when you have other people with you, sharing plates and comparing notes about which broths taste best with which items.

Umami conveniently has a Hot Pot for Two special which we ordered, and it came with two broths, two meat trays, one large veggie & mushroom platter, one plate of assorted tofu, and one "starch" (rice or noodles). It was a satisfying amount for two people to split, although we did end up ordering more fish later because we're insatiable. For our broths we chose the Chongqing Spicy Broth (lowest spice level) and the Miso Broth, both which were extremely tasty! The spicy broth had lots of chili peppers and peppercorns floating in it. I would recommend avoiding accidentally picking up a chili pepper, because biting into one is a bit painful, but eating the peppercorns gives you a delightful tingly sensation.

Another crowning achievement of Umami is their Build-your-own Sauce Bar, where there is an array of ingredients laid out for you to mix into your own dipping sauce. One thing you have to know about me is that I go absolutely wild for a dip, so a station where I have infinitely customizable options to mix a sauce like my own little potion is peak. They give you some suggestions of combinations to try but I usually wing it. It's a bit different every time, but I would say my signature sauce mixture predominantly consists of sesame oil, sesame paste, garlic, and cilantro.

Armed now with the experience of hot pot and pictures of the menu's gluten-free broth options, I finally convinced my family to try out Umami and was able to go again in the fall as my birthday dinner request. Everyone enjoyed themselves immensely! If you're not getting a special, you basically just order items individually through your phone with a QR code. We were able to keep things gluten-free by steering away from items like fish cakes and noodles, and sticking to raw vegetable & meat options. But even with that limitation, there's still a huge variety of things to eat! My recommendation is to get the Veggie Combo instead of ordering individual vegetables, because that's the only way you get sliced tomatoes (I don't know why, but for some reason they don't offer tomatoes à la carte). I really enjoy the tomatoes & Chinese cabbage in any broth, but especially the Chongqing. All of their mushrooms are delicious but I especially like the Enoki, and for meat you can't go wrong with classic Pork slices.

So I got my family hooked on hot pot as much as me. Since first having it with my partner in April and going with my family for my birthday, I've been back another two times, and one of those visits was not even prompted by me, but by my dad! Every time it has been consistently delicious, and it feels kind of healthy in a way because you're mostly filling up on vegetables. Umami does offer an "All-You-Can-Eat Meat" special, but I'm not sure I would ever take it, because most of the deliciousness comes from stuffing your face with cabbage and mushrooms. My dream is to go to Umami enough times to sample all the broth options and make a definitive broth ranking. So far my favorites would have to be the Chongqing and the Sukiyaki, both extremely savory but on opposite ends of the "heat" spectrum.

Those are the restaurants that I enjoyed going to the most last year! I had so many delicious meals in 2025 that it was honestly hard to narrow down, but every experience that made it on this list is one that I constantly reminisce about and get excited for my next opportunity to go back. Due to the nature of my 2026 resolutions (hopefully there's a blog post up about those before the end of January), I may be limiting myself to how much I eat out in this new year, but I hope to make every meal a great one! Bon appétit!