St. Louis best new restaurants for 2023 range from a supper club in the Central West End and sushi on the hill to Nigerian cuisine, Indian fare and gas-station barbecue.
One bite at Levels Nigerian Cuisine (1405 Washington Avenue, levelsstl.com) and you'll realize that you've ventured into new territory — in the best possible way. The dishes are powerfully flavorful, some hurtling right to the edge of most people's heat tolerance, or serving as a perfect complement to that, such as sweet plantains or fufu, a pounded yam used to soak up sauce. Either way, no one else in St. Louis is doing anything like it.