The #2 Restaurant in the US in 2024 is here in Missouri
The top restaurant in the US in 2024 is a Mexican restaurant in Tuscan, Arizona, BUT the second-best restaurant in the US in 2024 is right here in the Show-Me State of Missouri!
According to the experts at Yelp, the second-best restaurant in the US in 2024 is a place called Menya Rui in St. Louis, Missouri. It is known as a "noodle haven" for ramen lovers, and on Yelp they say this about Menya Rui...
"Chef-owner Steven Pursley trained for 3 years in Japanese ramen shops to create St. Louis’s own “noodle haven.” The small, 24-seat restaurant—named Menya (noodle shop) Rui (Steven’s given name)—serves more than 200 daily bowls of “rich and decadent” broth loaded with “cooked-to-perfection” noodles...Since opening Menya Rui in April 2022, Steven has been named Food & Wine’s “Best New Chef” and almost always has a line out the door. "
Menya Rui is the only Missouri restaurant to make Yelp's list of the Top 100 US Restaurants 2024, which is WILD considering all of the fantastic restaurants in Kansas City, St. Louis, Columbia, the Lake of the Ozarks, and the Branson area. To see the full list of the best restaurants in the US this year, click here!
Did they get it right?
From the looks of the list, the Yelp experts certainly were looking for slightly "off the beaten path" places, considering NO Chicago restaurants made the list, and only 1 from New York City, places that are regularly considered the best food cities in the World. Did they get it right? Who knows...But I do know I will be trying a bowl of Ramen from Menya Rui the next time I head to St. Louis!
LOOK: Food history from the year you were born
Gallery Credit: Joni Sweet