ST. LOUIS – A small ramen restaurant in south St. Louis earns big praise, nearly taking the top spot in “Yelp’s Top 100 Places to Eat” list for 2024.
Yelp ranked Menya Rui as the second-best restaurant in its latest “Top 100 Place to Eat.”
Menya Rui is located in St. Louis’ Lindenwood Park neighborhood. It’s only been open since 2022, but the eatery’s atmosphere, along with its ramen and noodle specialties, have quickly helped it earn notoriety.
According to Yelp, Menya Rui “serves more than 200 daily bowls of ‘rich and decadent’ broth loaded with ‘cooked-to-perfection’ noodles.” The pork shoyu ramen is considered one of its top dishes, and visitors enjoy how the pork blends with the noodles and several sauces.
The restaurant’s owner, Steven Pursely, is a St. Louis native who built off several years of experience in Japanese ramen shops to create Menya Rui. Pursely grew fond of ramen products during several childhood visits to Japan. Food & Wine Magazine named Pursely among its “best new chefs” in a feature story last year.
The restaurant consists of just 24 seats, though speed and services are highly touted in customer reviews. Located at 3453 Hampton Ave., Menya Rui is open four days a week (Thursday-Sunday) from 5-10 p.m.
In order to create its “Top 100” ranking, Yelp said its data-science team used data generated from community submissions. The team considered factors such as ratings, number of reviews, and volume of submissions.
The only restaurant to finish ahead of Menya Rui in the “Top 100” for first place is a Tucson, Arizona-based restaurant called Tumerico, which specializes in Vegan and Latin American food.
