Seven years after opening, Indo still carries the energy of a restaurant everyone is trying to catch up to. After landing the top spot on the Sauce Best New Restaurant list in 2019 almost immediately following its debut, the restaurant has steadily transformed from breakout sensation into the standard against which nearly every ambitious St. Louis restaurant gets measured. Few places maintain that kind of momentum this deep into their run. Fewer still continue evolving at the pace Indo has.
A Restaurant Still in Motion
That staying power comes from chef and co-owner Nick Bognar, whose deeply personal approach to Thai, Japanese and Southeast Asian cooking has earned national recognition, including seven James Beard nominations and a 2026 finalist spot for Best Chef: Midwest. (Winners will be announced June 15 in Chicago.) But Indo has never been about one singular voice. The restaurant’s next chapter officially reflects that reality with the promotion of longtime sous chef Hana Chung to chef de cuisine, a role that formalizes the collaborative spirit that has quietly shaped Indo since day one.
“Hana has helped shape Indo from the very beginning,” Bognar said. “She understands our flavors, our philosophy, and the importance of creating food that reflects the entire team. She’s an incredible leader, and I’m excited for guests to experience where she helps take Indo next.”
Chung, who has been part of the restaurant since opening night, described Indo’s menu as a reflection of “how we eat,” pulling from Korean, Filipino, Japanese, Thai and broader Asian American influences filtered through Midwest ingredients and the collective experiences of the kitchen team. “It’s about showing guests how we eat and creating food that reflects all of us as a team, not just one person or one culture,” Chung said.
It’s that layered perspective that keeps Indo from calcifying into trend-chasing fusion or overly polished fine dining theater. The food feels alive, personal and constantly in motion. Chung said the restaurant has grown more confident in its perspective over the years, with the menu increasingly reflecting the backgrounds and experiences of the people behind it. Bognar echoed that evolution, noting that Indo has “its own story now” thanks to a deeply established team that has embraced the restaurant’s core ideals while continuing to shape its future. “We aren’t just an Asian restaurant,” he said. “Our food represents the experience of the people who work there and myself.”
“My focus moving forward is maintaining our standards while also pushing the envelope,” Chung said. “I want everyone in the kitchen to feel comfortable sharing ideas because that’s how great food happens.”
Beyond the Seafood Reputation
And yes, the seafood remains absurdly good. The Isaan hamachi is still a signature seven years later, layering yellowtail sashimi with coconut naam pla, Thai kosho and candied garlic in a way that somehow tastes delicate, funky, spicy and rich all at once. The dry-aged fish program continues flexing with dishes like sake yaki, featuring king salmon with crispy skin, tomato-fumet broth, Thai chimichurri and Union Loafer’s bread practically engineered for broth dragging.
But reducing Indo to “the seafood place” misses half the story. Bognar said the team spends just as much time developing its meat and vegetable dishes, especially now that Sado has become the group’s dedicated sushi destination. “Now that Sado is the sushi bar, we have started working more with proteins at Indo,” he said.
The Dishes That Define Indo
Some of the restaurant’s best dishes never touch the ocean. The Crying Tiger Wagyu arrives smoky and deeply savory with soy-marinated picanha, Asian pear, toasted jasmine rice and Yai’s crying tiger sauce, stemming from Bognar’s grandmother’s recipe. The palm sugar ribs remain one of the city’s great sticky-finger triumphs, glazed with palm sugar, fish sauce caramel and candied peanuts that shatter with sweet-salty crunch. They’re truly the best ribs we’ve ever eaten in this barbecue-laden town.
Even the vegetables show off. The longtime staple cabbage salad balances herbs, lime tamarind dressing, crispy onion straws and candied peanuts with the kind of precision most restaurants reserve for entrées, while the smoky Japanese eggplant with sweet soy glaze, labneh and chile crisp quietly steals tableside attention from much flashier dishes. Then there are the chile garlic noodles, tangled with black garlic sweet soy, confit mushrooms and togarashi gremolata in a bowl that somehow tastes both comforting and electrically charged.
The Cocktails Always Hit
To match the rest of the menu, the cocktails are also insanely good. Drinks like Sands Through the Hourglass, with Thai rum, banana, pineapple and Thai tea-infused Aperol, lean tropical without tipping syrupy, while the jasmine-kissed Fascinating Stranger and bright dragonfruit-laced Pretty in Pink continue Indo’s habit of making every part of dinner feel considered.
Still Setting the Pace
Bognar believes Indo stands apart because of its “bold, in-your-face style,” with a constant focus on creating dishes that feel distinctive and unforgettable. That philosophy still pulses through every corner of the restaurant seven years in, but the momentum hardly feels finished. Between Chung’s expanded leadership role and major projects on the horizon for the broader team – including the newly announced Khao Soi Cowboy opening in Grand Center in 2027 (get a taste at Cowboy Night Market happening Wednesdays this summer and fall) – Indo feels less like a restaurant settling into legacy status and more like a creative collective still accelerating.
At this point, Indo isn’t just one of the best restaurants in St. Louis. It has become one of the city’s defining culinary institutions, though it still carries the restless energy of a restaurant convinced its best ideas are ahead of it.
1641D Tower Grove Ave., St. Louis, indo-stl.com
This article appears in June 2026.
