Mayo Ketchup

Ian Froeb's STL 100 for the Post-Dispatch files Mandy Estrella's counter under Cuban, and reports that she folded her original Cuban, Dominican and Puerto Rican room into her Colombian and Venezuelan offshoot at the Midtown storefront on Olive Street, keeping the Mayo Ketchup name. Froeb's own order ran from a cheese-filled arepa through corn and flour empanadas to Dominican-style fried chicken. Order the pernil bowl, citrus and garlic marinated pork over arroz con gandules with onion, avocado and tostones.

Picks from Sauce Magazine, St. Louis Magazine, and St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Plantain Girl's counter-service room carries the tastes of Puerto Rico, Cuba and the Dominican Republic, and Sauce singled out its handling of twice-fried plantains when it named the place to the Sauce 75. Order the roasted pork sandwich, the pollo guisado, the tostones, and the Jenga stacks of queso frito that arrive with a fruity guava sauce. The tangy pink sauce the restaurant takes its name from sits in squeeze bottles on every table.

Picks from Sauce Magazine, St. Louis Magazine, and St. Louis Post-Dispatch