Mai Lee

Verdict: Book It — Mai Lee Is the Vietnamese Benchmark for St. Louis

Mai Lee is the restaurant to know if you want Vietnamese food in St. Louis. Ranked on Opinionated About Dining's Cheap Eats list for North America three consecutive years — including #456 in 2024 and #493 in 2025 , it holds a credible regional and national position for the price tier. With a 4.5 Google rating across more than 2,700 reviews, the consistency is documented at scale. If Vietnamese is your format and you're in St. Louis, this is where you go.

What to Expect

Mai Lee sits in Brentwood, a low-key suburban pocket southwest of central St. Louis. The address , 8396 Musick Memorial Dr , puts it in a strip-commercial setting rather than a destination dining district, which means parking is easy and the crowd skews local and repeat. Don't arrive expecting a polished room: the draw here is the food and the value, not the setting. Chef Qui Tran leads the kitchen, and the restaurant's OAD recognition signals that the cooking is taken seriously by the people who track this category across the continent.

As a casual, accessible Vietnamese spot at the leading of the OAD Cheap Eats bracket, Mai Lee fits the profile of a weekday lunch or a low-effort dinner where the quality-to-price ratio does the heavy lifting. Tuesdays through Sundays, doors open at 11 am and service runs through 9 pm. Monday is closed. That Tuesday-to-Sunday window gives you six days to work with, and the 11 am open makes it a practical lunch option on any weekday. There's no booking difficulty here , walk-in should be manageable, particularly at lunch.

On Takeout and Delivery

Vietnamese food at this tier tends to travel better than most: broth-based dishes like pho hold well when packaged correctly, and cold-roll or noodle formats are more forgiving than, say, fried items from a higher-heat kitchen. For a Brentwood-based restaurant with strong repeat business and a largely local customer base, takeout is a natural fit. If you're planning an off-premise order, check directly with the restaurant on current packaging and delivery availability, since those logistics aren't documented here. What the OAD recognition does confirm is that the food is worth the effort of getting it home intact , this isn't a backup option, it's a destination in its own right, whether you eat in or take out.

For comparison within the Vietnamese category nationally, Camille in Orlando represents a more refined, sit-down Vietnamese experience at a higher price point, while Tầm Vị in Hanoi is the source-country reference for the cuisine. Mai Lee occupies its own lane: approachable, unpretentious, and well above average for its tier in the US Midwest.

Booking and Logistics

Walk-ins are the default here. No booking difficulty is flagged, and the format , a casual Vietnamese restaurant open six days a week from 11 am , doesn't require advance planning the way a tasting-menu spot like The French Laundry or Smyth in Chicago would. If you're visiting St. Louis and want to plan the day around it, locking in a time mentally is enough , you won't need to book weeks out. For groups, arriving early in the service window (11 am to noon, or just before the dinner rush at 5 pm) gives you the most flexibility.

How It Compares: St. Louis Dining Context

Mai Lee is the Vietnamese option in St. Louis's casual dining tier , there's no direct competitor in the city at the same recognition level. But if you're building a St. Louis itinerary and weighing where to spend a meal, the broader context matters. Pappy's Smokehouse and Bogart's Smokehouse are the city's barbecue anchors , longer waits, meatier occasions. Crown Candy Kitchen covers the nostalgic diner format. Robin and MAINLANDER represent the more contemporary, seasonal end of the local dining scene. Mai Lee fills a distinct gap: nationally recognised, value-priced, cuisine-specific. For a full picture of where else to eat, drink, and stay, see our full St. Louis restaurants guide, our St. Louis bars guide, and our St. Louis hotels guide. If you're exploring beyond food, our St. Louis experiences guide and wineries guide have you covered.

Ratings at a Glance

• OAD Cheap Eats North America: Ranked #493 (2025), #456 (2024), Recommended (2023)
• Google: 4.5 / 5 (2,706 reviews)

Practical Details