GIO Modern Italian — Restaurant in Chesterfield

Gio Modern Italian (138 Chesterfield Towne Center, Chesterfield, MO 63005) — Sunlit Modernity with a Cozy Italian Heart Visited: Thursday, October 02, 2025 UTC Atmosphere Modern Italian in the best sense: clean-lined, softly lit, and buoyed by gracious service that knows when to appear and when to let you linger. Tucked into a plaza off Long Road in Chesterfield Valley, Gio feels like a polished find—one of those addresses you pass twice, then guard like a secret. Large windows frame the outside world in generous brushstrokes, letting the dining room glow with late-day light. It’s stylish without stiffness, the sort of room where a date night with my spouse could stretch into an encore espresso simply because the evening fits just right. The Food I Tasted

Arancini ($13): Signature saffron risotto orbs, fried to a delicate, golden hush. Break the crust and you’re met with molten mozzarella, sweet peas, and savory meat—each bite a little crescendo of aroma and comfort. They land at the table hot enough to fog your glasses, which is to say: precisely right.

Baked Lobster Mac N’ Cheese ($28): A velvet‑lined indulgence. The butternut cream brings gentle autumnal sweetness, the roasted squash adds caramelized depth, and the fontina melts into a silken, savory blanket. Generous ribbons of lobster weave through, their briny richness countered by a breadcrumb and bacon crown that crackles into every forkful. It’s composed decadence—luxury taught to sit up straight.

Seared Pork Rib Chop ($27): A confident sear gives way to juicy integrity, the kind of chop that announces itself with aroma before the first cut. The whiskey grain mustard sauce is a clever flourish—warm, slightly boisterous, and exactly the zing a rib chop adores. Potatoes offer a buttery anchor, asparagus provides a green snap, and mushrooms deliver earthiness, tying the plate together with an understated nod to the forest floor.

Price & Value With appetizers at $13 and mains at $27–$28, Gio Modern Italian sits in that civilized corridor between casual and celebratory. Portions satisfy without shouting, and the ingredients—lobster that actually tastes of the sea, a properly seared chop, saffron‑kissed arancini—justify the spend. In short: excellent value for thoughtfully executed comfort dressed in modern tailoring. Will I Return? Yes. Gio captures the modern Italian brief with style and tenderness: sunlight, smart flavors, and hospitality that makes time behave itself. I’ll be back for another round of arancini, that swaggering pork chop, and a leisurely gaze through those big windows while the...

We made a reservation a few weeks ago for 6 on the patio. We are a family with 6 adults, 3 men, 3 women. We were put at a table for 4, with 2 extra chairs pulled up to put on the end. I told the hostess this was not acceptable as we were not going to be able to have 6 full plates placed on the table. She said they do this all the time with no problems. I asked to speak to the manager. No one ever came by. They brought out bread to the table, but we only had 2 bread plates to share among the whole table. We had to ask for water several times. I asked for a house rose or zinfandel, wanting a chilled wine. I was brought a red zinfandel. But I was not specific, so that was sort of on me. The waiter could tell I was not happy though.

When our dinner came, as predicted, there was not enough room for all 6 plates on the table. 2 of us had ordered meals that came on big cutting boards. My brother-in-law was very angry and sent his meal back to be boxed up. He ended up paying full price for his meal, and he was so angry he did not leave much of a tip and he left the food behind on purpose. My husband ended up putting an extra $20 tip with our check to make up for it. So our meal ended up costing us even more.

There was nothing offered to us to compensate for the bad experience we had. Not even a free dessert. We paid full price for all of our meals, including the one we did not have room on the table for. It all left a very bad taste in our mouths, not unlike the dry, warm wine I...

Consider this a rating/review of the "wild mushroom pappardelle" rather than the restaurant as a whole. The restaurant is fine. The service was fine. Not going too far out of my way to go back, but it was fine.

The wild mushroom pappardelle was atrocious. First off, I should've suspected something when the menu lists portabella as one of the "wild" mushrooms. Ok. That's on me.

The pappardelle was all clumped together into dreadlocks that had to be pulled apart and some of the mats were nearly raw in the center. Those were set aside. Side note on the service: if you see a pile of matted noodles on a guest's bread plate, all is not well with the pappardelle.

Not a single grain of salt was used in the making of this dish.

The "olive oil sherry sauce" tasted like hot mushroom water with notes of cheap cooking wine. I can still smell the sherry in my sinuses, oddly.

The sundried tomatoes were placed in the dish whole, not sliced, diced or whatever, just whole tomato pucks wandering around between noodle clumps and sad, rubbery mushrooms. On the upside, the tomatoes were the best bites of the dish, and they were big bites! On the other hand, if the tomatoes were cut up a bit, they might have shared their yummy goodness with the rest of the insipid hot mushroom water "sauce".

Everyone else liked their food. This dish maybe should not be on the menu. It's a...