Faraci Pizza — Restaurant in Ellisville

I wish that I could leave a review relevant to the many years prior that I have patronized this restaurant. Staff through the years has changed often, so it has been a long time since I can remember a great customer service experience. Renee used to be the only one with a smile in the entire facility. In order to avoid this, most often I just order carryout. I have been a loyal customer for over 30 years. As a child I remember the experience of eating here.

Tonight while dining indoors since the first time since COVID, I have to say I was so disturbed to even have to leave this review. Sitting in the dining room next to the register I witnessed two staff members pull their mask down and blow their nose loud enough for the entire front area to turn their heads. It was almost as if I was in a parallel universe. During the middle of a pandemic and blowing your nose in a loud honking noise in a place where people are unmasked and eating?! Are you actually serious? Last but not least, pulling your mask back up and then resuming your handling of food, plates, and glassware. No trip to the restroom to properly wash or sanitize. THEN reporting this to the owner of the restaurant as she walked past our table on her way out for the evening. Her response? Go tell my son. He is in the kitchen and I am leaving for the evening.

To say I am appauled by such disregard for health and hygiene is just inexcusable. After asking her repeatedly not to walk up front and cause a scene, she pulled the girls out from the cash register while I sat by and watched. Not to mention threw her coat and purse onto the table and rolled her eyes at the effort it took to walk up front. Totally and completely unapologetic and very much bothered.

The remaining time in the dining room was followed by dirty looks and chatter amongst the two staff members guilty of such behavior. No apology. No sincere attempt to tell someone, let alone a loyal customer how much you take this seriously.

We are in the midst of a global health crisis and this has affected not only lives, but many businesses. It is truly sad that the customer is not valued nor the health and safety of the customer dining experience. I have kept my mouth shut for many years after feeling unappreciated as a loyal customer. There have been times that the wait for pizza is over an hour and the phone calls in for take-out have been so abrupt and rude as if the business isn't at all bothered if you patronize them or not. I have no formal complaints about the food, but the service and loyalty is so severely lacking. It is a shame that a business in this day and age wouldn't consider the retention of their long time clients and even say hello to them as they enter the establishment. When Mr. Faraci was alive this was always a priority. Instead today it is glares and feeling as if you are just another frustration. Never once has Mrs. Faraci or her son made an effort to even speak or address myself or my family.

I hope that this review really hits home. I will never...

My husband's favorite pizza of all time and definitely one of my favorites (and I'm a Chicago native). We have become regulars going ~3 times per month. The pizza is thin and crispy and is always consistent and delicious. Our usual is sausage and mushroom and we will also get sausage and pepperoni when we bring my sister-in-law and their family. The ingredients are always good and fresh. We always get toasted ravioli too and they are so so good. Recently we started ordering a side of fries originally for the kids but they are so crisp and hot that now we have to get them everytime also. We have had the wings before and they are yummy too.

I only have 2 things that I think they can improve. 1) Bathroom: There is a single mens and a single womens bathroom. Get a baby changing table in at least the womens bathroom. Such a cheap improvement that they can make to increase the appeal to families. I hate changing the babies diaper on my lap on the toilet. The toilet could also use someone to look at it because when you sit down it wobbles. If you only have 1 bathroom it should be nice. Nothing fancy needed but just a solid bathroom. 2) Salads: With pizza many people want salads. I highly suggest stepping up the salad menu. They have limited salad and dressing choices. I only got the side salad once and likely won't again unless something changes. They really only had 1 dressing choice (house vinigar and oil type that didn't have much flavor imo) and was baffled when I asked if they can add cheese to my salad.

Overall great place to go for great food, friendly staff and a...

Called several hours early to check if they were doing dining in because we were coming in from out of town around 4:30. A rather aggressively impatient gentlemen said that they were booked until 5:45 and I asked could they fit us in then. Her said yes. Now, again, I clearly told him that we were coming in from out of town, visiting the Science Center, and we would be dining in. I ordered 5 pizzas.

We showed up and are told that they do not do dining in orders over the phone and only do carry out. The gentleman that took my order continued to be very rude (but the lady working the counter tried being sweet) and he basically called us liars in front of his restaurant, refused to seat us, and told us we could take our food and eat in our car.

We had driven from Columbia, MO for this trip and for THESE pizzas. I had sold these to my friends as the best pizza in St. Louis. I have been going to Faraci's for almost 20 years (used to live in Ferguson) and I have never been treated so poorly before so all of this catching me off guard.

Since we had already ordered the pizzas, I felt obligated to still buy them but I was still very disappointed. And then kicker is that our pizzas were not even cooked correctly! I had asked for all of them to be cooked well done and none of them were so they were not up to there normal quality... but still dang good.

Maybe it was a one off bad night. Maybe not. Either way, it's really left a stain on used to be a spotless reputation in my eyes. My friends liked the pizza but all they will remember now is how poorly we...