Stefanina's Pizzeria & Restaurant O'Fallon — Restaurant in O’Fallon

Good evening folks. I must say I have always enjoyed going to this restaurant ever since I moved to St. Charles over 15 years ago, and realized the difference in the quality of the food between the one in Wentzville (5 miles from my home) and this location (8 miles).

….until tonight. Must have been the nice weather that brought in a heavier crowd tonight than I have ever seen, and the orders could not be delivered as fast as they were coming in. Ordered my food at 5:55pm, left the house and before I got there, even talked to a neighbor telling him where I was going. Was told that the order would be ready in 30 minutes, and after parking the car which seemed like eternity (the parking is terrible), got into the restaurant at 6:35pm. It was interesting when I got there and paid for this, that the girl told me that it just went into the oven. Now you know that I have run many pizza ovens before, and it usually takes about 8-11 minutes for a pizza to be cooked.

I do not know if they misplaced my order, or what transpired, but it was fun to see all the controlled chaos in the back while the pizzas were being made. Must be a method to their madness to get this all done.

What happened to my order you may ask? While I patiently waited, I saw all the orders on the counter, some with time stamps after my 5:58 (I gather that is when I finished the phone call) – and some of those go out the door with pizza orders like mine before my name was called. Then I see a pizza hurriedly get taken out of the oven and put into the box, but because they were in a hurry, the topping did a slide, of which they had to lift this pizza up, move the toppings around, and put it back together – and you can guess what I am about to say – it was mine.

I looked at the pizza, asked the guy who gave it to me what I should do, and he said he could do nothing about it. Many of you know who I am – and rarely will you ever find me speechless… but this guy did it – and I was taught that if you cannot say anything positive while angry – keep your mouth shut. I did and walked right out of there into my car.

Keep in mind now that the time is 7:05 when I got into my car - while starting it up, I called my wife telling here I was on my way home.

Upon my arrival, I took the photos you see here, and you might say - I was a bit angry. I tried to call – the first time I was disconnected, and then the second time, I asked when would it be a good time to talk to the manager. (it was 7:20 and they were surely busy)

I called back at 10:40pm, and got ahold of a manger named Erin, who told me that she was the one who took my order, told me that it would be ready in “40-minutes”, and that she can assure me that it was not after 7:00pm when I picked up my order. Strange as it may seem that she was so sure of herself, as I have time-stamped phone calls when everything took place that I have mentioned above, but for some reason, time must have not moved at the restaurant - as well as I know that what is customary 30 minutes to be completed, would have surely noted if she stated to me "40".

I will say the pizza and food is very good here, but to be told that I was mistaken and that she was sure that I was wrong – makes me think that even a good restaurant like this does not need to be seeing the likes of me anytime soon, especially if they feel that what they delivered to me tonight with the ingredients all over the place – was satisfactory and that they cannot do anything about it.

I hope as they mentioned tonight, that their new restaurant in Winghaven which is supposed to eliminate the crowds there in O'Fallon would not have these issues that they were facing tonight. However, if they keep delivery a pizza presented like such, maybe they will eliminate the crowd themselves by their "professionalism" - or the lack thereof. I tried to post this on their FB page, but could...

I waited to post this so the health inspector could possibly investigate. I hadn't eaten at the O'Fallon Stefanina's for at least 15 years. (Note that the Wentzville Stefanina's has different ownership and we eat there, no problem). After shopping right before Christmas, I ordered an Italian sandwich (with lettuce /tomato so not everything was cooked) to pick up on my way home (ready about 9:30pm). It wasn't ready when I got there but no big deal. They have a partially open kitchen design so you can see some of the prep. There were 2 young men (probably in their early 20s), a man and woman who looked to be owners or managers and a couple of other ladies. The young men and managers were on their cell phones texting, surfing or whatever, most of the time I was there. One of the young men disappeared, possibly to make my sandwich. The other young man (while standing next to one of the managers), took his right hand off of his phone and while still focused on the screen, punched down/kneaded the enormous mound of what looked to be pizza dough for the next day. About 30 seconds later his hand went back to the phone. He, nor anyone else I saw was wearing gloves. He never left to wash his hands before or after kneading the dough. I'm not a germophobe or clean freak but your cell phone is disgusting. Many people are on their phones while sitting on the toilet. And this is also mid December and the flu was going around. I was so grossed out that I dumped the food bag (which smelled delicious) into the trash container on my way into the house. If that young man could do that right in front of the manager, I don't have any confidence in the overall cleanliness of the restaurant! I ate some cereal and then for the first time in my life contacted the health department. I will never...

Went about 5 on a Saturday. Was packed by the time we left. Before we went in I saw tons of carry outs happening. This place was recommended to us. We were in the area for a comedy show and wanted a non chain place to eat beforehand. Food was great! A small pizza was huge, salads can seriously be split between 2 (would like a small of half salad option) extremely generous portions. Pizza was fantastic and dough hand tossed. Cannalloni -was asked if she wanted white or red sauce -red but got a tomato cream sauce-which was perfectly paired but she thought it would be a marinara. Tour of Italy-again huge . Enough for 2 people and leftovers. Overall food was fantastic. Service left a little to be desired. We had a reservation and we were sat right away even tho 2 of our oarty had not arrived. We were acknowledged and drink order was quick. Apps came out fairly quick as well. Salads and entrees took almost 40 minutes and were brought back to back. And the server who brought the food didn't know what some of the dishes were (we had 2 that were similar so we had to eyeball them to see difference) one of meals came with rolls and we had to ask for the rolls. Drinks got messed up a bit with refills when our main server wasn't doing them. I felt there was enough staff around that food shouldn't have taken that long and other tables that seated after us were getting stuff before us so not sure what was happening there. Maybe our server was having an off night? Bottom line food was great and we...