Pietro's — Restaurant in St. Louis

Experience was so awful that it was comical. Appetizers clearly from the freezer to the fryer. Entirely too much breading - more breading than the spinach or the zucchini inside. My lasagna and my sons fettuccine Alfredo were both forgettable, but my husband ordered the special – lobster ravioli. My husband group on a farm, and is the farthest thing from a snobbish diner who claim to have a refined pallet. He loves seafood, and can tolerate when something tastes a little “fishy,” so when he took one bite of the ravioli and said it was so fishy that he couldn’t even finish the one ravioli he had taken a bite of, there’s absolutely no reason not to believe him because he’s seldom, if ever, makes that complaint.

He also absolutely hates uncomfortable situations, such as sending food back, so even if he’s if the food is so-so, he will eat part of it to avoid the discomfort and possible attention mentioning the situation to the waitress might cause. I usually oblige, but I knew if he couldn’t take another bite it was BAD.

So the last time the waitress came by, she asked him if he wanted a box to take home his ravioli. So I stepped in and politely responded with something along the lines of, “unfortunately, the ravioli tasted so fishy that he actually couldn’t even eat it.” She pauses, looks at me and says “well, its lobster it’s supposed to be fishy!” feeling somewhat puzzled by her reaction, I repeated “yes, but this was so fishy that he couldn’t eat it.” and she simply pointed out that it was lobster again.

So when the bill came, and I was able to confirm that she had not made any attempt to rectify the situation, i.e. no apology, no bringing it to the manager’s attention, no offer of a free cannoli or whatever was on their dessert menu, just the itemized bill, untouched.

So I hastily figured, our bill was $100, typically I would’ve tipped her at least $20, the ravioli was $28, so I drew a line through the blank placeholder where we would write the tip in and where you would write the subtotal, and then wrote the exact bill amount with nothing added on to the final line. My husband was already feeling uncomfortable, so we didn’t waste time in leaving.

But the best part is when we are in the alleyway walking to our car, and the backdoor to Pietro’s opens. Our waitress has our bill in her hand and she’s demanding “you didn’t leave me a tip, don’t you want to reconsider leaving me a tip?” And I replied “and don’t you want to consider taking ravioli off of the bill?” Clearly, a rhetorical question that I didn’t wait for an answer for, and we drove away, laughing hysterically that she ran after us in the alleyway yelling in her somewhat broken English that we need to reconsider leaving her tip, as if there was amy chance that would help her cause. 😂😂😂

On the bright side, I’d take the story/memory over the lobster ravioli any day. (Of course, my lasagna was...

Once again I reluctantly left the comfort of my apartment, bravely facing the outside world in search of adventure. Well, sort of. I was actually just lying on the couch when I suddenly decided I should get up and try something new - like going to the gym. But instead, I ended up dragging the nearest person to me to dinner. Hey, eating is like a workout for the taste buds, right?

As we sat in the car, the inevitable question arose - where to dine? Sushi? Burgers? Nah, how about that Italian place I always pass by but never actually visit? Pietros, I'm coming for you tonight.

Stepping into the restaurant, I navigated past the lively bar area (must be where all the fun is at) and opted for a cozy indoor table due to the rain outside. The menu looked very "Italian restaurant-ish" and we started with some house salads and an intriguing appetizer of spinach balls - an experience I wasn't quite sure how to process, but hey, I'm always up for a culinary adventure.

Moving on to the main course, my dining companion went for the grouper, which received high praise from my taste-testing efforts. As for me, I chose the ravioli because today during a work meeting a colleague pulled out a can of chef boyardee from his bag and just started eating it. Not warm it up or putting cheese on top just im hungry and this was in my work bag at 813am. The hand-made ravioli turned out to be a delectable choice that left me happily full and a tad wobbly, as I ate to much, while I made my way back to the car.

Overall, Pietros impressed and I'm already planning my return visit to explore more of their tempting Italian offerings. Who knew leaving my apartment could lead to such delicious...

A St. Louis landmark, or should be if not.

This place has been around since I was a kid, which was a very, very long time ago. I’m glad to see that they are still around and still serving delicious food.

I haven’t eaten Pietro’s in more than two decades. Partly because I lived out of state for most of that time and partly because I kind of forgot about them.

I found myself working right down the street and decided to place an order to go. I placed the order online, which was convenient. When I walked in a young guy popped out of nowhere to greet me. He was very friendly and polite. He went to get my order and promptly returned. He was also very considerate and conscientious of social distancing and politely asked that he be allowed to set the bag down rather than directly handing it to me.

In all, great experience and brought back a lot of memories. I’ve told friends about this place since my visit.

My order: Lunch Burger combo that came with a salad and a side.

The burger was huge and came with the usual burger stuff. Nicely cooked and tasty!

The salad was nothing special but a nice little bonus.

I chose white pasta for my side. It was served in a giant container and was almost a meal on its own. I will say that the only downside was that the white sauce was a little runny. It was still flavorful and tasty but I would prefer a slightly thicker white sauce...