Rigazzi's — Restaurant in St. Louis

I hate writing this review because my family and I have been going to Rigazzis for over 20 years. We are from out of state but come up several times in the year to see family and the Cardinals. This past weekend, we stopped by after going to the zoo for some Fish Bowls and appetizers. We were greeted immediately and were going to sit in the dining area...but the EuroCup was on and my son wanted to sit in the bar to watch the game. Normally, we would sit in the dining area where Leslie has been waiting on us for the past decade it seems. Anyways, within about 10 minutes of being there, no one had taken our drink order...which was not normal. Finally, the bartender came over and took our drink/food order. (Our party ordered 3 fish bowls, 2 kids waters, toasted ravioli, bruschetta, stuffed mushrooms, and a large salad, kids both had chicken tenders/fries)

Within 2 minutes of ordering, the tvs and computers all go out....which I know caused a lot of problems within the staff. People were walking around frantically trying to resolve the issue. One larger table next to us ended up walking out. Our table was very patient and entertained ourselves talking about our favorite things at the zoo....but after while we too became impatient. I know the computer/tv was out, but the bartender still could have poured our fish bowl beers and kids waters. The food still could have been made by kitchen staff. Finally a manager came over and asked if he could get anything for us and we politely asked for our drinks and also maybe some bread and a bowl of meat sauce to dip our bread in. He asked bartender to make our drinks, which he did on the spot, and then he went and brought us bread and sauce (although the meat sauce was ice cold).

So.....about 25-30 minuets later our food starts coming out in stages....the first being toasted ravioli and stuffed mushrooms. My wife immediately noticed the toasted ravioli was different than the ones we have ordered in the past....they were edible, but definitely NOT the same. The bruschetta and mushrooms were also just ok. The salad was delicious...as were the fishbowls...although it took an act of congress to get a 2nd one. My wife ended up going up to the bar to ask the bartender for another.

I think the most upsetting thing was the owner eventually came into the restaurant while all the chaos was going on, and not once did he come over and ask how we were. There were only maybe 10 people in the bar area, but he only talked to the 2 gentleman at the bar. As I said, Rigazzis has been a staple for our family but we all agreed how this visit left a bad taste in our mouth and we might not go back after this. If that was my last Rigazzi Fishbowl, so...

$742.00 down the drain. Let’s begin. Reservation was for 5pm for 15 people following my son’s HS graduation. Called at 3pm to move the reservation up as the ceremony was moving more quickly than anticipated (did this because 2 people would be coming from 45 mins away and needed to let them know). Was told 4:45pm was the best they could do. Walked in at 3:30pm and was told oh we can seat you now?? Um ok we’ll sit and wait for the other 2 and have a drink. After their arrival we ordered appetizers. Ravioli were terrible for what you expect at the Hill, not breaded, small, and Luke warm. Main entrees were extremely sub-standard with absolutely no seasoning. My linguine with clams was literally swimming in water (see pic) which I ended up sharing with my son and mom because the Margarita pizza they were going to share had 4-5 pieces with no cheese and what they said was gross and did not eat. My sister-in-law‘s Tutto Mare was supposed to come with shrimp, clams and mussels in a cream sauce. It was served with three shrimp and no cream sauce. Three people ordered manicotti and all three came out to be totally different from each other. We questioned the waitress about it and it was blown off due to the kitchen ware being different for each. Honestly, most of us ate part of our dishes because we were all starving from a long day of high school graduation but we definitely will not be back. There are 1 million other places on the hill that serve much higher quality than this restaurant. Things need to change here or they will be closed soon for the new owners.

Editing this post I found was the only way to respond to the owner. So here it goes.

You (the owner) have been posting for months and months that you are sharing the bad experiences with your team. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

It really would have been nice to say please come in for dinner on us because you spent a whole lot of money and had a terrible experience. Give us another try. But yet you gave the same response as you did on all the other 1 star and 2...

So I would like to start off by saying the food each time I have been to Rigazzi's has been absolutely delicious!! We were a party of 9...3 families.. this time and back in February were a party of 12..3 families. In February when we visited it was for our twins 16th Birthday dinner and we had the best time!!! Our waiter was Wally and he was absolutely wonderful!!!! His knowledge of the food and history of the restaurant was remarkable!!! So we thought ok it was so great let's go for my sisters in law's birthday!! Well this time was the absolute opposite. It was so terrible and disappointing that we..3 families. .will never return. Our waiter this time was Joey..I believe. We were there for 45 minutes before we even got our drinks and when I say drinks I mean Dr Pepper. We did receive water from his helper but did not receive Bread until we had to ask for it (after we got our drinks)and then for three families(9 people) we got one basket with bread in it and the lady that was the bartender brought it and said "we just took the butter out of the freezer but the bread is warm you just might have to hold the butter between your palms for a few minutes to warm it up." So here we are 1hr into our visit there and we get our appetizers, they were 👍 good!! Then another 30 minutes goes by and we get our food. Food was great...delicious!! Two times the waiter did apologize for it taking so long because they got a new system. Yet on the other side of the restaurant was Wally and his tables were not taking long at all..a family of four that sat down approximately 30 minutes after us already had their dinner served and we had to get other workers to get us the things we needed and he only asked one time we he brought our food.... finally .....if we needed anything else. Never returned to fill drinks or anything like that. Absolutely terribly disappointed. By the way we did request Wally when we were waiting 30 minutes for our table to which we had called ahead. And I get it fcfs. Just in awe that after February's experience that we had that awful awful experience. 🙄...