Zia's on The Hill — Restaurant in St. Louis

We brought our 6-year-old daughter to Zia’s on The Hill today, driving almost an hour from Wildwood, Missouri. Our daughter uses a wheelchair due to a lifelong disability. She was so excited to eat out as a family and try this classic St. Louis restaurant.

But when we arrived, we found that there was no wheelchair access whatsoever—just a set of steps leading to the front door.

I asked the manager if there was any alternate entrance. His response?

“We’re grandfathered in. Sorry.”

That was it. No empathy. No apology. No offer to help. Just a cold, dismissive excuse for twenty years of inaction.

Let me be crystal clear: what he was saying is that because the building is old enough, it doesn’t have to comply with modern ADA accessibility laws. But just because the law doesn’t force you to care doesn’t mean you shouldn’t care.

What kind of business hides behind a loophole to justify excluding a child in a wheelchair? What kind of manager looks a little girl in the eyes—heartbroken because she can’t even enter the building—and just shrugs?

It’s not about the steps. It’s about the message: “You don’t matter enough for us to make room for you.”

In 2025, there is no excuse for a restaurant not to offer basic accessibility—especially one with Zia’s reputation and resources. Installing a concrete slab or ramp is not impossible. It’s just not a priority. And that speaks volumes.

We didn’t get to eat today. Instead, we had to explain to our daughter why some places still choose to keep people like her out. Zia’s made her feel like an afterthought. And that pain stays with a kid.

If you care about inclusion, about dignity, or about the simple idea that everyone should be able to share a meal with their family—please think twice before supporting a place that refuses to evolve.

Zia’s, you had 20 years to fix this. You still can. But today, you failed my family.

Please, Im begging you, stand with the disabled community. Do NOT eat at...

I chose this picture for this review to clearly show the ham in the dish. That was supposed to be prosciutto.....it is not.

We came here because of the show 'Fresh, Fried, and Crispy'. On the show, the aroncini looked amazing! In reality, they were smaller than a golf ball and very peppery. My husband ordered the Pollo Zia, which was supposed to be chicken with melted cheese in a lemon butter sauce with mustooms, broccoli, and prosciutto; His dish came with a side salad and pasta with alfredo sauce. I ordered Linguini Carbonara (on the menu, it was made clear they used cream in the sauce....so not really carbonara).

First, my husband was served his salad which was overdressed to the point of being completely soggy. Then out entrees came out. Not our appetizer.....our entrees. My husband's was initially wrong, which the waiter caught and fixed quickly. My not carbonate was average. It was basically mushrooms and bacon with linguini tossed in Alfredo sauce (something I was able to confirm because my husband's meal came with Alfredo suace). When my husband's meal came oymut, it was very clearly marsala sauce and there was no prosciutto in it.....just cut up bits of ham. After he get his entree, he asked the waiter about our appetizer, which the waiter blamed on the kitchen messing up and then asked if we still wanted it. Once the appetizer got to us, it was hot and Crispy, buy also very peppery and the marinara we were given with them tasted like a sweet tin can.

We will...

Our experience at Zia’s was very poor. We went Zia’s after an afternoon of Italian grocery shopping. We had an hour wait. Was expected. We were put in the 1st dining room and our server was Ian. We waited for some time before our server came by. He did not offer us any specials. We placed the order, I put in a special request for my pasta then waited for our appetizer. Then we overheard another waiter offering a seafood pasta. I would have ordered that. Finally our appetizer arrived. Our waiter sat it on the table and disappeared again. We didn’t have any silverware. We sat there for some time until a different waiter noticed. Then I had to ask for bread. Our dinner finally arrived and he brought the bread. My pasta was wrong but Ian didn’t return until we had finished. We had wanted dessert and coffee but none was offered. Ian took my credit card without giving us the bill. He rang us up and then brought my card back with the check. I think Ian was disappointed in his tip. He received more than my husband wanted to leave, and if you would have been attentive, asked us what we wanted, etc. the total would have doubled and we always leave 20%+. The Hill has a lot of great places to eat, and we go every Saturday. Ian you left a bad taste in our...