Fitz's Delmar — Restaurant in University City

Fitz’s may be known for their root beer, but the restaurant is not to be underestimated. In the dining room, there’s a giant window offering a peek at the assembly line for their sodas and if you come at the right time, you can see the bottles rolling along for tumbling and labeling. It’s a rare thing to see in a restaurant and it adds to the fun atmosphere. They have a large dining room as well as some additional seating just up a set of stairs.

The sodas are the star of the show at Fitz’s. If you’ve never been, you can go wrong getting a frosty mug of their root beer. It’s famous for a reason, it’s hands down the best root beer I’ve ever encountered. The other soda flavors are all great and the best thing about the unlimited mug is that you can refill with a different soda if you want to try another. The floats are absolutely huge and can easily be shared unless you’re really hungry. The server was kind and split our float into 2 mugs which I greatly appreciated. They also have shakes and malts, which I’m sure are good, but the floats are gonna be the thing to start with.

The food itself has a lot of standards you’d expect in St Louis such as toasted ravioli, BBQ, slingers, burgers, pizzas, and sandwiches. The burgers are large, well seasoned, and delicious, especially that BBQ burger. I’ve also enjoyed both the spicy chicken sandwich as well as the turkey club. Get a side of the chili mayo to dip your fries in and you will not regret it. In a place known for soda, I wasn’t expecting the food to be as good as it was. The small but mighty kitchen is nonstop with all of the employees working hard to push the orders out quickly and perfectly. They don’t have many desserts, but their gooey butter cake came out nice and warm with whipped cream and it was so tasty.

This restaurant can get very busy and it’s not uncommon to have a long wait. The staff has always done a great job communicating and setting realistic expectations. All of the servers are so friendly, aren’t afraid to make recommendations first timers, and are quick to help. I’ve always been impressed with the quality of the service they consistently provide. That’s not an easy thing to do in a place that’s so busy all the time. Hats off to Fitz’s for providing a great experience and serving up...

The food here was pretty good but the service here is awful. We came on a Tuesday night with my husband, three children, and my husband's aunt and uncle. We waited about 30 minutes for a table which was fine but once seated, weren't offered drink menus and the kids weren't given kids menus. When I asked for kids menus the server said he thought they had them, he would check but never returned with them so I eventually went back downstairs to the hostess stand myself to ask as my kids were getting antsy. He brought my husband and his uncle the wrong beers (they were given sours instead of IPAs- a very noticeable difference) and when they requested the right ones, he never brought them even though he said he would. My uncle brought the incorrect beers back up to the bartender who then told them she gave them the correct beer. My uncle asked her to pour the IPA they had picked and there was a noticeable color difference that she could clearly see. Our server seemed new or inexperienced, we had to ask for waters and refills several times before he would remember and he left us for a long period of time between ordering and when our food came without checking on us or giving us any updates. I think it took about 40 minutes for the food to come as we watched tables that came in after us get there food before us. The worst part was shortly after the food finally came the staff started putting up chairs around us, like WE were the ones keeping THEM. I checked the time and it was 8:20pm. I had made a deal with my kids that they could have the milkshakes Fritz is famous for after dinner if they ordered something reasonably healthy off the menu but then had to break that promise because it was clear the staff wanted us out. Definitely won't be coming back again, what should have been a nice family meal turned into a very disappointing dining...

My girlfriends and I were visiting St. Louis and we had dinner at Fitz's Delmar last night. We had a marvelous meal!

Special thanks to Ashley S, who took AMAZING care of us in the upstairs bar area! She gave us a warm welcome when we arrived, and we chatted about how we were enjoying our first time in the area. She was very friendly and took time to guide us through the menu, and gladly took our requests for modifications to our meals. She checked back during our meal to make sure we were happy with our food and drink, and cheerfully answered the periodic questions we had. She kept my friends' "bottomless mugs" of root beer and cream soda filled, and gave me good recommendations for draft beer.

All our drinks were yummy; I especially liked the Shock Top Belgian white ale. Served with an orange slice, it was light and citrusy. Very refreshing! I had the street tacos (with fish) and they were extremely tasty; Ashley offered a side of pineapple in lieu of the usual sides, and that was a perfect pairing with the tacos. My friend who had the patty melt (with coleslaw side) said the meat was delicious on a sesame seed bun (rather than the Texas toast), and the coleslaw was quite good. My friend who had the fish and chips up-sided to sweet potato fries, which were HEAVENLY! We all got to share them, which was a bonus. :-) Our meals were delivered quite quickly, and everything was hot and fresh.

The ambience of the restaurant has an airy, welcoming and fun vibe. The downstairs front area is open to two levels, and from the upper bar area we were able to look out over it. The downstairs bar still has the old draft beer tap.

Our dinner at Fitz's was a PERFECT first meal in St. Louis, and we really appreciate the hospitality! It will be one of the favorite memories of our trip. ...