T. Arcobasso's Italian Ristorante — Restaurant in Weldon Spring

We just returned from our first visit to this restaurant. I had been asking my family to try this place for ages. I so wanted to enjoy it. We arrived at roughly 7:00 pm. There were plenty of "empty" tables but they had not been bussed. After waiting about 5 minutes (with no one ahead of us) we were finally seated. Once we were seated, the hostess took our drink order. When I asked what the specials were since we had never been there before, her answer was "I have no idea, I am not your server." This is problem number 1 -- all wait staff should know about any specials (and we later learned there was only one special tonight so there is no reason for her to not know it). Problem number 2 - from time we were seated until someone came to take our order was over 20 minutes. I had to ask for someone to find a server at one point. We were close to paying for our drinks and leaving.

We were at the front booth at the window and there was a different waitress serving the tables around us. When we finally got our server, she was incredibly rude. When I asked if I could substitute a cream sauce for a red sauce in a dish she responded in a very snippy tone "You will have to pay an upcharge to change the sauce." When I asked if she was sure because I often substitute a cream sauce for a red sauce at Italian restaurants and I can only think of one other place that charged me for the switch, she said "It costs more so you pay more."

So we settled on our dish and ordered. They delivered what I was so hoping would be Italian bread to the table. But, alas, it was not. It was the equivalent of Wonder bread warmed in a microwave with butter packets.

We were never visited for drink refills.

When we received our food, my roast beef was great but my fries were very salty. Both were hot and as ordered. I asked my waitress for ketchup for the fries. The ketchup arrived when I had finished about 60% of my sandwich.

My husband ordered the grilled chicken sandwich. He said his was overcooked but hot as ordered. He had the red sauce pasta side dish which was "Ok."

Not one person came to ask about our order or our food. As we were eating, the restaurant was emptying out. There was no "dinner rush" to explain the service (or lack thereof).

I asked another server for our check. When our server brought it, I smiled and said "Thank you." I was looking for a "You are welcome" and some minimal eye contact. Some recognition that she actually cared about her customer. My husband and I agreed that this was really bad service.

I took the time to watch the servers and their attitude with customers in general. No one looked liked they enjoyed their job or wanted to be there. I did not hear or see anything going on like back of the house bickering. Nevertheless, there was no sense of pride in what they were presenting to us, or others.

I would strongly suggest some "customer service" training from shift managers down. Basic manners such as saying "please", "thank you," "you're welcome" as well as recognizing when a customer is aggravated at things like an unusual delay can go a long way and that would cost the restaurant nothing.

If the restaurant doubts some of these reviews, consider hiring some "secret shopper" type customers who are paid to give professional opinions of the service and perhaps announce to your staff that it is happening and that every employee who gets a 4 out of 5 star review might get $50 gift card and 5 out of 5 $100 gift card (from the secret shoppers, not random customers since friends can get roped into that system).

The bread service -- it is time for a bolder choice here. Bread isn't "cheap" - I understand. However, when you serve what looks, smells and tastes like microwaved Wonder Bread, it is better to not have bread service. The current bread feels like you are "faking" being Italian when that is not the case. Compare Cannolis in Florissant with olive oil and pepper & Italian rolls presented by...

For years this has been my favorite restaurant, but we will not be going back.

My husband and I came here on Valentines day, with the assumption that it would be busy, but we were in no hurry. So it was not a big deal that everything took quite a bit longer than it should have (at this time they were not too busy anymore), drinks were made incorrectly, or that we asked 2 times for the server to bring more bread that we never got (either time.)

Both my husband and I ordered steaks, my was cooked perfectly. My husband ordered his rare but it was cooked well done, so he sent it back. While waiting, they brought him his side of broccoli, while I ate my dinner. When it came back out, it was just raw- it didn't even look remotely cooked on the outside. At this point, I am done eating, so my husband just asks them to put it in a box and he would fininsh cooking the steak at home. The server says she will talk to the owner.

We waited for at least 30 minutes, with empty drinks, just for the steak to be boxed & our check to be brought to our table. By the time they finally came out with out stuff, we were beyond angry- we have been here about 2 hours by this point. My husband sends the steak back and asks for it to just be taken off the bill. They need to talk to the owner again, so once again we waited, and waited.

Finally they come back to our table with the steak removed from the check, but the owner made sure to charge for the side salad and side of broccoli that came with my husband's meal.

You are going to charge us $7.00 for a salad and a side of broccoli that came with the steak THAT YOUR KITCHEN WAS INCAPABLE OF COOKING CORRECTLY TWICE? How unbelievably petty. Do you think we wasted 2 hours of our Valentine's day to eat separately & scam your restaurant out of $7.00 worth of vegetables? ...

We used to be frequent diners when they started out in the Dellwood location. Whe my husband and I moved to O’Fallon and heard they had moved to Weldon Springs we were thrilled! It was the worse food we had eaten anywhere in a long time. Their wonderful house dressing was old and grainy. My husband got pasta con broccoli. Instead of the creamy, delicious dish we had expected, it was tasteless, buttery noodles. They apparently replaced cream with milk and the Parmesan/Romano cheese was scarce, if at all. It was a milky, buttery bowl of pasta with a few specs of broccoli. Aweful!

I got chicken Marsala. It is one of my favorite dishes. Although each reputable Italian restaurant has their own recipe, this was not even close to what Marsala sauce should be. It was DISGUSTING!! It came with a thin, tiny piece of chicken breast, with a dark brown sickening sweet gue. It tasted like they used dark brown sugar or molasses in it. I’ve never seen anything like it. If there was any Marsala in it, I certainly couldn’t taste it over the dark sugar taste and buttery grease. There were about 6 tiny pieces of mushroom and a few stands of onion (?). I asked that they hold the bell pepper for medical reasons. I had a side of broccoli that was ice cold with a hint of finely shredded Parmesan cheese.

When I was opening my silverware I was stunned to see it was wrapped in two cheap little gas station paper towels! Not even a cheap napkin….

For the high prices I expected at least good food. Obviously, they have cut way too many corners and raised the prices so much that we will never go back, and have told everyone we know about this horrible experience. Go to Fratelli’s!!! They are clean, classy and have the best Italian food around. Shame on Arcabasso’s! They should...