Balducci’s Winefest Restaurant

While the décor could use a major update, the wine and the food make it worth the trip to Balducci’s. I had the seafood pasta and even though the pasta was slightly over cooked, there was a good amount of seafood and the sauce was tasty.

I’ve been to Balduccis a few times over the past month for various parties. It’s in kind of a hole-​in-​the-​wall strip mall but don’t let that fool you, the restaurant is actually pretty big as you walk downstairs.
Every time we went there the party ordered pizza which was very good but nothing spectacular. The deep dish cheese pizza was better than the thin crust and usually I feel the opposite as I really enjoy St. Louis-​style pizza (just goes to show how much I liked the deep dish).
Service was good as the waitresses and hostesses were friendly and attentive. Overall I’d recommend giving it a try.

Best restaurant in the area and fair prices. Their pizza is the best!
Best restaurant in the area and fair prices. Their pizza is the best!

Delightful restaurant! We were visiting from out of town and wanted Pizza. The atmosphere is quaint. You go downstairs to be seated and it feels like you are with family! The staff are friendly! The thin crust pizza was great! Will definitely go back on my next visit!

Had the chix parm which was good however the spaghetti was over cooked and the bread was the top of sub bun toasted. With the salad the served crackers.

We live within walking distance of this place, which makes it such a shame that it’s so terrible. We even tried it twice, since so many people know and seem to like it («Where do you live?» «Right by Balducci’s.» «I know exactly where that is!.») This is the second worst Italian food I’ve had in my life and THE WORST pizza I’ve ever had. Definitely one of the worst restaurants I’ve been to period. It’s been a few years, so I don’t remember the specifics about the pizza, but it was terrible. Imo’s is better if you want thin crust. I think the salad was ok. My mom had a quiche and hated it (she has really low standards). I also tried their lasagna, which tasted like eating ketchup, I guess – extremely tomato-​y; you’re better off going to Pasta House. My husband had a steak sandwich, and again, I don’t remember the specifics, since I wasn’t the one eating it, but he was extremely disappointed. Unless you’re in the mood for a crappy bar you have to climb down and up a flight of stairs to get to, go elsewhere.

Underwhelming for sure. Pasta was bland. Came out cold and was microwaved to heat up. Not good at all.

Great pizza, great wine, great ambience, great prices and super nice staff. Nice family place.

For a restaurant that is a bit of a hole in a wall type place, the food is delicious. Only thing I would like for them to add to the menu is the option for whole wheat pasta not just spaghetti but linguini, rotini, and shell pasta. The chocolate cake and cheesecake is to die for. We enjoy the seafood pasta and the chicken marsala. This is our date spot for my husband and I. We’re not really drinkers but the wine is good; and I don’t have to deal with the drunks from the bar.

This is one of my favorite places. I grew up coming here and I have memories of sitting in the booths as a little kid and looking at the old maps and pictures on the walls. It hasn’t changed in 25 years and that is what makes this place awesome. I always get a pizza and house salad w/​house dressing. I now live 200 miles away, but this is where I eat when I’m in St. Louis.

Pretty good deep dish pizza but not quite there based on a lunch visit. Also, service was spotty at best with both pizzas having to go back for rework — the thin pizza was made wrong and the deep dish arrived lukewarm. Our server was something of a ghost and only appeared when another staff member was asked to find her for us. Drink refills were provided by others as well.
The deep dish is a Chicago-​style construct with the tomatoes/​sauce on top and the cheese buried under the toppings. The tomatoes/​sauce were good but slightly overpowered the other ingredients because the tomatoes had not been crushed suffice toy and remained a little too intact. The sausage seemed alright but didn’t wow like it should. They must be pre-​baking their pies to accommodate the lunch crowd. Next time around I will call ahead and see how they do when given the opportunity to make a pie from scratch and cook it to order.
Respectable lunch special for about $ 10. Unfortunately, the service missteps detracted pretty heavily from the overall experience. I will certainly give them another chance but it may be a while before I get around to them again.

Love this place! We have grown up eating balduccis and it never disappoints!!! I would eat this pizza everyday. #deepdishtodiefor everyone get the deep dish. Be prepared though it is real deep dish! Also order it prior to your visit because it take a bit. Bacon pizza there is my favorite and my sister gets the French dip.

First off, I’m Italian, so it’s tough to get a 4 from me. This place is funky!!! Down stairs and kind of dark! I had a salad and meatball sandwich. The salad was great, with mozzarella on it!!! Too many Italian restaurants don’t do this. The sandwich was nice! Great taste and soft bread! I would have liked more sauce and cheese; no such thing as too much sauce or cheese!!! If I was back in this area and wanted Italian, I’d go back again!!!

Balducci’s is always a great choice to have a meal. You walk in and descend a large staircase down into a basement, decorated with wine cases and various Italian posters. The interior is very charming, but it is a bit dark down there.
The food itself is very good. The pizza is great, the salads are good, the burgers are pretty good, and the French onion soup is amazing. A lot of people I know love their quiche, but I’m not really a quiche person.
The servers are generally nice and efficient. I can’t recall a bad experience with a server over the more than 10 years we’ve been visiting Balducci’s.
Interior– ⁴⁄₅
Food– 4.5÷5
Service– ⁴⁄₅
OVERALL– ⁵⁄₅

AMAZING deep dish pizza! The tomatoes they use for their deep dish are SO good. Their salad is really good and the cozy below ground restaurant has a nice quiet atmosphere. Good for a date night.

Did not meet expectations. We went with another couple around 730 on a friday. It must have been the downside of a rush as the place was busy but we were immediately sat. Unfortunately it was a dirty table.
I ordered the pizza and thought 1.55 $ for every topping besides cheese is a little ridiculous. The pizza was good although the sauce was a little on the sweet side and it was very greasy.
Also, not impressed by the location.

My girlfriend and I just had great salad and pizza here.
We got «regular» salads, which were huge. And oh-​so good. No iceberg in this wonderful salad.
The salads were served with a long basket full of wrapped crackers: saltines and club crackers, two per package.
We split a sausage/​mushroom/​onion large pizza. That was tasty, thin crust, good toppings, but I didn’t taste any mushrooms. They could have been overpowered by the onion and sausage, which are stronger flavors.
Beverage refills were prompt. Service was good.
Before the check was delivered, we were asked about getting dessert. Actually, our server snatched back the check she was about to put on the table — and then asked if we wanted dessert.
We didn’t, but I appreciated the question and her gesture.
I took half my salad home.

Service: 3
Food: 1
Environment/​Ambiance: –1 (Disgusting)
The BF and I drive by this place all the time, so we decided to give it a shot tonight. Oh man, do we wish we had gotten a refund.
To start off with, the restaurant is old and grimy. You walk in and it just feels sticky and smells like grease. The restaurant itself is small and clammy and their furniture (chairs and dining tables) are sticky.
Our order:
Blue Moon beer. Served with a frosted mug.
Buffalo wings. Buffalo sauce was more butter than hot sauce. Decent portion.
French Onion Soup: Luke warm with the exception of the very bottom (last 3 spoons) of the soup.
Sonata Chicken: At first glance, just swimming in oil and butter. The batter literally fell off the chicken so I ended up scraping it off onto a side plate. The pasta wasn’t cooked thoroughly and the sauce (supposed to be a lemon butter sauce) clearly wasn’t made fresh. It literally tasted like some bottled lemon juice with a ladle full of butter. The garlic butter bread served with the dish didn’t taste like garlic. Or butter. Or even bread… After 3 bites, I stopped eating. It just wasn’t edible.
Seafood Pasta: At first glance, looked ok. Lots of shrimp, didn’t see much crab meat and definitely didn’t see any clams. After the first bite, we were pretty much turned off by his dish. It wasn’t seasoned at all. The pasta wasn’t cooked right and the sauce was incredibly bland. Also served with garlic butter bread that tasted like cardboard. Needless to say, we didn’t finish that dish either.
During our meal, a mosquito flew into my BFs water. We called our server over and asked for another water. It was then that we noticed all the dust around the décor and tables. Really gross.
Our server was really sweet and friendly, which was why we didn’t have the heart to complain. In fact, my BF preferred that we walk out quietly rather than complain about the food. He felt so bad that he actually asked for a to-​go box, not really having any intentions of finishing his left overs.
Our total bill after taxes, around $ 40.
Was it worth it? No way.
Will we be returning? Never.

I think it is time for me to give another update.
Balducci’s serves a steak sandwich. What is amazing is the price $ 9.95 for at least a 8oz strip steak. The steak comes with a garlic season on the meat. It is also served with steak fries. This is an amazing deal when you look at how fast beef prices has risen in the past year.
So what did I have for lunch? Pasta. They had a special of pasta with butter, garlic and shrimp. Wonderful pasta. This is a great lunch for anyone within driving distance for lunch. Or if you prefer supper.

Arrived with a party of three for lunch. I mostly came here to scope out the deep dish pizza for the husband, who has yet to find a satisfactory «pizza pie» in STL. Going to have to surprise him by picking one up on the way home from work one day, because I think he will really like it.
For lunch, I had a thin crust cheese pizza and a salad with Italian dressing. Really wish I had paid better attention to the reviews on here and known to order the Mayfair, but there will definitely be a next time. The salad was good; one of my coworkers expressed disappointment that it came with a basket of crackers instead of bread but i didn’t mind. My pizza was yummy — good sauce, crispy crust, and just the right amount of cheese.
The service was also a high point — our drinks were never below half, plates were cleared immediately, and our waitress was very friendly. I’ll definitely be back here to try the deep dish for dinner and a pasta dish for lunch.