Bill Gianino’s Restaurant

I’ve been eating here since 1975. The food is always delicious and huge portions. The pizza is my favorite! Try there salads, they are huge and delicious.

Went with a party of 15. The waitress did a great job with a group that large. Everybody’s meal was fantastic.
One meal was delayed about 10 minutes but the waitress was apologetic and comped a glass of wine.
Everbody left full and satisfied.

This is my favorite place for Italian food in St. Louis. I always come here when I’m in town. My family and I have never been disappointed coming here. I have had their Pasta Carbonara and Tutta Marie both are incredible. The plates are huge and are enough to be shared between two people. The only downside is there is usually quite a wait since this place is so popular. If you’re looking for the best Italian food in St. Louis go to Gianinos.

Eh. Went here for Christmas Eve, and since they don’t take reservations, suffered the hour and a half long wait. But that’s not really what made this disappointing.
The server was great, charismatic and nice even on such a hectic day. They had a Christmas Eve menu which was a little limited.
My main issue was the food itself. It was SO oily. I got the vegetable of the day, which turned out to be cold green beans coated in oil. I got shrimp spedini «on a bed of fried spinach» which turned out to be select spinach leaves soaking in oil.

Went Friday night for my grandmothers birthday 11÷27÷15. We all had great meals. Our waitress was great! And we didn’t have to wait very long. To get seated. We called ahead of time. The only minor thing was our bus boy hated his job or it seemed.

Love their house salad and their pasta is wonderful! Great service also. Do wish at least one TV was geared for women. Not all of us want to watch sports!

Crab cakes were not very good this time. The server too was not my favorite, I think she’s been there awhile but not our pick. The steak as usual was really good, and my daughter loved her pasta as always.

Wow, so had a group of 8 I believe and told that the restaurant could accommodate us, we were crammed in a very tiny, stifling hot room with another party of at least 12 people. So, that was uncomfortable and crowded to say the least. It was a very busy Sunday. It took over 25 minutes for us to even be able to put our order in, finally got our orders taken, then it took over an hour for our food to come out, not an exaggeration either. While the party of 12 or whatever got their food in decent time and were basically done eating by the time we were still waiting for our food to come out. It really got rediculous, then when our food came out it was unfortunately cold as well. I truly feel our food got forgotten about in the kitchen, and our server wasn’t friendly or engaging, I would have hoped we were told, things were busy they were sorry for the very long wait or something?! .I was put off completely by this place and I don’t plan coming back. Don’t overbook large parties of people if you cannot comfortably seat everyone.

My wife and I visited for Valentines Day
We started our meal with the famous Gianino’s salad that did not disappoint, it was a meal by itself.
The cocktails were excellent with a generous pour.
We both opted for the steak modiga, my wife chose the filet and I selected the strip steak. Both were cooked exactly to our specifications. This was truly some of the best Modiga we have eaten. My mouth is watering as I write this.
We both selected pastas for our sides, my wife chose a olive oil, Parmesan and I chose an Alfredo sauce, Al dente!
We passed on dessert because we ate too much.
The entire staff was awesome, the hostess seated us just as promised. Our waitress was great and even the brad and water servers were attentive and friendly.
It was a great evening and it exceeded my expectations. WOW!

I come to St. Louis once a year to visit family and Gianino’s is always on my list of must visit places. The deluxe chef salad is an awesome start with the house dressing and will feed about 8 people. We always bring more than half home for the next day. I have to admit that I order the same meal every time I visit: the cannelloni. The cannelloni is by far the best I’ve had anywhere. It’s a small place so get there early.

This is a family favorite!

In the restaurant business I am sure it is hard to be consistant with your product. I eat here a bunch and almost always I have to order a fillet. All but once has it been excellent. They use great cuts of meat and cook to perfection. I have tried the fillet in each of the three options that they offer and I like them all (the Sicilian is my favorite) I have eaten steak at much more expensive restaurants and have made comments to my wife «I could have had better than this for less money at Gianino’s»
The crab cakes are pretty good too.

I’ve been going to this restaurant for years and I’ve never had a bad experience. First, the ambiance is cute which is always nice. They’ve added a couple televisions in the dining area but they low volume. Second, I suggest when you get your bread you pour some olive oil onto your bread plate with pepper and parmesan cheese and sop it up. SO GOOD.
Third, the waiters are always super friendly! Okay, now to the good stuff. The food. I’ve never had a bad experience with it and their white cream sauce for the pastas is crazy good. I’d suggest any pasta really, it’s all good. Also check out the house salad and like everyone else has said this restaurant had huge portions. You get your money’s worth here. Yum, yum, yum!

House salad is pretty good, but soaked in the dressing so that the lettuce is not much more than a dressing and cheese delivery vehicle. I ordered the ravioli prosciutto as a main course, a «house speciality». Ravioli was rubbery, cream sauce watery – although there was a LOT of food.
Staff was friendly enough. Food was unremarkable at best. Doubt I’ll go back.

Butternut squash lasagna? Butternut squash lasagna. If that menu item alone had a Unilocal listing, it would be five stars all the way.
That’s not to say that my experience at Gianino’s wasn’t fantastic, because it was! We stopped in this cute little neighborhood Italian spot on a Friday night expecting a wait, and it ended up only being about ten minutes… which was just enough time to grab a glass of wine from the bar. Drink prices were cheap, and my wine was officially the biggest pour I’ve ever seen. The Blues game was on in the background and the bar was filled with happy regulars, and you really can’t beat the atmosphere in this place.
We were seated in a comfy booth, and that’s when my eyes went straight to the butternut squash lasagna on the «specials» list. I was sold at that very moment. Our server (who rocked) brought over some bread, which was just A-​OK. The salads, however, were great. I could have had a few bowls of that and been happy, but decided to save some room for my entrée. The lasagna was mind-​blowing, and the slice was huge. There were tons of veggies, a robust sauce, and lots of melted cheeses… I could go on about this for days. This was one of the rare times I said yes to a to-​go box. If you aren’t in a pasta mood, the chicken spedini is also top notch.
I don’t venture out to this area quite often, but the next time I do, I won’t hesitate to stop in for a hearty dinner. These folks know what they’re doing!

Great pizza– Bills Pride. I have been coming to this restaurant since I was a teenager in the 80s and now I bring my family and we drive almost an hour from Ofallon MO to eat here. Pasta portions will impress you. From Steak Modiga to Fried ice cream is amazing.

GIGANTIC PORTIONS!!! I ordered the farfalle salsiccia and when it came out my jaw dropped. It could’ve easily served 4 people. By the time I was full it looked like I hadn’t eaten anything from it. Very tasty though. My husband ordered his favorite, the chicken modiga. Also a delicious dish, but not for the feint of heart. It’s essentially high-​end fried chicken with bacon, cheese, and a white sauce. Artery-​clogging HEAVEN.
The toasted ravs are amazing as well — a must-​try for anyone new to the St. Louis area. I don’t understand how other cities haven’t picked up on this appetizer yet. Or maybe they have and I’ve just never seen them before? Either way, I highly recommend them.
The restaurant itself has a nice ambiance, although it’s a little dark. I’m sure it’s mood lighting, but when the place is empty it makes it feel almost gloomy. Service was pretty good as well. We will be back on our next visit for sure!

I’ve been meaning to write this review for awhile while the main course was great I was disappointed in my appetizer and salad. I ordered for carryout and was told 20 minutes I showed up 25 minutes later and was still waiting for 10 more minutes. Like I said the pasta was great however I get home and my fried cheese was just fried breading due to 2 pieces having no cheese in them because they were over cooked. The salad I asked no onions and of course had onions I’m not going to drive back up after noticing this so I call and explain. I am offered a gift certificate and they ask my address of course nothing ever mailed next time I will try dining in because food was good

I’ve been to this Gianino’s probably 4 times in the past few years and on the recommendation of a friend I started with the Steak Modiga and haven’t looked back. Seriously, I drive to South county for this meal and I don’t open the menu when I sit down. Nothing else could tempt me away from delicious steak covered in cheese (even if it is provel) mushroom, bacon, and garlic. The one entrée could easily feed two people, it comes with a huge salad and a side of pasta.
Usually there’s a ridiculously long wait for a table. Except apparently when there are tornado sirens going off on a Friday night and then you can be seated immediately.
Our waitress was pretty slow, especially in bringing drinks from the bar. The place was not that busy and there were even empty tables because of the weather, so I’m not sure what her problem was. Thankfully we also had a water girl so our other drinks never went empty. She was great!
PS, if you’re ordering a pasta dish and don’t want enough food to feed four people get the half size! It’s much more reasonable.

Bill Gianino’s is an Oakville mainstay and I believe has spawned or is associated with at least three other restaurants: Frankie G’s next door, Frankie Gianino’s in Imperial and Pepper’s on Gravois. We have been here a few times. Seems there is always a good crowd — there will be a wait on weekends, even after 25 or 30 years in business. They redecorated failry recently, by the look of it, so it doesn’t quite have the same stale neighborhood Italian ambience as it had for past visits. For past visits, though, there always seemed to be something a bit off about the food — too much cheese or oil, too heavy, too sweet or too bland all come to mind. They are Provel users here, so beware. Our last visit here was at least five years ago, so we thought we’d give it another try.
For this last visit, the service was excellent, as was the food. We split the Pasta Tutto Mare and dinner salad. The little one had chicken tenders and fries, which were made fresh and absolutely excellent. The pasta was also really good and even though we split it, we both finished about half of what we had and made another complete meal of it! Pretty amazing to think we could have brought Mom along, split it three ways and still had leftovers. Based on this last visit, I have to say I’m now a fan. I wonder if we can split a half order next time?
Anyway, you can now count me as a fan of Bill’s. Is it worth traveling for? Probably not, when you can get the same thing on the Hill. Unless it’s reasonably convenient, just leave this place to the Oakvillians. They keep it pretty busy on their own.