Racanelli’s

Meh. That’s the best way to describe my dining experience here. Being that pizza is a stable in my day to day diet, my standards may just be too high. I just don’t think the pizza is that great. There are other places I would go before coming here. I’ve eaten here several times and every time I think, oh I should have just gone to (fill in the blank) instead. The service is meh, not bad just, really nothing special.

Got a slice for my three year old daughter and she was happy as a clam. I tried it and it tasted very good to me. I will definitely order from Racanelli’s one of these days!

I love Taste Cards, they get me out of my routine and give me discounts to experience new places. That is how I discovered Racanelli’s in Webster Groves.
We stopped in for lunch and took advantage of a lunch special. Racanelli’s is very generous with their lunch offerings. They allow you to order from the lunch menu between the hours of 11 AM and 4 PM. Hell, if you play it right you can have a late lunch or early dinner and save.
Racanelli’s Choice Meal, was our selection for lunch. It gave us a 14″ One Topping Pizza, either a Caesar or Garden Salad and two 24 oz Sodas. This definitely was enough for two, in fact we had leftovers for a late night snack. Okay I’ll be honest, we also enjoyed an order of Cheese Garlic Bread with our Caesar Salad.
That is if you can really call it a Caesar Salad. It mainly was made of iceberg lettuce and the dressing was not creamy like most Caesar dressings. Normally I may have questioned it, but the Cheese Garlic Bread was a great accompaniment. Ordering at a counter, I was afraid everything would come out at once, but we did get to enjoy or salad and garlic bread first.
We were well half way through our salad when they brought our NY Style Pizza to the table. I liked that they had the traditional pizza stands to place our pizza on. Having those saves so much space on the table. For a one topping (Italian Sausage) pizza, which is enough for lunch, the pizza was fairly good. I can only imagine how tasty it could be with multiple toppings. The pizza was cut in pie slices, not those stupid STL Squares. Being cut in the pie slices made it easy to pick-​up, fold and enjoy.
If you haven’t eaten at Racanelli’s, I say give them a try. If you haven’t bought a deck of Taste Cards to save at 52 restaurants, I say buy a deck soon.

Love the pizza here! I like quite a few pizza places here in St Louis (PW, Dewey’s Pi), but this is right up there. It is the only place I have been able to find true NY style pizza, and it doesn’t disappoint. It’s not gourmet pizza. There aren’t any crazy combinations. This is simple pizza done right.

Im not a big fan of chain restaurants, especially pizza. In Webster Groves, Racanelli’s is a solid choice. I had garlic knots and a Stromboli. The eats came out piping hot and the service was fair. The counter guy had a tough time remembering the difference between a calzone and a Stromboli, but the pizza man in the back was able to swoop in and give me a foodie’s perfect explanation. The dine-​in business was light but their phone never stopped ringing. Solid place. Wish they had Coke products.

They’ve really gone down hill. They used to be the best pizza in town, but I will not be going back.
A few weeks ago I ordered a carry out, got home, and there was a disgusting hair cooked in to the cheese. I called they said they’d replace it. Then last night when I went to pick my replacement pizza it literally looked like it had been cooked for 5 mins. So gross. They should be embarrassed.

I heart NYC and this pizza is a decent mid-​west replacement.
So, all I ever order is the NYC style Fresh Tomato and Basil. It’s plain, simple, and oh so tasty. They don’t over sauce or over cheese. The crust is a little puffy for my tastes but is still pretty yummy. It has just the right amount of greasiness. Although, it’s enough that I wonder if a meat pizza would be too greasy. They are usually pretty quick and way better than your average chain. As an added bonus, it is an awesome 2^nd day leftover cold snack. Mmm, the basil is really brought out the next day.
On the flip side: the side salad is something I wouldn’t even bother with. It’s small and laughably a salad. It’s mostly iceberg. The wings are not good. We’ve ordered them twice and will not be ordering them again. They are way too greasy, have an interesting texture, and the sauce is oddly thin.
We always get take out so I can’t speak of the restaurant inside but the people who answer the phone are always friendly.
Mos def a decent place to get pizza for an at home chill pizza night.

I like the pizza ok, but the $ 4 small garden salad was laughable. Literally one small slice of cucumber and a small slice of tomato and a sprinkling of mozzarella.

Some friends and I ordered a few Stromboli for lunch. Worst Stromboli we ever had. It was a little cheese, a few pieces of meat and the majority was a big dough ball. Total waste of money.

The pizza is great new York style but for everything else. It’s not up to par. I’ll probably come back for the pizza. I gave them a four star because if your good at what your known for you deserve a little credit. Dyt

I tried a slice of pepperoni and a slice of sausage. I just don’t get what people think is so great about this place. It was just average and fairly bland. The taste kind of reminds of the rectangle shaped pizza they served at my grade school cafeteria, except I’d actually prefer that. I have no reason to go back here.

Not bad, but in my humble opinion, not exactly NY Pizza. I’m from NYC and the pizza I had as a kid was large, greasy fold over goodness with grease running down your arm, mozzarella so gooey and stringy and wonderfully good.
This pizza is an attempt to duplicate NY pizza and that is a hard thing to do.

I love New York Style Pizza, so when I find myself hungry in one of the neighborhoods where they are located, I will more then likely stop in and grab a slice or two. I’m sad that they have yet to re-​establish themselves in the Loop in UCity. I eagerly await the day. Always friendly, always consistent, Raccanelli’s is my kind of place!

I lived in St. Louis for 5 years before moving back to NYC.
This place is by far the best pizza in St. Louis.
It is very pricing, costing the same price for a pie as in NYC.
However, they have no competition, so if you want a decent pie, you go to Racanelli’s.
That being said, if they had their pizzeria here in Brooklyn, they would go out of business.

The boy really wanted to go here for lunch instead of the usual Stratton’s lunch today, and while I was craving soup and a tropical smoothie, I agreed. So we walked in, walked up to the counter, and he ordered a slice of pepperoni and a slice of sausage, and I ordered a garlic and onion calzone, and a garden salad with creamy italian dressing.
My salad was brought to our table almost immediately, and looked very large for the price (less than 4 dollars), and was covered in mozzarella cheese. The dressing, however, was really lacking. I went back and asked for ranch, but it was even worse. I ate the whole thing, because it was a really nice, fresh salad, but it could’ve been a lot better with a killer italian or a homemade ranch dressing. We waited a bit for the hot food, but when it came, the slices were large and looked pretty tasty (minus the meat), and my calzone was huge, overflowing with bubbly ricotta and mozzarella cheeses, and looked even more yummy than his!
My bf gobbled his slices, so they must have been good, and I really liked my calzone too. However, again, the problem was with the sauce. It tasted like the worst kind of jarred Ragu… really thin and processed. I was disappointed because the calzone could’ve been GREAT with a few more onions and a bit more garlic, and a killer sauce.
The girl at the counter and the guys in the back that brought our food were really friendly, and the service was flawless (when I asked for a different dressing, and when the girl remembered that I had mentioned at the counter probably needing more sauce for my calzone). So this place COULD be worthy of 4 stars… if they change their sauces. Until then, I’ll probably only go for takeout, with sauces at my house on stand by, or smuggle a jar of Rao’s sauce and a bottle of Art of Entertaining or Whole Foods ranch in my purse!

I am so so done with Racanellis. Ok pizza on the whole (worth every bit of two stars) but really terrible service! Visits rarely went off without some ‘tude from the clueless teenage help. I can also honestly say that every single delivery order was f***ed up in some way or another.
Of the three times we’ve had it delivered, twice they got our order wrong and the last time they just plain forgot the order. The real kicker was trying to convince said clueless teenage help (over the phone) that somebody needed to make the orders up to us!
Its apparent nobody really cares, at this location. St. Lous is full of pizza at least as good if not better, and with much better employees!
Go to La Pizza if you want a good
facsimile of New York style pizza.

I’ve lived in St. Louis all of my life and have yet to try Racanelli’s. That is, until this past weekend. The menu of specialty pizzas was underwhelming and quite boring– we opted for the fresh tomato and basil pizza and then added some artichokes on top. It took about an hour for our pizza to be delivered and it was far from hot when it arrived. The pie reminded me of episodes of Saved by the Bell. Zack Morris always seemed to have stacks of pizza boxes piled high in his room and he’d pull out a cold slice, fold it in half, and take a bite before his 12-​pound cell phone started to ring. 90’s nostalgia aside, this pizza was nothing to write home about. It wasn’t bad, it wasn’t great, but at $ 23 for a large (including a $ 4 off coupon) it was highway robbery. Definitely not worth another try.

I was craving a calzone last night, and decided to try one from Racanelli’s. I called in a spinach calzone and an order of garlic knots. It was ready quickly, in about 15 minutes.
When I got home, it was luckily still good and hot, and wrapped in aluminum foil. The calzone was ok, but not all that flavorful. It tasted just like spinach, ricotta, and bread. I would have liked a little garlic or something added to it. It came with marinara for dipping. The garlic knots weren’t all that garlicky either, so overall my meal was a little bland.
I have had the pizza before, and I remember it being pretty good, so hopefully next time I can increase my rating.

To quote my family from New York when they are in town. «I can’t believe I have to come to St. Louis to get the best New York pizza I’ve ever had».
When I’m in New York they literally will spend a half hour arguing amongst themselves about where to pick up a ‘pie’ because they each believe they’ve found the best place. Of course this is also because it’s just a NY thing to do. But when they’re in town they are in full agreement about Racanelli’s. You can’t argue with that.
On a side note, they are consistent across their locations, so this review applies to all and not just Webster Groves location.

This is sloppy, greasy New York style pizza at its best! Racanelli’s just moved across the street from their old location. The new location is great, so check it out! The staff is friendly, but with a ‘I’m cool’ attitude. They’re young and it’s a pizza place, what do you expect? This is a big hang out for college kids and artistic people. Check it out!