Trattoria Guiseppe

I debated on doing a review of this place because it’s SUCH a HIDDEN GEM and I like it that way. BUT give credit where credit is due :). The food is ALWAYS amazing and cooked to perfection. Pastas are not over cooked mushiness like some places tend to do. Everything is home made and just fantastic! Must tries are: tutti mare and the mussels appetizer — you won’t be disappointed ! If they have the lobster ravioli on special when you visit, GET IT ! The ONLY reason for the four star is the décor is a bit strange — but the food is well worth the trip !

First timers to this best kept secret on Old Hwy 21, Sunday for lunch… hands down outstanding Italian food, sketchy outside, absolutely amazing inside from the service to the food to the owner shaking our hands and welcoming us!!! We were pleasantly surprised and will definitely be back!!!

I would definitely recommend this restaurant. The service was great. We had toasted ravioli and shrimp scampi as an appetizer. The shrimp was in a wonderful lemon cream sauce. The salad and bread were above average. My husband had the filet with a garlic butter sauce. I had the spaghetti carbonera and this creamy and rich dish was superb. We topped it off with a cannoli. We will be back!

It’s ok. I live 5 mins from this place and when I want Italian food no matter what I drive the 30 – 40 mins to the hill.

Quality Italian food in an understated strip mall in what looks like the middle of nowhere. We have been there multiple times and are never disappointed with the service, environment, and delicious Italian food.

Went to dinner for our anniversary, late evening before the dinner rush on a Saturday, got seated right away. Everyone was very nice and attentive but not annoying. The food was amazing… the steaks (filets) are huge and cooked perfectly! The desserts are fabulous! They have a great wine list as well. Midway through the meal the dining room did start to fill and by the time we left it was full and a few people were waiting to be seated… so take that into account when you go… but that also shows what a great place it is. The owner also came out to greet all his guests personally which was also nice. Second time we’ve been here and we’ll definitely be back.

Not what I expected from an Italian restaurant in Jefferson County! Everything was fresh and obviously prepared to order. I will be back. Excellent meal!

I only gave this restaurant one star because it wouldn’t let me leave anything less. Whoever these people are that are leaving reviews that are favorable apparently have been living in a cave their whole life because that was the worst italian food I’ve ever had in my life. The red sauce was so salty you could set it outside to attract deer. My husband had the lasagna and there was barely any meet in it and the sauce was watery as with my dish. Stouffer’s made better lasagna in the frozen section. Whoever said that it was as good as places on the hill has never been out to eat on the hill and the prices were exorbitant. It’s cheaper to eat at Cunettos and their food is authentic italian. RUN AWAY AS FAST AS YOU CAN.

Best meal/​dinner experience I have had since moving to the area. Great food and great service. Food took longer than a normal restaurant, but this isn’t a normal restaurant. Chef/​owner Giuseppe cooks every single entrée himself. On top of that he comes into the dinning room every hour or so to check on each person. Not just each table… Each person at each table. He shook every hand at our table. On top of that our server was just awesome. She was funny and very tentative.
All of the food at the table was perfect. We came for lunch but really wanted a couple items that were on the dinner menu. The chef was eager to please and let us order anything we wanted. Large servings and everything on the table had steam coming off of it. If you live in the area and you love Sicilian/​Italian food then you MUST come here.

Surprisingly authentic Italian restaurant in Imperial. The family’s go to place for Italian food at half the price of The Hill and just as good, if not better.

Best restaurant in Jefferson County. My wife and I like this Italian as much as the hill. Not the most romantic place and looks questionable in an old strip/​plaza. But trust me you won’t be disappointed. Great food and good service!

I do not come here on my own accord, however I have gone with friends in the past (their choice, not mine), and I have gone as part of work luncheons a couple of times as well. Everyone in my friend circle, and work circle, raves about this place, but honestly I don’t understand why.
To begin with, it’s in a rundown building in an antiquated strip mall in the middle of a very rural, middle of nowhere, area. The location I could overlook, if only the interior were a bit more appealing. How is it unappealing? Well, let me explain. First, it’s dirty. Maybe I’m overly picky, but restaurants are supposed to be the epitome of cleanliness, and this place is not. The dingy carpets, the plastic form-​fitted green tablecloths, and the walls with their ancient, faded wallpaper murals, all remind me of a very old, very dirty Chinese restaurant. It doesn’t smell very good inside either. It smells like a combo of an old building and old cheese, and that’s just not appealing. To make matters worse, if you are fortunate enough (insert sarcasm here) to be seated at a table by the restrooms, you can actually smell the restroom aroma (ewww) when people open and close the restroom doors. On top of that, in the winter it is always freezing inside, so if you are going, plan to bring a coat and leave it on, or at best a heavy sweater.
Moving on to the food … it’s … well, maybe I’d enjoy it more if I felt the restaurant was cleaner, but clean or not, it’s just okay. I have never had anything outstanding here. The portions are huge, as is the case in most Italian restaurants, but it’s nothing to write home about. I’ve had the lasagna, the mostacolli, and the roast beef sandwich, and the best of the three was the sandwich. The mostacolli doesn’t have meat sauce, which I thought was odd, just sauce and lots of cheese, and the lasagna, is not bad, but it isn’t the best I’ve had, either.
On a side note, just a peeve of mine, because it is against health code regulations and tells me a great deal about a restaurant when it occurs … when the waitresses refill your drink, they take your glass, your straw and all. This is a big turnoff for me. Health code regulations state that restaurant guests are supposed to receive a fresh glass for each refill. Why? Well, when a server takes a glass that a guest has previously drank from, then places it on the lever of the soda fountain to refill it, this spreads germs. It’s common sense. Yuck!
Overall I would not come here again, if no one requested to visit. The owner is a very nice person, and likes to greet people with a handshake and a smile, but niceness aside, things need to change at Trattoria Guiseppe if I am ever to feel comfortable dining there. The aromatic bathroom seating, the dingy walls, and the manner in which the servers refill sodas, are at the top of «things that need to change» list. Until then, when the craving for Italian strikes, I’ll find another Italian restaurant to visit.

Great hidden gem! This little place doesn’t look like much but they have wonderful food, we have never had a bad meal.
Highly recommend their eggplant parm for an app and all of their soups I have tried are great too.
You really can’t go wrong on their entrees, all the pastas and chicken dishes we have had are excellent and come in big portions too.
The owner often walks around to each table, shaking customer hands and saying thank you for coming… How nice is that!
Highly recommend this place.

I have eaten at this restaurant on numerous occasions and have always enjoyed the food and it’s quality. But resently the dining experience has improved greatly, with a new server, Gaylene is the best! Don’t judge the restaurant by its surroundings, or location.

Absolutely delicious! You walk in the door, your greeted warmly, you will wait unless you make reservations, but every second is worth it. The owner comes out greets you, and you get a very good meal! Would highly recommend!!!

I’m not sure why the mixed reviews but we have gotten take out once and dined-​in twice since we moved here last year and have only great experience with both food and service. The building and interior isn’t much and a bit scary. I can see people may avoid this place if you’ve never been here before but I can definitely say that the food and service make up for it. I will go to hole in the wall places as long as the food is worth it.
The owner and host has always greeted us when we walked in and was always pleasant especially bringing in our not the best behaved 3 yr old. We were checked on and asked how the food and everything was by both server and owner.
We always order the bruschetta. It’s delicious. I’ve never have been disappointed yet with the food and we’ve had their lasagna, tutto mare, chicken muddiga, and baked mostaccioli. Their portions are very generous and the only complaint I heard from my husband was there was too much sauce in the chicken but the sauce itself was still very good. My favorite is the tutto mare. Just wished there was more seafood in the dish. It is by far the better italian restaurant in Imperial/​Arnold area.

My friend and I decided to come by this place for a great Italian dinner. Summary of my experience: this is probably one of the best family owned Italian eateries outside of The Hill in St. Louis. However, expect to be there around 2 hours without a reservation.
This restaurant is in Jefferson County in a small strip mall right across from a bar and grill. The pizzeria next door closed down for an unknown reason. In fact, this is the last place on earth to expect a fine dining establishment, much less a cheesy biker bar from PeeWee’s great adventure.
So, we were both seated promptly and we were given a wine menu. I ended up choosing the fettuccine alfredo plate with shrimp while my friend chose the chicken bruschetta. Both entrees came with a complimentary salad. I also chose their chicken strips with honey mustard as an appetizer.
The chicken strips came first and they were piping hot. However, the disappointing feature was the breading on the strips. The breading was pretty bland. The chicken selects from McDonald’s had better spices on them, and would have cost less expensive than from Trattoria Guiseppe. This was an $ 8 appetizer.
The salads came next and they were pretty huge, but the waitress did not come to put any complimentary pepper on the salad. In fact, this leads me to my next complaint. The service from our waitress was pretty slow. In fact, a Disney turtle would have been faster than this lady. She came by pretty late to provide drink refills and she did not provide as friendly of service than what I wanted it to be. In fact, my dining friend forgot the name of her entrée. It was a «chicken something, something or another.» You know if you forgot what you ordered, then the service was just too slow. Extremly disappointing.
From the salad course to our main entrée, we waited for about an hour, while we saw a few of the other patrons eat their food and leave.
We finally got our entrée, and I can say that the fettucini is the best I have had in quite a long time. The sauce was top notch, worth every penny. However, the portion size was overwhelming. I think that the owners could at least offer a half sized portion for a fraction of the price.
I had to bother the waitress again to get some more of the bread to sop up the delicious fettuccine sauce.
Joe, the owner came by to greet us, and provided better personalized service than the waitress did in less than 5 minutes. The owner, in addition to the fettucini sauce, saved this review.
I didn’t want to wait longer, and I was stuffed from the fettucini, so I declined on the dessert. I may come back, but I hope not to have such a slow and impersonal waitress in the future.

I have to say that I had heard of this place from my boss at work who’s gone here for quite some years and told me that they had some pretty good food. So, last night after some retail therapy, myself and my faithful dining companion chose to come here. Luckily, it’s not fairly far from where I live (about 8 mins or so, give or take which isn’t a big thing).
We pulled into the parking lot and went in noting how busy it seemed on a Saturday evening and was seated fairly quickly. The waitress was quick, prompt and put up with us not even knowing what we wanted but told us about the special (neither of us got, but in my defense I generally don’t order steak at an Italian restaurant, I’m more of a chicken or veal sort).
I ended up ordering some bruschetta, and chicken allesandro. The meal comes with a large and delicious salad and a choice of side (I picked the white sauce pasta which was a huge plate of fettuccini). Everything was delicious and pleasing to the eye.
I have to say that my boss was right, I’ll be back!

***This review is actually from last fall, but I just noticed the restaurant is listed with two different spellings and want to warn others who might look it up either way.***
I simply love Italian food, and I’ve had a few people tell me over the years that I must try this «authentic» Italian place. I’m now wishing I would’ve waited longer. I don’t like giving bad reviews, but there was honestly nothing positive about my experience here. It started off bad and progressively got worse. Here’s the scoop…
I was warned that the restaurant looks crappy from the outside, and that is an understatement. It is located in a rundown strip mall in the middle of nowhere. My husband and I pulled up and thought it had to be better on the inside. Wrong. The interior is tacky and dirty. It looked like the owners made a trip to Garden Ridge and bought every Italian decoration they saw: The Godfather movie posters, those big hat chef plaques, a large Italian flag, and a laminated pizza hung with push pins. Combine this with stained carpet, green vinyl tablecloths, red banquet chairs, red and green fluorescent lighting, and my grandmother’s formal dining room curtains from 1983, and you’ve got one hot mess.
We were told to make reservations, though I don’t think they were necessary. We still waited 15 minutes. Once we were escorted to our table, it was still wet, so we had to wait while they dried the table and chairs off. The server greeted us quickly and took our drink order. She came back with our drinks and bread, which was unfortunately stale. Both of our entrees came with salads and both salads arrived to the table wrong. My husband received a plate of lettuce and cheese only, so he asked her to bring some dressing on the side. I had asked them to leave off the onion and pepperoncini, and it arrived to the table with both. Our salads were just «ehh» and neither of us finished.
About 10 minutes after our salad plates were cleared, our server informed us that the kitchen was running behind and our entrees would still be another 20 – 25 minutes. At this point, we discussed paying for our drinks and salads and getting out of this nightmare, but ultimately decided to stay. My husband started his trusty cell phone timer, and at this point, all we could do was laugh. The owner was sitting at an empty table next to us texting away on her phone. She got up to refill our drinks and when I mentioned that we had been there an hour and 15 minutes and still had not received our entrees, she said «The kitchen is working as hard as they can!» and then turned away. No apology, no sympathy, nothing.
About 40 minutes from the time our waitress informed us of the kitchen issues, we finally received our entrees. I ordered a vodka penne dish. The sauce was a little runny, but other than that, it was okay. My husband ordered the chicken parmesan with a side of red sauce pasta. There is a $ 2 upcharge for the white sauce, which I thought was strange. He took a few bites and pushed it to the side. The dish was bland and the chicken was rubbery. Immediately, we had two servers and the owner at our table offering him a different dish, appetizer, dessert… all of which he turned down. We had not been impressed with anything up to that point so why throw something else into the mix? He asked that they please just take his entrée off the bill, which they did. Eating alone for the remainder of my meal was not good, so I only finished a small portion.
When walking out, nearly two hours after we first arrived, the entire staff completely avoided any eye contact with us and not one of them said a word as we walked by. They knew it was bad as well. We then stopped elsewhere so my husband could eat. Needless to say, we will never be returning here.

This is a true dining adventure. Not because of the food, really, although it was really good. The adventure lies in the journey. This place is deep in the hills of Jefferson county, at least from my St. Louis suburbanite perspective. It’s a beautiful drive — about 20 minutes from our South County home near the intersection of Highways 21 and M. Thier website says Imperial, but it might be considered Otto if you’re a local.
The restaurant itself is in an impossibly plain little, uh, strip mall I guess you’d call it. I about zoomed past it — their sign is small and you wouldn’t think a decent restaurant was there. A biker bar, definitely, but not fine dining. Depending on when you arrive, you’ll probably know you’re there by the packed parking lot. You will want to make reservations. It’s a popular spot and for good reason, based on our one experience.
First off, you will be greeted by a very friendly server and probably get a chance to shake the hand of the owner, Joe, as well. He looks like he came straight from Sicily and has a pretty heavy accent. The menu selection is pretty standard Italian, but with at least a couple of curveballs, which just heightens the adventure, really. The interior is pretty okay. Not terribly fancy, but a decent sort of upscale family restaurant. Small-​town fine dining would be a good description. Some people came in with t-​shirts and jeans, but they were in the minority. Servers wore white shirt and ties. Vinyl tablecloths. Among tonight’s specials: Steak and lobster for $ 38 (8 oz. each).
Anyway, there is not reason to drive down here for the ambience, but based on our experience, you might enjoy a drive to the country for some decent Italian food. That said, I guess we really didn’t even have Italian food. We ordered one of the curveballs based on the server’s suggestion: Chicken Carroattrezzi with chicken and shrimp. The shrimp was an adlib, as it’s not on the menu. The term «Carroattrezzi» is new to me and I speak no Italian, but I guess it’s bow-​tie pasta with chicken in a Cajun cream sauce. This was a great pasta dish, big enough for us to split. Comes with a salad, which was fresh and good. Our daughter had the chicken fingers app. As there is NO PIZZA on Fridays and Saturdays. The server said they were too busy to make pizza on weekends. I guess their oven isn’t very big. Dunno.
So if you feel like a long drive in the country, definitely give Trattoria Guisseppe’s a try. You won’t be alone — we saw three Cadillacs in the lot near our car and I’m guessing think they weren’t driven by locals.
We’ll definitely be back. For the food AND the nice drive.