Gio’s Ristorante’ & Bar

This is an amazing place! My family and I went there for my birthday, and the setting and arragement of the resturaunt is very nice! We got amazing food, the waitors were so patient and nice, and we had an all in all amazing dinner. ¹⁰⁄₁₀ would recommend! My favorite resturaunt!

This was an all around weird experience. They seem to be trying to present a classy Italian place, then when you walk in there is a full service bar that gave more of that downtown sports bar feel to it. And there was no divider between the restaurant seating and the bar area! There was also a banquet room in the back, but they needed access to the same bar so the large group using that area had spilled over into the rest of the building. There were loud patrons at the bar, mixed with opera singing coming from the back room, and people dressed up for a night out. Just a weird feeling.
That may have been forgiven if we had been shown a great experience, but long wait times and sub-​par food did this experience in. I specifically ordered the tutto mare. It was super gritty and felt like I was crunching down on sand for most of the dish.
Not somewhere I plan to return to anytime soon.

Great dinner! Everything we ordered was good; pasta, veal, eggplant parmesan and chicken parmesan. Service was friendly and quick. There is a nice feel in the restaurant. It is comfortable and offers a good view of downtown St. Louis. I highly recommend Gio’s.

First time and last time Gio’s! Took some of my lifelong friends there that came in to town for KC for the baseball game and man what a disappointment. Sorry friends :(Slow as heck… under staffed (2 servers total for a Saturday night in downtown STL). Food = OK nothing special… waited to get seated, no one else waiting. Food took over an hour to get to us. Six in our party. Table next to us with around 12 ppl left after getting their water. Don’t go… don’t mess around, just go to The Hill and be happy or even Olive Garden. Geesh… maybe I should just stop going to Italian Restaurants in STL. Second really bad experience in six months… the other was at Donatelli’s Bistro in LSL (even worse if you can believe that !!) Should have gone to Hooter’s across the street… at least the wings are decent.
P. S. — Don’t order the clams… not clean… full of grit
P. S.S. — Don’t order the small green salad — $ 5 and it comes on a bread and butter plate. Better yet, just don’t go. (Go to Zia’s On The Hill)

We were here the night before the St. Louis marathon. The restaurant was not very busy. Our waiter was friendly and told us about the different specials for that night. I got the chicken parmigiana with a side order of pasta. My wife got pasta with shrimp. There is nothing I can say about the food from a negative stand point. However, I can’t say anything glowing either. It was just very Ok. The size of the portion was fair for the cost. The dessert, which is St. Louis specialty, Gooey Butter cake, came with ice cream, was good but not worth the seven dollars it cost. Everything was fine and we had a good meal, but it was just nothing that I would go back for.

Worst customer service ever. Was told that they could not serve is for lunch due to being short handed. That it would take at least an hour to be seated and get served. The woman at the door encouraged us to leave. As she wanted to the group behind us to leave. And j don’t even want to give it a one

This place reaffirms my theory that I was born to wait and wait and wait and then Unilocal!about it… unless there’s only 2 to 3 tables being served, be prepared to wait.
Their pizza is really fantastic. Pastas are ok too. I’ve never been impressed by their cleaning (floor is always sticky).
Seems like every time I forget about my sub-​par experiences here, I have to go back and remind myself.

I went here for downtown restaurant week 2014 with my girlfriend and tried some items that might not typically be on their menu. They have 2 separate sections at Gio’s, one for the bar and the restaurant. If you come up from the garage you have to walk through the bar and past the bathroom to find the restaurant. There is no obvious hostess stand.
The first course my girlfriend and I both ordered the arancini. We were a bit surprised to only receive 1 med size ball on our plates, but the flavor was pretty good. It could have had a bit more lobster and mushrooms, but the sauce was good and overall we were satisfied. Not the best arancini in town, but we would order it again.
Entrees we got the eggplant parmesan and chicken. The chicken was delicious and moist, but very small portion size and sides. The eggplant was a much larger portion and 2 of the 3 were crispy and my girlfriend enjoyed the dish.
For dessert we got the gooey butter cake and cheesecake. Their gooey butter is more spongy brownie consistency on the bottom and the top is not flaky. The cheesecake was ok, but nothing special. Both of these were also tiny portion sizes, maybe 2in squares.
Rating notes: Food 4/​5, atmosphere 4/​5, wait staff 4/​5, portions size 2/​5, parking ⁵⁄₅. Yes they do validate.

Just had dinner and drinks at gio’s had michaela and Matt as servers and they were fabulous! attentive conversationalists, and quick to serve and address any issues. Also had Ashley as a server and would definitely recommend requesting another if possible. She was snide, rude, and quick to fake smile and insult! Great pizza, affordable wine, and would most definitely come here again UNLESS Ashely was our server. So when in doubt! Go for it but avoid Ashley at all costs. She was a great way to leave a sour taste in your mouth.

The food was delicious and the service was great. We were in St. Louis for the FIRST Robotics Championship and my group of 30 girls, parents and mentors enjoyed the restaurant food and service.
We ate at the restaurant 2 nights for dinner and ordered pizza and salad to eat at our hotel another night. 3 out of our 4 nights in St. Louis we ate Gio’s food and we were very satisfied.

How do I feel about Gio’s? I really don’t know. I went for dinner early on a Wednesday night before a concert at the Peabody. The place was, if I may borrow from a favorite film, «mostly dead,» with just a few people — all about our age and younger — dining.
No one was there to greet us upon our entrance. For a rather small place, we did a fair amount of wandering before we found any staff, except for someone — a cook — who was eating in an otherwise empty area of the restaurant and ignored us.
Other disappointments:
1. There were many leaves in the breezeway. Why? It’s March. Downtown StL is not exactly a forest (though it sometimes feels enchanted). It’s not that difficult to vacuum.
2. My knife and fork had food residue from the previous meal on them. I was brought two new pieces of silverware, but not a new napkin.
3. The sugar and artificial sweetener packets were totally disorganized. I am the only person I know who pays attention to this… it’s a habit of mine to reorganize them. It’s an old work habit carrying over rather than obsessive-​compulsive disorder (though the people with whom I eat don’t choose to see it that way). I know it’s not a big deal, but it’s nice to know that some restaurants pay attention to such things.
There was some attention to detail, however. The silverware rollup was as tight and symmetrical as I’ve seen any rollups since I started paying attention a couple of years ago. Yes, that is another work habit.
We were asked what we wanted to drink. There is a full bar, and some wine selection (little sweet, but that’s a problem at many restaurants). I had to ask for a wine list.
We ordered no appetizer, and there was no basket of bread or anything, so I just had my entrée and some wine. The capellini pomodoro was good, and the portion size manageable. I wasn’t hungry after the meal, but I wasn’t stuffed, either. My friend ordered French onion soup and mealball sliders. She especially enjoyed the fries. Price is what you might expect.
Verdict: I won’t make any special trip to return to Gio’s. I wouldn’t mind eating at Gio’s again if someone insisted, or after I’ve tried all other restaurants in the area before an event,
Notes to Gio’s:
1. Cleanliness is hot. Vacuum. Check your silverware before you roll it up.
2. People like to be greeted. If you aren’t going to have someone at each entrance, have a sign that directs people to the proper room.
3. People like a wine list when they might be ordering wine.

Oh dear, this food is just awful. No one needs this in their life.
We came as part of a very large group. Looking at other reviews, that seems to be the theme. Maybe that’s how Gio’s gets by? Friday night so I thought «Ooh, hope they’re not too crowded.» There was no one in there until about halfway through the meal, when a couple of older women appeared. Yeah, bad sign.
Wine list was lame. Beer list was just bad (at least for St. Louis standards). I must get to the food though. I got some sort of tortellini dish. If it wasn’t called «overcooked tortellini with frozen spinach in unflavored chicken broth» then it was misleading. Most of the rest of the party had been at another business lunch, where there was apparently some horrid ravioli. One of them ordered the ravioli here, saying «It can’t be as bad as that, at least.» He didn’t say anything else about it once he started eating it, so I assume that it was still pretty bad.
I had a glass of wine to be social, but skipped the second even though I wanted to because, frankly, I just didn’t want to give these people any more of my money. I can’t stand supporting food like this.
Then there’s the server. That guy was pretty bad. He was slow, often rude, and even tapped my wife on the shoulder to ask her a question at one point. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that at a restaurant. But the food came out pretty quickly, all things considered, and the drinks were generally kept flowing.
The stupidest thing about this place was that they insisted to the organizer that checks could be split, but had to be paid in cash. When the bills came, the server said that it was no problem to split it and pay by card. So a bunch of people, including myself, got a lot of cash out for no reason.
So why two stars? Well, I didn’t get sick, and the service could have been a bit worse. I mean, at least he showed up occasionally.
As far as I can tell, this is the only «nicer» Italian restaurant Downtown. If you really want «nicer,» go somewhere else. If you want Italian, go a little more casual at one of the several other places around. This place sucks.

If you get nothing else from Gio’s, get the gooey butter cake. Evidently, it is a dessert that either originated in St. Louis or just happens to be popular there. Regardless, it was amazing. It has a wonderful texture and the taste is a sweet combination of a heavy cake on bottom and a gooey vanilla-​esque deliciousness on top.
The restaurant was virtually empty on a Saturday night which gave our group of seven a bit of pause, but we were all very pleased with our entrees, from the calamari appetizer (average/​not the best I have ever had, but the garlic aioli that came with it was delish), garlic bread (worth ordering), salads (the wedge — yum,) and main dishes.
I went with the penne pomodora, which our waiter suggested a few times, when we asked for recommendations. I had never had pomodora before and it was superb; had a not-​too-​heavy sauce and I added chicken.

This place is really not good.
The service was slow, the bread was bad.
Had a goat cheese caprese salad, and the tomatoes were really tasteless and bland. If that’s the best produce they could get, they should have 86’d it.
The risotto was more like rice with some kind of butter sauce than real risotto.
Wasn’t terrible, but wouldn’t go back.

Nothing really too exciting about the bar area in my opinion. It’s functional and it’s probably a quick and easy staple for lunch. I just wasn’t overly impressed as it looked like it hadn’t been updated in quite some time.
I was greeted with a quasi polite server who didn’t really project politeness but I know people have bad days and that’s ok. I ordered a ceasar salad with grilled chicken and it was fine.
I think this place probably use to be a top notch place but overtime it’s lost is allure. That’s just my take on it.

Stopped in here for a late lunch after doing both the trolley and riverboat tours of St Louis.
The restaurant has a nice sleek look to it.
Service was quick and attentive.
The bread came with an olive oil, fresh pepper and grated cheese dipping plate. Good stuff.
We shared the Mussels & Clams Puttanesca Style for an appetizer. Very flavorful and fresh.
My main course was the Risotto del Giorno with grilled chicken. Very good.
My other half had the grilled salmon. No complaints from her.
We shared the grilled strawberry shortcake for dessert. Good stuff.
My only complaint was that there cappuccino maker was broken. I had to settle for regular coffee.

Went when it was pretty quiet and ate at the bar. Service was very good and bar tender was very friendly. I started off with the cold seafood salad which was ok, somewhat bland to be honest. Good presentation though. I then had a cup of their Minestrone soup and was very disappointed. Was almost room temperature and not very tasty. I’m a big fan of minestrone soup and would have to say this was near the bottom of what I’ve tried elsewhere. Almost all broth and not much else. My entrée was the Papardelle alla Bolognese. That was very good; Three and a half stars for that. St. Louis has some very outstanding Italian restaurants. I probably wouldn’t go back to this place again.

Food and service was amazing!
I had the Pasta Carbonara which I HIGHLY recommend. The wine was great as well. Everyone in my party enjoyed their food. We were there at the same time as a 35-​person hockey team and the service was just as good as it would have been had they not been there.

I attended a recent Social gathering (SMCSTL) at Gio’s. This was my second visit. As always the thing that stands out the most for me at Gio’s is their service.
I love how there is glass windows around the restaurant. It makes the restaurant brighter and when you are sitting in the dining room you can see the Arch in the background.
My recent visit was quick so I only had an appetizer. I tried their lightly breaded Calamari. It wasn’t bad. It was light but could have used a little pop to it. For my tastes it was on the bland side.
At some point I need to go back and just have another sit down dinner and see if there is anything new I can discover.

Gio’s is one of roughly 1000 Italian restaurants in St. Louis. It’s just exceptionally hard to stand out or be really impressive with this kind of menu. We made our first visit here Saturday night. We had been previously when it was Dierdorf and Hart’s. It’s more casual now, but still a nice place for a dinner date. We saw three groups of 8 plus and I’d have to rate this as a very good choice for that kind of thing. With the groups, it was a little on the noisy side, but they did have three enclaves that offered a little more of a secluded feel. The highlight of this location for us was watching the carriages go by. With the leafy trees, there is no Arch/​Courthouse view this time of year.
One of the major highlights here is the service. They were all friendly and very attentive. As for the food — it was on the plus side, too. It was quite hard to choose — lots of things sounded good. We had already settled on the calamari appetizer, based on Unilocaler recommendations. We weren’t disappointed, but we also don’t quite rank it as best in town. We prefer Trattoria Marcella and Bartolino’s. For entrees, I had the Linguine con Vongole and my lovely spouse had the Fettuccine con Broccolini. The Linguine had lots of clams, as advertised by our waiter and it tasted great. If you like clams — this one’s a must. If I had one suggestion, though, I’d add more roasted red peppers only because the dish got a little dry half way through. Good dish overall, though. The Fettuccine was perfect. Not sure I’ve ever had better.
For dessert, we tried the Gooey Butter Cake, which came with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. It was pretty standard. Served at room temperature, which was okay. Good, but nothing special.
Overall, I’d say give Gio’s a try, especially if you’re looking for a decent meal downtown.