Happy Joe’s Pizza & Ice Cream Parlor

I used to come here all the time as a kid, so I’ll always have a special place in my heart for Happy Joe’s. We dined here on a Sunday for my boyfriend’s son’s birthday and it was packed around 6:30. You order your pizza at the counter, then find a table and they bring it to you. I LOVE their pizzas. Great size offerings, crispy crust and no lack of toppings! The chicken bacon ranch is one of my favorites and you can’t go wrong with just pepperoni and cheese. They also have an old school salad bar with tons of ingredients, usually fresh lettuce too but this time wasn’t so great. They do have a full menu with appetizers, sandwiches, pastas, etc. but I stick with salad and pizza. They have pitchers of beer and soda as well as a small area for the kids to play games. Lots of TV’s for sports games and they sing to you for your birthday. Fun place, but very tight quarters when busy & usually lots of kids – so LOUD!

Met a friend with a child at Happy Joe’s on a rainy Monday evening. I had never been there. It’s like a time warp to the 1980s. It looks like many many pizza places I would have gone to as a child. It has a dark interior and old arcade type games where kids can win tickets and get prizes. I ordered the Nacho Joe Pizza (Spicy nacho cheese, taco-​seasoned beef and sausage, topped with lettuce, tomatoes and taco chips.) It was not like any pizza I have ever had. To those of you who think this sounds disgusting it really wasn’t. They serve a bowl of taco sauce packets next to it and the sauce really did add something. The closest thing I can describe the taste to is eating at Naugles when I was a child. The taco chips on the pizza had that taco flavored seasoning on them and the taco sauce was exactly as I remember theirs being. Odd experience in terms of food but I would go back. Not many places left like this!

My kids loved Happy Joe’s! I felt like we traveled back to the 80s!
They’re weren’t many games, but they really had the best ones, the ones all the kids love. It’s like a mini casino for children. I saw one child win 500 tickets!
The ambiance is non existent but the staff is so so friendly.
The pizza is a ok. We tried half taco & half chicken, bacon, ranch. The taco pizza is what they’re known for but it didn’t really wow me. The chicken, bacon, ranch on the other hand, was two enthusiastic thumbs up! We are going to put this place in the monthly rotation. Fun.

My first trip to Happy Joe’s and it was better than expected. I will say that this isn’t the most thorough review as I am on a low carb diet and only had salad. We went at lunch for the buffet. The salad bar is big with lots of options for toppings and a very good selection of salad dressings. The pizza looked good and the staff were constantly bringing out fresh pizza so there was no waiting. I only had some sausage topping from one slice but it was pretty good. The rest of my group wasn’t complaining and we all left satisfied.
Pros: good buffet, games, ice cream price
Cons: bathroom stench, small tables. Cubs logos on some lamp shades.

Me and couple of buddies decided to try out Happy Joe’s pizza buffet. When we walked in, we weren’t greeted and didn’t really know what was going on. So we walked to counter and were told that’s what we were supposed to do. Good. Step one, check! We paid, got our plate and cup, and went and sat down. The restaurant has a grimy feel to it. Dirty, dusty, and just a musk in the air. We got salads first, which were delicious. The salad bar however was poorly kept up with. Most of the ingredients were mixed in with other ingredients. Still, we managed and the food was good. Then we started at the pizza. The pizza has a homemade taste is very good. The selection was extremely minimal though. Pepperoni or sausage. There was a bacon pizza at one point. Also a cheese. I would’ve asked for a certain kind on the buffet, but I wasn’t blown away with the friendliness of the staff. Also, I’ve never been to a buffet where they give you, ONE plate. For the whole time. I wasn’t sure if we were supposed to switch it out with the staff behind the counter each time, but again, I wasn’t blown away with their friendliness so I wanted as little encounter as possible. Overall, I probably won’t be back, but it’s not because of the taste of the food. Food tasted fine. Might get carry out one of these days because I do want to try the taco pizza!

What a neat place. Simple is all you need and exactly what Happy Joes is. This feels like a hole in the wall chuckie cheese which I would totally go back to and choose over cc any day. The staff is friendly the pizza was perfect and the amount of games is just right. It is not overloaded. We will be back. Bring cash or ask for cash back when you purchase a pizza for the games.

I remember when Happy Joe’s actually opened. I was from the neighborhood. This was a simpler time in that tastes were less demanding.
Valvet Freeze was stll a local dairy and ice cream chain, children’s television programming had locally produced low budget shows, Russ David was doing his live lunch show at the old Pevely Dairy Company Plant at 1001 South Grand Boulevard and 3626 Chouteau Avenue on KMOX AM, which was managed by Robert Hyland, regional vice president of CBS, Blues Hockey was on channel 11, which was still locally owned by Koplar Communications, Casey Casem hosting American top 40 was the hottest radio show alive, Dick Clark and American Bandstand.
It was an incredible place years ago because it was a place the kids could go and play lots of arcade games, eat lots of pizza, drink lots of root beer or other soda, pig out on ice cream and generally get away with having a good time without upsetting the adults.
In a fit of nostalgia, I went there recently with three or four of us who remember this place from our childhood.
We think it was a Lum’s Restaurant before it was Happy Joes, but it looks just like the Happy Joes I remember from my childhood, just more run down and with a different price structure.
It’s so familiar to all of us that we commented on how strange it seems, even the various advertisements hanging behind the counter are plastered all over their walls seem to be exactly the ones that were there 40 something years ago. The interior ceiling, which shows severe evidence of leaking, looks identical to what it did years ago. The arcade games which operate with coins and tokens, seem to be the exact ones that were there 40 years ago. Well maintained to be sure, aging, but still the same ones. The lighting and decorations or right of the 1960’s and early seventies. It’s surrealistic because this literally as a time warp right out of my past, our pasts, and if Gordon Ramsay were around he’d want to update and redecorate… This place looks like something out of Kitchen Nightmares it’s so dated and rundown.
During our first of two visits, we had the taco pizza for dinner with a pitcher of root beer, which they used to make if we remembered correctly. The taco pizza, we remembered is Happy Joe’s specialty and we remembered that we loved it so when we saw it on the old school menu, which itself is in a timewarp except for the prices, we ordered a large or an extra large.
It was delicious as we remembered. In addition to deliciously seasoned ground beef, its made from refried bean/​tomato sauce, cheese, lettuce, tomato and taco chips. it comes with plenty of packets of Happy Joe’s taco sauce and sour cream.
On the downside, the place was crowded and noisy. The amenities are really faded and even getting to the restroom was a chore because the place was so full.
On our second visit, we went for lunch and ordered the lunch buffet and salad bar. The lunch buffet featured places of various types of pizza, all excellent, and one or two dessert pizzas which weren’t so good.
The salad bar was something out of the early sixties and seventies. Iceberg lettuce, some chopped vegetables, hard boiled egg, mushrooms, etc. Dressings were mass produced by some food service supplier.
We were generally pleased with the lunch buffet but again felt that it was dated given today’s tastes and demands.
It’s hard for me to believe that Happy Joes is part of a small, national chain. I knew it was, but the place is so dated I could not believe any chain would allow that.
Not great food, very little ambience, but definitely worth visiting just as a place out of time.
Apparently there are 47 stores left in the chain. Happy Joes has a policy that all corporate and franchise stores must close once a year to serve kids who are less fortunate, according to Wikipedia.

Awesome Pizza, been going to this place since I was a kid. Owners are really friendly :). Buffet is a little pricier in comparison to other pizza places, I think its around $ 8 a person, but worth every penny. Pizza is always hot and delicious.

We had my son’s first birthday there on Aug. 3. Happy joes is nostalgic to is and we enjoyed ourselves. Most of the staff was friendly! I think one of them seemed annoyed to be at work, but she’s also a teenager, and that’s their job sometimes to act like that! We will be back!

Pizza was over priced. Not bad but not exceptional for its cost. Still need to try the frozen yogurt!

Great place to lunch with children. The buffet had great pizza and pasta as well as a very good salad bar for anyone so inclined.
There are games for the kids and draft beer for the grown-​ups!
The prices are very reasonable.

Always great! Our favorites are the Nacho Joe and the BLT pizza. I also love their pepperoni because they cook it just right so that the pepperonis curl up and get crispy. It’s nice to go here with my large family because we can call ahead to reserve a big table.

It’s like walking into the 1980’s, the way I remember pizza parlours growing up. You can even order Pepsi or Beer in those classic plastic pitchers. We tried the lunch buffet which was fine. The pizza was really good, perfectly crispy and there was a wide variety of toppings. We were a bit late arriving and were the only ones still eating from the buffet, but they continued to bring out fresh food. None of their supposedly famous taco pizza, though. Will try that another time. Salad bar was nothing to write home about, but adds a little color to your meal at least. Kids and adults alike were enjoying the 80’s style arcade games. Very nice experience there.

Not only is this place a staple of my childhood, the pizza is fantastic.
Great arcade that to this day I love to play in when I go.
The pizza lunch buffet is the best, they bring out these cinnamon iced sticks omg they are so yummy.
Ordered a large hamburger pizza and it was so good, also the veggie is very good.
I love the narrow slices.
If you call ahead and just go pick it up it only takes about 15 minutes.
Can get very crowded on weekend nights, which can make it difficult to get around, and they do charge for drinks by the drink…
Reasonable prices, delicious, and a staple of the communuity.

After already eating dinner my hubs decided it would be fun to take our little guy here, which is rather like a mini Chuck E Cheese. The pizzas are decent although this eve we aren’t eating and just letting our little guy play in the arcade. There are several games geared to tots so he loves it!

I took my 5 year old son their for a Mommy/​Son date night. We didn’t have much cash as I had forgotten about the games and then kicked myself later. I figured we were just there for pizza! (Bad Mommy!)
The taco pizza leaves a lasting impression and my boyfriend and I ordered it take out again that same following weekend… Then I bought a Groupon… Look, don’t judge me for my addiction to their taco pizza. It’s delicious. Get extra taco sauce packets. VERY filling. The Little Joe is MORE than enough for one person. Very dense.
Secondly, I had exactly four $ 1’s on me… and so I got change and let him play games. He was having a rough time winning tickets and had his eye on this disc shooter. He seemed heartbroken when I uttered the words «We’re out of money, Buddy.» He started to tear up. «Do we have enough for the shooter?» (Shoots foam discs). «I don’t know.» (I was thinking I could pay the difference to buy it for him… but this date-​night was low budget for a reason.
A kid, an employee, next to us was undoing a big ticket jam in a machine and he stood up and put a wad of tickets that couldn’t be put back into the machine, but he could have pitched them, onto my pizza box and smiled at my boy. I was very thankful and super grateful! We went up to the prize counter and the girl, indeed chipper and happy — took our tickets. We were 40 tickets short for the disc shooter even with the employees generous donation of tickets. I asked if I could pay the difference. She told me not to worry about it and handed the aforementioned disc shooter to my son. He was SO HAPPY!
To this day, my 5 year old still talks about this date night… he wants to go back again and again… which I am happy to oblige. It’s a really fun dining atmosphere for families WITHOUT the absolute chaos nonsense of Chuck E Cheese (craptastic pizza and bratty children set loose). We’ll be back!

I grew up going here but it isn’t what it used to be. I always get the buffet with my family. The pizza is alright but the salad bar the last few times isn’t too good. The lettuce is wilted and a bit yucky. They have games there which my 5yr old son likes but it needs some updating. The workers the last few times haven’t been very pleasant either. Sad they are slowly going downhill.

It’s a mini Chuck-​E-​Cheese with the games and prizes for kids, but!!! the pizza is actually good here! In fact, it’s quite good! Fresh, fluffy dough and yummy sauce.
They have a regular buffet with salad and pizza that looks really good, but I haven’t been able to try it yet.
Three times, I have had the Little Joe Pizza. It’s about $ 5 or so dollars and is a perfect size for 1 person.
I understand that their many versions of taco pizza are to die for. I’ve never had taco pizza, so I look forward to trying it here during one of the buffets when I get a chance to come back. I think the lunch buffet is around $ 8.
There are tons of tables that can be arranged for 2 people or put together easily for 20 people. Every time I go, there are often huge groups having a birthday party.

This a family oriented place where kids are truly Happiest!
I asked my son where he’d like to have his 4^th Birthday Party… I suggested Monkey Joe’s Chuck E Cheese, etc… I shot every idea down and say he’d like to have his party at Happy Joe’s. We’d eaten there a couple of times… my son hates pizza, unless I make it homemade or we get the all meat pizza from… you guessed it Happy Joe’s! I was surprised by his choice, but hey it’s his day!
Booking the party was a snap, I brought in my own cake so they added an extra pizza for the party! They provided games & prizes, drinks, party favors (the mustaches were a big hit! Imagine a bunch of 2 – 8 year olds running around with staches… hilarious!) and a clown (not the creepy kind with a big red nose, but the sweetest teenagers that help out with everything!) Needless to say, the party was a huge hit and the kids had so much fun!
The place is on the smaller side and they did have a few parties going on at once, but that issue was handled expertly and the parties were all very well contained.
They have really great pizza and ice cream that changes seasonally!
It’s a great place to go without the kids for some pizza and beer or with the kids to have pizza, ice cream and little fun!

Happy Joe’s! A place in St. Louis that is a true Route 66 landmark. I love this place because I can run in and get a quick salad with all the fixings. Always a great place for kids and kids birthday parties. Of course they have the most interesting pizza creations in St. Louis.
Go! Go back in time when life was simple, Happy Joe’s Pizza.