Talayna’s

BEST CAESAR EVER.
Im Italian and picky but red sauce, burgers, pizza, pasta all great!
Thanks Mehdi for keeping this neighborhood tradition going!

This (STL Italian) is a disappointing shadow of what Talayna’s used to be. With places like Pi and even Uno, there isn’t much reason to come back here. See below for more specifics. It is, however, much less expensive than some, but that really isn’t a savings.
I ordered a pizza to go. They said it would be ready in a half hour. I showed up 20 minutes later expecting a wait but it was ready. You might think this was good. When I got to the counter, I decided to get a piece of cheesecake, too. The woman working the counter then answered the phone, it was a woman complaining that her pizza was soggy. She was offered that if she brings it back, they will make it right and give her some spiff to make up for it.
Then the woman brought my ready pizza to the counter. I asked for a piece of cheesecake, too and she said sure. Then she went off to talk to someone in the kitchen for 2 minutes, while my pizza sat on the counter with me. Then she came back and was talking to another guy (manager?) and I heard him say «well after an hour, of course the pizza is going to be soggy». Anyway, the gist of the customer service is, I waited about 8 minutes to get the cheesecake while this woman (who is very nice by the way) got distracted by many things even though I was the only customer on the to go side.
When I got my pizza home IT WAS SOGGY IN THE MIDDLE… I guess the guy making the comment behind the counter really is out of touch with what his people are putting out there.
We put the pizza in the oven on 450 for about 20 – 25 minutes and it actually wasn’t bad at that point but the drama? No thanks.
The cheesecake was okay. The fruit (strawberry topping) was actually pretty good and didn’t taste like that nasty canned goop that some places use.
The topper: Bad digestive issues showed up at about 1 AM. Certainly due to something I ate from these guys. I’m guessing it’s from the cheesecake since we really double cooked the pizza.

I’ve been coming here since I was a teen and it’s still great. The service is always good and the food is better than it’s ever been. I drive a half hour just to get this pizza and my kids love it. You should try this place often. It’s a part of St. Louis history!

Talayna’s is going through some re-​branding efforts. They are now «St. Louis Italian». They have done some changes to the dining room, but the menu looks the same. There are some new personnel and the growing pains are obvious. Hopefully they get it sorted out. The NY style is still great.

I’ll be completely honest. I had been avoiding this place because I thought it was like its Dogtown cousin of a similar name: karaōke, disco balls, and bar food. Yeah. Easy mistake to make, right?
Devin bought a Living Social so that’s where we found ourselves tonight.
Not bad!
Spacious place. Charming stained glass windows and lamps. It’s not super nice by any means, but it’s not a dive either. Pretty standard.
Our server, Mark, was very good. The cheese garlic bread was scrumptious. The perfect balance of light, fluffy bread, and thick and juicy cheese. Yummm.
Our pizza wasn’t bad. It didn’t completely blow me away, and I can’t really put my finger on why. It just didn’t. But, I would eat it again. Devin pointed out that he appreciated how they didn’t skimp on the toppings, which was definitely true. At $ 1.55 per topping for a medium, they’d better not.
I would come back if I felt like dining in for some pizza, and they do have a very expansive menu. We want to try pizza with their whole wheat crust (it is only available on the STL style thin crust). We will also probably be back for the bar. A standard sports bar type atmosphere with a great beer selection (ever since Rhine Haus let us down, we’ve been on the lookout for sports bars within walking distance).
But just to get a good pizza? Papa John’s is across the street.

I live about half a block away from Talanya’s, so it’s great to have a nearby dining option when I’m feeling particularly lazy. (Plus they have online ordering, hooray for avoiding human interaction!)
Their pizza is definitely the strong point, I’ve had a few of their pasta dishes and appetizers and wasn’t overly impressed, they were just meh. I’ve had the thin crust and NY style, NY was my favorite.
They have recently come under new ownership and have added an outdoor patio with umbrellas and whatnot which is a nice touch. Glad they improved the exterior a bit too. Hoping they continue to improve!

I feel like this place should be on the show «Restaurant Impossible.» It’s down the street from my house, so I wanted to give it a try. Perhaps it would have been a better experience if I only got take out.
Just to clarify– the pizza was fine. Thin crust, veggies, standard sauce. No complaints about the actual food; it was a little overpriced.
The service was completely apathetic and sluggish, and the restaurant itself was run down and out-​dated.
If you want a different option than the Papa Johns across the street, get it to-​go.

Indifferent service on a slow day. Bland deep dish pizza (AND incorrect toppings). Mess of a house salad… yep, that’s a brief overview of my visit here. The salad was seriously the best part of my meal, even though the handful of olives in it had pits, and the extruded Provel cheese on top of the salad was a congealed, damn near inseparable mass. I just can’t justify going back…

Italian food and Marvin Gaye… it’s an odd combo, but a good one. Very attentive service. Our salads we’re top notch (once we pulled some of the over abundance of croutons). An order of spaghetti and meat sauce serves three. Twice.
One star removed for the very odd space. Kid-​friendly, but very open to the bar. Clean and bright, but the tile and décor are wearing.

I’ve gotten carryout from here many a times since I live just down the street. The pizza is pretty good (i tend to shy away from deep dish, so i’m very happy about talayna’s many options) and the service is friendly.
I can’t say much more about this place, but living on pershing, i’m one happy girl to know this place is a pizza option instead of the papa john’s across the street.

I’ve gotten the carry out from this place about 30 times in the past couple years as I live nearby so obviously I like it. They just came under new ownership and the the atmosphere (it’s weakest point) has been slowly improving. They installed a new bar and updated some of the other areas of the restaurant. I still don’t know that I’d recommend it for a sit down place, but for a carry out, it’s pretty damn awesome.
Where Talaynas shines is their thin crust pizza. Their thin crust pizza is THE archtype of Saint Louis style pizza. If you are a Saint Louis style pizza hater who thinks Imo’s is THE STL pizza, you might be a little surprised at how different (and better) this is than Imo’s. If you are a thin crust lover, you will find Talayna’s to be the best. I frequently order the «super» which has just about everything on it. I can’t remember what it’s missing anymore. I have had the New York style pizza and it is over-​sauced and generally not that close to actual New York style pizza in New York. (For that, the best choice in Saint Louis is likely Racanellis which still needs a little bit of work to be as good, but overall pretty good).
I haven’t tried any of the other stuff on the menu save the garlic cheese bread. Let me just say that Talayna’s has the best garlic cheese bread of any restaurant on the planet. If you are a garlic lover, and have the «mlah» love of buttery goodness, this stuff will blow you away.

Very highly recommended by several ‘locals’ so I thought I would give it a shot.
This is not a location I would ever drive through let alone stop in, the stark noisy cafeteria feel to the place inside (was this place a Denny’s?) is not inviting (but very clean), pool table in the back, full bar to one side, lots of people seem to walk through the place that are not dining in so they can use the restrooms, friendly but very disconnected service, AND 5-​styles of pizza on offer as well as your typical pasta dishes made me think this place had potential.
The verdict on the small house special Boston style char-​grilled pizza that took 30-​minutes to get? MEH. It was cold by the time I got it, or perhaps it was undercooked.
Time for someone to take down that Best Pizza House sign they have and burn it. They don’t deserve it.

Years ago I used to eat at Talayna’s all the time… not this location but same menu.
The location was perfect since we were going to a movie at the Chase and my friend was in the mood for pasta.
We were both really disappointed. I was prepared for the interior to look a bit tired and even a tad dirty based on reviews. I could have lived with that if the food had rocked.
It didn’t.
And the service left a lot to be desired too.
I ordered cheese garlic bread and a combination salad with Caesar dressing. He ordered lasagna.
First they brought the regular bread, which was good. Hot and tasty. My friend was pretty hungry and ate it up, and they never offered to bring more.
Then they brought my salad… keep in mind that my salad was my entrée so it really should have come when they brought out my friend’s dinner. And they definitely should have started us with the appetizer… the cheese garlic bread. But no, first came my salad. About 7 or 8 minutes later came the cheesy bread. Then almost 10 minutes later came my friend’s lasagna. At this point, we were almost late for the movie and we had to flag down our waiter to get a check even though he only had a couple of tables. He came off like he was new or really badly trained.
Next, the food. Maybe my tastes have changed. I used to like the cheese garlic bread and the salad croutons, but both were just dripping in grease/​butter. Way overkill. The salad was fine otherwise, and I really do love the Caesar dressing. The lasagna was just blah per my friend. Just bland sauce, noodles, meatballs and tons of cheese. No seasoning to make it stand out.
Talayna’s seems to think that all they need to do is give you huge portion sizes and people will be happy. The menu even brags that a pasta can serve 2 – 4 people. Not sure I think that’s something to brag about. Why not do better quality food and normal portion sizes that won’t keep all of us overweight.
I did love the pizza in the past, and walking by a table with a thin crust sausage pizza, I realized that it’s the only thing I’ll ever get at Talayna’s again. At a different location… not going back to this one.
It really does need a makeover. If I was going on décor and service, it would have gotten 1 star. The food wasn’t terrible and it was convenient to have a parking lot at a restaurant near the CWE, so I decided to be generous and give it 2.

My favorite pizza place in the STL! I was somewhat skeptical when the sign outside of the restaurant said, «Voted the Best Pizza» and it was sort of in the middle of nowhere. I decided to try it anyway and was pleasantly surprised. This is some good shit. I went back another day and tried the wings and they were just as good as the pizza.
Go try the pizza! You won’t be disappointed.

Talayna’s is simply my favorite restaurant in the world.
I’ve only had New York style pizza in New York once, but that was a «showcase» situation (a friend taking me to a place he considered among the best in Brooklyn), and I’d put the Talayna’s version up against it any day.
Our family of four usually orders the large New York style pie («The Manhattan») and after eating our fill at the restaurant we usually have at least half the pie left. It keeps and reheats quite well and we usually graze it away over the next couple of days.
Their Chicago style pizza is also quite good. The best? I dunno, but definitely in the top three of that kind that I’ve had (there’s a place in the Loop that I recall as maybe being a little better, and a joint in, of all places, downtown Branson, Missouri — not the tourist strip, the little old town — from many years ago that was to die for).
I’m not really a huge fan of St. Louis style pizza, but the Talayna’s take on it seems in line with their other pies in terms of quality. I wouldn’t write it off versus Imo’s or Cecil Whittaker’s, anyway.
They’ve got two styles of hot wings (battered and naked). Both are quite tasty, but I lean toward the naked. The salads are fresh, crisp and cold, and their hot rolls with butter are a great starter. My wife has tried their pasta entrees at lunches and says they’re quite good. I keep meaning to try them, but the pizza always wins me over by the time I order.
They’ve got a full bar with a decent selection of bourbons and vodkas and a bartender who’s competent, friendly and willing to mix to order if you come up with some weird request. Beer-​wise … hmm, offhand from memory they have the standard area Anheuser-​Busch products both bottled and on tap, as well as Schlafly and Boulevard Wheat (or perhaps it’s Widmer Brothers Hefe) on tap and Fat Tire in bottles.
The service is top-​notch. My family’s been eating there several times a year for years. We’ve held small and large group events there, and the groups have always seemed pleased with the food and service. The staff (and the owner) recognizes us and are very friendly, even remembering my usual drink order — but when I look around I see them treating everyone else just as well, so I assume it’s not just a function of «these guys bring us a lot of business so be nice to them» or anything like that.

This is an interesting place. I’m still not sure what to make of it.
The beautiful wife and I hit Talayna’s for dinner tonight. When we walked in, we were asking smoking or non-​smoking. We went with no, but then it turned into some sort of situation regarding what server didn’t have enough tables. So we interrupted and went with smoking, just so we could sit.
We got a booth in the bar area, which is vacant, except for one fellow sitting by himself in a booth in the corner. I don’t believe he ordered any food or drink, so I’m not sure if he was real or not.
Anyway, we were deciding on what to drink, and per some discussions earlier, we decided it would be a wine night. I asked about that and our server presented a wine list. I swear, I’d kill to have a picture of this. It was literally a handwritten list that pretty much read «Cabernet, Chardonnay, Chianti…» And of course, lacking prices. Crazy.
I ordered a bottle of Chianti, because I’m a lush. Only to have the server come back and say they don’t sell wine by the bottle. Even better. Two glasses of Chianti please!
We had some jalapeño poppers to start off with, which were fine. They have a mix of cheddar and cream cheese. But, before you get too comfy, they come with a side of marinara. That’s a first. But hey, they must know something, because the cream cheese poppers with marinara had a pseudo-​lasagna taste (well, jalapeño lasagna).
What happened next… it’s so hard to talk about. You see, they brought out a pizza sample. A sample of St. Louis style pizza. That’s right. Sitting before us was a bubbling, thin crusted, Provel-​topped monstrosity. What we were to do? Reject it entirely? Run? Claim to be vegans? As you see often with travel shows, it would be offensive to your hosts if you did not to take a nibble. So we did. From the very edge. I can’t say or not if any of that bastard cousin of Cheese Whiz entered my system, but it came close enough.
After some moments of awkwardness, the main event arrived — a medium, New York style deluxe pizza. Wait, no. It was a medium deluxe pizza, but it wasn’t New York-​style. This was a thicker crust, cut into narrow pieces.
Now, it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t New York-​style. It reminded me more of a better version of Pizza Hut’s hand-​tossed (yeah, I’ve traveled down that road, still better than Provel-​topped garbage).
Really long story short, it wasn’t bad, it wasn’t great. If we wanted a simple, no frills pizza experience, we might come back (or order take out). But it didn’t blow me away.

Yaaaaay! This is the first pizza place we went after we moved from NYC, and this place has the spectacular NY style pizzaaaa!!! It’s even better than the ones we had in NYC!!! Woo-​hoo, we are so happy-!!
We tried Chicago style and St. Louis style as well. Both are terrific too!!! Some tables were having pasta and it looked sooo good… I’d love to try it sometime soon.
Oh, one more thing! Waiters and waitresses are SUPER NICE. Great service!!! Very homey!

Talayna’s pizza is goood. It’s very hearty, like a casserole — they do not skimp on toppings — and the sauce is oregano-​y but they don’t overdo the oregano like Blackthorn does. We got a mediums-​sized Special with NY-​style crust and could only eat half of it. Took the rest home and had it for dinner. So $ 22+ tip fed the two of us for the entire day. Not bad. The pizza was slow to come out but they apologized and said they were short-​staffed in the kitchen that day. The place is huge and has tons of seating. Pay them a visit!

I think this is the Central West End one? .I liked it.
It’s not a West County Fern bar, it has character. I had some very nice pasta with a spicy sauce, the price was right too.

I absolutely love Talanya’s. It’s a little grimy. It’s a little smoky. But, DAMN, is it St. Louis style pizza at its finest.
I have never had a mean server. I’ve never dreamed of straying from the pizza section of the menu, but they have massive portions of pasta dishes as well.
If you are one of the jellyheads that dislikes STL style pizza (GET OUT OF MY CITY), you’ll be happy to know that they serve both New York style AND Chicago (all with the traditional cheeses, you whiner). On lucky nights, if you order the NY, they bring you a sample of the STL. If you order the STL, they bring you a sample of the NY. They are proud of their pizza and it shows.
It’s super family and group friendly and… you got it, affordable!