The Hill Dine Around

There are so many restaurants in a city the size of St. Louis. It would be difficult (and expensive) to hit them all and know what is truly available around town. Luckily there are friend networks and restaurant reviewers out there helping pare down the daunting list. Today I throw myself into those categories.

For the month of February Misty and I decided to go to a different restaurant on The Hill each weekend. The idea came to me one Saturday morning when I was at Viviano's on The Hill picking up some fresh meat for a home cooked meal. As I drove down Shaw and Edwards I kept saying to myself, "I need to try that place", or "it has been way too long since I was last there". With that, it was set. A Hill dine around.

We are 3 weeks into the 4 week tour and we have had some amazing meals.
Week 1 was Gian-Tony's. This place came highly recommended. Nice atmosphere and good food were the billing. It did not disappoint. It was surprisingly quiet for a Saturday night at 7:30. The bar was hopping, but the tables were not all full. We were able to be seated quickly near the back of the restaurant. The portions were huge as most people took home a "doggy bag". If you are looking for a good meal on The Hill with large servings and a fair price put Gian-Tony's on your list. Everyone at our table was more than satisfied with their meal. Plus it appears that you can make last minute reservations.

Week 2 we went to Favazza's. This restaurant was quite a bit more lively. While it did not have the ambiance of Gian-Tony's the food was equally good. We also put in reservations here, and there appeared to be a wait for a walk up table. Perhaps their location on Southwest helps their traffic, or maybe it was the relaxed atmosphere; either way I would recommend a reservation. Their white sauce was particularly rich and again everyone left full and several had plenty left over to take with them.

Last night was Week 3. Mama Campisi's had been mentioned, and no one I knew had been there. This was an amazing find. The place was packed. Good thing we had reservations! It is one of the smaller restaurants and add to that a singer roaming the joint with his wireless microphone and there was not much room to stand and wait. Even with our reservation we waited about 15 minutes. While at the bar before dinner they poured generous glasses of wine for a fair price. Our table was near the door, but never was cold. The singer paid quite a bit of attention to us as we were seated near his karaoke set up. At one time he handed Misty his CD of covers, only to take it back later. I don't think we would have had much use for his CD, but it was odd how he took it back. The food was even better than it smelled, and the place smelled like a true Italian restaurant.


I would highly recommend this place. They were supposed to have a dish on the 3rd weekend of each month, Chicken Lasagna. Someone had come in that morning and bought all of it. So the special was not available this time. The chef told us that he will most likely have it next weekend. Everything that we ate was so flavorful, I can only imagine how good the chicken lasagna would be as a special.

So now we head into Week 4. Our last meal on The Hill. We have the list narrowed down to a few potential restaurants; Zia's (just reopened after their fire 6 months ago), LoRusso's or Giovanni's. Have you ate at any of these? Do you recommend one over the others? If so, please share. Also, if you care to join us we always welcome others to come along. It will be this Friday Feb 26th around 7:30. I hope you can join us.

We are thinking of doing something similar again in a few months either in another area of town or maybe another theme. We'll keep you posted.

Serge
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