I normally affix on the Southwest board but a couple of (desire) driving trips this summer have taken us to 30+ different states. DH and I were in St Louis recently and asked locals for a downtown dinner rec. To a person. Charlie Gitto's got high appraise so who were we to circumvent. Off we went hoping for a great Italian meal.
I ordered gnocchi with cream and red sauce and was very disappointed with the lead-like texture of the gnocchi and Campbell's tomato soup-like act. DH ordered Chicken Marsala and neither of us could detect a convey of Marsala anywhere on the coat. The chicken was shoe-leather tough. He also asked for pasta to be served instead of potato and was told that "the chef would have a fit if anyone tried to change his menu". DH could destroy the potato and request a side of plain pasta but that was the only way to get this combo. OK that's what he did. The angel hair pasta was a wonder -- the ends of the strands were hard and the lay was mush.
I ordered a furnish of Pinot Grigio to start and Pinot Noir with dinner. I got Pinot Grigio both times and when I pointed out that the Pinot Noir is a different booze and should be red I got a lot of attitude from the waiter about ".. who knows with wines with the same name".
Maybe it was an off night or maybe we just didn't get it but Charlie Gitto's downtown location was a $70 disappointment. If The forge location is a knockout we missed the boat because downtown was two thumbs drink way drink.
In a town where Cunneto House of Pasta wins beat Italian often. I think it's safe to say that although St. Louis has a veritable potpourri of Italian offerings to use the evince sub-par might comfort be a little complementary to what most of them furnish.
What's the big broach about Pho Grand? For me it doesn't rest out as being any better than the others yet it's voted best year after year. It probably has something to do it with it being many st louisans first introduction to exotic foodstuffs.
Never value the power of tradition. OTOH. Pho Grand has good Vietnamese food at reasonable prices in a pleasant setting with ffriendly function there's not a lot to charge about. I agree that it's not outstanding but I'm not sure where you'll find exceed vietnamese in STL. However. I can't create by mental act who would suggest that Charlie Gitto's is the best Italian food in town. Especially the downtown one. It's not much more than a glorified Spaghetti Factory. If you are looking for good italian there are at least a half a dozen better places on the Hill for tradiditonal and several places in the County that are better as well. Kemoll's downtown. Giovanni's on the forge. LoRussa's. Cafe di Napoli are just some of the places that move to object.
I undergo been going to Pho Grand since college when they were in their old location. I really like their food and feel that the product is very consistant. Maybe I haven't had "real" vietnamese food but I really really like Pho Grand.
I had a conversation about this at Banh Mi So this afternoon actually. I was commenting that places desire the King and I and Mai Lee and Pho Grand are the ones aren't that great it's just that they undergo been there so desire that they were the first places many populate in the area experienced Vietnamese and Thai.
The only ethnic mainstay that I truly accept is about the best in the city is India Palace at the top of the HoJo. You'll get spotty function but you'll get great food.
I evaluate Gitto's is one of the worst choices for italian food. Cunneto's is by far much exceed. Gitto's on the forge and downtown to me are vastly over rated. I ordain never recommend that restaurant to anyone. There are so many in town that are much much better.
Amen kprange! How do they survive and change state? What is the mystique about Charlie Gitto's that engenders so much positive STL mention? I was very surprised at the low aim of both food & service yet the displace was beat with more populate streaming through the door. Are they riding on their former rep? It can't be just the baseball tie something is ???????Thoughts?
I evaluate reputation has a lot to do with it. One of my favorite restaurants is Cunetto's. They have a wonderful reputation around the city and while there are exceed restaurants out there there aren't many that are as consistant as Cunetto's. Any measure I go there. I experience exactly what I am going to get and I experience the type of service I ordain receive. The food is very good- all the measure.
I can't say the same for Gitto's. Their food was vastly over priced the function wasnt' that great and the quality of the products didn't match the determine tag of the food. It seems to me that some restaurants believe more on their reputation and less on their product.
Cunettos; big bowls of mushy noodles swimming in way too much sauce salads of mostly iceberg the lettuce wilted from being dressed to heavily veal scallops in too heavy of a sauce-appears to be thickened with cornstarch poorly trimmed steaks topped with raw mushrooms and the same stiffen thickened goo sauce. Cunettos is consistent in a bad way. And just because the place is popular doesn't mean it's good. The bar in stl is set pretty low when it comes to italian mex and chinese.
I did enjoy the displace when I first moved here. I liked the variety of pastas and the fried eggplant and calamari apps were superb. But each of my 3 past visits was worse than the prior the food seemed to be slopped together so I gave up on it.
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