Charlie Gitto’s Downtown

Less than average food. Overly high priced.
Went for lunch and low and behold, the prices are the same for lunch, or for dinner. Strike one, you’ll miss my and a lot of others’ lunch business.
The bread and butter brought to the table tasted like it was made by Fazio’s and delivered, then cut up. No fresh, hot bread? Strike two.
Last strike, ordering the food. I ordered the Baked potato soup, huge mistake. Not only was it microwaved (the entire cup was incinerating hot, like it had been microwaved), but the soup literally consisted of extremely overpowering chicken broth taste along with a few potatoes. It was literally the worst soup I’ve ever tasted. I’d open a can of campbells and serve that to customers before this one. The seafood ravioli at lunch was subpar, at $ 13 for 6 ravioli. The sauce was a pink sauce, usually meaning alfredo and red sauce mixed. It wasn’t impressive. The ravioli themselves tasted slightly undercooked and made a few days ago, instead of fresh. The crab/​shrimp inside tasted and smelled a bit ‘fishy’ for me.
Probably won’t be back here, I’d rather get a bite from Lombardo’s, or Olive Garden, or, Chef Boyardee for that matter, than spend $ 40+ on two lunch pastas. Oh, add in that a small draft Budweiser is $ 6, most likely the highest price at any restaurant downtown.

During a recent trip back to my old stomping grounds of Saint Louis my wife and I decided to visit an old favorite of ours, Charlie Gitto’s downtown. We ordered our favorites… toasted ravs, two large house salads and we were splitting a roast beef sandwich.
The ravs arrived and we’re pretty good. Nothing like we remember though. Then the salads arrived and my wife started to dig in, salivating over memories that she fondly held for this dish. As she plucked her fork into the top of the salad, grabbing a few of the accoutrements adorning the top layer, she brought the fork closer to her lips only to discover what she thought was a raisin actually had legs. Yes. It was a dead bug coated and covered in delicious Charlie Gitto’s house dressing.
I promptly showed our waitress who was mortified! The owner, perched prominently at the end of the bar asked what was wrong as he overheard our conversation. His nonchalant reaction to finding a bug in our food was very disturbing and firmly solidified our position that we would never step foot in this Saint Louis landmark restaurant EVER again. I paid for my toasted ravs and left.
Wat was once THE BEST PLACE TO get Italian food in Saint Louis is now a roach invested dump with an owner who could care less. Such a shame.

This was some of the worst Italian food I’ve ever had. The cheese on top of pasta doesn’t even taste like real cheese. The Lasagna was awful awful AWFUL! The calamari was sub par. 4 out of 4 people on our double date disliked their food. Would not recommend this place to ANYONE.

My co-​workers and I decided to stop in to Charlie Gitto for dinner based on a recommendation. It is stated to be one of the best family owned Italian restaurants in the area. The restaurant’s ambiance was warm and homelike. Everyone was extremely friendly and welcoming.
For food, I decided to go with penne bellini with chicken (sundried tomatoes and portabella mushrooms sautéed with garlic and olive oil). The entrée was mediocre. The pasta was cooked al dente, but that was the only thing going for the dish. The flavoring was bland, the chicken was dry, and the overall dish was extremely oily. For dessert I got the tiramisu. It is everything what you would expect from a typical tiramisu, but nothing extraordinary.
My experience here was mediocre. I expected more since this was a recommendation, but it just didn’t meet my expectations. I wouldn’t see myself going back. I recommend looking for another Italian restaurant.

Ordered Spaghetti Bolognese to go for lunch today. I opened the package expecting heaven and found a very small amount of watery tomato sauce on spaghetti with a little cheese on top. Pretty close to flavorless. No meat, whatsoever, which is what Bolognese is supposed to be. Since I had already left downtown, I just stopped and picked up lunch elsewhere. Very disappointing. They were nice on the phone and when I picked up so two stars instead of one. Not much of a stretch to say Chef Boyardee would have been better.
I’m guessing this is not the same people as Charlie Gitto’s on the hill?

It was okay if you weren’t actually expecting Italian. I got the tortellini it was described as meat filled in a cream sauce with peas, mushrooms and ham. It came in a large bowl swimming in sauce it was like a soup just look at the photo. There was an equivalent of one mushroom sliced in the sauce and small bits of ham/​bacon. The pasta was cooked perfectly, but the sauce was bland. I’ve eaten much better Italian at Olive Garden, this was just an okay pasta dish.

Food was excellent. A little pricy, but delicious. Atmosphere is crowded, loud, and distractingly busy. Wait staff was attentive and kind.

This is our first visit to CGs and I must say, the food and service were both quite good. It compares favorably against other Italian restaurants in the area. The calamari fritti appetizer was exceptional. The breading was light and cooked to perfection. The Pasta Messina’s flavors were complex and spot on. The shrimp was very fresh as was the mushrooms. The one downside was the chicken. It was a bit on the dry side.

We have eaten here ever year we are in town for the last 5 years. Have always enjoyed the food chicken Parm hands down awesome toasted raviolis are great! The service is always on point. We will be back soon never a bad meal check it out!!!

Wow!!! Is all I can say??? How do you make classic American Italian food very mediocre even a chain restaurant can do it better then this place. The amount of effort put into not making food well is mind numbing 100 $ for bad Italian food the people need to be warned. Go to subway it is bad but not as bad as this place.

I had one day here in St. Louis and all I wanted was Toasted Ravioli — one of my favorite things about the city. There are all sorts of claims of who was the original restaurant to come up with it. Charlie Gitto has been a staple here in St. Louis for some time. I ordered my food to go so I didn’t get the full experience. The toasted ravioli was delicious and I got my fill in for the day. But what I noticed while waiting for my order is what was disappointing. The hostess was all flustered and confused and many of the servers were on edge. Charlie was there and pretty much sat at the bar chit chatting with his little entourage ignoring most of the issues going on. Then one of the servers screwed something up behind the bar and the bartender tore into her in front of everyone. Wow… I’m glad I grabbed my food and got out of there. I don’t how anyone could enjoy their job with all the tension in this place. I did enjoy looking at all the sports memorabilia. Sorry Charlie, I think time you get off your behind and get back to managing a restaurant.

Really, really good eggplant parmigiana and friendly wait staff. A great, fun evening! And a good meal to boot!

Style and substance in a place with a TON of St. Louis character and history.
Great food, Classic Italian menu with good variety.
You might catch the old man in there too on some nights. St. Louis Italian at its best.

Oofa. I’ve lived in Italy. I certainly didn’t expect dishes that were authentically Italian in downtown STL (especially from a place that touts its provel). But I also didn’t expect them to be that bad.
We ordered house wine; the chianti was ok, but the cabernet tasted more like sangria. The server didn’t bring any bread until we specifically asked, during our entrees. (And the bread was kind of like the take-​and-​bake stuff you get in the grocery store.) The toasted ravioli have mystery meat in them, which I wasn’t expecting (but to be fair, I didn’t ask and assumed they were cheese-​filled). I debated about the caprese salad, and as soon as it showed up knew I shouldn’t have ordered it. Four thick slabs of mealy tomato topped with a teeny piece of… provel? Mozzarella? And red onions for some odd reason? Plus a dusting of dried basil.
For entrees, we got the fettuccine alfredo, which was just alright. The pasta was al dente, which was nice, but the sauce was just ok. The other entrée was the manicotti (I’d wanted the eggplant parm, but it came with «meatsauce» which the server said was beef, so I passed on that). I gather it was filled with and topped with provel. The marinara was very sweet and thin, almost like spaghettios.
The server wasn’t particularly friendly and sort of tossed things like the bread on the table.
All told, this was $ 80, which was so not worth it. Pass on this, folks. I should have tried that calzone place nearby.

We came here with a group of 7, recommended by our hotel conceirge. We got seated right away. Took a while to get our drinks, the server did not know the menu. Refills took forever, sprite tasted like soda water, Lump crap meat topping looked like gravy. Baked lasagna was good and so was the tortellini.
I would not recommend this place.

So. Rediculously. Great.
I came with a large group from a conference. We’d had the top room reserved with a dinner buffet, however that quickly spilled over into the upper bar area due to more people unexpectedly coming. The restaurant was as quick to set up additional tables for the surprise guests — bravo!
Myself and a few ladies decided to sit downstairs at the bar and eat due to the last-​minute space issues. I’m glad we did — the Card’s game was on TV, and the A/​C was more… prominent than upstairs. Our adorable & sweet bartender was great to us — no care that we had our big plates of dinner there. He also kept our drinks a-​flowin’. A couple of times I didn’t realize one drink was empty because he’d already gotten a refill set up for me! Charlie himself came by the restaurant during our dinner and one friend and I were a little shy to ask for a pic, but perhaps next time we will.

My husband is a regular for lunch here, as it’s walking distance from his office. I decided to meet him for lunch today because I’m a huge fan of The Hill location and was curious to see how it compared. I was surprised at how casual this location is in comparison to the other locations. It definitely doesn’t have that same charm and elegance that I prefer, but I see why this informal and relaxed spot draws such a big lunch crowd.
The bread was very fresh and good. We asked for a little olive oil and parmesan cheese to go with it, as we’re not big fans of buttered bread. I personally like to save my calories for bigger and better things. :) The portions served during lunch are the regular dinner size portions, which are very large, so my husband and I split a small house salad and the baked penne. This entrée is not served at the other locations, along with several other dishes that are only offered at the downtown location. Plenty of new choices caught my eye, but that penne was the winner. And a winner it was! It has a tomato and cream sauce mixture and is topped with lots of provel cheese before being baked. It’s very rich and very delish! My in-​laws joined us today as well and they also split their huge portions of chicken soup, house salad, and lasagna. There wasn’t a single bite left when we were all done.
This is one of those instances where a half-​star is needed because I would truly give my rating 4.5 stars. I loved the food, the different menu choices, and service here, but because I’m a girl who’s all about the ambiance, it didn’t quite compare to my favorite location on The Hill in that department.

Downtown Gitto’s, I’ll miss you. Gitto’s on the Hill… we’re still good Sir!
First, I’m sorry and it breaks my heart.
Tonight, as a local who visits on foot often, I was reduced to one of those suburbia type folks that wait outside of Olive Garden… where are the Mom and Pop’s?
Downtown CG’s, We moved tables to try to GET YOUR ATTENTION for service… but you NEVER noticed us.
When I told «Mariah» that I was a local and I hate to tell her «you’ve lost my business», she told me «ok, I’m sorry» in her sweetest 17 year old non-​business sense voice. She won’t miss us.
What happened CGs? Used to be so good and value your customers!

Dropped in on my most recent visit to STL. I was really surprised at how good their food was. The house salad was delicious. The Gluten Free Pasta tasted so good I couldn’t even tell it was GF. And the service was over the top.
This downtown atmosphere is likely the same it was 20 years ago. Lots of wood, celebrety pictures, cozy tables, a small bar, and the owners were hanging around for lunch.
I highly recommend this spot if you want good Italian and want to see an original STL restaurant.

Provel haters keep walking. There’s nothing for you here.
Provel lovers, however, let me tell you a little story about the BEST BAKED PENNE OOZING WITH PROVEL EVER KNOWN TO MAN! This is the dish that keeps me coming back to Charlie Gitto’s because I haven’t found it anywhere else. With such perfect simplicity, the dish consists of penne noodles with meat and cream sauce baked with provel and topped with parmesan. The «baked with provel» part is where it gets good! You get oooey gooey provel cheese in every bite. The «baked in» part also means that occasionally you’ll hit a little provel pocket in the pasta that’s pure heaven. All of the other entrees passing by looked great, but I would never stray from this provel-​laden gem!
Charlie aint no dummy, either! He’s charging the tourists $ 9 for toasted ravioli. That’s hilarious! He’s also charging $ 5 for a side salad that doesn’t come with your pasta, doesn’t look like much, but is incredibly flavorful (think Pasta House style)…so who would resist it?
Service was incredible at the bar during our short wait and at the table. Although dated, you’ll enjoy looking at all the pictures on the wall of past celebs that ate there — lots of baseball players passing through and, my favorite, Larry Connors when he had hair. Awesome!