Villa Farotto

Excellent new find! Great food and atmosphere! Service was good and polite. The stuffed risotto balls appetizer (arancinis) were amazing! I get these at every restaurant that offers them, and these are by far at the top of the list. My Caesar salad tasted good, but I do not like to cut up my own lettuce when I’m paying $ 7.59 for it (I paid the extra $ 1 for anchovies). The pistachio encrusted salmon and eggplant Parmesan were wonderful entrees! This restaurant also serves Luccio Moscato, which is an amazing Moscato wine. The only thing not so great about this place was the dessert. We ordered the brownie (suggested as one of the most popular). Never have I ever had such a dry dense dessert before. We did not finish it. We will be back many more times, we’ll just skip the dessert.

Not sure what’s not to love about this place. Arancini was excellent. One of the best in stl. Fresh bread had the home made taste and fresh. Salads were ok. Wish we didn’t have to cut up the romaine ourself. Salmon was excellent and so was the eggplant. Live music on the weekends and offer Groupons too. Will definitely be coming back.

Both the food and the service were poor. There was no hostess to greet us, so we had to wait 5 minutes for a waiter to see us, and he seated us. The pizza was soggy, the linguini was sticking together in clumps, and the favors were fairly bland. We will not be going back.

Took customers for lunch. Perfect place, service and meal for that.

Our waiter was absolutely fantastic! However, the eggplant Parmesan was a disappointment… more breading than eggplant and the pasta was tasteless. Two of the other dishes were quite salty.

Both food and service were excellent. Made a birthday celebration very nice.

Went for a co-​workers birthday. There were 5 of us and it was our first time there. Got there a little early so we had drink and appetizer in the bar befroehand. Parmesan chips are great! When we were seated we were told the Short ribs were not ready yet-​they take 5 hours to cook. That is all I had been talking about since we had decided to go there. Needless to say I ws very dissappointed and had to wonder-​dont they know what time they open? It is a regular dish on the menu. Actually 2 dishes contain the short ribs. Everyone seemed to enjoy their food but we all agreed the «hard sell upcharge» tactics from our server were a little much.

We came here after purchasing a Groupon. We got it because the description stated it was family friendly. However, there is no kid’s menu, and they make no attempt to do anything to accommodate children.
The service was SLOW. We waited in the foyer for 10 minutes before anyone even seated us. Then we waited 10 more minutes at our table for the waiter. Then half an hour for our food. This was at 8:30 on a Monday evening, and the place was fairly empty, so it wasn’t because there was a huge crowd ahead of us.
I thought the prices were on the high side for what you got. There was nothing outstanding about the spaghetti and meatballs that could justify $ 17 for this dish. Similar thoughts on the other dishes we ordered. They tasted fine, but there was no «wow» factor involved.
After we finished dinner we waited around for another 15 minutes to get our check.
The atmosphere was loud. The way they had angled the tables I could hear every single thing the group in the booth near us said. They also had loud music playing. I did not find it to be a pleasing atmosphere.
So, if you are an adult only party and have an entire evening to spend on a meal and don’t mind paying 2X what other places charge for similar food, this place is for you. It definitely wasn’t for us, and we won’t be returning,

Went with a party of 7 and were taken care of extremely well, table was running late so they opened up a new room to seat us extremely well done, everyone in our group enjoyed all there food, there beef tenderloin specialty with a wine sauce and gorgonzola was cooked perfectly and very flavorful, I was really impressed by the soup of the day, a turkey soup with risotto and spinach outstanding. the only glitch was my desert, I had a double fudge brownie with vanilla bean ice cream that was dry hard and tasted like it was made days ago. If it wasn’t for that I would have gave them a 5. I did want to mention our server Jon, a true professional, he knew the menu and wines and service was perfect

How To Make a Family Walk Out of Your Establishment — by Villa Farotto
The attempt to dine at Villa Farotto on the Sunday night my family and I went was quite horrendous. Notice how I said attempt — I was never was actually able to enjoy any of the wonderful food at the restaurant. And don’t get me wrong, the food is amazing; when I dined there a half a year ago, the food was the reason I made a reservation for the Birthday dinner for my mother on this Sunday night. While my service that night was sluggish, I believed that the food outweighed the disappointing service. Oh how wrong I was this time around.
Whenever I go out to a restaurant, I always attempt to make a reservation. The last thing I want to be doing is wasting my time waiting for a table to become free. So naturally, I made reservations around noon that day for 6:15 pm that night. I entered the establishment around 6:10 pm with my family, and was greeted by no one. Not a problem, my family and I stood for a few moments. Then a lady came out, and I was relieved; I was exited to introduce my mother to one of my favorite dishes at the restaurant.
I walked up to the lady, and mentioned my reservation; the response I got absolutely shocked me. She looked at me and said «We’re sorry, two large walk in groups arrived, and we had to give away your table. You can wait 15 minutes if you want, then your table should be ready.»
I was flabbergasted. Did my ears deceive me? Did a restaurant just give away my reservation to a walk in party? It would seem so, and when I told my mother that we would have to wait, her only response was, «I thought you made reservations.»
So we waited. I don’t like waiting, but for my mother’s Birthday? I can oblige, if only for this one time. It was after 20 minutes that I became quite annoyed. No one approached us, offered us a menu, or even made the notion that we could sit outside. They just left us standing around. This was not going to be the end to my mother’s Birthday I decided, and I pulled out my phone, dialing the number for Annie Guns.
I explained the predicament I was in, and they were quick to offer an open table to my family. After consulting my mother, we stood up and started to walk out the door. No one even came up to us, it was as if no one even noticed.
The moral of my story is this: the food at Villa Farotto is amazing, but the service is horrible. Luckily Annie Guns was kind enough to take us, and if I might add, the steak I got at Annie’s that night was better than the steak I got at Villa’s last time around.

We visited Villa Farotto tonight and have always loved it in the past. This was the first time we had tried the new menu and we are not excited about it at all.
Arrival–
Took 10min to be greeted by anyone. The boy that filled our water overfilled the water lasses and spilled it all over the table… And LEFT IT! He gave us our water and walked away with water all over the table.
Service–
POOR! the waiter seemed annoyed the entire time and was busy looking around every time he talked to us. He never checked in with us to see if we wanted another glass of wine or to see how the food was. He also never refilled our bread.
Food–
Edible :(I ordered the NY strip. It was poorly seasoned and could really only taste the fake lemon marinade. It was also VERY gristly. The veggies were cooked fine. The Parmesan risotto was awful. It was not at all creamy and delicious. It was, instead, very dry and just tasted like over cooked rice. It also was yellow and didn’t taste like Parmesan.
We will NOT RETURN. They seem like they are trying too hard to be more casual. But the very small and limited menu is not good. They took away delicious dishes of marsala and veal and now have the categories of pizza, pasta, and a handful of steaks and one pork chop item. Will not recommend to people.

I came here for a networking event & to hear my friend talk. This place is a bit pricey. I couldn’t eat anything that they were serving the group. After telling the waiter that I was on a special diet, they gladly accommodated me. They made me a grilled chicken with green beans. The chicken was a bit salty. I don’t know if I would come back here. This place is out of my price range. Service was great, but the food was so-​so. Ambiance was very warm & welcoming.

Ugh, I so want to give a 4 or a 5 star rating, but the service was so terribly slow! I was in a work group and my employer wanted to do a holiday get together. We were in a party with 15 – 20 people, so I can understand that sometimes service can be a bit on the slow side. I don’t even think they were prepared for our table plus the customers that came through.
We ended up waiting 90 minutes for our food to be served. I ended up ordering a bacon pizza, and the portion size was to my expectations, but I hated the fact that we ended up waiting too long.
I might give this place another chance, but I doubt that I will be coming on a weekend.

The café has gone down hill. The staff is more interested in what is happening with each other, rather than their customers. Brought wrong pizza, twice. Quality and amount of toppings left a lot to be desired. Kids pizza came 15 minutes after parents’. Turned a normally decent experience into a job.

Great place for dinner with a good wine menu. Waiter was friendly and kept our water and wine glasses full. I had chicken and co-​worker had tilapia. Both very good.
Good atmosphere, too. This was my third visit and I would come back on my next visit to Chesterfield.

This is a preliminary 3-​star review, mainly because this place confused the hell out of me. Apparently, there are three areas under one roof that offer different menus. You can get some of the dishes in some of the places but you can’t get all of the dishes in all of the places. Very confusing and more than a little off-​putting.
I think we ate in what could be considered their casual area, maybe it was the café or something similar — not sure. What I do know is that you order at the counter, pay, and they bring out your food.
The girl making the salads got it right and created a delicious salad. I really appreciate it when the salad is dressed and then tossed such that all pieces are given a very light coating. It was big enough that I dumped it from the bowl onto the plate under the bowl to eat. Maybe a bit long on the provel but that could just be me.
My pizza was cracker-​thin and actually pretty long on the toppings. I opted for their back & bleu and it was pretty dang good. Tender pieces of steak, beautiful caramelized onions, plenty of gorgonzola and a peppered bacon that stole the show. What I didn’t particularly like was that the crust seemed pretty flavorless. I would have much preferred a bit more attention to the undercarriage of this dish.
I think I will try this place again but I will walk in a different door to see if I have a different experience. If so, I will gladly write a revision. Nothing will really pull me back except for curiosity as to what lies behind door number 2…

Villa Farotto, the cougar grotto… this is the impression I was given by some co workers before even walking into the place.
Husband and I decided to take Teen here for dinner last night. Scoped out the menu on line but weren’t really prepared for what we experienced upon entering the place. There are three establishments in there, as explained by the very friendly girl in the café.
1. Café — reasonably priced pizza’s, sandwiches, and salads served in STL’s favorite manner of waiting in line to order at the counter and having your food brought to you.
2. Bar — presumably the cougar grotto that my coworkers mentioned. Appetizers available served by the bartender or a cocktail waitress.
3. Restaurant — Full menu of appetizers, soup, salad, entrees, desserts. Looked really pricey based on the descriptions on the website.
We had salad, pizza’s, toasted ravioli, and a cookie in the café. Service was friendly and food was good. Their house salad dressing is a sweet italian and they put a ton of cheese on the salads (provel, so I was not a huge fan.) Pizza’s were cracker thin with ample toppings. I had the margherita so it came with real (mozzarella) cheese; husband had the black n bleu — bacon, tenderloin, and gorgonzola and loved it. Teen ate her toasted rav’s but declared they were nowhere near the best she has had. Cookie was outstanding though — probably the best restaurant cookie that wasn’t served in a skillet.
Here’s where it gets weird — these three areas all have different menus and you can only order certain items depending on where you sit. The café side is a nice quick alternative to Jason’s Deli or BreadCo, but I can’t imagine paying for the food in their restaurant and I’m not a barfly cougar so don’t see myself in that scene either.

It took 2 stars off for 2 reasons. Reason #1: Because the table we were seated at was sticky, beat up, covered in crumbs, and there was trash on the floor under the table (What appeared to be a used napkin). The second reason was because on my meatball sandwich, the meatballs weren’t flavorful. In fact, they had almost no flavor, just a squished ball of bland meat. Other than those 2 conclusions, I enjoyed my meal! I will probably be back!

With a great wine list and some fun food choices, Villa Farotto is one of go to selections not on the hill for Italian. Honestly, if it was in any other city than in St Louis, where we have some of the best Italian outside of Italy, this would probably get 5 stars.
I’ve had many menu items here before and recommend the ravioli, the seabass, and any of the pizzas.

Wow! What an awesome lunch I had today at Villa Farotto Italian Restaurant in Chesterfield, MO. This was my first restaurant on my new Paleo adventure. Well… I was in luck… The awesome rockstar waitress Elizabeth was also doing Paleo.
Note: Villa Farotto’s has some epic bread that you can dip into fresh olive oil. Denied! Though temping I resisted! If you love bread the people I had lunch with were enjoying it too much!
After reviewing the menu I decided on: Spinach Salad: Fresh spinach tossed in strawberry vinaigrette with feta cheese, roasted walnuts, red onion and dried cranberries. I got the Atlantic salmon on top.
Yum! Salad Good! I asked Elizabeth how the strawberry vinaigrette was prepared and she said from scratch. Strawberry purée, olive oil and vinegar. All natural baby.
Love the décor of this place. I have always wanted to visit Farotto’s in Chesterfield. I have been to their Manchester location numerous times.
Will have to take the Mrs. to dinner here now.
Thanks for reading!