Cunetto House of Pasta

This is the place to go for true Italian ambience. The food is your basic Italian meal, nothing to write home about. It’s the décor and old-​world feel that brings me back time and time again. As soon as I walk in, there’s an instant sense that I’ve stepped into a worm hole and I’ve been plopped right into the heart of the 1930’s mafia era. It’s awesome!
Aside from my love for all things nostalgic: prices are reasonable, wait staff is always pleasant, and the food is consistently good. I call this my «safe» option when dining on the Hill, because I know I’ll always be getting a good meal and friendly service. If you ever opt for dessert, get the cannoli — it’s stuffed to the brim with filling and it’s truly delicious.

Have gone to Cunnetto’s for years. Popular place to take the out-​of-​town relatives. Had a tremendous meal in Nov 2013. That was the last great meal. Every time we have returned, the meals have been a huge disappointment. Only flavor is salt. Steaks too tough and grizzly. Wish this wasn’t true. Miss the old Cunnnetto’s House of Pasta. Will look for new restaurant.

The way Cunetto’s works is unlike anywhere else I’ve ever been to. You see, timing is everything here. They don’t take reservations, so people start lining up outside before the doors open. There’s a small tree right around the corner… if you’re before that tree, congrats… you’re in! However, if you’re one of the unlucky people standing in line behind that tree, better luck next time. You’ll just have to give your name at the door and grab a drink at the bar… you’ll be eating in round two. And it works like that the rest of the night… round after round of people eating pasta.
Personally, there are other places I’d rather visit for a nice Italian dinner on The Hill. There are only one or two dishes I care for here, and usually end up ordering the Ravioli Formaggio every time. This is simply cheese ravioli with marinara sauce. My husband claims they have the best ever chicken parmesan though, and that’s what brings us back from time-​to-​time.
The portions are large, the prices are great, and as long as there’s at least one thing on the menu that I like, I’ll continue to support my husband and his love affair for their chicken parm by waiting in that darn line.

Just went here over the past weekend. We just love it. It never seems to change. Quality food, large portions and great prices. Hands down best on The Hill.

I hadn’t been here in YEARS. The calamari and fresh tomato sauce that came with it was DELISH. The crispness of the calamari without it being greasy was great! I had the Scampi al Griglia for dinner with shell pasta in cream sauce with a small Cunetto salad. I finished my salad and could only eat a little of my entrée. The leftovers reheated well in the oven even two days later!!!
The bartender whipped up two fresh squeezed lime margaritas. They were AMAZING!!! I’m already trying to plan a trip back. The quality and quantity of food that you get here is exceptional.

I loved it. The food was excellent. I had the toasted raviolis and the spaghetti and meatballs. OMG! The sauce is so delicious. It is very fresh and the meat sauce to die for. The bread was pretty good but I won’t rave about it. It comes out cold and I prefer warm bread. The waitress was outstanding so I really enjoyed the service.
The restaurant has a homey kind of feeling where you’d see a classic Italian movie scene. It’s a little noisy but it wasn’t distracting.
The serving size for spaghetti was huge. But that wasn’t true for all entrees. I can’t remember the name of the dish my companion ordered but it was small and he ate some of mine and we still had extra spaghetti and meatballs.

I recently dined here with my sister, and I can’t get over how terrible our service was. I have never had a dining experience so terrible that I wanted to speak with a manager by the time it was over.
Let me preface by saying my grandfather has been taking us here since we were children. He taught me how to eat in nice restaurants here. So when my sister invited me out for lunch, of course I accepted. We arrived around 4:30 on a Sunday, and it was busy but not packed. The busser came right away with bread and water and let us know a waiter would be with us soon. Several waitresses walked by, but no one spoke to us for half an hour. By that time we had picked out our food, and I asked if she could recommend a wine. She was rude, and told me whatever wine I wanted was fine, and if I prefered white or red, then listed the different catagories of wine, and told me to just pick my favorite. Oookkaaay, I could have just done that myself, thanks for the imput.
Another twenty minutes pass and drinks are brought, and then salads, and then we wait. Forty five minutes and she brings the food out… and it’s cold. It was obvious it had been sitting for quite some time. I ordered pasta, something you hope will come out warm when you order it. My sister was given the wrong dish to begin with, luke warm.
At this point we’re frustrated and just want to leave. She was impossible to flag down, she was flat out ignoring us, so we found a busser and asked if she could ask the waitress to bring us our check. The waitress did, and we requested change. She became upset, storming off and throwing something at the drink station. She then walked around for another twenty damn minutes before bringing us our change. We asked for change so we could tip her twenty percent, but after the whole show, we just left her with what was left over, maybe fifteen, which I personally do not think she deserved. We just wanted to leave so bad at that point.
I have been eating here since a child, and I don’t think I will return. There are too many places on the Hill that give good service and serve pasta to sit through that shit show again.

Came to this place on a recommendation from friends who had heard lots of good things about them. Glad I went.
The service is excellent. Michele, our server, and her assistants were excellent. They always checked on us but not in an intrusive manner.
We had roasted Raviolis which were great. I ordered the Linguine Tutto Mare and my daughter had the Spaghetti Broccoli with cream sauce. My linguine had lots of real crab meat, clams, and shrimp. They were both cooked well and tasted good. The portions are huge. We could have ordered one and still had more than plenty.
This place is located in The Hill which is an Italian neighborhood of St. Louis. The place was packed but we arrived just before the crowd came (5 pm).
This place has a family feel and from the conversations I overheard, there are lots of regulars. it is an older crowd but with a young flair.
I would definitely return next time I’m in town.

I’m from a small town in Iowa. We have chain restaurants. This restaurant was amazing. Very authentic. Everything was perfect. The staff were all friendly and prompt, the food was amazing, and the atmosphere was relaxing and family oriented. The owner stopped and chatted with us, which we loved. Our waitress was very helpful and answered all of our questions. I would recommend to anyone who wants delicious Italian food!

This is one of my favorite restaurants on the hill.
It’s always great to see Frank standing at the door greeting people. He’s a gentleman and always pleasant.
Besides the people the food is always fresh and outstanding. Love the veal love the olives and the salad is great!

Cunetto House of Pasta — located in the infamous area known as the Hill — is the best Italian food to pass across my tastebuds and I to eat. It literally makes you go AAHHHHH…
Today we began with toasted ravioli covered in grated parmesan — Perfectly seasoned meat filling, perfectly crisp with a side of meat filled sauce for dipping.
3 of us shared a large cunetto salad which was — while anything but healthy — the perfect portion size for sharing.
The daily special was lasagna w/​meat sauce and 2 slices of garlic toast. I had the meat filled canelloni… so rich there was no cause for dessert.
The service was also excellent and efficient. .as usual.

Interestingly, I was the only one in my party who was not impressed. Server was fine but not overly friendly. Toasted ravioli was fine. Salad was FANTASTIC! Not sure what all they put in this, but it was phenomenal. The pasta portions were ridiculous. Like 5 meals in one serving. The pasta was not high quality and did not taste homemade to me. Not sure if it is but doubt it with the HUGE portions. Unimpressed.

Wow. House made pasta place IN SAINT LOUIS and not only is the food ridiculously good, but the portions (at the price point) are criminal.
Toasted Ravioli, spaghetti and meatballs, linguine … all insanely delicious and they bring it to you in the porcelain equivalent of a trough!!! Table of 7 dined for under $ 100 which is just unheard of in Chicagoland.

The food was good. Price was around $ 10 per person. Salad is offered as if it is apart of the meal but is separately charged. Keep that in mind if you instead want to try a side item like we originally wanted.

I love this place and have gone since I was a kid. It’s solid and consistent everytime. It’s not high-​end gourmet, but it’s good quality family dining. The pastas are large enough that you’ll usually have enough to take home for lunch the next day. The service is always good and the prices are around what you would pay in a restaurant not anywhere near the level of quality you get here. My overall favorite is the tortellini, which is what I order most of the time, but the chicken or veal parm is also great as well. Just be aware, it’s packed after ballgames!

Strictly a three star restaurant. No more no less. Service was great. Price is very good. Food is good if you are a pasta fan. Otherwise I recommend going elsewhere. The décor is nostalgic. $ 8 for cocktails.
Everything comes in huge portion just like the old days. A good family style restaurant.
A solid St Louis icon. Hope it will stay for many many years!

I’ve been going to Cunetto’s for years and I mean 10+ and I haven’t been back for at least 5 years until this past Saturday. The staff is always nice. Our waitress, Victoria and busser Nicholas were great!!! As usual it was packed and we had an hour and a half wait but that doesn’t bother me. The food is still the same… delicious. What bothers me is how the interior has diminished and they make money hand over fist. First off they moved to these cheap forest green plastic table clothes and they were ripped and taped together… REALLY!!! The menus were dirty. The bread is still the same, served cold with cheap butter. I almost went down the street to Favazza’s for the bread alone. The restaurant needs a complete makeover, Robert Irvine would be appalled at the condition of this place.
We ordered the house salad, which is still very good and several pastas, my classic favorite the Linguini Tuto Mare in a cream sauce (you have to ask for the cream sauce), the Cannelloni Frutti did Mare and the Spaghetti Primavera. The portions are large as always.
The food minus the bread is 4 stars
The 3 stars is for the owner being soo cheap, not wanting to upgrade the establishment or the bread… REALLY!!!

Delicioso! My son insisted on taking us here while we were visiting and we are glad he did. We ordered 2 big salads and 4 entrees (carbonara, cunetto, meat sauce and the seafood) which more than satisfied the 6 of us. We took our own wine and paid the corkage fee (love it when that is an option). Wait service was efficient and fast — even with a much larger party next to us.
I read a lot of the reviews about their cuisine being typical Italian and I say «what’s wrong with that?». If you want upscale with the price that comes with it, then go elsewhere. But if you want good olé Italian comfort food, this will more than satisfy you. Bonus is you will have dinner for the next night! Yea!

Authentic Italian foods at really great price in an old style setting that makes you feel like you stepped back in time. Every single staff member was friendly and welcomed you as you entered and thanked you and wished you ‘happy holidays’ as we exited. The weekend before Christmas we showed up without a reservation, but it was after 8 and there were only a few names ahead of us and within 8 minutes we were in a perfect corner table and eating a nice, chewy Italian bread. (Not warm on purpose but this kind of bread was good cold)
The garlic flavor in my Alfredo white sauce was spoon-​worthy and the entrée pasta size could feed a family of four for less than $ 15. I have a new favorite Italian place on The Hill– which has pretty tough competition!

My girlfriend took me out for birthday lunch a month ago.
We arrived at 11:30 a.m., and were seated right away. We had great service.
We both got the house salad (small, but really not so much). It could fill you up, with it’s great fresh greens, cheese, prosciutto and wonderful light dressing. An incredibly delightful salad!
The bread and butter offered are so tantalizing. The bread is so fresh. Ahhhh, and we had some of that. Maybe more than I should have. But who can resist?
We both ended up getting the ravioli (full portion), and it was so tomatoey rich of sauce, and the raviolis were soft, perfectly cooked pasta and filled with good-​tasting meat.
We both opted for the full portion (dinner portion), rather than the lunch portion, as the dinner portion is so much bigger and just a couple dollars more.
We bot had hefty to-​go vessels of our ravioli. Mine was consumed by son #2, so there were two meals there. Had I consumed it, it would have been three or four more meals. But that’s OK.
Okay, goofy as it is. .. I was here twice in one week’s time. This will not occur in my lifetime again.
I met a friend from work who was on vacation that week.
I got the salad, which was stupendous, as always.
He got the lunch portion of ravioli (what I’d had just five days prior), and I got the dinner portion of ditalini con piselli — an absolute favorite of mine: white sauce, ditalini (very small pasta) and peas.
It may sound odd, but the fabulous pop-​crunch from the peas makes this dish a winner, as well as does the sumptuous creamy white sauce.
I took at least ¾ of my pasta home, which served as four additional meals. He took home close to half of his ravioli, which I’m sure was a nice light dinner for him.
I don’t know how you beat this place. Service is fabulous and friendly, spot-​on with beverage refills, the salad is spectacular, and I’ve never had a bad pasta dish there.
There are sandwiches and other offerings on the menu for lunch, but I just can’t get beyond the pasta. It’s terrific!