Milo’s Tavern

I had a very rude waitress. The chicken parmesan sandwich was overcooked and dry. There was virtually no sauce or cheese on the bread. Everything is served with bagged potato chips. You can pay for other sides like fries. I enjoyed the outside seating.

It’s the place to be on the hill. Great outdoor patio with Bocce Ball and awesome ambience.

What is not to love! Their BBQ wings are the best!!! Love their pizza too! Especially the veggie one!

A great corner bar on the Hill. You can’t really ask for more, except they also have an area out back to play Bocce! Love stopping in Milo’s when I’m on the Hill!

Go for the Bocci and beer. Food is ok. Nice patio, friendly service, good prices. Great location on The Hill! Casual, somewhat dicey.

You can often get a good daily special, like the fish on Friday, but go for lunch. Apparently everyone that goes there is deaf so you can’t hear your self think if you go for dinner, especially on a Friday. The Monday-​Friday happy hour ends at 6 and only includes some domestics, so ask which ones.
The mac n cheese I had as a side needs help. They need to go eat mac n cheese at Southtown Pub or Llywelyn’s Pub in the CWE for some really great mac n cheese.
This place is billed as a dive and that is probably right and yet I still go there, despite the lack of street parking. It does have a dozen or so tv’s in the main bar area.
AND THERE IS BOCCI!

Absolutely love going to relax at Milo’s. Great for families by day and more for adults at nite. Awesome sandwiches on cheese bread. Owners are always on hand and treat u like family. I love the Bocce garden and the patio is awesome! You can reserve areas for parties as well. inside and out.

So lucky a local told me about Milo’s! And, she undersold it. Said it was a nice local bar-​which it is, but so much more. Super, super nice ownership (Sue) and cute. The amazing thing though is the bocce garden. I’ve been to Italy a dozen times and its a throwback. Serious men at a serious game. Excellent!

Nice ambiance, outdoors by the bocce ball courts. I’m sure this would be a fun place to come drink, so the only reason I’m only giving it four stars is that the food menu isn’t that extensive.
However, the pizza we had was great, and so was my simple artichoke pasta dish, which is unusual for me since I usually consider a meal without meat to be incomplete, but this one filled me up happily.

Drank and played bocce. Tap beer was ice cold. Service was slightly questionable, but recovered by offering the pizza for free. (Forgot to place the order and wrong pizza)

First time here loved it! Staff and customers all very friendly. Chicken wings some of the best I’ve had Pizza was excellent too Prices reasonable Will definitely be back

A good time is waiting for you… Just swing open Milo’s red door to feel the casual, fun, and welcoming ambiance. Milo’s is perfect for special celebrations, lunch with coworkers, a night out with friends, and of course, to play some bocce.
That’s pronounced bow-​chee, not botch-​ee.
The menu is full of great sandwiches, pizzas, wings, soups, salads, and Italian dishes. Simply delicious food served in red baskets with plastic utensils, compliments a good beer or cocktail. Nothing fancy here, good hardy food served with French bread from the neighborhood bakeries.
The servers are cute, friendly, and make sure you don’t go hungry or thirsty. The owners are usually spotted chatting with their loyal patrons, ensuring everyone is happy.
Stop by Milo’s next time your on the Hill! Happy hour from 3 – 6. Lunch specials every week day. Cheers!

The absolute best part of Milo’s has to be the service. You feel like you are their best friend, they know you, and they are going to take good care of you. The app sampler is enough for several and pretty tasty.

If I could give them zero stars I would.
Impatient waitress and they don’t even serve you on a real plate with actual silverware — styrofoam, plastic forks & knives are not proper dinner eating accoutrements– & then the greasy foods. Every part of thus place made me hate people and life. If you hate your body & the environment you might like this place, but I sure didn’t

On stop three of the reverse progressive dinner Thursday night, we went to Milo’s for a drink. It was probably 7:30, and it was busy. We seated ourselves at a table and waited to see what would happen. We didn’t want to eat inside, but a handwritten sign on the door said the outside was closed. This was taken down when we’d been sitting 5 – 10 minutes and had placed our order, so we just stayed there.
Milo’s looks so old. It’s one of those places that has survived, unmodernized, to 2014. It’s dark. The floor is an ancient green and white checkerboard with the occasional red tile. It reminds me of other bars in other Italian-​American neighborhoods. I love it.
She had an Angry Orchard cider, I had a cocktail, and we ended up ordering Provel fries too. Yes, Provel fries. They are even better than they sound, Provel fans. Provel cheese melted on fries skinnier than those at McDonald’s, but larger than those at Steak & Shake.
No complaints! I would love to come to Milo’s for more Provel fries and to observe some bocce ball.

My girlfriend and I were in the area before shopping Amighetti’s, and decided on Milo’s for lunch.
The special (it was a Wednesday) was chicken spedini and a salad, and that’s what she got with a side order of red pasta ($ 5.50).
I got the hot roast beef sandwich with cheese served with au jus ($ 8.50), and I opted for provel.
She liked her food. I got wonderful pickles with my sandwich, and I’m getting used to dipping bread into au jus and sogging up the bread (this is just my second time, so have patience with me).
The sandwich was truly quite good, and I think I used all the au jus.
What a nice surprise!
There’s lots of good-​sounding food on their menu.
And we got to-​go cups for our beverages!

Delicious 25 Cent Wings on Monday’s and CHEAP beer. Yeah, sold.
Their wing sauce is delish and we had solid attentive service all night. Great wings! And this is coming from a girl who normally really isn’t a huge fan of chicken on the bone.
The place is a definite dive, however, but in the back area on the other side of the bar, friends can gather in groups and socialize in a quieter area while still having access to the TV. :)

Went here because my original destination (Zias) was closed, and I saw the 4 star review from my good friend Joi; didn’t even need to read it to know that it would be more than acceptable.
The bar is located in The Hill, but it would probably be just as acceptable in most neighborhoods. The pasta was fine (OBG works is great for me!), the order of fried ravioli (which to me, SHOULD come with meat) was plentiful, the garlic bread was decent. What I liked about it most was the awesome waitress this Friday afternoon, and the other patrons made it seem very ‘home-​y’. Not sure if the Italian at the next table was ‘connected’ or not, but it was fun to pretend for a moment. There were plenty of TVs tuned into sports.
Service was great, food was average, prices were fine. It was a bit drafty in the cold weather, but back in the corner (ummmmm, under the TV… eeks!) wasn’t too bad.

I had dinner at Milo’s Bocce Garden — located in the Little Italy area of St. Louis in a neighborhood called The Hill (the highest spot in St. Louis and home of baseball great Yogi Berra). Milo’s is the kind of restaurant where locals — young and old — stop in for St. Louis style pizza, beer and bocce.
I was joined by a college friend who lived locally for a couple beers and St. Louis fare. I didn’t know the significance of my timing before coming on the trip, but was lucky enough to see the retiring of Tony La Russa’s No. 10 on the TVs at Milo’s. He was the former manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, present during two World Series victories. I guess things like this don’t happen, ever, really, so it was nice to witness St. Louis history.
Toasted Ravioli is said to be invented in 1943 or 1944 at Oldani’s on «The Hill» by chef Terry Lane, when he accidentally put the pasta into oil instead of ravioli.
Whether it’s true or not, toasted ravioli is a popular appetizer in St. Louis so I had to try it. It’s good, but not anything out of the ordinary.
Then we ordered the delicious mess that is St. Louis style pizza — hot, crispy and smothered with provel cheese.
St. Louis-​style pizza is a distinct style of pizza popular in St. Louis and surrounding areas. The definitive characteristics of St. Louis-​style pizza are a super-​thin yeast-​less crust, the common (but not mandatory) use of Provel processed cheese, and pizzas cut into squares or rectangles instead of large wedge shaped slices. Provel is a trademark for three cheeses fused to form one (provolone, Swiss, and white Cheddar.
Provel cheese was developed by the St. Louis firm Costa Grocery in the 1950s and is made in Wisconsin primarily for the St. Louis market. The cheese is not widely available outside the St. Louis area but can be made by combining Swiss, sharp cheddar and smoked provolone cheeses.
After pigging out, we headed outside for another round and to watch Bocce! It’s pronounced bow-​chee not botch-​ee. Milo’s is well known as THE place to play this well-​known Italian sport. Like bowling, bocce ball involves throwing a hard ball down a narrow space. After that, the similarities end. Drago says the game is not complicated, but does involve strategy and lagging skills.
On the corner of Wilson and Marconi a tavern was built and operated by Anheuser-​Busch as early as 1902. With the onset of Prohibition, it was considered a bad investment to continue operation. So the business was sold and purchased by the Merlo family and was named Merlo’s. In Italy, Merlo and his family were farmers and worked pitching hay. When he came to America he was known as Forchett, relating to his use of his pitchfork, forchetta. Mr. Merlo was a very religious man. He was famous for not serving drinks whenever a service was conducted in St. Ambrose Church. His motto was «You don’t drink when you should be praying!»
In the 1950s, after the death of Mr. Merlo, his sons, Joe and Henry ran the business. Following their ownership, the building was belived to be a tavern owned by Abel Pezzani, more often referred to as «Toots» Pezzani. Toots ran the business unil it was taken over by Joe «Bull» Panneri. So in the ‘60s the bar was then named «Wil-​Mar Lounge» because it was the corner of Wilson and Marconi. During the period that the bar was owned by Joe Panneri he took on partners including Gene «P.I.» Pisoni and Charles «Butch» Grassi. Around 1975 Joe panneri and Butch Grassi sold the business to Tom Savio and Joe Calcaterra and again the name changed to Milo’s Tavern. Later in ’78 Tom and Joe dissolved their partnership, leaving Tom Savio and his family to run the enterprise.
In 1989, Savio sold half the business to Joesph Vollmer. At this time they added the Bocce courts and full kitchen. Fortunatly, every time the business was sold the new proprietors were families from the Hill neighborhood.
Basically the business has not changed from the little corner tavern patronized by tired, Italian immirant men stopping for a drink with friends after long hours working in the mines and brickyards. Milo’s remains an oasis for anyone wishing to share a drink and lively conversation — just like the early immigrants who pioneered the neighborhood.

I’ve found another «thrill» on «The Hill». We just blindly headed down to The Hill for lunch and an afternoon of exploring. As we were about to enter another eating establishment we saw Milo’s and I quickly checked their star rating on Unilocal.Having 4 stars we diverted from our original path and crossed the street to a new adventure.
Being a beautiful autumn day we took advantage and enjoyed our lunch on their huge patio. Being a Monday at lunchtime, no one was playing bocce ball, but it was cool seeing their huge court for playing the sport. I want to come back sometime when the game is being played to see how and what all the excitement is about.
Our lunch started off with Grilled Chicken Wings. They were an nice change from the traditional fried wings you find at most bar & grills. Milo’s offers both and I highly recommend paying the extra 80¢ to enjoy them grilled. You’ll have the same hot spicy flavor, with grill marks.
I took advantage of the daily special which was a Fried Grouper Sandwich served with Sweet Potato Fries. It was a large thin piece of Grouper with a light breading and served on a toasted bun from Fazio’s Bakery. These Sweet Potato Fries are head and shoulders above the quality you get a Pappy’s. I appreciated their size, almost a small steak fry, not the normal shoestring or waffle that I normally find when ordering SP fries.
The SO enjoyed the Milo’s Special which is a huge sandwich, so big that half of it went home. It too to served on fresh bread from Fazio’s and filled with Roast Beef, Ham, Salami, Provel, Onion, Pickle, Lettuce, Tomato and drizzled with Vinegar & Oil Dressing. You can have it served hot or cold and the SO went hot.
They serve their «special» with a bag of chips, but the SO said we could take those home so I can have them in my next brown bag lunch for work and he ordered a regular order of fries. I will tell you, these were crispy delights. They were so good, I am considering creating a list for French Fries.
The wait staff was attentive and fun. I know they can not control the breezes, but be aware smoking is allowed on the patio and smoke can be blown your way. The bag of chips I mentioned earlier, never made it to my brown bag lunch. They were enjoyed with the portion of the Milo’s Special that went home with us.