Big Chief Roadhouse

Heard it was good, but it was just average in most ways. The BBQ sauce on my pulled pork was supposed to be spicy… but it tasted like hey mixed it wrong. Part of the meat was hard and non-​edible. Salad was fine. My wife got Mahi Mahi, and said it was good. I tried it, and thought it was fine, but not delicious.
We were a party of 6. We were told it was a 20 minute wait, but we waited an hour to be seated. The appetizers that we ordered at the bar took 20 minutes to arrive. The potatoe skins were great, the nachos were okay, the buffalo wings were dry, and the pretzle was good.
Service was good, once we were seated and the ambiance is great. Think we were there on a bad night for the people working the meats.

Big Chief needs a big vintage-​style neon sign out front. Embrace the beauty of the Route 66 Era! It’s so cool inside, an old school neon sign would add to the charm and make it more of a destination.
This really is a charming place with good food and drinks. There’s even a little game room for the kids. We’ve been going here for about 3 years and they’ve really hit their stride — it keeps getting better! Service is friendly. It does tend to be a little loud inside. They use their own garden for a lot of the deli ious seasonal vegetables, too. Give it a try.

I must preface my review by saying, the Big Chief Roadhouse is particularly special to us, because we got married there on ¼/​14! We live in University City, and Wildwood is a bit of a drive for us, but we discovered Big Chief, because we are Route 66 and Missouri history enthusiasts. We immediately fell in love with the history and charm of the restaurant, which was originally built as part of a motor court of cabins for weary travelers in 1929, even prior to Route 66. The cabins are long gone, but the restaurant still stands, and has been carefully preserved with artifacts from its past and an overall Native American theme, by its current owners. Not only do they take pride in the history of their establishment, but they take pride in serving food made from fresh ingredients– many grown in their own garden on the property. They also smoke their own meats on site, and make their own sauces. They have a simple, but unique, and creative menu. My husband is a vegetarian, and unfortunately, I think he consequently misses out on the best dishes served here. I would like to see a wider selection of vegetarian items. However, they were very accommodating for our special event, and created a special menu to our specifications.
If we lived nearer to the Big Chief, I imagine we would go there often, just for drinks, during a game. The bar is as spacious as the dining room, and serves a great selection of beers and cocktails, with specials during televised sporting events. The upstairs banquet room has a huge bison pelt hanging on the wall, with native paintings on it, which made a fantastic backdrop for our wedding ceremony. We had our ceremony upstairs, and reception in the main restaurant and bar downstairs. They allowed us to bring in a band, and, as I mentioned, they created a menu specifically for us, that fit our vision. It was one of the most endearing and fun weddings I have ever attended, if I do say so myself!
Big Chief would not be an ideal location for everyone’s wedding, but it was ideal for us. The owners and staff, were so accommodating and friendly, and willing to work with us to make our wedding day unique and special. While Big Chief is not advertised as an event hall, it is equipped to host special events for large parties– especially in the warmer months, when the ample outdoor patio can be utilized. Just share your vision with them, and they can help you find a creative, affordable solution that benefits everyone.
The food and atmosphere at the Big Chief Roadhouse are quality, but what keeps us coming back most, is the labor of love that has been so carefully invested in to this place by its owners and staff. While many Route 66 establishments sadly sit vacant and dilapidated, after the Mother Road was cut off by major highway development, the Big Chief Roadhouse lives again, and its history continues on, creating new memories. We love this place, and all it stands for!

Found this restaurant a few miles away from our hotel. It is off of Route 66 and also some twisty mountain roads from where we were staying. Pretty cool history of this building, however it has not been a restraunt for as long as the signs led me to believe! Service was great! (thank you Alex) Food was great. Historical part of town and lots suggestions from wait staff. Had fun here despite being overly tired from driving all day. Would come back if I was in town.

Excellent food. Service left a little to be desired.
We both had the turkey club. The smoked bacon was delicious!
* Have since been back. Bison burger was nothing to write home about and the fries this time were soft and greasy.

Great patio, good beer selection (finally some dark beer selections!), decent food. My husband likes their smoked wings and the lasagna. I don’t eat red meat, so my choices are a little more limited. Most of their menu items have bacon in/​on them, but they’ve always been good about holding the bacon on anything I have ordered. They did make me a Reuben substituting their smoked turkey for the corned beef that was really good. Would love more vegetarian and seafood options though. Sides are the typical chips or fries. I asked for a veggie instead and got julienned squash, not much flavor though. A roasted broccoli or spinach would be a wonderful addition to their side options. Service has always been great – love Sam!

This is the 1^st restaurant I have ever been compelled to write a review about. I own an internet-​based Pre-​Owned car dealership directly across the street from Big Chief. I have had nearly everything on the menu and some items that are not on the menu. Today I asked them to make me a «Riverfront Times» quality BLT and I got it! Mostly because they smoke all their own meats which includes the bacon and they have a huge garden where they grow their own produce… Fresh homegrown tomatoes, fresh homegrown lettuce, smoked bacon, grilled sourdough bread and a suddenly a «Crown Candy» contender was born! They have a really fun covered, outdoor patio that I love to frequent, great service, historic Route 66 locale, and are very reasonably priced. Every customer I send over there comes back with a full belly and rave reviews. Get out of the gluttonous feeling Chesterfield valley, take a little ride and have a great time at the historic «Big Chief Roadhouse»!!!

The food is excellent, the service is great, fantastic family atmosphere in the back patio, and if you want some quiet space, eat in the bar area. The smoked meat is all fabulous, and all of the items are made at the restaurant. I have never had a bad meal here, and I look forward to many more.

Very good food and excellent service. We enjoyed sitting out on the back patio and watching the game while we ate dinner. My wife had to baked lasagna and it was great. I had coleslaw and it was a little bland but other than that it was a great place to eat.

Nice atmosphere, but there’s only one dish on the menu that I will eat. Not a good selection at ALL, and they’re a little pricey for the quality that you get.

I have not been there in a long time, since the new owners have taken over. The food and service used to be horrible. The food was great. Nice smoke flavor thru the meats, great choice of local beers. It was clean and quick. I will be back sooner then 4 years.

What an exciting find, the historic Big Chief Roadhouse est. 1929. This is a sprawling restaurant and it looked almost closed as we pulled up but that was because the busy patio and dining room are around back. It looks like a nice place to dine on a beautiful day. Too bad I neglected to poke around til after we had ordered in the bar. No matter because we will be back. Our food was really good and fast. I had the smoked salmon spinach salad, very fresh with clementines, candied pecans, red onion and Gorgonzola, yum. My husband had the Reuben and it seemed to also be smoked, which he enjoyed. Blues from the jukebox made for a fun and relaxing atmosphere. Our server was very friendly. Nicely decorated with lots of photos from days gone by. They have food and drink specials during Cardinals games.

Great food and service… menu is simple but very good. Fresh vegetables, seafood etc. Cold beer!!!

Great place to have a kick back meal. Watch the games on the TV’s in the bar area or just hang. Good food, bison burger by far my favorite. Always juicy and cooked to order. Not overlooked or tough. Excellent service every time. Reasonable prices on drinks and just friendly people. One of our frequent dinner spots.

Really great food! Soups, sandwiches, salads are what we have eaten so far, everything was worthy of ordering again! The staff was very friendly, the chef approachable! We will certainly return!!!

I really, really wish this place was better than it is, but it is definitely hit or miss. Tonight was our third visit back since our horrible experience in March. The last two visits were appearing to be promising, but tonight was again a disappointment. I ordered a bison burger (medium). The waitperson came by the table and asked how things were after the food was delivered to the table. I advised her that the bison burger was way overcooked. It was beyond well done as it was very crumbly and dry. She said she would let the kitchen know. Later after everyone had finished their meal, she brought our check. I had not finished the burger and she said that she was sorry and had let the kitchen know. When I looked at the bill, the burger was on it for over $ 13. When she came back to the table, I let her know that I did not think it was appropriate to be charged $ 13+ for a burger that was overcooked and that I ended up not eating over half of it. She stated that she had let the kitchen know, couldn’t do anything herself, but would let the manager know. The manager came out and asked if there was a problem. Had to reexplain the same thing again. He asked how much of it I had eaten and he said he wished he would have known I had a problem. Not sure what more I should have done. However, in the end, he did credit it off of our check. I really want to see this place survive and do well, but it seems hard to get excited about being a regular when it is so irregular. You never know what you are going to get from visit to visit. I really hope the management of this establishment reads their reviews and hope they put some focus on shoring up the operation to produce more consistent quality from both the kitchen and in the front of the house.

I absolutely love Chief’s! My husband and I live right down the street in Wildwood, and have been here about 8 – 10 times now and have yet to have an even remotely negative experience. We think their food is so good, and their bartenders/​servers are very attentive. They have a nice large outdoor patio, though we always sit in the indoor bar area. They also have a little game arcade room that kids are always swarming around. The main brunette bartender is so sweet and always remembers our faces. She is quite the generous drink-​maker! I get a dirty martini that she makes very good. They also have a great selection of beers (several local breweries) on tap. For food, I would highly recommend their nachos with pulled pork over anything else on the menu. It is large enough to share, and they put this delicious BBQ sauce over them — seriously the best nachos I’ve ever had! We’ve also tried: meatloaf with mashed potatoes (special); bacon cheeseburger; tequila lime chicken with the most delicious squash!!; Reuben sandwich; and vegetarian flatbread. I’d suggest their homemade chips over the fries. All plates have been awesome & delicious every time! It’s also a great place to go for happy hour — they have drink & plate specials.
It has a very local bar/​restaurant feel, and is very family-​friendly. They allow dogs on their patio too! It is probably one of my favorite restaurants I’ve been to in all of STL so far. Definitely give Big Chief a try if in the area! It is delicious food, great atmosphere all for reasonable prices. Whenever we have visitors in town, we always want to take them here over any other bar or restaurant in the area!

This was our first time at Big Chief, on Memorial Day. They advertised that they were roasting a pig for the Holiday. Well they did, but it was pulled apart b/​4 we got there. I think we were hoping for a Luau sort of atmosphere. It was a regular restaurant that had fresh pulled pork on the menu for the day. FOR $ 5.00!!! What a bargain. Very tasty. The crowd was big and I don’t think they expected this because they did not have enough staff. we were there for about 3 hours, yep long enough to watch the entire Cardinals game. That’s OK though. We were chatting with our party.
I’m giving the 4 stars instead of 5 because they were understaffed. She was still very nice and came over whenever we requested her.

Great new menu. Been back several times
Love the large outdoor patio in the summer.

Opened again under new ownership. It’s a bit out of the way for most, but the menu looks solid, the kid’s are entertained with a game room, which I was pleased to see they were cleaning (although that could be done in off hours). Had a very good Beef Brisket Horseshoe and the fried green bean appetizer was every bit as food as Table 3.
If you’ve had a bad experience here in the past, give it another try. We swore it off a couple of years ago, but now will go back and hope it stands the test of time.