Visted St. Louis and wanted to check out The Hill. Love the look of the Hill area neighborhood. Expected alot from our visit to Zia's. Left very disappointed. Perhaps one day this place served authentic Italian food but it certainly wasn't on this visit and something we were looking forward to. This Italian restaurant does not offer authentic Italian food IMO. Sauce was consistent with what the Spaghetti Factory or Olive Garden (even OG may be better) may serve or what you would expect from a jar of Newman's or Classico. Cavetelli noodles weren't noodles but just a dried style pasta shell, it's not the type an authentic Italian restaurant would serve. If you have had an authentic Italian food experience or are of Italian heritage yourself (I am) and used to your Mom's, Grandma's, or Aunt's real Italian food, then you will be disappointed here. It is a night and day comparison from poor Italian food to great Italian food and an easy comparison to make here, it just isn't...good. Meatballs, all meat and no character, hard and not like Grandma's authentic ones, again meatballs should not be hard balls of meat and spices, but a moist meat combo of beef, pork and veal and softened with milk soaked bread and egg and hints of garlic, the ones they served were heavy bombs. Linguini and Clam sauce..usually served with a white or red sauce. We had white, but it was full of cream...not authentic, white sauce with clams should be white wine and clam juices NOT a thick cream sauce..again, not authentic. The best part was the sesame seed topped Italian bread. Our waiter was very good. I will go back to The Hill and this time do better research on the best Italian restaurants there. Not sure why it's this way, the owner, the chef? But what a bummer!
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