SAPPINGTON, MO – September 15, 2026 (StLouisRestaurantReview) — Ask St. Louis diners to name the city’s best Italian restaurants, and familiar names are likely to dominate the conversation.

The Hill has spent generations building an international reputation for Italian cuisine. Charlie Gitto’s, Zia’s, Anthonino’s, and other established restaurants benefit from strong name recognition, thousands of customer reviews, and locations tied to one of America’s best-known Italian neighborhoods.

But take a close look at the current Tripadvisor numbers, and something interesting happens.

Roberto’s Trattoria & Chophouse, located at 145 Concord Plaza in South St. Louis County, currently carries a 4.7-out-of-5 rating based on 417 Tripadvisor reviews.

That score is higher than several famous St. Louis Italian restaurants that Tripadvisor ranks ahead of Roberto’s in its general Italian restaurant rankings.

More importantly, when the comparison narrows to actual fine-dining Italian restaurants, Roberto’s emerges at or near the top of the St. Louis market.

So is Roberto’s actually St. Louis’ top-rated fine-dining Italian restaurant?

The numbers make a compelling case.

What Tripadvisor’s Italian Rankings Don’t Immediately Show

Restaurant rankings require context.

Tripadvisor currently lists approximately 155 establishments under its Italian restaurant category for St. Louis. But those businesses aren’t necessarily comparable.

The current No. 1 Italian listing is Adriana’s on The Hill, carrying an impressive 4.8 rating.

Adriana’s deserves its strong customer rating.

But Tripadvisor categorizes Adriana’s as “Quick Bites, Italian, $”, and its menu is known largely for sandwiches.

That isn’t a criticism of Adriana’s. It is simply an entirely different dining category.

Comparing a casual sandwich shop with an upscale, white-tablecloth Italian restaurant and chophouse doesn’t tell consumers very much about which establishment provides the strongest fine-dining Italian experience.

Once you compare comparable restaurants, the numbers become much more interesting.

Tripadvisor currently reports:

Restaurant	Tripadvisor Rating	Reviews	Category/Price
Roberto’s Trattoria & Chophouse	4.7	417	Italian, Steakhouse / $$$$
Charlie Gitto’s On the Hill	4.5	1,116	Italian / $$-$$$
Anthonino’s Taverna	4.5	812	Italian, Pizza / $$-$$$
Eleven Eleven Mississippi	4.5	538	Italian, American / $$-$$$
Zia’s on The Hill	4.4	1,000+	Italian / $$-$$$
Cafe Napoli	4.4	382	Italian / $$$$
The Crossing	4.7	296	Italian, French / $$$$

Ratings and review counts are based on Tripadvisor listings reviewed by St. Louis Restaurant Review in September 2026 and can change as customers submit additional reviews.

That comparison is significant.

Roberto’s doesn’t have the most reviews. Charlie Gitto’s and Zia’s have accumulated considerably more.

But review volume and customer rating measure different things.

Among comparable upscale Italian restaurants, Roberto’s 4.7 rating stands out.

Tripadvisor Ranks Roberto’s No. 2 in Fine Dining

Another Tripadvisor category provides perhaps an even clearer picture.

Tripadvisor currently lists Roberto’s as the No. 2 fine-dining restaurant in St. Louis.

The restaurant occupying the No. 1 position is Bristol Seafood Grill, which Tripadvisor categorizes as a steakhouse and seafood restaurant.

That means the restaurant immediately ahead of Roberto’s isn’t Italian.

Meanwhile, Tripadvisor lists Roberto’s as Italian, Steakhouse, and $$$$, placing it firmly in the fine-dining category.

The Crossing, another exceptional St. Louis restaurant with a 4.7 Tripadvisor rating, is categorized as Italian and French and has about 296 reviews—more than 100 fewer than Roberto’s.

Cafe Napoli, another recognizable upscale Italian restaurant, currently carries a 4.4 rating from approximately 382 Tripadvisor reviews.

That makes an important distinction possible.

St. Louis Restaurant Review isn’t claiming that Tripadvisor has officially declared Roberto’s the “best Italian restaurant in St. Louis.”

It hasn’t.

Tripadvisor’s ranking system isn’t simply a leaderboard based on star ratings.

But among the major St. Louis restaurants categorized as both Italian and fine dining, Roberto’s has one of the strongest combinations of rating and substantial review volume that we found.

And depending on how strictly “Italian fine dining” is defined, there is a reasonable argument that Roberto’s currently sits at the top.

Why Isn’t Roberto’s Ranked Higher?

This is where restaurant ranking systems can confuse consumers.

A restaurant with a 4.7 rating doesn’t automatically appear above one with a 4.5 rating.

Tripadvisor rankings consider more than the displayed star score. Review volume, recency, relevance and other factors can affect where restaurants appear.

That helps explain why Roberto’s can carry a higher numerical customer rating while appearing below restaurants with lower scores.

For consumers, therefore, the ranking number alone doesn’t tell the entire story.

The underlying data matters.

Charlie Gitto’s has more than 1,100 Tripadvisor reviews. Zia’s has accumulated more than 1,000. Those are substantial bodies of customer feedback and reflect the enormous visibility and longevity those restaurants have achieved.

Roberto’s has 417 Tripadvisor reviews.

That is fewer, but 417 reviews is hardly a small sample.

Maintaining a 4.7 rating after hundreds of customer reviews is noteworthy.

And Tripadvisor isn’t the only platform telling the story.

OpenTable Reinforces the Tripadvisor Numbers

OpenTable currently reports an overall 4.7 rating for Roberto’s from approximately 792 verified diner reviews.

The individual scores are even more revealing:

• Food: 4.7
• Service: 4.8
• Ambience: 4.7
• Value: 4.5

The service number deserves particular attention.

A 4.8 service rating across hundreds of verified diner reviews is difficult for any restaurant to maintain.

Restaurants aren’t judged solely by what comes out of the kitchen.

Fine dining places considerably greater demands on service. Customers expect knowledgeable servers, proper pacing, attentive table maintenance, beverage service and an experience that justifies higher menu prices.

That makes Roberto’s OpenTable service rating important evidence supporting its fine-dining reputation.

OpenTable also currently identifies Roberto’s as particularly suitable for special occasions.

The consistency between the two major platforms is notable.

• Tripadvisor: 4.7
• OpenTable: 4.7

Two different customer populations and hundreds of reviews on each platform are producing essentially the same result.

Roberto’s Is More Than an Italian Restaurant

Part of Roberto’s unusual market position comes from the restaurant itself.

Roberto’s isn’t a conventional red-sauce Italian restaurant.

It describes itself as both a trattoria and chophouse, and Tripadvisor categorizes it as Italian and steakhouse.

That distinction matters.

The restaurant combines traditional Italian dishes with steaks, chops, and seafood, allowing it to compete across several upscale dining categories.

Executive Chef Alfredo Lopez leads the kitchen.

The restaurant’s menu includes Italian classics alongside steak and seafood offerings, while customer reviews frequently mention pasta, seafood dishes, lobster bisque, steaks and rotating specials.

Roberto’s also operates a substantial wine program.

The result is a restaurant that can serve customers who might otherwise choose among an Italian restaurant, steakhouse, or seafood restaurant.

That versatility probably contributes to its popularity for anniversaries, birthdays, business dinners, and other special occasions.

A South County Location Without The Hill Advantage

Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of Roberto’s ratings is where it earned them.

Roberto’s isn’t on The Hill.

It isn’t in Clayton.

It isn’t downtown.

It isn’t located inside one of St. Louis’ heavily promoted entertainment districts.

Instead, Roberto’s operates from Concord Plaza in South St. Louis County, just south of Sunset Hills.

For a restaurant attempting to build a regional fine-dining reputation, that location doesn’t provide the automatic identity associated with The Hill.

An Italian restaurant opening on The Hill immediately inherits something valuable: location recognition.

Tourists search for restaurants on The Hill specifically because of the neighborhood’s reputation.

Roberto’s has largely had to build its reputation restaurant by restaurant, meal by meal, and review by review.

Yet hundreds of Tripadvisor and OpenTable customers have collectively pushed its ratings into the upper tier of St. Louis dining.

That suggests something important.

Roberto’s may have a recognition gap, not a quality gap.

Famous Doesn’t Necessarily Mean Higher Rated

This isn’t an argument against The Hill or St. Louis’ established Italian restaurants.

Those restaurants earned their reputations.

Charlie Gitto’s has become one of the most recognizable names in St. Louis dining.

Zia’s has served generations of customers.

Anthonino’s has developed a substantial following.

Comparing ratings isn’t meant to diminish those restaurants.

It is to identify something consumers might otherwise overlook.

Brand recognition and customer ratings aren’t necessarily the same thing.

A restaurant can be considerably more famous while another establishment quietly produces higher average customer scores.

That’s exactly what appears to be happening with Roberto’s.

Someone casually searching for “best Italian restaurant in St. Louis” might naturally assume the first restaurants in a ranking have the highest ratings.

They don’t.

Current Tripadvisor data shows Roberto’s at 4.7, while several restaurants ranked above it in the general Italian rankings carry 4.5 or 4.4 ratings.

That doesn’t make Tripadvisor’s rankings wrong.

It means consumers need to understand what they’re measuring.

We Also Looked at the Criticism

No credible restaurant review should rely exclusively on five-star comments.

Roberto’s has negative reviews.

Some recent diners have criticized individual dishes, portion sizes relative to price, or inconsistencies in execution.

One recent OpenTable customer, for example, rated the restaurant poorly after being disappointed with a chicken dish and describing a seafood entrée as small for its price.

Other lower-rated reviews have occasionally mentioned service pacing or dishes that didn’t meet expectations.

Those criticisms matter.

Fine dining carries higher expectations because customers pay higher prices.

But you should view isolated negative experiences against the full body of reviews.

With approximately 792 OpenTable reviews and 417 Tripadvisor reviews, Roberto’s has accumulated more than 1,200 reviews across those two platforms alone.

Its aggregate score remains 4.7 on both.

That doesn’t mean every meal is perfect.

It means the overwhelming statistical pattern remains strongly positive.

The Numbers Make Roberto’s Difficult to Ignore

Restaurant reviews will always contain an element of subjectivity.

One customer loves a dish another customer dislikes.

Some diners prioritize atmosphere. Others care primarily about food. Some want traditional Italian cuisine, while others prefer modern interpretations.

No mathematical formula can definitively identify the “best” restaurant.

But large numbers of independent customer reviews provide useful evidence.

And Roberto’s numbers deserve attention.

A 4.7 Tripadvisor rating from 417 reviews.

A 4.7 OpenTable rating from approximately 792 verified diners.

A 4.8 OpenTable service score.

Tripadvisor’s current No. 2 position among St. Louis fine-dining restaurants, with a non-Italian seafood restaurant occupying the top spot.

A rating exceeding several of St. Louis’ most recognizable Italian restaurants.

Taken together, those aren’t insignificant statistics.

They tell a story.

Is Roberto’s St. Louis’ Top-Rated Fine-Dining Italian Restaurant?

If the question is whether Tripadvisor officially ranks Roberto’s as St. Louis’ No. 1 Italian restaurant, the answer is no.

That isn’t what Tripadvisor’s current general Italian ranking says.

But that isn’t quite the question St. Louis Restaurant Review is asking.

We’re asking what happens when comparable restaurants are compared with comparable restaurants.

Remove quick-bite sandwich shops from a fine-dining comparison.

Separate casual Italian and pizza concepts from $$$$ restaurants.

Then examine the customer rating, review volume, dining category, and corroborating ratings from another major platform.

Under those conditions, Roberto’s makes an exceptionally strong case.

Based on the Tripadvisor and OpenTable information reviewed by St. Louis Restaurant Review, Roberto’s Trattoria & Chophouse is among the highest-rated established fine-dining Italian restaurants in the St. Louis region and may have the strongest combination of rating and substantial review volume among its closest competitors.

That’s a more meaningful distinction than simply appearing first on a search page.

It also helps explain why Roberto’s may remain one of the area’s most under-recognized fine-dining establishments.

St. Louis diners have spent decades associating Italian fine dining with certain neighborhoods and famous restaurant names.

Customers at Roberto’s are telling a somewhat different story.

They’ve given a South County restaurant operating from a shopping center a rating that meets or exceeds many of the city’s most recognizable Italian establishments.

Sometimes the restaurant with the biggest reputation has the best numbers.

Sometimes it doesn’t.

In Roberto’s case, the numbers deserve a closer look.

Read a recent article published by STL.News.

Roberto’s Trattoria & Chophouse
145 Concord Plaza
St. Louis, MO 63128
314-842-9998

Editor’s Note: We reviewed restaurant ratings, review counts, and rankings cited in this article in September 2026. Rankings and ratings on Tripadvisor, OpenTable, and other consumer platforms can change as additional reviews are submitted. St. Louis Restaurant Review distinguishes between a platform’s ranking position and the numerical customer rating assigned to an establishment.