Toasted Ravioli “Toast-Off”
Trying the Best Toasted Ravioli on The Hill in Saint Louis, MOWhat is Toasted Ravioli?
Let’s start with what are toasted raviolis? Toasted Ravioli is exactly what it sounds like; take a ravioli, bread it, and fry it. Think of the pizza rolls that were molten lava in your mouth when you were a little kid (probably fighting words in Saint Louis, but I mean that’s my best example. My apologies to anyone offended by the analogy). Kind of like that, but inside of molten lava marinara filling, there is a tasty filling of meat or cheese and the marinara comes on the side as a dipping sauce.
Now it is no surprise that something so Italian/American would originate in an Italian neighborhood, called The Hill in Saint Louis, MO. Over time this has become iconic to Missouri and thus made it on the list of “state foods” that my husband and I had to try while in the area. I started my research of the best toasted raviolis and found The Hill and realized that all these places had history, reviews of having the ‘best toasted raviolis in town’, and of course, over time everyone has their own variation of the toasted ravioli.
This got me thinking, why don’t we have a Toasted Ravioli “Toast-Off” (I know what you’re thinking; awesome name, right?) while we are in town and try all the toasted raviolis on The Hill and find the best, so that’s what we did! I researched the top toasted raviolis on The Hill (using Google reviews) and narrowed it down to the top 10 restaurants. Here is our list of all 10 restaurants in order that we were going to visit (10 was too many and we actually only made it to 7, but I included all 10 in case you want to go for it or want to try all the ones we didn’t).
The Ranking Process for the “Toast-Off”
Here is what we ranked them on: originality, history, tastiness, and atmosphere of the place (staff, restaurant quality, etc.) and cost. Now, I organized the Toasted Ravioli “Toast-Off” based on proximity to our hotel. If you want to learn more about what we did and where we stayed in Saint Louis, check out my article on Spending a Long Weekend in Saint Louis, Missouri.
The Hill is a very walkable neighborhood so if you want to do your own Toasted-Off, then I suggest picking our top three restaurants and NOT ten like us. Ten was a crazy amount of raviolis, and in actuality we only tried seven. I included the other two that we “missed” in this list in case you want to add them to your own Toasted Ravioli “Toast-Off”.
Also, don’t feel like reading, then watch our YouTube video and watch us try all of the toasted raviolis here or search NoCo Nomads Toasted Ravioli “Toast-Off” or just watch it below!
*All prices below are based off the website of the restaurant at the time of writing. Note that some of these prices were higher in-person than advertised.
Want to watch us try Toasted Raviolis, instead of reading about it?
Watch our video here!
Alright, let’s get started with the Toasted Ravioli “Toast-Off”!
Our first stop on The Hill was Anthonino’s and we were pleasantly surprised. It was a great first stop and looking back was one of the favorite toasted raviolis of the toast-off.
Originality: 9/10
History: 6/10
Tastiness: 10/10
Atmosphere: 10/10
Cost: 4/10 ($12.00)
Overall: 7.8/10
Brief description: Athonino’s was a great little spot on the corner. The restaurant was clean and newer. They opened in 2003 so they don’t have as much history as some of the other places, but they appeared to be one of the newest italian restaurants in the area so they must be doing something right if they can stay in business with such established businesses, talk about tough competition! We were up front about our Toasted Ravioli “Toast-Off” so as to not mislead her and she was very respectfully and courteous. These raviolis had ricotta in their meat filling and it made a world of difference. I loved it!
Just down the block from Anthonino’s was Mama Toscanos and took us only 3 minutes to walk to. This was not a sit down restaurant like the rest, but more a take away deli.
Originality: 4/10
History: 7/10
Tastiness: 1/10
Atmosphere: 2/10
Cost: 9/10 ($6.29)
Overall: 4.6/10
Brief description: Mama Toscano’s was a real disappointment. I thought this was really going to be a great hole in the wall place based on the reviews and the fact that it was a deli, but the staff was rude, unhelpful and the restaurant wasn’t overly clean, but not dirty (if that makes sense). The worst was that raviolis were terrible.
They really did taste like meat filled pizza rolls. The meat inside was a flavorless meatball and we couldn’t even finish them. It was cool that the place has been in the Toscano family for over 90 years and it started as a local market, but overall, they were nothing to write home about and we will probably never go back. Maybe it was an off day for the staff and raviolis, but it was a real bummer! They made the last in the list.
Talk about a cute place! Absolutely loved the atmosphere of this tiny house turned restaurant. It was 3pm on a Thursday and IT WAS PACKED! We had to wait in order to get in. I was not expecting that!
Originality: 7/10
History: 9/10
Tastiness: 9/10
Atmosphere: 9/10
Cost: 6/10 ($9.99)
Overall: 8/10
Brief description: Mama’s On The Hill delivered delicious raviolis, great service, amazing atmosphere and everything that I wanted in the Toasted Ravioli “Toast-Off”. I was very impressed and we even ordered an Antipasto plate and some wine (we needed something different in order to power through). On their menu the claim to have the “Original” toasted ravioli and it is clear from the pictures that this place has been a restaurant for a LONG time. Amazing raviolis highly recommend visiting for dinner or adding to your own Toasted Ravioli “Toast-Off.
In actuality, we visited Zia’s before Mama’s On The Hill because we were on their waitlist, but Mama’s On The Hill is next in the walking order. Zia’s had an interesting layout with sort of a mix and match rooms. The front room is an old school bar area, then a totally different dining room, and then in the back, where they sat us, was an old school 50’s feeling dining room with black and white tiled flooring. They had the most original toast raviolis that we had!
Originality: 10/10
History: 7/10
Tastiness: 10/10
Atmosphere: 8/10
Cost: 7/10 ($9.00)
Overall: 8.4/10
Brief description: These raviolis were so original. Once we told the waitress what we were doing she was amazingly helpful and she suggested that we try their off menu seafood toasted raviolis. They were to die for! They were breaded more like a Cheez It and less like a breaded pocket. They came with butter sauce instead of marinara and lemons on the side. So amazingly good! Definitely made one of our top 3 favorites.
The waitress also told us all of her favorite Saint Louis foods including Imo’s Pizza, creator of the Saint Louis style pizza. If you want to read more about our experience with that read my article Spending a Long Weekend in Saint Louis, Missouri (Day 2). Overall, great place, great service, and most importantly great (and original) raviolis.
Lorenzo’s was such a weird experience. See my description below for all details. They had average toasted raviolis, nothing amazing, but definitely not bad tasting. They are NOT on their menu anymore (even though they were on their online menu when I was researching. I must have been looking at an old menu), but made them for us anyway.
Originality: 5/10
History: 6/10
Tastiness: 6/10
Atmosphere: 7/10
Cost: 5/10 ($11.00)
Overall: 5.8/10
Brief description: First, we walked in and the restaurant had a strong smell (like potpourri) which immediately made me nervous that they were trying to cover something up. The restaurant was fancier (white tablecloths and such) and it turned out that they no longer have toasted raviolis on the menu even though it is still on their online menu. They made them for us anyways which was super accommodating of them which was awesome. For the most part the staff ignored us after finding out what we were doing and that we were only going to order toasted raviolis. Overall, they were just normal toasted raviolis and they were very average. I would go back however for the food itself because their specials sounded amazing!
This was the first restaurant that we skipped. At this point we were getting pretty full and sick of toasted raviolis. Because this place had less toasted ravioli mentions than others and it was slightly out of the way, we skipped it and headed to the next place.
Unfortunately, we skipped this one as well. When we walked up to the door, we decided that it was way too fancy for what we were wearing and the fact that we were only going to order one thing. Definitely looked like amazing food though!
This restaurant was also packed to the gills, but at this point it was dinner time so it wasn’t that surprising. Also, at the time they were having a big Italian wedding reception in the back of the restaurant so the staff was a bit overwhelmed.
Originality: 5/10
History: 7/10
Tastiness: 6/10
Atmosphere: 8/10
Cost: 6/10 ($10.95)
Overall: 6.4/10
Brief description: This one was a bit of a hoof from the previous restaurant. It is sort of at the “end” of The Hill. We got more than just toasted raviolis for something else in our stomachs, salad after all that meat. The salads were just alright and the toasted raviolis were also just average.
Like I said above, the staff was stressed from a wedding reception in the back and quite a few birthday parties in the area that we were seated. The patio area had a great atmosphere with a real wood burning fireplace. We didn’t love the food, the service, or the location enough to go back.
With pasta right in the name this place sounded like a great place to get toasted raviolis. However, after 6 plates of raviolis we were done and the place was a little out of our way back to the hotel so we skipped this final location for the day. Looks like a great place to try and has reasonable pricing according to their website.
Now this final place was actually in our hotel so it could be Number 1 or 10 depending on how you want to look at it. This was actually the first place that we tried the night before the Toasted Ravioli “Toast-Off” when we went for dinner.
Originality: 8/10
History: 5/10
Tastiness: 7/10
Atmosphere: 9/10
Cost: 6/10 ($10.95)
Overall: 7/10
Brief description: We got the Toasted RavioliI Siciliano which were different than anything else that we got. They were crunch and pretty good. The staff was very attentive and funny. Great service and the location was fancy without feeling “stuffy”. The price was pretty average, but given that it is a hotel restaurant it didn’t have much history on The HIll.
We had an amazing time tasting all of the raviolis and we definitely had a top 3 favorites.
For your own Toasted Ravioli “Toast-Off”
Check out:
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Zia’s Restaurant and Catering
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Mama’s On The Hill
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Anthonino’s Taverna
Close runner up:
Bartolino’s Osteria
And there you have it, the top toasted raviolis on The Hill in Saint Louis, MO. So go and check out our top favorite restaurants or go do your own Toasted Ravioli “Toast-Off” and try the three restaurants that we skipped. I hope this was helpful and that you try “Missouri’s State Food”. Stay tuned as we travel to other states and try other state foods. Got a suggestion of a food that we have try for Missouri, or any other states, let me know in the comments! We are always looking for good food! Thanks for reading and let me know if you do your own Toasted Ravioli “Toast-Off”.
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