Peno Southern Italian Soul Food

Absolutely fabulous! Great courteous service from the owner/chef and all the wait staff despite that they were short-handed and we asked to change tables due to noisy neighbors outside. The pork bruschetta, goat cheese and beet salad, and goat cheese withtruffle appetizers were all very good. My daughters shared two different risotto entrees. My wife had the shrimp scampi. All ofwhich were excellent. I had the risotto stuffed trout and I can say without question that it was the best trout I've ever eatenin any restaurant (and that includes notable restaurants such as Commanders Palace (NO). Creamy, buttery, perfectly cookedheaven. We took a tiramisu and chocolate cake home and both were also very good.

My boyfriend and I on a whim one night decided to go to Peno for a date night after an afternoon movie. Now this place has become our regular date night spot! We love the outdoor seating and have been lucky to get a spot on the patio for eachvisit. Our wait staff has been prompt in greeting us, quick to take our order, extremely accommodating and friendly, and justoverall very professional. Even on a Friday night when you know they are busy! On our first visit, we decided to split theTucci salad and the eggplant appetizer as we weren't hungry enough for our own dishes. While waiting, Peno offers hand bakedbread topped with evoo which comes to the table warm and fresh. It's SOO hard to not gobble it all down at once. We tried tosave some to dip with our eggplant dish and barely had the willpower. The Tucci salad is a staple in St. Louis and this one wasso light, fresh, and crisp topped with generous portion of provel cheese. The combination of all the salad fixins' with thevinegarette gets me every time. So much so, that I have come to crave this salad. The eggplant dish is out of this world. Theportion is so generous as well and was enough for both is us to feel satisfied. I've never had an eggplant parm that was THISgood. It really was cooked to perfection and with so much sauce to either eat with the rest of the bread, or to use your spoonto finish it off. It was too good to waste! On our second visit we added two dirty martinis with blue cheese stuffed olives. Sodivine! A good cocktail makes a huge difference, and this one, in my opinion, was the perfect amount of dirty. We also triedthe Ragú dish with homemade fusili pasta that was cooked al dente. Again, the sauce was delicious and the ragú was so soft andtender. On our third visit, we added spaghetti with claims in a white sauce that did not disappoint, but I did prefer the Ragúfrom the previous visit. I think I'm a red sauce kinda gal. For dessert, of course, we had to do a classic It

Absolutely Fabulous evening and amazing food and service! Pizza and pasta were delicious! Great cocktails. We were there for our Sons wedding celebration meal and couldn't have wished for a better time! Thank you all.

I love supporting local small businesses. And I don?t write poor reviews unless the experience is very bad. I simply cannot get past this. This was my go to place for Italian a hidden gem. I raved about it any time someone asked for dinnerrecommendations. Last night, that all changed. We had friends in town this week from Texas. They are foodies like us. I madereservations, knowing seating was limited. I raved about this place to the friends all week saying this was going to be theirmust visit spot whenever they came to town. We arrived, were seated, and were perusing the menu when the greeter stepped up toour table a few minutes later to inform us that our party had to eat at the bar, outside in the 90 degree heat, or leave becausethey promised our table to someone else. In all my years of dining, fine or otherwise, I have never had this happen. To saythat I was embarrassed was an understatement. Our guests were aghast. We wound up having an enjoyable meal at Napoli up thestreet. As much as I have enjoyed the food at Peno, I cannot go back. Buyer beware.

Fabulous!! The owner/chef Pepe was so nice and personable. He found out it was my son's birthday and a vegetarian and he sent out several appetizers for us to try since this was our first time there. We will definitely be back!!! Amazing cuisine!