When my friend recommended Balducci’s to me, I was shocked that neither myself nor anyone in my family had ever eaten there or heard of it, which is what added to my excitement about trying it.

When my mom and I arrived we were confused about where the entrance to the restaurant. Suddenly I remembered a classmates advice, “it’s like you’re walking into a hole.” So naturally we walked down the stairs that looked as though they were leading to a hole. Once we opened the door we realized our mistake. We had entered through the back entrance and were standing in the room where the employees’ lockers were.

As if this wasn’t  embarrasing enough, my mother was not phased in the slightest and carried on signaling a confused waitress and stating, “We have three.”

We started off with an order of cheese garlic bread, which was awesome. It was great because it stuck to its title, it was bread with cheese and garlic. It may seem odd to point out the obvious but many restaurants try too hard to make simple dishes different which is a change for the worst.

Since I was born in Illinois, I could not pass up on ordering the cheese and tomato deep dish pizza. I both happy and surprised to see deep dish pizza on a menu at a St. Louis restaurant, since since most restaurants in the area resort to what I call “weak man’s pizza”, since it’s basically a giant cracker with cheese and smashed tomatoes.

What impressed me the most about Balducci’s was how they warned the customer on the menu about how long the pizza would take to cook.

After waiting 30 minutes (the time promptly listed) the pizza arrived in deep dish fashion covered in tomato sauce and cheese.

The tomato sauce was very unique in that it was much more sweet than the run of the mill tomato sauce, which made the pizza stand out in a good way.

Balducci’s is a great restaurant for pizza, sandwiches and even quiche. The service was great and the food was even better.