lorusso's cucina

worst italian food i have ever had!. i seriously have no idea how this place stays in business. from the moment we walked in and the hostess couldn't find our reservations till the end of the meal when our waitress took about 20 minutes to bring us our check everything was bad. we used the online reservations which the hostess admitted to us that they never check. so if you make a reservation i strongly suggest calling. it begs the question why have an online reservation system if you don't plan to use it? strange. since it was sunday night there were plenty of tables open so we did get seated quickly even though the hostess was hemming and hawing about the reservation. waitress comes by and we place our order. i tried the butternut squash ravioli and my husband orders the eggplant lasagna. both were terrible. so terrible. nothing was cooked right, the flavors were totally off. his red sauce tastes like it's from a cheap can. my raviolis were suppose to come in a sauce, but it tasted like fermented wine. i have a feeling this place uses the cheapest food ingredients they can get because there is nothing fresh or flavorful about the food. since our meal was so bad, we decided to cut our loss there and just wanted the check. our waitress seriously vanished and we waited there for about 20 minutes for the check. oh, the bread that the serve you towards the beginning of the meal is dry and tastes like it was baked 2 days ago. and there is a $20 corkage fee which in my opinion is steep when your average meal costs between $15-22 dollars. would never go back and would never suggest to a friend.

the best veal parmigiana in town so far. i've been traveling to st louis at least once a month for the past 4-5 months. lorusso's reminds me of the local restaurants in my hometown. my caesar salad was nice and garlicky and well dressed. for my main course i had the veal parmigiana with a side of pasta. veal was nice and tender, breaded and sauced well and smothered appropriately in cheese. my side of ziti rigati with a tomato cream sauce was delicious, just the right amount of acid from the tomato and smoothness from the cream. the creme brûlée that i had for dessert was a respectable effort (it could use a touch more vanilla in my opinion). as a solo diner a little later on a thursday night i never felt rushed and i especially enjoyed swapping restaurant stories with terri (the owner) and the bartender.

i was so excited to try this restaurant for the first time. our night began well. knowing we would have our daughter with us, we got a last minute reservation at 5:30. the owner, knowing we needed a high chair smartly say us in a quiet corner. our daughter does well in restaurants, but she is still a two year-old. the appetizer and drinks were great. our entrees arrived in a timely fashion but our daughter's did not. we told the person who delivered it, not our server, we were missing it. our daughter was hungry and started to fuss, so my husband took her outside. she was calm when he brought her back. we both managed to finish our meals before the server came and explained hers was delayed because a large party had ordered appetizers. regardless, chicken fingers should not take 30 minutes. we asked that it be boxed since we were finished. my husband took her to the car while i waited. when i got the check, her food was on it. i hate doing this but i went up and asked the manager to comp it and she did, telling me what really happened was that he simply forgot. having worked in the industry myself for many years as a young person, i know we all make mistakes, but i owned up to them and tried to rectify the situation. this is the first time i ever left less than a 20 percent tip, let alone a bad one, but sitting here watching my child eat her dinner in the car, i feel it was justified. such a shame, because the food was really good!

excellent italian restaurant. this is the best italian restaurant on "the hill". this is real italian food. the steaks are incredibly tender and melt in your mouth. the herbs and spices bring out the flavor without being overbearing. the wine list has a great compliment to the menu. great atmosphere of a real italian restaurant. our waitress was a long-term employee and very knowledgeable about the menu and gave very good service.

this may be my new favorite italian restaurant. food was good. we got the special, a nice sol wrapped crab cake. really fresh and tasty. we also ordered the penne alla ferrari. this was amazing. the entire table was happy with thier orders. except for the flash fried spinach which as a little too greesy and the fettuccini leonardo which was okay at best.

desert was amazing!!!!

saturday night is just a bad night to dine out!. the capt & wife are just about to give up on dining over the weekend. it's a good thing for st. louis restaurants to be busy on saturday night but for us diners, it feels like i'm on a mass-production assembly line at gm. lorusso's is one of our fav places to dine but last night it seemed like "hurry up, eat faster...we've got more people who need your table. i hadn't even had a taste of my martini & we were being rushed to place an appetizer order & then our server was hounding for our dinner order. when i tried to "slow" things down a bit and while nothing was said, it was obvious our server wasn't happy with that idea. we watched as many of the servers appeared very hurried and stand-off-ich with other customers; seemed to send the message...more people, more tips!

the capt had the seafood cannelloni special which was pretty good; way too much flash fried spinach but the pasta & special sauce was good. wife gail had the vegetarian butternut ravioli and tried to make a small substitution with a side. after a second request for this she was told the kitchen could not make this sub - we even offered to pay more if necessary. rich...probably something you need to immediately address. we've asked for similar minor substitutions at some of your competitors (harvest, cardwell's, marcella's etc) & they always go out of their way to accommodate the customer.

overall, we gave our experience this past saturday a c+ tops & that was due to the food. again, we've dined here many times but i am now recommending not doing again on saturday night. seems like wed or thu nights restaurants are less busy and more laid-back. servers / cook staff have more time to pamper the customer & take adequate time to prepare the food.

great italian food! the service was outstanding. wonderful ambiance! highly recommend visitors and residents of saint louis, mo enjoy a meal at lorusso's!!!

highly disappointed 8-30-2012. we were frequent customers of lorusso's before moving out of state. we returned the week of august 27 to dine at a place that was not even close to our our memories.
i ordered chicken theresa, i was unable to eat it, the chicken was cold (122 degrees) and the broccoli was so overcooked you could not tell it was even broccolli. no one, including our pompass waiter even noticed i had not touched it.
my husband ordered the canelloni, it was just like it was out of a can, tomato covered not a authentic italian dish at all.
i can not tell you how extremely disappointed we were with the "total" dining experience. we will not go back!

i have since been back to lorusso's on a couple of occasions and i got a pasta dish one time that was outstanding. i had the meatloaf special another evening that rivaled the taste sensations of my own meat loaf.

normally, i would pounce on the lasagna when offered as a rare special, but this time i opted to try what my dad orders every time, without fail, at lorusso’s – the tutto mare.

i miss it. whenever i get back to st. louis, i make a point of eating here. it's where i get my cannelloni fix. atmosphere is also great. you can't beat it.

lorusso's goal: get you out of there asap. have been to lorusso's on a number of occasions. with few exceptions, we were rushed through our meal. the waiter behaved as though he was trying to make "sales." last example: we were in the middle of eating our salads, when someone showed up with our entrees. they literally plunked the dishes down on the table in a rushed an rude manner. you can get "x" on your salad for just a dollar extra, etc. we felt so disregarded, we took bets he wouldn't ask if we wanted coffee or dessert. he didn't. it was clear they wanted to turn the table.
bottom line: i can't tell you what i think of their food, when they ruin the experience. you can go elsewhere on the hill for same price points - better food - and treated like a favorite customer.

will go back. the cioppino was excellent, filet was good and the veal marsala tasty but a little heavy on the sauce nice caprese salad and good selection of wines. our waitress was a little distracted.

great food and atmosphere. my wife and i had a reservation and we were seated immediately upon arriving. i would recommend to all to try!!

i absolutely know that this family knows how to cook inspirational food.i was blown away by the atmosphere and they treated us like we had been house guests!it is amazing food,but the whole experience was wonderful. i recommend this to all men for any birthdays or anniversary present.