rusconi's american kitchen

enjoyable but room for improvement. lovely little spot with varied small menu (just what i love to see!). my husband ordered the buffalo steak with apple bread pudding and roasted carrots which he enjoyed and would order again. i had what typically would have been ny strip with asparagus and mac'n'cheese but was replaced with fillet mignon as the server indicated the chef wasn't happy with the quality of the ny (loving the attention to quality) and i was more than happy to eat the perfectly prepared beef for the same price. mac'n'cheese and red wine reduction was good but could have been improved upon(perhaps too salty). i only offer the criticism since prices were on the higher end for phoenix so expect a little more. desserts, chocolate bread pudding (i know, my husband is obsessed) and creme brûlée were perfect. server was not very attentive and since it was tuesday night at 8pm (not a full house) there was no apparent excuse for it. we have higher service expectations for this price point. we would go back again to see if our nextexperienceis improved since rusconi's has everything going for it.

we had a greatexperienceat rusconi's american kitchen. they just change the menu the night we were there. we thought the food was excellent we started out with the pork belly with shriner sausage and apple relish i had the rack of lamb and my friend had the salmon, she is from seattle and said it was the best salmon she's ever had. the service was very attentive and the food arrived very quickly. this is our fourth time into the restaurant. it has become our new neighborhood spot we highly recommend this new independent chef driven spot

food is okay, but service will drive you away. rusconi's is a neighborhood restaurant for us; we've been there a dozen times, but what started well has evolved into a service disaster. the last two times (why i went back after the first bad experience, i don't know) have been absurd.

badexperience#1, we went for happy hour and one of our orders was the short rib sliders. over the hour we kept asking the bartender where our order was and kept being assured they were almost ready. finally they showed up one hour later and were burned to a crisp. we weren't alone as i looked down the line at the other diners, who also couldn't eat what had been brought to them. the bartenders knew the food was substandard and that noone was eating it, but ignored the situation.

badexperience#2, we went back for happy hour. for the first 10 minutes there was no one at the bar; the servers were all hanging out by the kitchen. when we finally were able to flag down a server they occassionally took our order. food was okay (actually the pork belly was a huge improvement vs their opening) but the server treated every customer seated as if they were an inconvenience. it took over 20 minutes just to get our bill at the end of the night, and they were not busy.

you may like the food, but the service will negate any positive part of your experience. take the time to drive another 5 minutes and go to blt for your night out.