russo's coal-fired italian kitchen & pizza

russo's was just alright for me. was recently in dallas for business and we stopped at russo's for lunch. i had the eggplant parmesan sandwich, a house salad and a slice of carrot cake. the eggplant in the sandwich was good - could have been placed between heartier bread. the house salad was nothing out of the ordinary. at $8.50 this wasn't a bad price for as muchfoodas was served. the cake was way too dense and a bit steep on price at $7. other's in my party tried the pizza and pasta. reviews were mixed. the ambiance was okay. the servers seemed a bit scattered. not sure if i'd go there again.

pretty darn good. i recently took a job in richardson and see russo's every day while trying to find a good lunch place. one day i tried russo's and fell in love. i love ny style anyway, but their flavor is unlike anything i've ever eaten and i was instantly hooked.

unfortunately, after frequenting it the past couple of months, i've noticed a trend that bothers me. they make what appears to be 4 of their enormous pizzas with just cheese and slice them up, top them and reheat them for the daily lunch crowd, which isn't abnormal. and when the slices are gone, lunch slices are done.
however, after a couple of poorly reheated, burnt and overly chewy slices, i saw what the issue was. if they don't sell enough slices from the previous day, they put the rest in a cooler and cook them first before dipping into the freshly made slices. the quality is significantly worse. since their pizza is so good when freshly cooked, trying to eek out a smallerfoodloss by recycling the previous days slices is noticed very quickly and selling them at full price is insulting.

i'm going to continue going, but unless i can be assured of a fresh slice at lunch, i'm going to order off the regular menu.

the staff is great and, aside from the recycled pizza, you won't find better in the dallas area...just be sure it's fresh.

overpriced,overrated,and under appreciative. russo's ny coal-fired pizza is the definition of a snobby restaurant chain. i have tried to order from them four times and have only managed to getfoodonly once. that particular time i had to call and cancel it because it was close to two hours late. the other three times i've called was met with no answer or i was hung up on. i figured four chances was more than enough! there are plenty of other restaurants in this area that will give you quality service andfoodto choose from.

burnt food. i went to this place today. ordered my fav. chick parm. when it came just by seeing it i was so disappointed. the key for the this dish is the parm cheese, it was totally burnt and when i mentioned that to the waiters [a gal with the specs] cooly says yes i see that. she never tried to apologies for the badly burntfoodis served nor she tried to get me a fresh chick parm food. this place is just disgusting to be in...its a big rip off restaurant and i will not recommend to anyone who wants taste some good food. all you get in this place is a burnt food. i wish to see your restaurant closes pretty soon.

qualityfood& service in 1. this rare find has amazing food- i'd put it up against famous lombardi's of nyc- and amazing service. the staff is friendly and personable and make the experience dining her great. awesome lunch deals and the calzone's are great to share on a date. definitely a place to check out!

hubby felt right at home. we were on our way to campisi's in richardson, but we had seen russo's a few times while traveling on 75, so we decided to try it out. we are so glad we did!

we arrived about an hour before closing time, and we were greeted warmly. the decor is really warm and reminded us of the upscale pizzerias in new jersey that my husband and i used to enjoy. we sat down and were presented with the regular menu and a heart healthy menu. although we didn't order from the heart healthy menu, we were impressed that they offered it. we noticed a good variety of offerings on the menu, from appetizers to pizzas to pastas.

after ordering, we received the complimentary basket of bread. the bread is deliciously flavored with italian herbs, and the tables all have flavored olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic powder, italian herbs, and parmesan cheese (along with salt and pepper). i could have been happy just eating the bread and dip. we ordered the roasted garlic and mozzarella flatbread appetizer. it was perfectly fired and the roasted garlic was perfectly done.

my husband ordered the manhattan pizza (italian sausage, peppers, onion). he loved it. it was thin and crispy, and when it came to the table, it smelled soooo good. the cheese, sauce and toppings were perfectly distributed, and the coal-firing gave it a nice ny-style taste.

i ordered the chicken penne puttanesca. most restaurants are afraid to make a true puttanesca because of the strength of all of the ingredients, but i was very happy to see that their puttanesca included everything i love about it.

the service was very friendly and attentive without being overdone. the owner was very active in the restaurant making sure that everything was good with all of the guests. he came by near the end of our meal and chatted with us. since we were the last ones there, we enjoyed a nice conversation with him. it was nice to hear his story, and my husband enjoyed talking to someone else from the northeast.

our check was very reasonable with what we had ordered. my dish was barely over $10, and i had enough for dinner and then lunch the next day. we will definitely drive down to richardson for more of the greatfoodand service that we received at russo's.

great atmosphere, service is ok.... they made mistakes the last few times we gotfoodthere. they kept giving me pomadoro with slice sausage instead of the spicy italian saugage that i asked for... it happened twice, but the taste of the dish was still good.

great atmosphere, but a little too loud for much conversation. when my party walked in we asked to be seated in a booth on the floor, they ignored our request and seated us at a highboy booth/table. thefoodwas not only awful, but not cooked well. the chicken parmagean was burned and the pizza still slightly doughy, and definitely not crisp. the prices were awfully high, even if thefoodwas of quality.