russo's coal-fired italian kitchen & pizza

being born and raised on long island, ny, it's hard for me to find good pizza in texas since i grew up with pizza places in every shopping center. this pizza reminded me of back home and the service was excellent. thegarlicknots were some of the best i have ever had and the ingrediants were fresh. i will definitely be going back. also, the drinks were great.

overpriced. $35 for a large pizza with 2 toppings,garlicknots and two drinks at lunch. for that price the pizza andgarlicknots needed to be beyond perfection and they were not.garlicknots didn't taste like they had anygarlicon them or in them. i tasted no garlic. pizza was ok, could have used more cheese. the lunch special looked better so i may try that next time but it was confusing. apparently you don't have to get just a slice of cheese pizza, you can add ingredients to it but that was not clear. even with the lunch special it would have still been around $24 for two people.

leaves something to be desired!. i went here looking for some good pizza. what i got was some mediocre to bad pizza, bad service, and a large bill!

i ordered a salad that took at least 25 minutes to arrive. i watched other parties come in after me and get served before me. i also watched soem of the wait staff stand around while my waitress ran around liek crazy, but neglected me. by the time my pizza arrived(40 minutes after i got there), i wasn't even hungry. probably a good thing though because it wasnt very good. the sauce was nonexistant, and the tomatoes were not good.

the best part was the freegarlicbread that came in the begining, althought it would have been much better with some marinara dipping sauce! if i just got that and the salad, i would have been much more satisfied with the experience.

good luck if you try this place!

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,garlicpowder, italian herbs, and parmesan cheese (along with salt and pepper). i could have been happy just eating the bread and dip. we ordered the roastedgarlicand mozzarella flatbread appetizer. it was perfectly fired and the roastedgarlicwas 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 great food and service that we received at russo's.