Latest Reviews
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The pizza and food are good -- this is Italian Gastropub style food and pizza. Their beer list is great and that is the real draw here. Owned by same …
DCFüd
Rustico
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Great atmosphere especially for brunch! Menu options are unique, reasonably priced and a good serving. The hummus is amazing too!…
Yesenia Villalta
Rustico
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Liked it but didn't love it. Bar Service was egregious! Our waiter was completely aloof and at times unaware that were part of his area. Mussels were …
Smitty
Rustico
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Rustico serves American and Pizza. Incorrect or missing information? Make a report, or claim the restaurant if you own it!Details
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8 Reviews on “Rustico”
Great atmosphere especially for brunch! Menu options are unique, reasonably priced and a good serving. The hummus is amazing too!
Liked it but didn’t love it. Bar Service was egregious! Our waiter was completely aloof and at times unaware that were part of his area. Mussels were great and the beer was just ok. I’ve had some of the same beer elsewhere and thought they tasted better–less if a CO2 taste to it. If Rustico management reads this: more friendly and astute hostess who actually greets and thanks people, much better service in the bar area, and lastly check your tap lines for cleanliness and beer/CO2 mixture.
Alexandria location is better. After going to the location in Alexandria, this one was kind of a let down. Everything was nice but the other one has a better atmosphere (surrounding area included). I had the French onion soup, which was good but I could have done without the meat in it… it had a stringy texture that took away from the experience. I tried out the chickpea pizza crust and was SO disappointed. It’s not very good. Okay, but not something I would ever order again.
Did NOT make it past host stand! 30 minute wait and no one else in front of us. Oh wait, you can sit in the bar area. Oh I am sorry there are no seats available in there either!
Disappointed. Have eaten at both rusticos and other NRG establishments many many times. Tonight my salad had clearly been sitting in a fridge and scallop specials was luke warm, scallops were fishy and cauliflower polenta was tasteless.
Decent pizza and beer list. Other than that nothing special. Sevice in bar area was terrible. I won’t attribute it to the server but management. The server working our party of 7 was working atleast 5 tables.
So close again. In my search for a good neighborhood restaurant in the Ballston area, we tried Rustico which from the same restaurant group as Tallula so seems to have promise. The atmosphere is elegant but not too over top that it doesn’t promise a casual dining experience. The group I went with ordered the watermelon & pancetta salad, the eggplant parmesan, the tagliatelle, the swordfish and roasted mushroom pizza with some prosciutto added. The watermelon salad is the perfect summer salad with the sweetness of the watermelon being balanced out by the olives & balsamic with pancetta thrown in to add seasoning. The eggplant dish was was thinly sliced baby or chinese eggplant stacked up high to give you a feeling of lasgana but with thin slices of eggplant instead. As eggplant parmesan goes, this version had all the flavors you would expect but did not carry the heaviness of a typical eggplant parmesan dish. The tagliatelle was disappointing to say the least. The ingredients in the bolognese seemed to be too coarse with several chunks of carrots still visible. Additionally, the lacked the full flavor of a true bolognese and probably needed an hour or two more of cooking since it tasted and felt like there was too much water retained. The homemade pasta was tasteful and deserved a better companion. The swordfish was perfectly grilled and avoided being too dry. It was perhaps overshadowed by accompanying brushetta with an heirloom tomato salad and tomato jam. The heirlooms certainly lived up to their flavorful reputation and would almost have been a great dish with or without the swordfish. The pizza seemed to be caught in an identity crisis not knowing if it should be a true think crust pizza or a regular pie, instead it was caught somewhere in the middle. By itself, the roasted mushroom pizza was better than average. I’m not usually a fan of goat cheese on pizza since it tends to overwhelm other flavors especially subtle and earthy flavors like you find in mushrooms. But, on this pizza, it was perfectly portioned out and enhanced rather than overpower. It was mistake to add the prosciutto to this or any other pizza since Rustico is not subtle in adding it. You get huge slices of prosciutto that create more saltiness than is needed. Rustico also prides itself in its beer selection and while we only tried the Brown Angel Cask Ale, it was superb as cask ales go and well worth having more than just one. The deep, rich and almost chocolate-y flavor definitely showed off the type of flavor expected in a this different fermentation process.So, once again, Rustico comes so very close to being a great casual neighborhood restaurant. The atmosphere is inviting, the alcohol is well-made but the food falls just short of being worthy of someplace you would want to come back to on a weekly basis. foodnomad.net