Rustico

A real nice modern twist on Italian food. Everything is freshly made. Real wood burning oven. Food is amazing. Relaxing contemporary décor. Friendly staff & even the deliveries are nice (and on time). Much better than a stodgy old Dominos or Pizza Hut.
Hopefully this will continue with the recent (unnecessary) management change.
Highly recommended!

Have had a couple of good visits since the last review and even had a nice delivery, but on the two most recent visits, things have changed a bit. We can’t figure it out, but maybe management has changed… None of the friendly Italian staff seem to be there anymore and some of the food is not quite what it was before.
So on a previous dinner visit, we were waited on by someone we had not seen in the restaurant before. She wasn’t very friendly, but our food was coming out and there didn’t seem to be anything wrong with the food, so we didn’t think much of it. For dessert, I had to change from Tiramisu (they were out) to the Sweet Dough Twists. When they came out, well let’s just say that I didn’t take a picture of them because they didn’t look quite so appetizing. There was a cold, white-​ish (it was a bit transparent), sweet syrup and the dough twists looked burnt… and some of them tasted burnt. When our bill came, we noticed that the 2 for £12 was not applied. So we asked about it and our waitress said she would fix it, but did seem annoyed that we had mentioned it. Mr. Snarky also put out his American Express card and told him quite sharply that they didn’t take American Express. So he put that one away and pulled out his Visa, which looks slightly similar and she said as she took the card and put it into the machine, «We do not take American Express, but if you want me to try it…»
On the most recent visit, we were waited on by the same waitress and again, not super friendly, but as long as our food came out and there was nothing wrong with it, then we will settle for efficient. I wanted to choose a dish that I hadn’t had before, and while they have specials… the specials always seem to be the same and the specials on the table are different from those on the sign outside. Instead I stuck to the regular menu. I chose a dish I haven’t had before, so I cannot compare it with any of the other visits, but I can tell you that it wasn’t quite what was on the menu. I ordered the Penne Toscana which was supposed to have sausage, but had bits of bacon in it. It was tasty, but it did end up being very greasy. And the bread that I looked forward to having (it is a swirl of white and brown bread and oh so moist) was stale… so stale it could have been confused for cold toast. Based on that and because of what happened last time with the 2 for £12, I decided to forego dessert, but Mr. Snarky was hankering for their Cheesecake with Fruits of the Forest.
When the dessert arrived… well it looked a bit different. The most notable difference was the sauce. The sauce used to have fresh fruit (you could see the currants and berries) and it had this deep red juice. The sauce that was on the cheesecake did not have distinct fruit, was a light pink color and gloopy… in fact there were bits that we couldn’t identify in the sauce. The cheesecake tasted a bit different and the base was extra thick. Mr. Snarky was a bit disappointed and it even prompted him to say that maybe we should resume our exploration for an Italian restaurant or a new «regular» spot. Again, we had to bring up the 2 for £12 as our bill did not reflect it, but she didn’t mention that they had stopped this deal. Not sure what is happening, especially since their Facebook page is indicating that they are celebrating the one year anniversary of the restaurant, but I certainly hope that they keep their standards up so they can have many more anniversaries.