Bruno’s Mexican-Italian Restaurant & Pizzeria

Totally serviceable place with quirky décor. I miss it already.

I am sad to report that as of a few days ago, Bruno has retired and has closed the restaurant. There were signs on the door indicating that last night. I am heartbroken because Bruno’s was a great place to relax with a couple of slices of pizza and a glass of wine before heading to the theater. We have lost a Seattle institution. I will miss Bruno and the restaurant.

Below subpar on every level, I only had food from the Mexican side of the menu but it included a taco, enchilada, and something else. Regardless the food a huge let down, a similar meal with more flavor could be had for ½ the price at taco del mar. To top it off the beer I got was tiny, and the mix drink under powered. Over all a 6 – 7 dollar meal that ended up costing 30 dollars.
TLDR: bland food, for expensive prices. Small drinks for regular prices.

Food at reasonable prices. We liked this restaurant because it’s a Mexican Italian restaurant, some members of your party can choose Mexican food and others Italian. Food portions were big. Mexican food was very good. Location is great for tourists since some attractions are at walking distance. All employees were very friendly and customer service was excellent. Mr. Bruno, the owner, came to our table and spent plenty of time talking to us. We, as tourists, felt very comfortable in this family owned restaurant.

Most boring tacos ever. I can make them better and I don’t cook much. Friendly staff but very blah food. Too bad.

A value for the price and the the folks that run it are very nice. Old time family restaurant meal in the middle of downtown. :)

People are nuts. I’ve ate here 3 years and never got sick. Their salsa is beyond good. No trace of marinara. Common sense is gone lol. Marinara is sweet. their salsa has a great kick and the perfect aftertaste of nice herbs. Perhaps they ordered marinara lol. I couldn’t imagine what I would do ur they weren’t here! Just not a shopping day d.t. without them!

Salsa so good can’t stop eating it. Enchiladas are really good too. Best chicken soup in Seattle.

Bruno’s has been here for 40 years. I have been eating there (lunch) for 30. Bruno and his wife are great people. Food is working class style. I only get the Mexican food. Usually the chile verde burrito or the enchilada combo. It is a bargain lunch for downtown and I like the ambiance of the place, hole in the wall kind of décor. The salsa is made from crushed red chilies, it is not mariana sauce for heaven’s sake which is tomato based. Ask for «onions and peppers» and Bruno will add some fresh onion and sliced jalapenos on top. The pork is tenderloin. They actually make everything from scratch so any problem you have with the food is not because it came out of a can. In thirty years I have never gotten sick eating here even once. If you are mental or faint of heart maybe this place is not for you. If you like blue collar food and friendly service you will like the place. It hasn’t been there 40 years for nothing.
In response to some of these longwinded reviews that are borderline slander about food poisoning and cleanliness, Bruno’s has about the same King Co Health Inspection results as the popular, pricey and quite delicious Wild Ginger next door. Want to check for yourself? Here is the link to King County Health Restaurant Inspections:
Some of these reviews are nothing short of piling on by mean people with a pack mentality who love to shred something much like people who liked to burn witches. Bruno’s does not deserve this kind of viciousness even if you do not like it.

Worst «Mexican» food I have ever tried. The food didn’t taste fresh at all, and was over cooked. Service wasn’t great either, we were stuck in a back corner and hardly ever did a waiter even walk by, let alone check on us. Worst part was the salsa! This is a combo Mexican/​Italian place and they used marinara sauce in their salsa! Sooo disgusting! Will never be back here!

My first one-​star review.
The food was reasonably priced and looked like it’d be your standard mexican fare. Unfortunately, every ingredient was bland, or mediocre. So bad that ½ of our group rated their meal «worst _​_​_​_​I’ve ever had».
Service was extremely lacking. we saw a server once to take an order, and once to bring us our food. Had to track him down half an hour later for the check. I probably would’ve ordered another beer, had he checked… on the other hand, why would I pay $ 4.50 for a 12-​oz. pour when the standard is a pint?
Others in the group were only mildy satisfied with their drinks (variety of margaritas and mojitos, $ 5 happy hour special).
On top of that, I was over-​charged on the check.
Not to nit pick, but the décor was straight out of a Dawn Korleone B-​rate knockoff Italian Mafia movie. Plastic brickwork and indoor lattice work with christmas lights!
terrible.

The food here is very very bland. As stated earlier, the pizza is boring, the enchilada sauce is too close to marinara sauce. The spaghetti and meatballs are rather lacking in meatballs. The prices are good, the staff is very nice, and the bar played the football game when I was there.

I honestly came here because I was told that they were rated the worst pizza in seattle. I thought to myself, really? Is it that bad?
I had heard one story in passing that this place was good, so we came here for lunch. I was really craving some eggplant… this place is supposed to be Mexican Italian right? No Eggplant. The old gentleman says from behind the counter. Says it’s too expensive, but here looks at all these other dishes we have.
Keep in mind, we haven’t even sat down yet or more importantly decided if we’re gonna stay at this point.
Standing there I see warming lights and pizza and my friend decides to put their worst pizza rating to the test. One slice of cheese pizza to go! Make that two, I decided to be adventurous. They sprinkle our slices with grated parm and optional red chili flakes.
As we’re walking out the gentleman from behind the counter scowls at us «maybe next time you’ll sit down and try something else.»
As we walked through downtown we tasted our pizza… are you dying for the big reveal? BAM! Nothing. Flavorless, very saucy and very salty. The dough tasted like salted playdough and the sauce tasted warm. That’s right, I said warm. Same with the cheese. It tasted melty.
About ¹⁄₃ of the way in I decided I didn’t want it. But I kept eating it a bit more thinking maybe it’ll get better… before I gave up.
No thanks.

I can’t speak to their food, because when we tasted the drinks we’d ordered before considering food options, we were totally grossed out, and decided to go somewhere else for dinner instead of risking the kitchen yielding similar results to the bar.
We stopped in because they have a $ 5 special on margaritas and mojitos. Other downtown places have similar happy hour prices for pretty good drinks, but we still weren’t expecting anything amazing… but we ended up being amazed anyway, at just how bad the drinks were. I had a margarita and my husband a mojito, and both were made from cheap mixes rather than real ingredients. Which is bad enough as it is, but the mixes managed to taste pretty watery and completely offensive at the same time… sickly sweet but with an «off» taste, like the artificial flavoring had gotten old and spoiled. Truly disgusting.

Dear Hungry People:
Do not, seriously, DO NOT eat here! We were presented with pizza that had pools of grease on it. Not a good sign. When we attempted to eat it, the pizza flopped and drooped so we couldn’t pick it up. Eating the pizza, we found it to have rubbery cheese, flavorless sauce, and dry crust. The vegetable pizza was the worst. The «vegetables» were unidentifyable. Most were kinda of grey and resembled slugs. On another note, the walls were not real brick and one of our group almost fell over when the plastic cracked. Finally, the bathroom is gross and has no locks on the door not even a latch. Seriously, this restaurant is NOT good. I will eat almost anything, but this was by far the worst pizza I have ever eaten. And we all left the restaurant with stomach aches. Yuck.

Love the Mexican food but not the Italian. There’s an older gentleman that stands at the front counter who gladly takes my order and the ladies at the end of the counter sets up my tableware on my tray and rings up my order. I can choose any seat in the dining area while the Univision channel is on. They still use the bubblegum colored powder soap in the bathroom-​reminds me of washing my hands during my elementary school days.
My lunch pick: Chicken Enchiladas

As someone who is fluent in Spatalian, I give Bruno’s 4 stars! It’s genius! Bruno married a Mexican woman and together they openend this restaurant. How do you not love that?
The reviews on Unilocal clearly indicate this place isn’t the greatest for lunch. We went for dinner. The menu is so vast it’s overwhelming! It’s the perfect marriage of Italian and Mexican dishes… aww, just like the marriage of Bruno and his Mexican wife!!!
The reviews I read had mentioned that the pizza isn’t great. However, I was craving pizza so bad I was going to order it regardless, but as we were walking to the back of the restaurant, I caught sight of the sad looking pizza and decided to pass. I looked at some of the Italian and Mexican dishes people were feasting on around us and everything looked decent.
My cousin’s friend who used to work in the neighborhood and lunch here a lot had the lasagna which was that night’s special because he said he’d had it before and recalled enjoying it. It came with a salad. My cousin ordered a chalupa. I do not recommend you order a chalupa because what you get is a tostada salad HA HAAA! It looked good and she liked it, but it wasn’t what she was expecting. I think I had the beef enchilada plate. For the prices you’re paying this food is completely acceptable. I guess a few of the dishes are hit or miss, but when you take into consideration the sheer number of options available if you end up with something bad then it’s your own damn fault for making a crappy crappy choice HA!

Look guys, this is a place that tries to fuse mexican with italian. Have you ever heard of a worse combination? The hilarious thing about this place is that even the pictures they post outside to «lure» people in look absolutely disgusting.
This is a mediocre (at best) restaurant. The trick is to lower your expectations just enough. I got the spaghetti and meatball and it was olive garden good. It was unnecessarily greasy (cos really why would pasta ever be greasy?) and bland. But it did the job.
The service however was great! Our waitress dropped by at least 4 or 5 times to check in on us. I joked that the servers are mandated to do this just to make sure that none of the customers have passed away due to the terrible food.
Hayooo! And i’m out!