Lusso Italian Restaurant Rouse Hill — Restaurant in Sydney

It was approx. 6 to 8 hours after eating the Spaghetti Gamberi and salt and pepper squid from this place, that has left me sick. I had a fever. I felt nauseas and then came along all the symptoms of food poisoning. I am still trying to recover and will spend Easter Monday in bed thanks to this restaurant.

Firstly, the young waitresses and waiter were nice and wanted to seat us where we wanted to outside. Some older lady I believe would have been the Manager or Owner questioned the staff of where they wanted to seat us and made a fuss about it. The young waitress advised there would be a longer wait time for the food and if that was ok. We said fine. To our surprise the food actually came out pretty much instantly.

The food tasted like it came out of a can. I can imagine the manager blasting the chefs as I write this because I can't see her taking accountability or ownership of any of the issues.

When it was time to pay we received the bill with a 10% surcharge for public holiday. I would have appreciated the notice if there was going to be a surcharge. Whether it be a sign close to the area where you wait to be seated or on the menu, or even at the cashier. However, there was none.

Furthermore, there was a credit card surcharge of 1.2%. Obviously this wasn't communicated to me at the time when I was paying.

The older lady collected the money and she had zero customer service and communication skills. She acted as though we had inconvenienced her and she had no smile on her smug face. I felt the waiters and waitresses were stepping on egg shells around her. Honestly, I don't know what her deal is. I don't think hospitality is a place for someone like her. The bare minimum of courtesy and respect was inexistent. No basic human decency just a horrible person and I can imagine horrible boss.

I do not recommend this place. You are better spending your...

Pros: the staff were lovely, attentive and kind. Good service.

Cons: The Italian food was one of the worst Italian foods I have had in 2022. We ordered the bruschetta, garlic bread, bacon tortellini in white sauce, pesto ghnocchi and margarita pizza.

Bruschetta: the bread was so wet and soggy, the tomatoes were old and mushy and soft, the onions were soggy and had no crunch to them. The topping on the bread was pre made days ago because it was so soggy and soft. Everyone knows bruschetta topping is meant to be fresh with bite to it. This was not the case. We did not finish it.

Margarita pizza: margarita was the worst of all dishes. It has no flavour (read other reviews, comments around no flavour are a reoccurring theme). We did not finish the pizza, it was extremely oily. This restaurant managed to ruin the most basic dish off all time, red sauce and cheese on a pizza. I recently purchased frozen margarita from Aldi. The Aldi pizza was genuinely so much much nicer.

Garlic bread: frozen pre packaged garlic bread. No complaints apart from being lack lustre.

White sauce bacon tortellini: the tortellini was packaged tortellini. How do I know this? Every single tortellini was the exact same size, shape, width and height. The cream was not thick and had no flavour.

Pesto gnocchi: the dish was ok, it would get a 3/5. The potato was boiled from a frozen state because the gnocchi was brittle. Do you know how you freeze a dish and then defrost it and the food does not have the original consistency, that’s how this dish was.

I have attached photos as evidence. Truly disappointed. There is no excuse for pre made frozen food in Sydney, the restaurant business is the most competitive industry, there are better and cheaper restaurants. Example, Italian bowl in Newtown.

Hope this review...

We visited Lusso for the first time in a couple of years. The adult food was good and came out in good time. The main detractors were the kids menu and the ‘extras’. I believe that Lusso May be under new ownership since our last visit.

The kids menu had two items, including the standard chicken nuggets. However, how does an Italian restaurant not have standard Italian fare (pizza) for kids? We asked and they stated they only do one sized pizza. For the record, we have previously had kids sized pizza made at Lusso on request (previous management/owner?).

The kids chicken nuggets appeared very generic. I am not sure, but no confidence that they were not generic store-bought stock. I recall more obviously restaurant made nuggets previously.

The small bowl of cheese appeared to be a mix of grated and shaved. I tasted each, the grated cheese was bland and not Parmesan. The shaved cheese was Parmesan but not a very strong one. A cheese use one the top of a dish to enhance it could do with being a little stronger.

I recall Lusso having a broader range of gelato than was advertised as available when we were there.

Overall, I feel that Lusso has lost the point of difference and is on a slow downhill (compared to when we used to frequent more often). It is now ‘just another’ Italian restaurant, whereas I previously have endorsed it to others. They used to have a few more unique things on the menu too, those are no longer there and nothing unique replaced them.

The reason I gave 3 stars rather than 4 (which I considered) is intentionally to get the attention of Lusso. The things that were a detraction are not things that I think would be expensive or...