Rustico — Restaurant in West Suffolk

This is a new Italian restaurant in Bury. We were excited to try it based on a walkby and rave reviews on Google.Perhaps it was because it was a Monday or because the chef was not there, or for some other reason but I regret to say the food was simply awful.

Antipasti was threadbare and of very low quality. An Ossobuco turned out to be a grey disc of beef shin with all its gristle intact sitting on a bed of unsauced spaghetti. Indeed the only sauce was a thin greyish liquid that I assume was the water in which the shin was boiled; the beef was flavourless and so tough as to be literally inedible (as in even if you wanted to -unlikely-you couldn’t. Nduja and burrata pizza turned out to be a thin paste spread over a cardboard crust; it had clearly been baked in a regular oven reducing the crust to a dry disc of starch. The edges of the pizza were not soft but hard like stale bread rather than a lovely pizza crust. They really need a good dough baked in a proper pizza oven. The burrata was a single cold lump in the center of the pizza on which still had the shape of the plastic tub it came.

What was striking was the complete lack of cooking skills or care taken in preparation of the food. It was lazy cooking done very very badly. Neither I nor my companion could eat our meal and wound up having a real dinner down the street at the always reliable and always fab Sheesh (Turkish food).

On the plus side, the atmosphere was pleasant, the owner charming, and the wine reasonable and decent. Unfortunately, the positives cannot compete against the awful food which is a real shame as Bury could really use a good Italian. Perhaps they will improve or we caught them on...

Such a pity to be writing this, one thing Bury needs is a good Italian so we were excited to try Rustico... what a mistake! There are many things they've got wrong here but to serve the most bland food I think I have ever had in any restaurant is unforgivable.

Having waited over an hour between the starter and main, to be served a chargrilled Lasagne with absolutely no taste was a huge letdown, my partners Pizza was advertised as having Sausage and Chilli but again very little evidence of this and with no flavour at all. The starter itself was nice (Frittura Di Mare) if not a little pricey at £23 although there was not enough mayo dip. Having finally got the attention of one of the staff they did eventually bring us a small pot of extra mayo only to find they charged us for this "extra" on the bill!

The building is very small with A LOT of tables, this makes for a cramped, extremely noisy and not particularly private meal, felt like we pretty much had a meal with another couple. The furniture is rustic to the point of being very uncomfortable (basic hard wooden chairs) and the service was far too slow.

I would also ask the owners to update the menu on their facebook page which was they only place I could find it prior to our meal, they have obviously had a big price increase which is fine as long as you update this fact online.

Sadly,...

Not great at all. Food was well received although the mussels starter were pretty gritty. Food took an age to come apparently the IT broke down rendering communication between the front of house and kitchen 10 foot away an issue. If only the waiter had spent less time leaning against the wall regailing us with his opinion that as an independent Italian restaurant he was given more time to talk with customers and more time making sure our order was reaching the kitchen it would have gone much smoother. This was pre starter. Pudding time and one of us asked the waiting staff if they could bring something we could stick a couple of candles in for the youngsters birthday. This was done in person at the bar. Apparently IT issues meant this request couldn't reach the kitchen and so after another half an hour or so of no activity in the kitchen or bar area we gave up. The waitress sensing her tip from a large table disappearing into the either offered the last three people present some limuncello ( let's be honest no one likes limuncello, personally I believe it was created by some Mediterranean lemon farmer that realised Brits get a bit stupid after a few weeks in the sun). All in all not great, won't...