Rossitto's Ristorante — Restaurant in Branford

First: The Good! Rossitto’s is a small, independent, Chef-owned restaurant and we ALL should know by now that I am HERE for that. I am ALWAYS rooting for these kinds of places.

The Eggplant Parm: Honestly? Excellent. Everything Eggplant Parm should be: paper thin layers of perfectly cooked Eggplant, baked with mozzarella and a Good Marinara. Well above average Marinara. Eggplant Parm is NOT EASY. So it is HIGH HIGH praise if I’m telling you The Eggplant Parm is Excellent.

Fried Mozzarella App: heavily breaded triangles of deep fried Mozz with the Good Marinara. Also, REALLY good. Not your frozen, terrible, mozzarella sticks!!

Chef-Made Tiramisu for dessert: Excellent. Tiramisu is SO good when it’s good and so not worth eating when it’s not. This is REALLY GOOD.

However. We’re at 3 Stars. Because:

The entire place is giving your Italian Relative’s Basement in the 1970s. Don’t play with me. I was IN those basements in the ‘70s. Rossitto’s even, somehow, SMELLS like those basements when you walk in. I mean…Yikes??

The decor is Basement Horrendous. Really, as if not a single person here ever looks around and thinks, “We should DO something about this!”

They should. It’s bad.

I ordered us an assortment of appetizers from the Specials menu. Which was printed in MINISCULE font on half a sheet of printer paper that someone then cut, presumably with scissors. Please, SPLURGE, print in a font size we can READ and use an entire sheet of paper.

Fried Mozzarella (reviewed above). Fried Polenta: When it was delivered to the table it was indistinguishable from the Fried Mozzarella. We had to cut into them to tell them apart. Fail. The polenta itself was nice and creamy. The extreme breading on the outside was the error.

Clams Oreganata: I can’t give you any points for a dish that is entirely NOT the dish named on the menu. The clams were perfectly nice. In a broth with garlic and onions and parsley. They were NOT Oreganata…??? ‘

Buffalo Cauliflower (it’s a THING around here apparently). Buffalo Sauce and Bleu Cheese were VERY good. Cauliflower was okay. Definitely over fried/greasy.

We then got the house salad that comes with your entrees. Which is fun. It’s family style, already dressed (HEAVY on the Balsamic). Pretty good.

As mentioned above, I got the Eggplant Parm. It is served with Penne. I upgraded to Penne alla Vodka. Because if I see Penne alla Vodka on a menu I’m gonna try it. It was terrible. Like REALLY bad. The Penne was overcooked. So right there I’m pretty much taking away ALL your points.

Look. I grew up in the kitchen with my ACTUALLY Italian Grandmother and my First Generation Mother. Who were/are both intuitive cooks. And I’ve been to Italy. More than once. More than twice. I rarely eat Italian food “out.” Because I cannot tolerate poor quality Italian food. Do not serve me overcooked pasta. I just canNOT.

I’m not sure what is going on here. But this Vodka Sauce was not Vodka Sauce. Like at all. No resemblance to Vodka Sauce. Kinda like with the Clams Oreganata?? Like if it’s NOT that thing why are you CALLING it that thing on your menu?

Negative points for this Penne all Vodka. Luckily the Eggplant Parm was very good, because the penne was inedible.

Still though I was wavering on whether to give 3 or 4 stars because I want to SUPPORT and ENCOURAGE. And then I went to the bathroom. Washed my hands. Reached for paper towels. The dispenser was empty. Reached for tissues. The box was empty. Dried my hands with toilet paper, whilst saying, out loud to myself, “3 Stars. You’ve GOT to make some kind of effort!”

LOW on effort here. Weird dishes that bear no resemblance to what they’re supposed to be. Overcooked Pasta. Smells like the ‘70s. But in...

We drove over an hour to eat here. Its started bad from the time we walked in the door. The hostess was sitting at the bar. We got a not so great greeting from her. We got sat a table in the dining room and we sat there for 20 mins before the waitress came to the table. We were told that no one told her we were sat. Mind you we were the only one's in the restaurant. The only reason I gave 2 stars was the salad was great. I ordered the lasagna because it was plastered all over that this was the top 25 places in the country to eat lasagna. I will tell you I dont know why. It was ok at best. It was cold in the middle and it tasted like this one was made a couple of days ago. We ordered the lobster ravioli and got brought lobster fettuccine. The waitress messed up. So we had to wait longer for the ravioli to be brought out. It tasted like it was cook in old pasta water. It was warm with a sauce that seemed like it was quick heated in the microwave. We will not be going back there again. Not a great...

My dear friend Janice, she lives in Brandford and she introduced me to this restaurant, months ago. We chatted with the owner/chef Luciano and his great staff so attentive. Luciano makes it a point no matter how busy to come out of the kitchen and make sure you're comfortable and satisfied with the meal. I had the Salmon with a light sauce and side of rice and green beans all very flavored and cooked to perfection, just as I do at Home, Janice had the sautéed Cod with wine, lemon sauce dressed with capers with roasted broccoli and rice, I did get to taste it Amazing. We also shared the bang-bang shrimp appetizer so delicious! We were there for a early dinner on a Thursday and it was perfect. Great atmosphere and plenty of room to mateine distance if so desired! Very clean! In conclusion I highly recommend this great little place! Can't wait to return and try some more delicious Luciano's creations! Grazie Mille Buon Appetito! Ciao...