Russo's New York Pizzeria & Italian Kitchen | Fairfield Town Center — Restaurant in Cypress

Unfortunately, from start to finish I don't recommend. My grandson and I decided to try Russo's for dinner last night (Thursday). Walked in and we are asked if we were getting something to go or eating in. We're eating in so we are told to sit wherever we want. Chose our table and noticed immediately it was sticky, as if the rag or water being used to wipe it down was dirty, you could see the dried swipe marks. Used the cloth napkin to wipe the table myself. Waited about 10 minutes (only three other tables with customers) and someone brought a bowl of dipping oil and "bread". The garlic in the oil was overwhelming and the bread was flat and seemed not fully baked. We tried, we were hungry, but neither of us could eat it. Several more minutes pass and a young man asks us if we know what we want to eat. No, we weren't given any menus. He grabs a laminated sheet from another table and brings it over. I give the one menu to my grandson and I ask the waiter what vegetables are in the tortellini caponata advertised on the door. He says he doesn't know and it's not part of the free meals they get so he hasn't tried it. Um, ok. He offered to go ask someone but we'd already been sitting long enough so I tell him it's fine and I'll give it a shot. Grandson orders spaghetti with meatballs. After a bit our food comes out. We're a few bites in and my grandson waives the waiter down to ask for water since no one had taken our drink order to start. Oops! I ask him how he likes the spaghetti and mention that apparently they slice the meatballs for you since all I saw was discs of meat, no meatballs. He said it's ok but the meat tastes like sausage. Sure enough, he was brought spaghetti with Italian sausage slices. Not sure how you mix up those two. We realize at around 8:40ish that the staff are cleaning up for closing. I grab two to-go boxes and said we'll just finish in the car, I guess. Having only eaten two raviolis I couldn't fully comment yet on my meal except that it was very...sour...yeah, that's the word, sour and salty. Fast forward to tonight (Friday). I heat up half of my meal for dinner (pictured). It's about six tortellini, crushed tomato, sliced onion, raw celery, kalamata olive, and more capers than should ever be allowed. I think there's a square of eggplant, too, but I'm not entirely sure. Either way, there was no balance at all, no sweetness and umami to smooth down the sour and salty. I couldn't eat it. It was like brine. I guess next time I shouldn't "give it a shot" and instead ask the wait staff to find out what's in the dish. Very...

Let me first say the food was delicious. The complimentary focaccia and oil, kids chicken fettuccine Alfredo, and tortellini soup was very good. Hot, fresh, and spot on with seasoning. My wife’s calzone was beautiful and piping hot. The seater was also kind.

However, service and atmosphere made our Mother’s Day meal not very enjoyable. We were brought to a sticky table and a broken tv. Our server was stressed. We wanted to get out of there. You need more servers for mother’s day and Sundays at lunch. It’s the busiest out to eat day of the year. She didnt say happy mother’s day the entire time. She started by asking if we wanted garlic bread or calamari. We didn’t but then had no chance to say anything before she left. We’ve didn’t know there was complimentary bread until the first seater brought us some. Nice surprise.

We’ve got a 4yo and infant. We have got to order and get food in front of them right away. Thankfully the seater got our order and noticed we were waiting.

My wife’s salad and the kid’s pasta came out. We weren’t asked if we wanted anything together or apart. Then we waited 15 min for my soup to come out. Then my wife’s calzone comes out. And we wait 20 min for my calzone. Everyone’s done at this point.

Kitchen mishaps happen. Servers call out sick. Things get stressed. I’m fine with that. But, if my entree comes out at a point where I have to take it home and eat it cold later because everyone else is done eating, make it right. I didn’t come to wait 45min for my entree to take it home. If it’s indeed a kitchen mishap, be our advocate. Go get the manager and make sure we are happy for the food I don’t get to eat.

Then we are asked if we want dessert. We of course said no. THEN, she asks if we want the complimentary tiramisu for moms. So you wanted us to order dessert first before mentioning the special promo for today on the day you haven’t mentioned to us yet?

Most… almost all of my reviews are positive. Pains me to write this one especially with the food being very good. So, if you’re reading this, consider getting your food to go or on a less busy day. Then maybe you’ll get better service and atmosphere than...

UPDATE: My wife order 2 Double Pepperoni pizzas and decided to wait for it in the restaurant. So 1 pizza gets ready (and it's NOT double pepperoni) My wife mentions it was not double and the lady at the counter simply shrugged. Then my wife says this is only one pizza, and I ordered two pizzas. Again the lady simply shrugs. Bottom line, my wife left without what we paid for just to end the bad experience. We won't be back!

I wanted to like this place (my family wanted to like this place), but in all honesty, the food just isn't that good. We ordered a 16" pepperoni pizza, a chicken parmesan, wings, garlic knots, and desserts.

The pizza wasn't close to 16" (maybe 14"), and it was cut "weird," and in most places wasn't cut completely "through." The box appeared to be 16" though! My wife had the chicken parm and she said it was middle-of-the-road. The garlic knots and wings were good, but nothing to write home about. The best food at this place was the desserts (probably because they are purchased outside this restaurant - although I'm not sure about this). The delivery arrived when they said it would arrive, and the driver was courteous and friendly, so they deserve kudos for that.

All-in-all, we were disappointed with what we received versus what we paid. We would have been much happier simply ordering from Pizza Hut, but we wanted to "venture" out. Sorry Russo's, we won't be back…

By the way, I can't comment specifically on the restaurant experience, as we ordered delivery. However, the actual location (inside the restaurant)...