Gusto Napoletano Italian Restaurant and Pizzeria — Restaurant in Fayetteville

My husband went in to order supper for us. He ordered two pizzas, dessert, and a caprese salad. Before he went in, I asked him to order the Lemoncello Cheesecake. The woman said that it's only available in the summer. Well it's summer and written on their front window. But whatever.

According to him inside the building was like an episode of Kitchen Nightmares. To quote him, "This poor beleaguered woman is out of everything, is missing workers, keeps making loud, random statements. It's crazy."

But still, I had seen pictures of the pizza online and really wanted to try this restaurant out. My husband eventually came out with the food, and we drove home. Clearly that was a mistake.

We got home and opened the pizza boxes and the pizzas were identical. We ordered a Fancy Goat pizza and a Porky Fig pizza. Both pizzas were miserable looking- none of the generous amounts of cheese like the advertised photos or descriptions.

The Porky Fig pizza had 0 fig preserves it seemed. I get that it's Italian and thin, which is fine, but you can't tell me there's a layer of fig preserves under the barely existent cheese and the thin crust when it's not there. The pizza was supposed to have mozzarella, parm, and feta cheese. It barely had sprinkles of feta cheese in the middle of the pizza.

The Fancy Goat pizza, or what was supposed to be it, was identical and somehow had even less cheese.

We called the shop and described the pizzas and our issues with it, and the woman asked us what we wanted her to do.

She seemed frazzled about the Porky Fig pizza and told me "Americans aren't used to Italian pizza and that's how it's supposed to be". I told her that the pizzas didn't even look like their descriptions, one was completely wrong and the other missing almost all cheese ingredients listed on the menu.

I told her we wanted the pizza we ordered and spent $60 on. She told my husband to bring the pizzas back to the shop and to show her the picture of the Fancy Goat pizza that I mentioned. So he did. When he got there, he showed her the picture that I took a screenshot of directly from her website when you Google search it.

She told my husband that it was an old picture and that she didn't want to make us pizza and gave us cash back for the pizzas.

Which, great, cash back. But we wasted gas and time just for that? Why even ask how she can fix the problem when she had no intention of doing so.

We just wanted the correct pizzas. So I guess I'll never know how good Gustos pizza is. I hope nobody else has to deal with that woman on a bad day. What an awful experience.

I wish we had taken pictures of the pizzas before she took them back, but we were just so upset over how all of this was handled that we...

When we got there the owner was getting wood out of their car to bring inside and my husband offered to help her. She declined. We come in and have a seat and start looking at the menu. The woman inside was very nice. Owner comes in and asks if we have any questions. I said no and that I was thinking of getting the porky fig. She said oh that's a good seller. I said "yeah I like sweet and salty. I make a pizza at home that has the prosciutto, arugula and balsamic glaze on it." She went off saying they don't use that.That's it's a topping for rancid meat. We don't use that in Italian cooking. I tried to say that's okay I was just trying to say l like salty sweet. Both in my eyes would be salty sweet. (Prosciutto+fig jam, prosciutto+glaze). She wouldn't let me say anything. I just sat there looking down while she grilled me on why it's awful and rancid and tried not to cry. "We don't do sauces cuz it's not the Italian way. We don't have ranch or balsamic and that people leave all the time when I tell them that." It was intense for no reason. I say again "I'm not asking for you to change your pizza." I really just wanted to get up and leave at that point but just felt so awkward and trying not to cry. My husband and I sit in silence while waiting for the food and I try to collect myself. A little while after the food comes out she comes by and asks if we like it and says it's different huh? I'm like yep it's salty sweet. All in all the food was okay but won't be returning. Pizza was fine. Panini was very crunchy so if you have dentures or something I wouldn't recommend ordering. If She came off so strong and for what. To defend Italian cuisine against balsamic glaze. Like because I like something doesn't mean you have to serve it or like it. I really think it was a case of waiting to respond and not actively listening to what I was saying. Either way we won't be back. Got...

I wanted it to be better. My second time I've been. Will spend my money elsewhere. Sorry if that's harsh but that is how it goes. I wish the food tasted better. eggplant panino barely tasted like eggplant, very small amount of eggplant in the sandwich. The bread for the sandwich was very nice. I had the Arancini, sadly they were very very bland and had little flavor. their texture however I felt was perfect. Just tasted like nothing though. after all that, it’s also a little too pricey. I typically will not mind paying that price to support a small business if it is off the charts good and keeps me coming back, but it is definitely missing something. All the best.

///Update: I recently changed my star rating from 3 to 1 because the owner replied originally to my review and said thanks for the constructive feedback, but then I see that they edited their reply and argued with me and made everything my fault so that made me ranked them three stars to one star. My order was to-go so no I didn’t dump salt on the arancini. And I don’t think salt would solve the problem. They had no taste. You might be in the wrong line of work if you cannot handle criticism. Maybe what you’re doing is working for you, and if it is, that’s great. Keep it up all I’m sharing is this place is not for me. Food is average and too expensive is the bottom line. but I just wanna clarify something you said all I had to do was ask for an extra portion. Are you saying an extra portion of eggplant is free if I ask or are you asking me to buy two meals? I’m confused by...