DeRusso’s Pizzeria — Restaurant in Florida

Hey friends, hope you all are enjoying the holiday season. My family was vacationing at historic Ft. DeSoto park. We got some bad weather and went out to dinner. Last night's try waa DeRusso's Pizzeria. It's located not far from the camping site. We had 4 adults and 2 kids. Seating is rather limited. More of a bar type atmosphere with seating. So, we sat down. First thing, I noticed was the tables were sticky. Yikes, I tried to keep my hands away. We ordered drinks and dinner. Chicken Parm grinder, Meatball grinder, Lasagna, Cheeseburger, Spaghetti with one meatball and Baked Ziti. Prior to ordering, I asked the waitress about their daily slice special. She responded they are only until 3pm. I said okay, what about buying just a slice and she snapped again, 3 pm. I was a little taken back by her rudeness. If you have issue with serving people, don't be in this business. So, bread was brought out....oh wow. Fresh baked bread. It was tender and soft, crunchy on the outside...delicious, homemade to start. Two received salads, basic iceberg. Then, the food took a while... The cheeseburger was tender, juicy on a homemade kaiser bun. The spaghetti was okay but the meatball was juicy and meaty. Great flavor and large lol The meatball sub was the same meatballs on homemade bread. The Chicken Parm was same bread. Lovely. The chicken was sliced and breaded. The sauce was thinner than I've. It was good, not too sweet. Definitely slowly cooked. The lasgna was huge. Good ricotta, same sauce with meat in it. Now, the baked zita was fair. Same sauce and meat but the zita was a lil undercooked. Crunchy at times and unappealing to eat. We asked the server if we could have another piece of the delicious bread and she rolled her eyes. She eventually came back out with another but again, if you don't want to be a server find another job. It cost 107 without tip. Decently priced for 6 people. Maybe, order the food to go since the service sucked...Until next time friends, enjoy what...

Came in with family of 6, consisting of 3 former servers and one current servers. Saw the great reviews and anticipated a great small pizzeria experience. Orderd our drinks, then food. Over 30 minutes later we still had no beverages. The were 5 tables which is not impossible to manage if you keep yourself organized. After trying to flag her down I finally got up to ask her (bar was only 5 feet behind us) where were our drinks? She oppologised and said shed get them out right away. 5 minutes later she brings only half of them. 13 minutes later half of us still had no drinks. Meanwhile, she goes about serving drinks to other tables that came in AFTER us and refilling drinks and taking new orders. It was very frustrating. So I had go ask again and she brough the rest of drinks and appologised, saying that she was busy. True but the real issue was her total lack of being observant see when your customers are giving you "the look" for 20+ minutes and her inability to prioritize. After an hour garlic knots come out. Was very disapointed, hardy any garlic flavor or butter. They were quite bland. Pizzas come out. More disappointment as crust was soggy in center and application of topping was EXTREMELY inconsistent. Some slices had barly any topping at all and other had all the toppings concentrated on the end while the other 2/3 of the slice was just cheese. Flavor was nothing to write home about. Had better pizza in Ybor many times. Too bad was looking forward to this on a...

I hate being this guy however this experience pushed me to write a review. I have ordered take out several times from this place and never had a problem, yes a bit price but fits the over priced neighborhood. I submitted a delivery order via phone. It was windy so maybe it was hard to understand. I was told by the lady the driver would call upon arrival. Driver showed up on time but no call from him because he only spoke Spanish. So how do you obtain a USA driver license and not understand any English!! The order had a mistake, no big deal if it was properly fixed. I called the store and spoke with the same lady. She proceed to argue with me telling me I was wrong then she passed the phone to some guy who told me I was wrong take the order and hung up on me. I was so hungry and in a hurry (at work) I took the receipt paid for my original order intentions and tipped the driver for his service. I proceeded to send the extra item I did not order back with him. An apology or a simple resolution would have held me back from writing this review. I will not recommend this place to any of my tour customers nor will I patronize this...