Russo's New York Pizzeria & Italian Kitchen | Galveston — Restaurant in Galveston

Late night stop was a hidden gem in Galveston. We enjoyed the Insalata Caprese and a large pizza with half Italian sausage, pepperoni and mushroom and the other half Hawaiian; although almost got the fig and prosciutto. The Caprese was a huge portion, made with fresh, buffalo mozzarella, tomatoes, fresh basil, and drizzled with olive oil and balsamic. Initially, we thought “wow ! We will be taking half of this home." Five minutes later, it was gone! It was perfectly chilled, fresh and delightfully delicious! We could’ve walked out of there right then and been perfectly satisfied! It also came with some pizza crust thins with garlic and an olive oil dip. While their pizza dough didn’t have a whole lot of flavor, it was perfectly thin, New York style pizza with super high-quality ingredients (which made up a bit for the lack of any real flavor in the crust). IMO and experience, they should allow their dough to sit for a day or two to develop some flavor. I will say that as much as we enjoyed the food, I found the walk-up and order concept that they support quite weird!!! Their personnel behind the counter literally has to instruct each and every guest walking into the restaurant that they need to proceed to the counter to order, and then take a seat and wait. Every guest we observed appeared quite confused the moment they walked in. Honestly, it wouldn’t take much for them to come to your table and actually take your order. They have plenty of great staff on hand to facilitate this process. As wonderful as the meal was, their carrot cake was deplorable. It was a dried out slice of spice cake pretending to be carrot cake. Two thumbs way, way down on our dessert. Update: visited again in March 2024. Their Caprese Salad is surprisingly phenomenal AHS is one of the best I’ve ever had including many we’ve had at numerous fine dining establishments all over the country. Simplicity at its best. The ingredients were fresh and served at the perfect temperature. The dipping oil for their “bread” basket is also work tasty. Pizza was great tasting, perfectly cooked and made with high quality ingredients. BUT Manager, owner, somebody PLEASE rescue their dessert offerings. If homemade, change recipes! If outsourced, change providers. They are an insult to your business and your customer’s palates. Coming from me, a serious foodie, I would rather eat a gas station carrot cake than EVER assault my taste buds with either of the desserts we tried on two different visits (carrot cake, cheesecake). Gross!! Do better! While I know desserts aren’t your specialty, don’t offer them if you can’t offer something palatable. You can and should do better!! Even offering something that nets the minimal requirement of “good not great” would be a huge improvement. Here is an idea, partner with one of the local bakeries such as Paddycakes! In fact, perhaps the franchise should establish that franchisees can source local bakeries to boost other local business at each of their franchised locations. Just saying….seriously folks, these were...

I literally spend over $300 per month, at this specific location, and always tip well (over 30%) every time. I usually order via phone for carry out; however, decided to order online today for delivery. I ordered two (2) of my regular entrees and understood it was going to take 65 minutes to prepare and deliver. No problem! About an hour into my wait...I called the restaurant to confirm the wait time (just wanted to be prepared if the wait would be longer), and attempted to provide specific instructions on how to access property. The restaurant employee was extremely rude, and would not allow me to complete my instructions - Said I should have written this down on-line. Well, if he would have given me the platform to explain, I would have been able to communicate that there was no online option to add additional notes. I was just trying to do my part to ensure the driver knew where to pull up and access my front door. In conclusion, the driver delivered my order to my next door neighbor all b/c no one wanted to listen. Customer service is TOP priority for me, so this will be my last time ordering...

So my family and I were in Galveston for our vacation on the beach. We searched for local eateries and stopped here. We walked in and went to the counter, as we did not know whether orders were taken up front, or at the tables. The gentleman up front told us to grab our menus and to be seated wherever we liked. So we sat and waited maybe 5-7 minutes before a very nonchalant waitress approached our table. She then told us "You can just go to the counter to order your food ok?" We were confused because the gentleman had just instructed us to be seated and wait to be served a few minutes prior. So at this point, it was pretty obvious that the waitress DID NOT want to serve US. We politely got up from the table and walked out. We found a much better atmosphere and level of service at "Mama Teresa's". I'm not sure if she was just being a jerk or if race was an issue here but either way we were NOT pleased, and would never return to such an establishment. Regardless to what the actual problem may have been, we felt unvalued as customers and were more than glad to seek better...