Crostatas Rustic Pizza — Restaurant in Highland Heights

My wife and I recently had a great tasting dinner at Crostatas Rustic Pizza on the southwest corner of Bishop Road and Highland Road in Higland Heights, Ohio. There is plenty of off-street parking dedicated for Crostatas Rustic Pizza. On the south side of the building there is a covered outside dining area for the warmer months of the year. The restaurant decor and atmosphere is nice. When we arrived at the restaurant the hostess took us to our table and gave us menus. Many tables were occupied by other diners. The food is very good. The service is not so good. We observed two servers stretched thin to cover all the occupied tables. I had to ask our server, Vanessa, to refill my empty drink even though she past back and forth by our table often. My dessert came incomplete from what was described on the menu. No explanation was provided as to the missing elements of the dessert. We noticed that none of the staff wore face masks in late March, 2022. Most patrons did not wear face masks while entering and leaving the restaurant. A few patrons did wear face masks. We entered the restaurant wearing face masks and wore them until seated. We wondered later if the wearing of face masks affected our service. The server came by our table to take our drink orders. I ordered an unsweetened ice tea. My wife ordered a hot tea. Her hot tea came as a cup of hot water - a single serving - and not with a small tea pot of hot water. We started with a Crostatas small plate appetizer. Pepperoni Rossi alla Griglia - house roasted red bell peppers with garlic and EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil). It is served chilled with a piece of bread. We both had a serving of the Wedding Soup each came with a piece of bread. We each ordered the Quattro Stagioni Pizza. The pizzas have a Margherita base (tomato and mozzarella cheese) topped with sausage, artichokes, slice mushrooms and roasted red peppers. YUMMY! The sausage is a mild sausage. My wife enjoyed hers as served and took some home so she could enjoy a dessert. I added some red pepper flakes from the condiments selection on the table to add a mild heat/spice to my Pizza. I finished my pizza in the restaurant. We both really enjoyed our pizzas. My wife had the Napolean Limone dessert with a glass of wine. Delicious! The Napolean Limone is homemade Lemon Curd, puff pastry with whipped cream and raspberry sauce. I ordered the Toni Spumoni that their menu claims is the BEST in all the land. The menu describes Toni Spumoni has hand layered Spumoni topped with whipped cream and candied cherries. MY dessert came with the Spumoni ice cream but NO whipped cream and candied cherries. My dessert was not 'the best in all the land'. Again, the food is good and some is GREAT. The atmosphere/decor is nice. The restaurant is clean. There are two unisex washrooms. The one I used is clean and well maintained. I am sure the service could be improved by having more servers when the restaurant is nearly full and I understand that the dining area is not always full. Next time we will get the pizza as take-away and not be concerned about the...

Each time we go, Crostatas doesn't disappoint! There was a small wait but in all fairness, we did show up at prime dinner time. While waiting for our table we were offered a drink and took them up on the house red which was a fabulous but dry, as it should be, montepulciano! We order the burrata and fried zucchini as appetizers. Both were phenomenal, as usual. The fried zucchini is probably the best we've ever had and we're both 100% Italian. Next we split an arugula salad, which was perfectly dressed in my opinion (not over dressed like some restaurants). For dinner, we split 2 entrees. We ordered the eggplant parm, that was cut long ways which made it perfect for sharing, we each got one. It was crisp and their sauce is dynamite (again 100% Italian saying this!!!). We also split the sea bass, I highly recommend it, it was amazing! It was a generously sized piece, battered and cooked just right and was served with wood fired asparagus, that again was cooked right on point, not overly done, just right. For dessert we had the cheesecake because they were out of the lemon napoleon that we wanted. It had a buttery crust that held together very well, the filling was super creamy and topped with blueberries (we also got a little lemon custard on the side to make up for the substitution). Lastly, (yes, we got one more thing!!) we ordered a bufala mozzarella margherita pizza to-go. Their wood fired pizzas are wonderful! The dough is rolled just thin enough but is not a thin and crispy crust, it's soft and chewy, once again, they certainly know their way around a sauce!! If you haven't been, check it out! We love this restaurant. Staff is always warm, friendly,...

I have lived here for 11+ years and have been meaning to try Crostatas. Finally decided to give it a try and wow, were we disappointed.

The establishment is clean and appears to be well maintained. The staff was pleasant enough but we felt forgotten about most of the time. The food left a lot to be desired. Everything we had lacked flavor. My wife had the wedding soup and stated it was the worst one she has ever had. She even tried adding parmesan cheese from the shaker bottle on the table. So sad. Not even the pizza dough bread stick that accompanied the soup had any flavor. A little butter and garlic/parm cheese sprinkle would have helped them out tremendously.

We also ordered the Margareta pizza with sausage. The tomato sauce on the pie was so bland. The best bite for me was when I ate a whole basil leaf on the slice. I think the only thing we had eaten that had any seasoning to it was the pizza crust, and I thought it was almost too salty. It was almost like the salt shaker fell into the dough mixer and they didn't have any left over for the other dishes.

I really wish i was exaggerating with this review, but we were just so let down by the whole experience. Not to mention the total cost of the meal. A bowl of soup, a salad and pizza for $40+... never again. After wondering for so many years if the place was any good, I can honestly say that I will never be going back. I can't for the life of me figure out how this restaurant has been given so many 4 and 5...