Bussin Pizza & Italian Kitchen — Restaurant in Raleigh

I have to give it a 2 because of the food, and obviously that's why I came. I saw a 4.6 star rating and the word "Bussin" which is slang that wasn't popular for food taste until a year or so ago so I knew it maybe a fairly newer establishment so to have so many reviews is great. Well, I notice they give a free desert for a honest Yelp review (not Google, Yelp). I started to do that but didn't want to delay my leave. I was with a group of 7. 1 shared pizza (that I didn't taste), I had the eggplant parm, someone else had a calzone, another had 6 peice wings, and another shrimp scampi pasta. No one besides the pizza eater, liked their food. My eggplant was so thin it was almost see through, literally nothing but breader, I have never seen one prepared this way. It would have been good if it was a thicker cut. Also the spaghetti that accompanied it was spicy like the used the same tomato sauce but tossed in some pepper flakes. Since it didn't mention any level of spice, it shouldn't have been spicy. The shrimp scampi pasta was just noodles and overdone medium size shrimp with the tail on soaked in a light butter water...no flavor (I was told) so if you like butter noodles and well done shrimp your in luck! Idk what was wrong with the calzone, but I know I have tried one elsewhere and didn't like it so I really just think it's the set up of it...way too much cheese and just a little toppings inside. So I think that person just may have chosen wrong. The one who had the chicken wings: they were a large size so that's good, the taste was fine, but there was not enough ranch given and they had to pay $1 for a extra ranch which was the size of one of those tiny cups you see at SamsClub to get a sample or like a tiny condiment cup you can squeeze a squirter of ketchup in. The fries were the kind you could buy at the store and fry up yourself, taste fine tho. The resturant had outdoor seating & a food "truck" (school bus) selling tacos & burgers, but I think they might be all family working together. The indoor seating was small. Like for about 20ish people. A family came in and sat beside us as there were 4 tables that seat 2 pushed together in a row and only a couple tables that were not. I had high hopes for this place and brought other people and was disappointed. While the service wasn't bad, it wasn't great either. You go to the counter, order your food and pay then when it's ready someone brings it to your table if you are eating in. They also have someone to clean off the tables. Some of the utensils were not properly cleaned and dried. Besides the pizza, I felt the other food options where a few dollars too high with most things being $15...even the food "truck" outside was selling hamburgers for $14. I met someone in the parking lot that said he saw a good review about this place on TikTok. It's pretty much walking distance of NC campus so I'm sure generation Z frequents there, but I'm just being honest...its nothing special and I wouldn't come back. Its not terrible so if you decide to go just get the pizza, you...

We got a slew of items to try for our first time here. We ordered a Medium Supreme Pizza, Mozz Sticks, Garlic Parm Wings, Garlic Knots, Oreo Cheesecake.

The Mozz Sticks were meh. They just seemed like your generic frozen Mozz Sticks. Nothing special that made them stick out.

The Garlic Parm Wings were crispy, hot, and pretty sizeable for what you get. The only problem I had with them is they just tasted like regular fried wings with no sauce or rub. The Garlic Parm part was extremely underwhelming.

The Garlic Knots were pretty disappointing. Most people who serve garlic knots do it mostly the same and it's always good. The bread itself was fluffy on the inside with a bit of a nice crunch on the outside, but they had NO butter. Brushing them with butter honestly would elevate them so much.

The pizza is advertised as NY Style Pizza. As someone who has family that has lived in NY for the better part of a decade and we are fine constantly visiting them and making our own food adventures in NY. This was not NY Style Pizza. The crust was thin enough but it was not large enough to be considerer a NY Slice and the dough was very firm to where you could pick it up without having to fold it as you normally would a NY Slice. It was decent enough in flavor but nothing that really stood out to me.

This brings me to our last item, the Oreo Cheesecake. I was hoping that this would be the item that would make me go "ok this is delicious!" But it was honestly very...meh. the Oreos were mushy, the cheesecake was super firm and tasted a little off.

All in all, the experience was very run of the mill for me. Everything we got, with a tip came out to be $75 and in my humble opinion, it wasn't worth that kind of money for the quality of...

Today was my first time visiting. I saw a lot of disappointments in other reviews specifically regarding the pizza, and another claiming it's subpar to be considered Italian. I can't speak for the pizza (maybe another time), but I say this with my whole chest.. I'm side eyeing a lot of so called authentic restaurants after what I had today.

I got the Pasta Fagioli soup, Bruschetta, and Pasta Rustico. All three items 10/10 and I stand ten toes down on that. I wasn't left lacking or desiring something missed.

The soup is authentic. I've been to plenty of restaurants that aren't making it like them. Nice pancetta, great stock, just all around flavor Olive Garden could never.

The bruschetta was just money! I'm not a big bread person, but I wanted to give it a shot and see what they create here. I'm beyond impressed. The ratio of tomatoes, onions and cheese was perfection!

The pasta was incredible, flavor was on point, nice generous portion too. I'm just not finding this at other places I've eaten.

Atmosphere is good, I just think it's a little small for my liking. It's got a little theme and it's clean.

I strongly suggest actually stopping by instead of ordering online, especially first timers. That's a general rule I have for myself anyway. Talk to the chef and have clarification for your orders moving forward. They were very friendly and any questions I had were explained to help me enjoy my experience even better.

Shout out to the chef, everything was made for quality and I...