Russo's Coal-Fired Italian Kitchen & Pizzeria | Richardson — Restaurant in Richardson

Due to there not being a 0-star button, I'll start by stating that this was my worst ever customer service experience at a restaurant.

Did you ever immediately taste chicken with a bitter bite of rancidity? I had dread at first bite when tasting their chicken parmesean entree. This experience shed new understanding to the expression, "I threw up in my mouth a little."

After tasting it, I very patiently waited until the server returned. By that point, my fast-eating friend, who had received his pizza well before the other entrees, had finished half of his pie.

When the server, who was clearly annoyed, finally heard our concern, she sought the General Manager. After displaying our uneaten (minus a bite) plates of chicken parmesean he tells us that if we had, "notified him sooner," he could have, "done something." He further stated that, "no one else had complained." I explained that I notified the server as soon as she came back to us for the first time after our receiving the entrees.

He insisted that there was, "nothing else he could do," because the store's owner, who was, of course, not available until Monday, did not allow any refunds at the "end of the meal." (It was only the end of the meal because we didn't eat any more of the rancid meat.) He continued by saying the owner is, "very strict about this." He insinuated that we were lying about the taste. He wouldn't even get us something else in its place.

Flabbergasted, I told him that I couldn't believe that a General Manager wasn't empowered to remove these entrees from our bill. Why even have a General Manager if he can't manage in the owner's absence?

We had no other option but to both pay $36 for two uneaten entrees, plus the cost of the rest of the meal, and then tell you about it. Perhaps you can avoid my painful stomach cramps.

I thank you for still reading. The other menu items ordered were pizza, mozzarella sticks, and fried cauliflower. The $13 mozzarella sticks tasted like the ones you can get for $1 in Dollar Tree's freezer. The pizza was in line with a DiGiorno pie with a bit of crispness on the edges due to being in coal-fired oven, but the center was mushy. The cauliflower was tasty, although it was a small...

First off, just an FYI that if you are a Not For Profit they don't accept Tax Exempt Forms so you will have to pay sales tax even if you are exempt. My daughter's school group came here after volunteering at an agency nearby. We had made a reservation for our group with the manager, Michael, a month in advance. When I called the day before to confirm they had no record of our reservation. Sofia was able to take care of us though - she was very sweet and had everything set up when we arrived. Food was pretty good and kids enjoyed. Then things went downhill a bit. We had placed the order a few hours before we arrived since it was a bigger group. We had one person who has an allergy so were told she could order a single slice. After she waited for her food for a while we were informed that they couldn't make a single slice and she would have to order a whole pizza. Wish they would have figured that out hours before since one kid didn't really need a whole pizza, but okay I guess. Then when we got the bill we were double charged - for both the slice and the pizza. But unfortunately in the hustle of the big group I didn't notice until after my credit card had been run. They said no problem, call next day and manager would take care of it. After calling multiple times only to be told manager was out I finally was told that the manager had quit, but the owner would take care of it. The next day the waitress called and that the owner said there was nothing they could do. Because they would have to void the transaction and ring it up again which would be a pain. So next time I came in let them know and they would take $9 off my bill (with the 20% included gratuity and sales tax that we actually shouldn't have paid it was more like $11, but whatever). I told them that there's not much my school told do with a $9 verbal credit so to forget it. So between all that and the fact that they don't do tax exemptions I have told my school to take this place off their list. Just one more FYI - the family size salads are $39.95 which seems kind of high (the price was not listed on the menu and my fault for not asking, just thought I would let...

The decore and ambience about the same as a Palios - not great but better than a Pizza Hut, A basket of cut up garlic dough base quickly bought out bought out as soon as the water was served. it was pretty good - great level of garlic, good rosemary, and rounded off with a light touch of cheddar cheese, and decorated with a little parsley, it was a little tough and chewy, and flavor was very good. We ordered a pizza with pepperoni, bison beef, mushroom and kalamata olives.it was pretty quick, but little disappointing. the Bison was spongey and tasteless, the pepperoni was OK, the mushrooms sparse, the Kalamatas were excellent. the whole thing was lifted from obscurity but one of the best mozzarella cheeses I have tasted for some time. Pity the server couldn't tell us who made it. The ingredients were center loaded - made the center soggy. The base was good. the sauce was very good but too light - needed more. The Greek salad was OK - bit dried out, and the dressing was a clumsy mix of balsamic and olive oil. The signature desert was seven layered chocolate cake - pity they didn't have any! it was half price house wine happy hour, so I ordered a Cabernet..It was good, bust served in such a tiny glass that it was really a scam. the scam was made obvious when the next door table was served a red wine in a normal sized glass. lastly, we were both impressed with the concept of the coal fired oven - so at the end of the meal we went to take a look at it. What a scam - it was a gas fired oven - sure it was a stone deck, but why promise a coal fired oven when you really using a gas fired one? summary - pizza above average, but average ambience and lots of misses. We will not be back as there is way better value and...