Rizzo's Spaghetti House — Restaurant in South Carolina

Just over the NC/SC border in Indian Land, about a 30-minute drive from Uptown Charlotte if traffic cooperates, Rizzo’s Spaghetti House feels like a trip back in time. This is the kind of American-Italian spot your parents took you to as a kid or where you’d end up with your teammates after a rec league game, still in uniform and riding a post-game high. It’s casual, affordable, and consistent, with friendly service that makes you feel at home.

The menu is exactly what you’d expect from a classic American-Italian restaurant: pasta, parmigiana, subs, and what they claim to be New York-style pizza. I didn’t try the pizza this time, but what I did have hit all the familiar comfort notes.

The complimentary breadsticks that come with an entrée order had a fluffy texture with a crisp bite, buttery and dusted with garlic powder and Italian seasoning. They were served with a piping hot side of marinara, which was mildly sweet with just the right amount of acidity. If you tend to get heartburn or reflux from overly tangy red sauces, this one is a safe bet.

The side salad was your standard garden mix of romaine, raw red onions, olives, and tomatoes, served with a ramekin of dressing. Nothing fancy, but it did the job as a fresh start to the meal.

For my main, I went with the Eggplant Parmigiana. It came with six medium-thickness rounds of eggplant, fried and baked, then smothered in their house-made marinara and topped with plenty of melted mozzarella. It was served with a small side of penne with sauce, and I was given the option to swap out the pasta type. The pasta itself was commercially made, not house-made, but it worked just fine.

Service was friendly and attentive. My waitress, Chloe, checked in regularly and made sure everything was to my liking.

The best part? My meal, including a drink, tax, and tip, came out to just over $20, making this an easy pick for a no-frills, budget-friendly dinner.

Would I drive 30 minutes just to eat here? Probably not. But if I were in the area and craving a comforting, nostalgic American-Italian meal, I’d stop in again, if not for the food, then for the familiar feeling of a place that reminds me of where my family used to eat when...

I don't understand any of the good reviews. When we sat down there was only one other table in the place. They were already eating and left before we got our appetizer. We asked about beer were told they had MITCH Ultra, and some others, but hard to get over that one. They had one Peroni left, the display bottle. To her credit, the server did offer to chill it for us, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say that if it was the display bottle, it was almost certainly out of date. We ordered our appetizer and she took our entree order at the same time. We were brought our salads almost immediately. We ordered the raspberry vinaigrette, which was drenched all over a pitiful bed of iceberg, maybe a smaller plate would have made it look less sad. 2 diced tomatoes, 2 diced cucumbers and 3 sad looking black olives rounded that out. 20 minutes later we got our appetizer. Garlic bread with cheese. Took 20 minutes. Mind you, we were still the only people in the building. Our entrees were delivered about 2 minutes later. No time to enjoy our appetizer. Our server pronounced francaise, Fran-Say-s. I know I'm mocking pronunciation, but if you're working in an Italian restaurant, learn how to pronounce what you're selling. The francaise had lemon seeds in it and looked more like Marsala than francaise. There was also boatloads of scallions. I had the chicken parmigiana, served with penne, which is an odd choice for a pasta accompaniment, but I could've dealt with it had it not been so overcooked. There was also a large dollop of ricotta under the mozzarella on one of the chicken breasts...odd as neither meal had anything with ricotta. We were almost entirely done with our dinner before our server came back to check on us. The final straw was when she delivered the check, she put it right in front of my husband. My card was already out and on the table and I had to toss it over for him to put it with the check. When she brought it back, she still put it in front of him. It is 2017, both men and women can pay for dinner. If nothing else, put it in the middle...

we chose this place because it had such great reviews, we went there Saturday night around 7 it was busy we were seated quickly but it took a server 20 mins to come to the table, and we tried to order drinks, and they were out of the wine I wanted, the beer my BF wanted, and also when I tried to order a bud light to replace the wine I wanted they were out of that too, The "not waitress" ( the woman who came to our table, said she does not even work here; shes just helping out,) brought us our drinks( one, diet and one reg pepsi) when she came to the table she said "she has no idea which one is which" and asked us to figure that out, we ordered garlic bread as an app, cheese pizza, 6 in philly and a side salad, when ordering, my BF went first asked for the largest pizza extra cheese light sauce, she said, "oh no you want it made the way it comes, its better that way" my BF is not one to argure, so he just let it be, after he put in his order I go to tell the lady mine, and she walks away. I guess she assumed we were splitting the pizza, as she went to go get our dinks ( the diet and reg pepsi) they were not even full they were 3/4 of the way filled up (and went empty for a very long time), and she sat them down having us figure out which one is which, The garlic bread with cheese, was so bad it was coved in garlic, to the point where him nor I was going to eat it, his pizza was dripping in grease, when It was brought out I thought it was not cooked all the way, turns out no it was just wet from the grease, my Philly cheese steak was tasteless, and the veggies were lukewarm, but the meat hot, I wonder if the chef was a microwave, My BF only took the pizza home out of not wanting to offend anyone, it made its way to the trash at the publix down the street, as we were hungry and had to go get some food for dinner, The only thing we had and enjoyed was the free breadsticks, and the very...