Caruso's — Restaurant in Tucson

I try to give everyone the benefit of the doubt. But, this experience and meal was TERRIBLE! We went to celebrate our son's 21st. He was looking forward to the lasagna his grandmother had been hyping. We had reservations for 6pm on a Friday for 6 people. The restaurant was 1/2 full. They seated us right away in a dark corner under cheap blacklights. It must have been so we didn't notice how dirty it was. The walls are scuffed and filthy like they haven't been washed down or painted in years. They had no table cloths, the silverware was the same quality as the Dollar Tree... no, that insults the Dollar Tree. The floor is gymnasium/hospital vynal squares, dirty and scuffed. Then, we waited. It took 10 minutes to get the drink order. We had three iced teas, one wine, and a coffee. It took 15 minutes to get the drinks and no one had taken our order. When they brought the drinks, the waitress couldn't remember who ordered what. The so-called glass of wine barely reached half full ... $6. The coffee didn't come out until 15 minutes after the other drinks were served. They give you garlic bread at the tables. They cut one 6-inch hogie roll into six, 2" squares (one for each of us). When I questioned the skimpy portion, the waitress said that was all she was allowed to bring for our size table. She said she'd refill it, and to her credit did so. They took our food order around 6:30. I ordered chicken parmesan with stuffed shells, my husband got shrimp and artichoke linguine, two people ordered lasagna, one personal pizza and one shrimp and scallop Alfredo. It took another 40 minutes to get the food. I could have made pasta and pizza from scratch in that time. The pasta tasted like it came from a box. My "chicken parmesean" was the size of my small palm, drowned in sauce. There were only two shells. If I'm being generous, the shells had a tablespoon of cheese in each shell. To get to the chicken I had to wade through the sauce. I gave up and just flipped the chicken over. I didn't see any breading. I asked the waitress who told me that they don't bread their chicken parmesan. Since the breading is where you are supposed to get the parmesan, then, it wasn't labeled correctly. Then, I did something else that I have never done before (I'm 46). I sent my food back and refused to let them re-try. I had zero desire to wait again. This meal was priced at $17. I told them to remove it from the bill. They did. My husband's meal was underseasoned, runny and 95% pasta with 5 shrimp and 1 artichoke heart cut into quarters. This was $15. As I said, we were in a dark corner. My husband couldn't see his plate well. On the third shrimp he got concerned that the temperature was off. So, he got better light and found it was raw. His entire plate was exposed to raw seafood...not sushi. He sent his back and we had them remove it from the bill. My mother-in-law, my husband and I all had salads. They put my mother-in-law's rectangle 8x4 salad plate over her 3" round bread plate. The salad had no tomatoes or croutons. The onion was in a wedge still connected together. There was one weird piece of pepperoni on the side. That salad was $6. The pizza my one son had he didn't like. He's 13... There is no such thing as bad pizza to him. The ONLY positive thing was that my son and mother-in-law enjoyed the lasagna. I will never ever ever or ever take my family there again. Finally, the table behind us said they thought they'd get better sauce from a can. They had come up from Bisbee to celebrate their anniversary. He had also sent his food back and refused to accept a replacement. That was unfortunate for them, but validating for us. We, both tables, explained to the server that we didn't hold her accountable for the failures in the back. She was still in tears because she had wanted us to all enjoy our special evenings. This review doesn't cover everything. I'd like to forget, but now my hubby is nausous. My husband sent the owner an email about this. Next time Mama Louisa's...

Since we moved to Tucson a few years ago some native Tucsonians we have met recommended we tried this place. Due to living in the northern side of town we stick to the Italian places we have tried and love , North , proof , locale etc. but tonight we decided to give this place a chance…..def regretted that …

Upon entering the decor seemed dated and even had a smell to it, but hey, it is 4th Ave , found the hostess to be very friendly and we where quoted 45 mins but only waited 20 we where off to a good start we thought …

We sat at a table squeezed in a walk way where the staff kept bumping into my husband (not apologizing at all) to the point he was uncomfortable enough to move to a different chair …

The server did not show up for at least 8 -10 mins and basically just asked what we wanted no greeting, no specials , just asked , We were of course ready to order because we had been studying the menu for a good while and starving. We ordered the food and my husband and I got our drinks within an acceptable amount of time but our daughter did not get her drink a, lemonade, did not come for a WHILE 20-25 mins even though we reminded the server twice, her drink didn’t show up until the third reminder.

There were servers managers walking around but none of them stopped by or helped the server. The food showed up probably 50 -60 mins after we ordered it. I received my food first and my husband and daughter received theirs probably 10 minutes after my dish arrived, by that time my food was getting cold.

The food was mediocre at best , nothing about it was good , entirely too much butter , nothing about it tasted fresh or authentic it honestly tasted like a frozen Italian dish that you’d find at the grocery store that was just popped in a microwave and defrosted. We barely ate, got a box and got out of there as soon as we could. We saw the managers visit two of the tables next to us , one that seemed to have found something in their food , don’t even wanna know what that was ..and the other because they had waited entirely too long for their check and were about to walk out of there without paying if they didn’t get their check

Our conclusion is that this place is surviving on what it once was and definitely it is NOT anymore - the place has been there for 30 years and you can tell decor is cheesy , dated and does not measure up to the newer places that cost the same … as much as we hate eating in chains, Olive Garden would’ve been 100% better ,also for reference we order a small pizza, chicken tetrazzini, chicken piccata and 3 drinks and the bill has $120- worse. $ spent . I would not go there and spend your hard earning money...

Let me start off by saying that Caruso's has always been a staple to my family, friends and I. From going to high school down the street and enjoying the amazing food before prom night to indulging in the delicious food on an anniversary night, Caruso's has always been the staple place for us, so what's about to come next is truly disheartening.

This is now the 4th time I have been in, both as a two top table and as a large family party.

Today the experience would have been awful had it not been for the company of family and the whole reason we were brought together.

The food has lost all its flavor, from the shrimp Mediterranean tasting like boiled shrimp with no seasoning, to the chicken parm that tasted like canned tomato's and dawn dish soap. The consistency of the chicken, chewy, tough, awful like Olive Garden. The only thing we truly enjoy at Caruso's is the anti pasta salad and the garlic bread and incredible to die for salad dressing! (About the only thing that's stayed consistent through out the years.)

The service was very poor. I have worked in the industry for 13 years now. All FOH. Bartending and serving in everything from bars to fine dining. They were attentive to the party, they did a great job keeping our drinks full and the garlic bread on the table. However using a loud voice to try and talk over the whole entire party to express that you are starting the food off with chicken Alfredo and if you got an Alfredo please raise your hand... it was awful. What's the point of taking everyone's order (which was a menu of only 5 items) to have to auction it off like we are eating at a fast paced environment of university.

Really sucks to see such a tucson staple go completely down hill. I'm hopping the next time I come back, things will have changed and this is the wake up call the management/staff need to make the experience/food much better.

Food is a love language, it needs to be...