Lorusso Pizza & Focaccia

Lorusso’s, alas, is no more. The owner closed up shop this August. I patronized this place for 20 years and never had a bad meal. I wish the owner and his employees the very best from the bottom of my heart. You won’t find better.

Their focaccia is outstanding their little personal pies for around $ 6 each their plenty of vegetable and meat choices around 20 all together the only flaw about this place is that the location is kind of tough to find if you don’t live in the immediate area but it’s deffinetly worth finding it this place closed no longer open

Pizza is good.
They have a large selection of drinks in their fridge and they even sell wine.
The cannoli is tasty. The focaccia is well made but goodness 1 focaccia is very filling!
My favorite is the penne alla vodka with chicken. BUT sometimes it is hit or miss. The majority of the time it has been HIT but one or two times have been no good. I guess it depends on who’s in the kitchen that night? Anyway, this place will continue getting my business!

This place is the closest Italian/​Pizza place near me. I had both the focaccia pizza slice, as well as a real meal other than pizza. The focaccia was good, but I didn’t think it was anything too special. I did have just the slice though, so I might have to go back and try the personal size. I did however ordered the chicken parm meal with angel hair pasta one night, and it was phenomenal. There’s a kitchen in the back, and I had to wait about 12 minutes for it, but the key to great food is usually wait a bit, so I didn’t mind it at all. At least this way I knew that my order was being made fresh. I ordered it with garlic bread, which again wasn’t that impressive, but the meal itself was any fine dine restaurant quality. The chicken was perfectly crispy on the outside, and super moist in the inside, probably one of the best I’ve had in years. The sauce had some great flavor, and accompanied the dish well. The owner already included some Parmesan cheese, and I very much enjoyed the sauce soaking up that delicious cheese. Definitely give this place a try, and I suggest you order from the menu, and try something other than just the pizza.

Yum yum yum! Best pizza around! And great people too… always very friendly and attentive… focaccia ricotta… ricotta spinach… yum! :) Even the regular pizza slices are yum… their sauce just tastes different… much better than many other pizzerias around

This place has gone down in quality, and their special focaccia is not so different than regular pizzas (pizzaccia). They are using mediocre ingredients, and it shows. Good pizza if you are in the neighborhood. Otherwise, don’t bother.

How did I not know about this place? Tucked away in the older Astoria area is this place that puts any focaccia in the city to shame. The focaccia pizzas are stellar. I just… want to worship it? Or maybe just eat it every day.
The toppings kind of change daily, but all based on their stated menu items. My friend got the ricotta, balsamic, mushroom and carmelized onions one (i know right) I got the fresh tomato, mushroom and basil. Keep in mind this is bread with toppings, not your traditional italian slice. It’s light and not greasy. Perfect for summer munching in the park (which is only two blocks away)
Yeah, I’m going to have to stop here for dinner.

LoRusso’s is around the block from me so it is easy to grab a quick slice. The focaccia is good but I prefer the pizza instead. The handful of times I have been there I honestly did not feel welcomed. The man that works there could be friendlier, as he always stares at me and my Fiancé like he does not want us in there for some reason. I unfortunately do not want to go there anymore because I do not feel like they want my business.

The food is good and prices are very reasonable. My favorite is Garlic bread.

It pains me to give these guys 2 stars. They are really nice people, a great family atmosphere, clean restaurant and only a block away, but the food is less than stellar. First got the pizza: Bland and tasteless with waxy cheese and school-​cafeteria grade tomato sauce out of a can, nothing really to write home about. The foccacias are good but are super expensive if you want two, and they were super oily. Also gave them a THIRD try and got the chicken parm with pasta. It arrived chewy with over cooked pasta. I hope they read this and at the very least get their tomato sauce up to par. Common guys, Crushed tomatoes, water, tomato paste, garlic, parsley and cook it low and slow. I want these guys to be good!

Great family run business. It’s a delight going in and saying hi to Mr. and Mrs. LoRusso and son and getting a competently done foccaccia, stromboli or slice and an italian beer or wine. LoRusso knows his food. I can tell if he wanted to he could run an amazing Italian restaurant with full menu. This is a neighborhood pizza joint, affordable for the locals and delivering what folks want. The undersung gem of the place is his «taralli» (for those who don’t know it’s like an italian pretzel). I don’t know how he does it but they are these simple little masterpieces made with basic ingredients that are out of this world if you buy him close to the day he makes them and still damned good two weeks later. I always buy a few bags and take them to the office where they are very effective as bribes, rewards, and peace offerings.

A decent place, I’m rounding up from 2.5 really. It’s really not out of this world but still worth ordering from every now and then. Very comparable to many other places in Astoria.
The focaccias however are unique. They’re basically mini personal pizzas, so don’t expect to fill up on these if you’re interested in quantity. Toppings are fresh and taste pretty good, although the crust on these bad boys gets pretty rock hard. Maybe they’re a bit more forgiving if you dine in rather than getting delivery. In the end, I’d still rather just get the regular pizzas though, the focaccias are good but not something I’d end up craving like I do with a slice of pizza.
The margharita pizza was big and not too thick, not too thin, so I was happy. The basil leaves on top were in somewhat short supply though, I think a few more could have really helped. The pizza itself was huge though so I think that sort of makes up for it. The taste was average but I liked it enough to eat 4 slices, with only minimal regret over how blatantly greasy the whole thing was. If you warm it up in the microwave the next morning, you’ll be surprised at how many pools of bright orange grease you find on top. This was sort of upsetting but at the time I was so hungry it didn’t matter.
Service was polite and fast and I’ll probably order from here again to try some of their other stuff, but only after I’ve tried every other pizza place in the area at least once. Overall, an okay spot.

This used to be my goto pizza joint when I lived a few blocks away across from the park. A true Italian family owned business with a Husband, wife, & son combination.
Their focaccia’s are made with care and that special family lovin hidden ingredient. I’ve had everything from reg topped slices to rolls to just about every pasta dish on the menu and I can say they do not disappoint.
All in all, the Larusso’s are a nice group of people that prepare fresh Italian meals to boot.

There’s nothing I can say about Lorusso’s that hasn’t been said before. The food is simply amazing. I never thought I’d love a grilled chicken sandwich the way I do when I get them here.
Whenever people come to my neighborhood to hang out I always bring them here and they love it. The only thing i don’t recommend are their plain slices. There’s something about it that I just don’t like at all.
Oh and their focaccia is divine!

Ahhh… maaazzzinnngg…
I’ve never had pizza quite like this. Please owners of Lorusso Pizza & Focaccia, don’t ever leave me. :) It’ll be quite a shame for me to try to find quality pizza like yours.
We ordered a large bacon, ham and mushroom pizza and within 20 minutes the delivery guy was at my doorstep. It’s really awesome to have a neighborhood style restaurant that serves delicious food. Oh, and according to their menu; they have cannolis?! Can’t wait to try that — yum!
*Next time, since I do live 5 minutes away; I’ll take my husband down there and enjoy an authentic Italian meal.

My boyfriend lives on the same block as Lorusso’s, so we’ve eaten here quite a bit. It’s a nice, family-​run place and it shows in the always-​friendly service.
We keep coming back for the focaccia. My boyfriend and I are both Italian, but neither of us have had focaccia like Lorusso’s.
I love the ricotta focaccia here, though I’ve had other great varieties. The ricotta is exactly how it should be: fresh, soft, and creamy. And it doesn’t dry out, despite being baked on the bread.
The bread itself is deceptively light. I’ll gladly eat a whole focaccia myself, and then slip into the most pleased of carb comas when it hits me later.
In addition to the excellent focaccia, I love Lorusso’s sells other home-​made and imported Italian goods. Grab a bag of the olive oil grissini-​like snacks and it will be gone by the time you’re home, no matter where you live.
Overall, Lorusso’s is a place my grandfather would love and he’s the pickiest of Sicilian men.

Just moved into the neighborhood and needed a go-​to Italian place. We’ve ordered delivery from here twice and both were pretty good.
First, we ordered chicken parmesan and baked ziti. Both were really good, basic but good. The chicken could have been of better quality though. The 2^nd time, I ordered the ravioli and my wife ordered the stuffed shells with ricotta and spinach. Both were awesome. We also order the cheese focaccia and it was the best we’ve ever had hands-​down.
The service and delivery times were good. This will be our go-​to place and I can’t wait to try the pizza.

It is in a quiet small street, but the place has full selections of pizza and Italian food. And it is the closest place to get pizza to eat in Astoria park if you plan to chill in the south side. Pizza is good, but dessert is so so.

I’ve been getting slices from here ever since I moved to this no-man’s land section of Astoria. I’m not gonna say it’s the best pizza (Samaria & Polito’s still are the best) but it’s TASTY. A lot of NY style «floppy» pizza can lose that home-​style «tastiness» because it’s mass produced by Mexican laborers all day long. But at LoRusso’s you can tell it’s the Italian old man (or his son and wife) who are kneeding that dough and making it special. At least I think so. And the place is usually open late when I drop by after a LONG day at work.
Just recently I tried the TIRAMISU. It’s AMAZING! It’s probably not their own but who cares! It’s exactly what TIRAMISU should be! LIke a soft mousse with very little cake. I have an obsession with tiramisu and you can’t find it done this way in most any of the Greek cafes. Even BAKEWAY is peddling tiramisu but it’s not any good. LoRusso has the type of tiramisu that MELTS IN YOUR MOUTH. DELICIOUS!
Also, the place has 3 tables on the sidewalk for anyone who wants to have a coffee or pizza outside. And most of the time their dining room is empty with a giant plasma TV. It’s a place you can eat (a grat Italian meal) without feeling the stigma of eating out alone.
Hghly Recommended.

I came in here feeling very confident that they were going to have good food because it seemed like an Italian pizzeria and not a fake one, and I was not disappointed. I tried the spinach with ricotta and mushroom personal focaccia pizza and asked them to put a little sauce on the top which made it spectacular. For $ 6, that personal pizza was a bargain, something twice that size would have easily have cost more. They also had a few bottles of wine you can purchase as well. Bravo!