Rustica Ristorante

What a lovely place! Great hosts, awesome food, a real gem. One of our party had the awesome risotto with asparagus and sausage. It was tremendous! The chicken with peppers and bits of roasted garlic was yummy! We will be back!

Excellent. Amazing. Highly recommend. The marinara sauce was exceptional. My husband had the calamari and pasta bolognese, I had the eggplant app and mushroom risotto. I wished I could take several portions of the ep home… alas, were traveling. Thoughtful, gracious hosts/​owners and staff. Go! You will enjoy.

my husband and i love this little place. nino and juliana are gracious hosts. ask for the linguine marinara with meatballs as an entrée — not on the menu, but they will make it if they haven’t run out of meatballs yet (chef only makes so many per day). it reminds me of my nana’s food — warm, bright, and full of love. nino and vincente have one of the best italian restaurants in the state. we will return often :)

We moved to Chester last winter and have been working our way through the restaurants in the area. We stopped at Rustica tonight and are wondering why we haven’t made this one of our regular spots. The food, service and ambience is outstanding. We had the eggplant appetizer and the sauce was to die for. I had the veal saltimbocca as an entrée and it was exquisite. My husband’s fish was equally as good. One of the best features of this restaurant is how warm and welcoming the staff is. There are many return customers and everyone gets a hug when they walk in. It’s like going to a friend’s house for dinner. We will be sure to make this a regular spot from now on!

In one word… SUPERB! After four visits I have to say that everything here is a «10»! Nino and his wife are extremely gracious as well as engaging. The veal dishes are superb as well as the tiramisu! The entire staff works diligently to insure good service, and the entire restaurant is spotless! If you enjoy Italian, make this your next stop! Make sure you have a reservation!

We love this restaurant for so many reasons. Firstly the owners are wonderful warm people who always make you feel welcome and grateful you came. They actually remember you and what wine you had last visit.
The food is outstanding. We have been there about 6 times in the last year and nothing disappointed. The homemade pasta is wonderful and all the dishes are presented great.
We went before a play at Goodspeed and it made for the perfect night. But be sure to go to the restaurant early to leave plenty of time for them to spoil you.

Fonterutoli Chianti Classico on the wine list at Rustica was a very good sign. I don’t know a thing about Italian wines, but we stumbled upon this vineyard on a long ago visit to Tuscany. Our Lunch at the Osteria Fonterutoli (with plenty of Chianti) is a magical memory that I’m happy to dredge up with a fresh bottle. Concern about the location aside (the former home of Trapiche AND Lupo), Rustica’s transformation into an airy trattoria bodes well. Finding red sauce on the Shoreline isn’t difficult, but there are surprisingly few authentic «Italian» Italian restaurants. No longer.
Here’s the real deal, extending to the sweetly theatrical owner. Skip the salads and start with a plate of marinated fresh sardines with broiled potatoes on a bed of arugula. And try as I might to avoid pasta, I couldn’t resist theirs, available by full or half portion, made by hand in house, every day. The tangle of tasty linguini with wild mushrooms, butter, wine and truffle oil was worth every calorie. My husband was thrilled with his Branzino; a filet of pan-​seared sea bass in a simple lemony white wine sauce. You’ll find the dishes here straightforward, flavorful and crowd-​pleasing. The place was packed early on a Wednesday night. No website, but I’ve added a few selections from their menu to my site.

My husband and I can’t say enough good things about this place! We first came here when they first opened and were impressed, and are thrilled to see it has grown over time and is doing well. The food is outstanding and just keeps getting better. We had a salad for an appetizer that had goat cheese that was out of this world– so fresh and it melted in your mouth. Then I had the seafood pasta and he had the veal and they were both outstanding. The staff is fantastic and the owners are such awesome people. So next time you are in Chester, take a little trip down the corner from downtown– Rustica is so worth it!

Great food. Great wine (ONLY Italian). GREAT service. Pasta is homemade. Authentic Italian cuisine. Burrata was fantastic. Brussel sprout salad with lemon jam for the win! ALL of the pasta dishes (Primi) are great. Dessert is always a treat here. Will be back again, and again. And probably a few more times after that.

I just absolutely love this restaurant. The owners and the staff are terrific and the food is excellent. If it is on the menu, try the brussels sprouts salad — extremely tasty and light. All of their pasta’s are great and so is everything we’ve had there. Desserts are made in house by one of the owners. The wine list is great. You won’t go wrong.

Excellent Italian food, very nice and inviting staff.

Wow! We thoroughly enjoyed our experience at Rustica right from the start. The owner’s wife greeted us with a friendly smile and showed us to our table; the owner came by to also say hello and welcome… A very nice start! We had a party of six and everyone was pleased with the service and food. In my opinion, that says a lot because you can’t always please everyone. They have a nice selection of entrée choices. Our table all selected the spinach salad as a starter, it was fresh and tasty. Surprisingly, everyone chose pasta plates. We had two Pappardelle Funghi, two Fettuccini Carbonara, one Ravioli Bolognese, and I chose the Linguini con Gamberi. It was delicious! It’s a nice plate of linguini and shrimp that’s made with white wine butter and marinara sauce… aside from the fact that I love shrimp, the combination of the white wine butter and marinara sauce made me curious. I wasn’t sure if it would be white, red, or pink. It was red by the way, and as I said, it was delicious! So good that the next time I visit I may be tempted to have it again but there were too many other good options I want to try. I’m really looking forward to trying their Ossobuco. We accompanied the dinners with two different wines, one was a Sangiovese and the other a Montepulciano; I preferred the Montepulciano but both were good. Definitely will be back! Do yourself a favor and give it a try. FYI, I suggest reservations. Luckily we had reservations because it was full.

While I haven’t tried everything on the menu (yet) we’re been impressed enough to return. The Polenta and Polpette (meatball) apetizers are worthy and any of the homemade pasta dishes are a cut above. The Branzino (sea bass) was quite tasty as was the Seafood Risotto (but truth be told the rice could have been cooked a bit longer). Understand also I like wine and while the «special selection» Sicilian red was entertaining, I was disappointed to see the 4x markup over retail. $ 10 at the wine store/​$ 42 on the menu. That is a markup usually reserved for Michelin 4 Star establishments. I wonder what corkage would be?

In a word, AWESOME!
Rustica is a little gem tucked away in Chester, CT. The food is prepared with exquisite attention to detail. The handmade pasta, oh my. Definitely try the Cheese Cake… made right there, OMG! It’s to die for.
The staff is friendly and the owners are present throughout the evening greeting guests and chatting. Very nice feel.

Wow! What a gem… We went to a show at Goodspeed. The show was great but the dinner here was FANTASTIC. From fresh pasta to desserts made by the owner… Nino and Juliana we will drive from across the state to be back!

We went here for dinner last night, and I simply can’t recommend it enough. The food was just amazing. If they have the Burrata appetizer, don’t even think twice, just get it. It was so creamy and delicious. The lobster ravioli had chunks of real lobster and homemade pasta. The chicken was perfectly cooked and seasoned. And don’t even get me started on the desserts. All handmade as well and just amazing. The cheesecake was my favorite; light and smooth.
In addition, the owners were so friendly and welcoming, and really made sure we all had the most wonderful night. If you’re in the area, I highly recommend stopping by, you absolutely will not regret it!

My husband and I went here for a date (it had been a long time since we have a 8week old and 2 yr old). The food was amazing!!! The service was excellent!
We got there on a Tue at 5pm and had the dinning room to ourselves for most of the meal. The pasta was so FRESH! Flavor was perfect, meat cooked just right, veggies crisply cooked and the dessert was superb!
Great place for a special meal. Location is poor, I hope they move before it’s to late. This is the third restaurant in 2 yrs there.

I’ve never been to a better Italian restaurant in CT! Perfect food, wine, and service. Andres and Nino were incredibly attentive and knowledgable and made our whole party feel welcome and at home. The food was incredible. We started with a bottle of Syrah and had three appetizers: Antipasto, goat cheese and mushroom filled puff pastry, and bufala mozzarella and roasted red peppers. They were all perfect and not too heavy, an excellent start to the meal.
For my main, I went with the Ravioli di Costatine and could barely speak it was so good. Filled with short ribs and ricotta cheese, these ravioli were light, flavorful, and topped with a delicious tomato sauce. Other members of my party had the linguine vongole, boglognese, fettucine carbonara, and linguine with mushrooms and no one could speak a bad word about them! The homemade pasta is worth the trip from any distance.
For dessert, we had the affogato, cheesecake, and biscotti. My personal favorite was the cheesecake, but the affogato was a close second. We sipped on a second red wine throughout the meal (I can’t remember the exact variety) and enjoyed Amaro in between dinner and dessert.
The six of us had a wonderful experience at Rustica and cannot wait to return.

Beyond amazing. Incredible.
Great décor, husband and wife owners are present yet not pushy.
A friend and I went before a play at the Ivoryton Playhouse and we weren’t rushed. In fact we had to hurry to get there because we lost track of time!
Had the cauliflower soup. Delicious.
The. The shaved Brussels sprout salad. Best ever. Amazing. Light touches of lemon was perfect. Salivating thinking about it actually.
Had gnocchi for main course. A bit too much pesto for me but still just wonderful. Will be back. No doubt.

This is a great new Italian restaurant in Chester. I really enjoyed it. The service is fantastic, truly top notch from the owners to the staff. They have a great wine list– it’s not large, but has a thoughtful selection of wines.
I think five stars is a little exaggerated. The food was very, very good. The pasta is homemade. I love the fresh flavors.