Pizza Rustica

This place was the buttcrack of Philadelphia. Only thing worse than the food was the service. Sorry for all the servers and cooks losing a job, but good riddance. It was a long time coming.

Came here for the large pizza and pitcher of beer special for $ 10. The place is usually a little empty and not very busy, but the pizza was surprisingly decent. Great deal if you’re just looking for a quick, cheap bite around campus.

Update: It seems like the owners have tried to hire better waiters. The service is considerably better than it used to be!

Ugh. Used a LivingSocial deal to order Penne with Chicken (note, the person who rang me up did not hit redeem on my coupon, I went ahead and hit redeem myself! Probably shouldn’t have… I feel like an idiot for paying for what they gave me). Opened it up to find disgusting, rubbery looking slabs of chicken. I don’t want to speculate what that piece of chicken looked like before it was cooked. Took a bite and it was as bad as it looked. I thought I would eat my way around the pasta and just go for the penne. Somehow, even with something as simple as pasta, was just bad, bad, bad. Two hours later and I feel like throwing up. This was the second time I’ve gotten dinner here, the first time I ordered a sandwich and – maybe I should have learned my lesson the first time – that was icky as well.
I come here now and again for a slice of pizza at lunch because it is so close to where I work, and the pizza is actually edible. It’s not very good, but it’s a slice of (a bit too chewy) pizza.
It really sucks, but it’s so clear what this place should be – a mediocre relaxed, no-​nonsense Italian joint. They have a great location, and the inside is really nice, but the food, my gosh…

Small casual Italian joint at the edge of campus.
Their pizzas are freshly-​baked with a soft, crisp crust — yum! Rustica’s mozzarella is mild and pairs perfectly with thin layers of sauce and crust. I particularly enjoy the California pie with sun-​dried tomatoes and goat cheese.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of their mediocre pasta. The enormous plate of spaghetti noodles came out slathered in sauce and a topped with liberal helping of chicken. But the noodles were either badly overcooked or had been left to sit out, as they had begun to clump together. The tomato sauce didn’t help either. It tasted as if it came straight out of a can and I tried to remove it.
Service is what you’d expect from a casual restaurant, adequate but not extraordinary. In any case, you can’t beat their $ 10 pizza-​and-​pitcher deal, so it’s definitely worth a visit!

The vodka sauce pasta is horrific. It literally tastes like they poured a whole glass of water with a little sauce over overcooked pasta. You would be better off making the pasta yourself for ¹⁄₈ of the price. In my opinion, the establishment should change their recipe for this dish. It really is unappetizing and now my friends and I are sitting here with bad stomach aches. Never again Pizza Rustica, never again.

Ok so here’s my 5^th review… and I’m writing reviews so people like me (who enjoy good food, good atmosphere, good times, and a good bargain– on occasion) can find reliable reviews for the hot and not so hot places around Philadelphia. All that said lets start the review.
Had I the energy to read some reviews I might but I’m not much of a reader and its late or early or whatever… Instead I’ll comeback here sometime soon and reevaluate the place for myself.
I’ve been here to sit down and eat and get drinks and I’ve ordered out recently and both times I’ve been happy and borderline impressed (I had an original, artisan pizza each time). As far as pizza joints go I like this one (don’t ask me my favorite because you can’t handle the truth!). (I just hit that exclamation mark harder than I ever have or will hit a letter or symbol)
Period.
Period.
Siri I’m saying period not period. Siri just insert the punctuation.
Siri!
Oh I was typing.
Why am I pretending I’m fighting Siri? My joke has more holes than Swiss cheese!
I’d make a terrible liar!
Ok back to reality… Where was I?
I’ll be back soon because I like the original, unique, and flavorful artisan pizza pies and each time I take a bite I enjoy the simple goodness of pizza the way it should be… rustica.

Unfortunately, this place takes so amazingly long and the food is just okay. Our server was very nice but we were there for 2 hours. I am never going back.

First and last time here. Pizza… ick. had a reheated piece of pepperoni… came out luke-​warm and tasted like fast food pizza. Pepperoni had strange taste… maybe it’s soy-​based? Best part of coming to Pizza Rustica was the free wifi. sorry, cannot recommend.

I just had to check this place out because I was curious from some of the bad reviews that this place received. And you know what? They were right. While we were eating, we actually saw a rat scamper by coming from the kitchen into the storage closet. This is terrible! From the outside, the establishment looked promising. The patio looks inviting. They had ample seating area inside and a small bar. They had good presentations on their food and the pizza looks appetizing. Our server was friendly and accommodating. I am not going to comment on my meal. Because my review will be overshadowed with the rodent incident. The owner should really think of the problem we have here. Specially when me and other Unilocalers saw what I saw.

Mice on the floor, mice running under the tables, mice climbing curtains… EWE!!! Told the staff and they said they were not allowed to have a cat. What about traps??? Geez. Could not eat food when it was served.

This place could be on one of those reality «restaurant makeover» TV shows.
The staff is about as clueless and unwelcoming as it gets. It’s like they don’t even care for your business. They ignore customers when they walk in.
They often screw up people’s orders because they are too disorganized to respectfully take someone’s order.
The antics from the kitchen staff are even worse. I would come in from time to time for a fast, cheap slice and I would overhear what their «chef» was saying — cursing and being abusive to the people around him. The rather large woman that works their is a 1^st class you know what — loud, obnoxious, rude to basically everyone around her.
This place is okay for a quick, cheap and mediocre slice, but this place is not a place that should be supported. It is a truly miserable environment.

It’s ten dollars for a large pizza and a pitcher of Rolling Rock, what else do you need to know?! I thought the pizza was good– really thin and crisp. I love this place!

I have come here several times on business. The bartenders are super nice and have good college pizza and good pasta. Always pretty fresh stuff and they help you out. Great place to sit and watch people and have a beverage. They also have a store next-​door that will sell you beer to go. That always makes me happy.

By far one of the worst customer service experience I ever encountered from a manager.
Before I go into details, I would like to give our waiter a 5 out 5 rating. He was a young college student doing his job and displayed more professionalism and courteous manners than the 60 year old manager.
Here is my gripe– We received our bill, 4 different tax chargers were listed. I don’t like to be taken advantage of as a paying customer. He stated they added 10% tax on alcohol and 8% on the food. Last time I recall, it’s 8% tax. He was rude and didn’t have a solid reason for pricing the bill that way. To make matters worse, he threatened us to call Penn Police. What a joke, my friend and I had to laugh– we could clearly afford the bill but it was not right to have him tax food/​drinks at a rate that was almost 12−13% on the total bill. He walked away and had nothing else to say to justify his price gauging ways.
I warn all locals to review your check or even better DO NOT EAT OR DRINK THERE-​they will rip you off and the manager will simply provide the worst level of customer service !!!
I was in the neighborhood visiting family and really regret stepping foot at this establishment.

I haven’t had pizza in a really long time, so we decided to have pizza for lunch .
I have always wanted to try this place but i always end up walking past it .
I’m very glad we gave this place a try, it has two entrance, we were sorta confused but its not a big deal.
The waiter was really nice, he saw us walking toward the door from the inside and quickly grabbed utensils to seat us before we came in. We told him we were getting take out so we got a slice of pepperoni and a slice of plain .
Pizza came out within minutes and the guy heating up the pizza even apologized for the wait. The pizza was really tasty, it is huge ! Nice thin crust and I really like the sauce. It was a good lunch.

Pizza Rustica should take advantage of their location to be a fun pizza place in University City but they completely miss the mark. We went for happy hour and had a very difficult time with a server who was extremely awkward and deck umbrellas that kept blowing over in the wind. Seriously, those things needed to be anchored more securely. We ordered a few appetizers and a pizza and some things were better than others. They had a fried zucchini appetizer which was a big hit with a friend that likes fried veggies. Someone else had the cheese and olive plate which had an insane amount of cheese on it for the price, even though the cheese was pretty run of the mill quality.
Where they really fell flat was the pizza. We had a standard margherita and honestly it was pretty poor. The sauce was overly sweet and the cheese was very low quality. I would certainly never order a pizza from here again when there are better places (although there aren’t too many options in UCity). There are definitely much better options for happy hour so I would just skip Pizza Rustica.

I can’t understand the bad reviews here. I work close to Pizza Rustica and so have eaten here several times for work pizza parties and even once for a post-​work dinner. The pizza is made of big slices with ample crust and that thin, drippy middle. The margherita is a clear favorite, and it has fresh basil leaves instead of that chopped «dusting» of basil you get so many places. The sausage rustica with roasted peppers, carmelized onions and garlic is also pretty killer. They do this really chunky tomato sauce instead of the typical pureed sauce. They have small sizes for lunch and large sizes which are really better for 2 – 3 to share depending on how hungry you are.
The place itself isn’t half bad either. They have a small bar with several beers on tap, and they also have a cold case where you can pick up cans of soda and – what luck! – six packs of beer you can take to-​go. They also have pre-​made pizzas ready at the counter if you just want to grab a single slice. There is a nice outdoor area with tables on a little patio, and while in the summer it might be a bit too hot to dine al fresco it’s perfect in the spring and fall.

One star because Unilocal!won’t let me give it zero! My mother always said, if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all. Therefore, my review of all aspects of Pizza Rusitca is _​_​_​_​_​_​.
Ok, on a more serious note:
Service is unfriendly to down right rude.
Food quality is poor, unless you like overcooked (i.e. burnt) cardboard (err pizza).
In conclusion, GO SOMEWHERE ELSE!

HIGHLY UNRECOMMEND.
Minus one star for poor managerial skills.
In response to the manager who wrote back to a previous comment:
How does having a below ‘A-​OK’ rating not pose as a wake up call for you to step up to the plate? Need I make your failing establishment’s rating distribution as your storefront photo?
It’s not about making portions smaller. The pizza fits fine in the box, it is the way you package it. I know because I just slide the pizza over with my pinchers. And yes, I am holding it right side up. You’re going to tell your doughboys to make the pizzas smaller? Go ahead, make your pizza smaller and charge the same price. The pizzas here are way overpriced given its quality. But just letting you know, that won’t solve your perpetual problem of burning your pizzas to a foul crisp. I made in my 7^th grade home ed class
Spaghetti without cheese?! PAH-​please! I never say no to cheese. I say no to bad sauce. I can’t stress how much I’d rather eat the alpha-​bits by Monsieur Boyardee that I can just whip up on my own. So don’t blame the cheese.
That door still needs to get fixed. I walk by and still see your patrons struggle with it. Way to have the door ‘hit them on the way out.‘
It’s not just your pizza and that «fresh locatelli cheese» of yours that’s a problem. The service here here also sucks. Your establishment is the epicenter of food industry terrible-​ness. I couldn’t get a pizza my first time there because your waiter did not hear me and came back only to tell me kitchen’s closed. Don’t get me started on the roach.
I dare you to respond to this with another bs excuse suggesting that it’s the patron’s problem when in reality, it’s the food and management that are two thumbs down. Count in my big toes if you would. Don’t bother sending a private message either, because I will print screen that too.