Russo’s New York Pizzeria

I hadn’t been to Russo’s Downtown location since renovations were completed this summer, but I must say it has been improved. What once was an afterthought has now become a vibrant, lunch hour destination. Décor and layout have been updated and the fresh, new look serves them well. Great place to grab a huge, crispy New York-​style slice for only $ 6.50. Plenty of shaded, outdoor sidewalk seating as well. Favorites are the NY Village slice, with bell peppers, black olives, Canadian bacon, hamburger, Italian sausage, mushrooms, & pepperoni, and the Pesto Chicken slice, with chicken, feta cheese, garlic, & spinach.

Pretty good pizza, like the thin crust. Large slice with a side salad is my usual go to choice.

Seems like most of the reviews for this place are very consistent with regards to service. A friend and I decided to have lunch here and both ordered at the same time. The friend received his lunch and was almost finished it before I decided to enquire where mine was … 20 min later. Finding someone to ask at the counter was nigh impossible but after 5 min of standing there I got gruffly told by a waitress it would «be looked into». 10 min later my sandwich appeared at my table with … Guess what? … A friggin bite taken out of it!!!
Obviously the staff don’t review these reviews otherwise you’d think changes would be made w.r.t customer service. Anyways they’re one less customer now and hopefully a few more after posting this.
1 star for the lemon provided for the iced water

Linda is fabulous. I’ve brought my students twice now before we’ve attended musicals at TUTS. She and her staff have been great with my kids and absolutely a joy to work with.

Will not be going back. Shouldn’t have gone back this time, but only nearby italian.
Ordered along with a coworker. She received her meal and was half finished. We asked a food deliverer to check on my order. She went away, came back to check my receipt, a while nothing, so I went inside to talk to a manager. 2 or 3 minutes later she came back to me with an order. It wasn’t my order. Asked for them to make me the correct food and make it to go. 5 minutes later a bag was dumped on the table.

The service at this location is pretty horrible especially for groups. We had lunch in a group of 6. One member of our party got his pizza before everyone else. He was finished with his meal before anyone else got theirs. Half of our group did not receive their order for 30 minutes and it took several requests to find out why our food never came. I gave an extra star because the food is decent. Not great but decent. And certainly not good enough to justify the atrocious service. Many better choices in the area.

Came for lunch while working downtown. The lunch «big slice» special is decently priced, you get to pick four different toppings, and comes with a large side salad. The pizza itself was HUGE but just alright — I guess what you would expect from a chain downtown. The crust was soggy, probably because it’s so large. But for $ 8 you’re full by the end of the meal, so if you’re looking for a quick bite to sit down with co-​workers, it’s ok.

Wanted to share how inappropriate, rude, discourteous and absolutely the worse dining experience I and my party have EVER experience. This occurred at the 604 Polk Street Location (downtown Houston). After 30 mins of waiting for our salads, we had to request them three (3) times. We did get them afterwards, without an apology or anything. After an additional 20 mins of waiting for our food, it finally arrived… INCORRECTLY!!! I ordered and paid for Chicken Pesto Pasta without Artichokes as I am highly allergic. However, it was made and delivered with them. I took out my receipt and it clearly states NO ARTICHOKE… I then had to proceed up to the cashier to request the dish I ordered and paid for was corrected, at this point the Cashier (Daniel R.) was rude and said «what do you want?» I then decided to request a refund, and after he huffed and puffed, he gave me my refund. The restaurant was not busy and the employees were too busy eating in the
kitchen in open view, basically doing everything but working. Very disorganized system at this location so you may want to investigate, as I and my party were very disturb by the actions of Maria, the chef, and Daniel… all of whom were eating in plain sight in the kitchen, ignoring guest and had no desire to work today. My order number was #144, in the amount of $ 16.89. This type of environment is totally unacceptable, so we shall give our money to an establishment that welcomes guest and want them to enjoy their time, unlike this location which seemed that it was irritating that people were actually inside wanting food. Hopefully, you will make the necessary adjustments to this establishment, if not, I am afraid it will not have many more guest to serve.

Went for lunch very busy. But they were very fast as well. Salad was on the table as i sat down and the giant slice came as I was finishing about 10 minutes later

I placed a delivery order but they didn’t have the item I wanted. Victor from the store called to explain and get my new order. He was very professional and friendly, and the restaurant to care of the differnce in price for the inconvenience. And they still delivered on time. Great customer service! And the food was delicious!

Somebody get help, my calzone is drowning… in grease! I cut into it and you’d thought I ruptured an artery the way that grease was ooozing out. A couple napkins later I was able to finally enjoy my savory treat.
This spot just reopened for rennovations so I’ll give ‘em time to get it right. As of now, out of the rotation.

An incompetent cashier that could not even get our order correct, an awkward set up to wait in the line that likely is there every lunch rush, hardly any salad dressing on my salad, and cardboard pizza. This about sums it up! Will not come back here.
The only positives are that the slice was huge, since they did not get my order right and missed the additional item, and that nothing I ate here gave me food poisoning.

This place is great. Good pizza and salad combos for lunch, and it even comes wit free bread at the table. Nothing extraordinary, but overall good Italian food (both pasta and pizza).

Tried this place with my co-​worker today. I didn’t know that this was the same pizzeria as the one over in Midtown off W. Gray.
My appetite got the better of me and I ended up ordering two lunch combos. A Hawaiian style slice of pizza and Beef Lasagna (what I originally wanted to try). Both combos came with a side salad. The pizza was delicious. The crust was crispy and the ratio of sauce to cheese was above par. I’m glad I «accidentally» ordered the slice of pizza, because I couldn’t even finish my beef lasagna. When I opened the box, I thought I had accidentally ordered a cheese enchilada. Then remembered that can’t be I was in a pizzeria. The lasagna did not look appealing. It was too greasy and cheesy for my taste. Next time i go back, I’m going to stick to the pizza.

It’s a pretty ok pizza place. The atmosphere is nice and portions are rather large. I had the New Yorker Calzone, it was tasty enough. You get a salad with your lunch too, and I have to give them props for it not being just iceberg lettuce at least. But, I didn’t really find anything too special about this place. If I get a deep pizza craving I’d probably go back for it’s convenient location.

Had the calzone and salad lunch special.
The spinach calzone was delicious, included tons of cheese and is… HUGE! It’s big enough to easily feed two people. Olives and fresh veggies made the included greek salad hit the spot.
Don’t order the calzone if the place is busy. it may take up to 20 minutes for your order to come. I ate at NYP the other day when the place wasn’t busy and my calzone arrived in about 10 minutes. Lunch specials are also available for the pizza slice/​salad, so keep that in mind.
The restaurant is big and I never have problems finding a table. Don’t expect much for service other than delivery of your order to the table. Drinks are self-​serve.
NYP has some of the best pizza and calzone available in the downtown area.

When I order a small house salad to go and have to wait 20 minutes for it, what does that tell me?
That Russo’s wins top position on my daily YOU SUCK list. Congrats!

The pizza here is served up New York style (hence the name) with a salad. The pizza is served in large slices on a thing crust and is in general pretty good. Most of it is probably prepared in the morning and just kept warm/​reheated for the lunch hour, but no worries.
During lunch time, it gets crowded. You order your food up front, and they give you a number and bring your food to your table.
While waiting for your food they bring you some garlic bread pieces and your salad (if you ordered a pizza). The garlic bread pieces are pretty good to munch on, and I love it when they’re heavily seasoned and crispy. The house salad is drenched with a dressing that is a little too sour, but it’s alright. For a bonus, the salad comes with a Peperoncini, which is delicious!
I have tried a few of their options besides the pizza, but I still think that a slice of pizza pie is the best thing they got. My favorite pizza here has hands down got to be the Chicken Alfredo. I mean they do the whole tomate sauce pizza thing well, but the Chicken Alfredo pizza is just different than what you get anywhere else. Almost every time I have it, I am surprised about how quickly I forgot how good it is. With that said, the pizza here is not always consistently good, so you do have those rare days when the pizza is dried out.
How does it fare for my two downtown lunch requirements? Well the food comes out within 5 minutes typically and the place typically has ample seating. So I think it’s definitely worth trying.
TIP — If you’re eyeing the calzone, just know that it takes about 15 minutes to prepare.
TL;DR — Quick, tasty pizza with good service and a nice atmosphere. Try the Chicken Alfredo pizza!

I actually thought this restaurant only served pizza so I always avoided this place until a coworker suggested we go. So I sucked it up and decided I’d be eating pizza for lunch. But to my surprise, they also served sandwiches and pasta dishes!
I ordered the eggplant parmigiana with pasta and side salad and it was all pretty good! I was impressed. Only warning is that it’s really HOT even 20 minutes into eating it, the eggplant was still hot. Free bread given with your meal.
Might wanna get here early around 11:30AM, it gets pretty packed after 11:45AM!

When my pants start getting baggy I will come here for lunch. This is the best «slice ‘o pizza» place I have found in this city. I would say best in Texas but I lived next door to that one in Dallas. So it wins the Houston crown as a consolation prize.
The mix of people is always weird, so I like that. I was expecting oil alley types but I see UHD students, artist types, business types, and other people.
The slices are the perfect size (which as you can read in reviews below means they are quite big.) But they are satisfying. The pizza is high quality, not the general rubber cheese you get «served» using the term loosely at other places.
The soda machine is always working correctly. I have never had a flat soda here. Considering the garbage that spews out of some downtown places (coughDOOZOcough) that is worth mentioning how awesome and how attentive the staff is here at NY Pizzeria, almost like it is back home in the Bronx with Uncle Julio.
This is not the cheapest lunch option, but it is one of the tastiest and quickest options. If you have someone meeting you downtown and they aren’t impressed by a ballstothewallsbreakthebank lunch at Quattro, take them here — they will thank you for the good food and being in a down to Earth place.