Rudino’s Pizza & Grinders

The best pizza by far that I’ve found in the area. My only complaint is that the business doesn’t stay open according to the posted hours and when you go to get some great pizza and it isn’t open you’re a little disappointed. I’ll keep trying because the pizza is that good.

Wings are the best – baked and meaty. Grinders are good and lunch special is a real bargain for a grinder and fries or salad for $ 5.99. I like pizza by the slice and recommend ham, pineapple and feta. Salads are fresh and you can add items. They have good outside seating and the bartender will wait on you outside or you can go to the front counter and place your order and they’ll bring it to you. We’ve always had good service and we eat here at least once a week. Décor is not cozy and buffet when they have it doesn’t include salad but they’ve recently added cinnamon rolls that are yummy. Try it; you might like it!

Wings here are great! They can make them extra crispy if you ask, which is the way I like them. The hot sauce isn’t your typical bright red buffalo sauce. It’s brown and less vinegary, which I also like. They also have awesome garlic cheese bread!

Slow service. Even slower deliver, when they actually have delivery available! Pull up the menu on line and think you are going to place an order that comes up to $ 30, but when call to place the order your total some how comes up to $ 45. Oh let’s not forget if you place a delivery order you CAN NOT use the coupons they place in the local clipper with the ad that says «we deliver».

Good costumer service by Michelle.
I had a calzone, composed of 90% cheese and 10% bread.
I didn’t have a choice because they didn’t have pasta today. Really? Not impressed and not coming back here.

Love the grinders. It’s a great place in Knightdale to be able to have outside seating.

Not a huge fan of Rudino’s to begin with, but my stomach was upset after eating at this particular location. :(

I’ve had some positive experiences with this place. The product can be good, but the there isn’t a lot of consistency with the food or service. Two stars aint necessarily bad, and I can’t really say «A-​OK» with a clear conscience.
They have a lunch buffet, which I think is more successful, but I haven’t been there for that.
Once they weren’t delivering… just, weren’t…
If you sit around long enough, you may notice things. Chunks and crumbs under the pizza warmer at the buffet table, drinks in the kitchen with no lids, hands not being washed, silly mistakes get made because no one is really paying attention or coordinating the work-​flow, dirty plates sitting in the bus bins (not in the sink in the back) and so on and so forth. I’ve been there before – I get it. I’m not saying the place is filthy and the staff is incompetent, it’s just that attention to detail appear to be missing. Sometimes that means you get really bad service, spotty food, or both.
Try your luck with this place if you want. The pizza is probably going to be at least on par with the other options, and it might be better.

Absolutely the worst service I have ever received. Went on ³⁄₇ with family and in-​laws. We were the only people in the restaurant at 12:30 pm. It took five minutes for anyone to greet us. After we ordered, we had no food or any interaction with staff. We went to the counter twice, where staff got very defensive and never said why the food was not ready. We got our money back and left. The restaurant needs new management.

Sunday lunch after church must not be prime time to eat here. We were one of three guests dining,
Upon entering you go to the counter and place your order. Felt the printed menu was better suited for a restaurant that takes your order at the table (small print and information on the food choices was tough to read and make a decision when you have never been there before). We took the easy choice and went with the Sunday Pizza buffet.
The pizza buffet had two pizzas and one breadstick item available. The pizzas were staying hot on the buffet. These was «basic» pizzas — good but not great. Honestly i could have done just as well going to a Little Caesar’s Pizza and would have spent less.
The décor is a little strange. You have the fake exposed bricks painted in various spots on the walls, which i guess is supposed to give us the feel of little Italy, and then they have odd stuff like a Texaco sign, pool table, and other things that don’t fit an «Italian» décor.
I hope things are better with the grinders and/​or during busier times.

I don’t normally write bad reviews but this meal was by far the worst I’ve had since I can remember in an extremely long time that I felt compelled to write one. Note, this was consumed at home, not a dine-​in order so I can’t comment on any of the in-​house service, etc., this is about food only.
First, slice of cheese pizza. I felt like I was eating a slice from 3^rd grade lunch. Bread was soggy and the cheese on top was this thick gloop of mozzarella cheese and not in a good way. I couldn’t force myself to finish eating it, and it’s pizza, who doesn’t finish pizza?! Next, side caesar salad. There was so much lettuce packed into the container but the entire thing was just soggy, wilted, and gross. I took one bite and spit it out. I’ve never had a salad in my life that I couldn’t eat, but this was it. Next, side of cheese fries. They weren’t bad but they weren’t good either. Just super plain and bland, not seasoned at all and the ranch tastes like it comes from a bottle, not homemade. This is the one item that was actually edible but still didn’t finish. Then next is the grinder. I thought grinders are what Rudino’s is known for but it just wasn’t good at all. After one bite I opened it up and the guacamole that was on it was extremely dark green, almost brown. This just wasn’t heated up guac, it was bad guac. I couldn’t eat the sandwich so I just tried eating the meat and bacon out of the middle. The bacon tastes exactly how microwave bacon takes from the grocery store, exactly the same. And the turkey was ok but there was no way I could eat the grinder, it was gross.
This is my second time trying Rudino’s and I probably won’t go back. I wanted SO BAD to love Rudino’s because it seems like everyone else does, their menu looks so good, and maybe I’m just not choosing the right items off their menu but food should at least be edible no matter what you order. It makes me sad because I’ve never sent food back to the kitchen in my life, I’m not a picky eater, have never asked for a comp on an order, I usually just deal with whatever is handed to me that day and then choose whether or not to go back, but this meal was just the worst and I had to comment on it. :(

The quality of the food here has deteriorated in recent times. The pizza isn’t as good anymore, and they never get our Wing orders right (blue cheese dip is always missing, no matter how many times we request for it).

I had a calzone and added ham and onions. I misread the listing, because although the menu reads that it includes ricotta cheese it also includes «pizza sauce with a side of marinara sauce.» I have no clue why you would need to have pizza sauce inside a calzone, especially if you provide the marinara on the side (which they did). There was also so little ricotta (only one of the 4 pieces even had some in it) in the calzone, it shouldn’t have been listed as the primary ingredient. This was basically a big pizza pocket. I will say that the crust was tasty, and they did include plenty of the added ingredients. I was just highly disappointed in this option overall. I doubt I will go back.

I guess today was just an off day? I read the reviews and I used to hit up the Rudino’s in Wake Forest years ago. Is it the same? I don’t know. I brought my husband here since finally moving back to NC. I was kind of disappointed. I think the décor is what really kicked it off. Schizophrenia Chic is probably the best way to say what’s going on here. Saloon doors to a bar, italian/​islander frescos, faux painted exposed brick, a pergola with ivy on the outside, a pool table and broken basketball game, fairly decent wood chairs and tables, texaco gas sign? I don’t know. I was just weirded out. The service was okay, but the girl at the counter seemed a little irritated that we took so long to order. The food was A-​ok. The marinara sauce is really yummy, but some of the crust feels like the cap came off of the garlic and the onion powder and someone tried to just make it work. Very overwhelming flavor there. I’m not hating, but this just wasn’t the 4 – 5 stars I was expecting for taste. I can forgive a weird ass inside if the food is baller, but lackluster is the word. The search for yummy pizza and pasta continues…

It has been a long time since we had visited, so with deal in hand we went on a quiet Saturday night. Our deal consisted of pizza, bread and salad of our choice.
The salads were nicely prepared and generous in toppings and very fresh.
The cheesy garlic bread was very good indeed.
What we both really really enjoyed was the sausage pizza we ordered.
The sausage was delicious and reminded me of a pizza place I used to visit while living in Arizona. It was the small kind of sausage with just a little bite to it, and they apply a nice amount to the pizza. We both really liked it.
We were able to bring home leftovers and happily admit enjoying them 2 days later and all tasted just as good.
We intend to go back for sure

Delicious food! We love the grinders.

I have been long time fan of Rudino’s since I first found out they had great lunch pizza buffet. My first Rudino’s was the Miami Blvd location. During the busy work day lunch hours, there is always fresh from oven pizzas on the buffet bar, guarantee worth the price.
As the name suggests, Rudino’s also have great selection of grinders. What is a grinder, you ask? It’s really just toasted sub sandwich, although very taste one, straight from oven, with warm meat and melted gooey cheese. YUM!
My favorite is the calzone here. First time I got one I thought they had gotten my order wrong, because for a long time I have gotten used to the fact If you order a calzone from any other place, you get something of an oversize hot pocket; but calzone here is literally their regular size pizza, folded, with all the goodies in the middle. When it first arrived, it was laid on the table in front of me, and it measured from my wrist to my elbow.
This Rudino’s location could be hit or miss depends on the day of the week, just because of its location, but it will always be my favorite «Whatever,» when it’s that kind of the night, no one wants to go into the kitchen, and the two of you looking at each other, and that inevitable question was asked, «So what do you want for dinner?»
P. S. Check out their daily specials. My favorite is Sunday two toppings calzone with drink, obviously!

So we came into this Rudino’s 15 minutes after it said it was going to close. The manager was so incredible kind, he let us come in and sit and eat as long as we wanted to. He was so incredibly nice and inviting we decided to stay and eat. I’m so glad we did. We are so sad the Wake Forest Rudino’s closed because we frequented there a lot, and when someone told us there was one here we just HAD to go coming from the beach!
The turkey grinder is just a must. The bread is crunchy, the cheese is oozy, the lettuce and tomato is fresh and the turkey is delicious. The combination really is unlike any other. My fiancé and I have searched around for the best grinder and the Rudino’s chain REALLY know what they are doing! I always add sprinkle cheese and red peppers. :)
To be honest, we tried the pizza and it was good. I mean this place should really be called Rudino’s Home of the Grinder & The Pizza is Okay.
Go for the grinders! :)

Lame. This place once was pretty good. Each time we went it got worse and worse. It’s now to the point where I recommend that you go somewhere else. Dried out overheated subs. Fries come later. Not prepared correctly and need to get your own plasticware and condiments even in the bar. Awful now. No wonder they are all closing down. Place is dirty as well.

I can always find a reason to have pizza. But, Rudino’s is usually not my first place to want to go.
However, it is nice to have a little different type of pie now and again. Their pizza has a little sweeter sauce and the crust can get a little soggy — but trust me, it is good!
They have a lunch buffet on Sundays — and for $ 15 for two people, with drinks, how can you go wrong?
Getting a to-​go pie (large sausage) is probably their best (in my opinion). Although it is important to ask them to cut it in pizza slices because their default is in squares and I don’t like to eat my pizza as if I’m attending a kindergarten pizza party.
Buffet can be hit or miss. Often they don’t have very many pizzas out, but when it gets busy, they will keep them coming. They keep several different kinds of pizza, but also add cheesesticks, a pasta, dessert items and occasionally samples of grinders and french fries.
Thank goodness they added Diet Dr. Pepper to their soda fountain!