Salvatore’s La Rustica

The first time we went I loved it. The owner is adorable and I like the tacky outdoor seating. Subsequent times got worse and worse. The most recent time, i only went because I bought a groupon type voucher.
The server that we had was absolutely hostile and, I believe, may have been drinking. He smelled of alcohol and would just walk away in the middle of serving us. The food was not good and the crème caramel in edible. We told him it was terrible and he just walked away.
When the bill came he refused to accept our groupon. The table next to us was having a similar issue with a slightly different groupon. They were absolutely furious. When we tried to talk to him about it he just walked away and hid in the back.
I will never go back and asked for my money to be returned for the groupon I bought.

The service was great, the pasta was not fantastic. I had gnocchi in meat sauce and the gnocchi were fantastic. They were the large lump gnocchi instead of the smaller ribbed ones. But I didn’t like the meat sauce (there was also a pesto option). It tasted too much like tomato paste.
My wife got the tortellini with peas and capicola in a cream sauce. The tortellini weren’t better than cheap Olivieri from the grocery store. The peas were hardly there. It wasn’t bad, but it was nothing special.
Aside from my gnocchi, the meal was pretty disappointing (although we also had our first escargots — which weren’t bad).
If you are interested in going, when we got there some people were turned away because they were booked up with reservations (for a Friday night).
Our meals were about $ 20/​person with tax and tip.

Was quite impressed with the service. Both our server and waitress were quite attentive, and brought everything we needed as soon as we asked for it. I was there for dinner, and it seemed to be a quiet night for them, so maybe because it was a quiet night, they had more time to focus on the customers already there.
The foccacia bread was made fresh, and was quite good dipped in the provided olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
As a starter, I had their onion soup, which was pretty good. Nice and hot, and quite flavourful. I’m a big fan of melted cheese, and this soup had plenty of it!
For my main meal, I had a Cioppino — a seafood medley in a tomato sauce, which included a lobster tail (quite small), 2 tiger prawns, 2 sea scallops, 3 clams, 3 mussels and a decent amount of chunks of salmon. It was alright at best. The seafood seem overcooked, and the taste of the overall dish was just ordinary.
Overall meal could have been better… thinking back, I think I may have been warned that they tend to overcook their seafood here…
I wouldn’t go running back to this place for dinner again too soon, but in the future if I’m in the area and am at a loss for where to eat, I would still pop in for the soup, and maybe try a different main dish.
Buon appetito!

This place is pretty good.
I am not big of going out for pasta, but they do it right. Pasta is always cooked to a perfect al dente.
They have a variety of dishes both pasta and entrees that will appease most picky eaters.
I usually order the LINGUINI CON GAMBERI. Very good.
Call ahead as they do have large parties and it can get pretty loud.
They also must have live music as they have a dance floor with amps, lights and microphone stands.