Caruso’s II Restaurant

I haven’t had a bad meal yet from Caruso’s in Canyon Country. A little bit of advice order extra sauce for the spaghetti with meat sauce or meatballs.

This is a serious family Italian restaurant. It’s nothing fancy but it definitely is good. The service is excellent as well. We had a small mix up on out take out order and it was handled better than any service related mix ups I can remember recently. Good food, good people running the joint.

i literally live down the street, so i gave it a shot. its a hole in the wall but not bad. i think they have a live band on Thursdays. im a fan of italian food, theirs is ok… but the pizza is a 10

This place was pretty bad. We didn’t even get greeted when we walked in. It was that awkward moment of just standing there. They were under staff. We didn’t get our drink order till at least 10 mins later. When he finally got to order and received our salad. We asked for our garlic bread and the waitress replied with «It’s coming» with a attitude. Lol. At the end the food was okay nothing special. It tasted like cafeteria food. The salad had some old lettuce and it looked like they open a bag of salad with ranch and cheese.
I was very disappointed and embarrassed to go with my Dad there. We should’ve went to Olive Garden.

Terrible. Just terrible. Our first visit will be our last. The pizza looked like it was pieced together from three different pies. The slices were cut by someone with jitters and the pie was cooked unevenly. My kids didn’t finish their slices and we tossed the leftovers. Mind you, left over pizza is the breakfast of champions in my house, but this was inedible. The kicker was the teeny tiny blob of lettuce and salami that is called an antipasto salad. Literally crammed into a small Chinese take-​out container, iceberg lettuce, two slices of salami, one small sliver of tomato, and some shredded mozzarella does NOT an antipasto salad make. When my husband asked what was in that small white box and was told it was his salad, the woman followed-​up with, «Don’t worry, it expands when you open it.» No. It doesn’t. If you have any inkling of what constitutes good pizza, keep driving past this place.

Can’t get enough of this authentic homestyle Italian. Get the Antipasti salad, giant pepperoni pizza. Like being in Italy! All pasta entrees: eggplant or chicken parmegiano, Meatballs, italian sausage, Alfredo, marinara, linguine and clams… all divine! & the price is right.

I ordered a cheese pizza, mozzarella sticks, and a cannoli through eat24.
They didn’t have mozzarella sticks, which was perfectly fine but the pizza was average, possibly less than average. It didn’t have much flavor, it wasn’t hot, I am not impressed at all. For an Italian restaurant it should have been much better.
The cannoli was good though.

Wow I don’t even know where to begin. I guess I’ll start with the phone call to place my order.
My first question was «what are your specials for two medium pizzas»?
Her answer was huuuuuhh specials?
My response «yeah specials»…
Her response was «huuuuuuuhh we don’t have any specials for medium pizzas».
My next question was «what specials do have for large pizzas»?
She then responded with «huuuuuuuuhh we don’t have any specials for large pizzas».
I then tried a different approach, asking her what are their current specials?
Her answer «huuuuuuhhh specials»
A lil frustrated at this point then said «clearly you don’t have any specials at all»
Her response «yeah we don’t have any specials»
I thought to myself hmmm… that’s interesting I just had a five minute conversation with an idiot.
So I place my order thinking the worst was over. Nope!
I ordered two medium pizzas and a salad. Total came to $ 40.00 for what looks like two small pizzas and the tiniest salad I’ve ever seen in my life. The lady mentioned as I was paying that the salad gets bigger when you take it out of it’s container. I wonder how many people actually fall for that. Anyway… I can’t even begin to understand how this place is still in business when $ 5.00 large hot and readys are just down the street. As far as the taste, it was just okay… definitely not worth the money. Your better off going to the orginal carusos in sylmar, now that’s real authentic pizza at a much better price with a real traditional Italian restaurant atmosphere.
Oh and one more thing… Watch out for all your toppings completely sliding off each slice.
Impossible to cut and even more impossible to eat!

Excellent — Had dinner with the wife tonight — pasta and ravioli with red sauce salad wife had ravioli with mushrooms excellent — waitress very nice very friendly — Carusos II IS GREAT !

Love this Italian-​American style restaurant that upon my first visit put me right back home in NJ, reminding me of the small family-​run places where old tried-​and-​true recipes served to guests are the same recipes served in the family’s own home. It seems like the reviewers who did not like this place prefer corporate chain-​restaurant slickness and presentation, where you can get a big plate of generic Google-​image lasagna or puffy-​dough pizza, devoid of love and homemade goodness. If just want to plop your family in a budget-​friendly franchise factory, don’t bother coming here because you’re not going to ‘get it’.
On our first night dining here, my husband was very hungry (bordering on full-​fledged cranky) so we asked for an order or garlic bread to come out asap. Our server and the Italian grandmother-​woman who seated us both nodded and assured us they were putting it in right away. We had antipasto salads first and then the bread came. My husband was already happier having his dried meats and olives, and by the time our pizza came out, we were both glad we found this place. The dough was thin, although not quite NY style thin, but tasty with a good texture (not «wonder bread» or too doughy). The sauce is homemade tomato basil, on the sweeter side of marinara, and quite good. The moist mozzarella they shred onsite is good too, heated on the pizza and on top of my eggplant Parmesan (which was cooked correctly, allowing the eggplant to dry in the oven before baking it into the Parmesan dish.) Their side of pasta with that same sweet tomato basil sauce was super satisfying — a nice perfected homemade sauce.
This was a Saturday early evening and the place was packed with families, elderly couples, and some single middle-​aged men, all seeming to be locals or regulars to some degree. A good array of customers, leading me to believe Caruso II must be quite popular and do most things right. I definitely enjoyed my meal there, and will come back next time we want Italian on our way home again.

I called to order a pizza, I could not understand one word from the person that answered the phone

My wife and I have been coming here for decades. We tend to get the dinner for two with spaghetti and a pizza. Sometimes the wait is a bit long but hey, if your in that much of a hurry go to Jack in the Box.
Caruso’s is like going to your friends Italian family’s house for dinner. Relax and have some wine.

I’m completely mystified and amused at the people that think the portions are… small. Unless the wretched Bucco di Beppo is your idea of portion size… This is just fine. Caruso’s is the sh*t!!!

Everything was great!!! We had the ravioli dinner for 2. Salad, garlic bread, ravioli with pesto sauce, a medium cheese pizza, and a canoli for dessert. I would definitely recommend this place to others.

When I lived in Sylmar, I went to the original one back in ’89. When I moved out to Santa Clarita we started coming to this location. Caruso II is a family owned business from Sicily. All there food is made fresh daily and excellent quality. Good prices as well. It does not have fancy décor, but who cares. It is all about the food here. It feels like going to Grandmother’s house for some good home cooking Italian style. Enjoy! Just want to add that the pizza is some of the best in SC.

I’ve dined at the Sylmar location and the food was very delicious. I decided to try the Canyon Country location. I ordered pizza and pasta. The pizza was ok, but the pasta seemed like it was frozen. I was very disappointed. I don’t think I will be eating here again.

I’ve liked Caruso’s in the past, but unfortunately I was disappointed today. I ordered pizza for my family for lunch today. When I arrived, I was told that chef had slightly overcooked the pizza. To be fair, they offered to make me a new one, and I politely declined. I don’t want to waste food, and the pizza wasn’t inedible, it was just that – overcooked.
With tax, I was shocked when I paid over $ 18 for my overcooked pizza. I wasn’t even offered a discount. Caruso’s used to be an affordable alternative to Chi-Chi’s. Not quite Chi-Chi’s quality for not-​quite Chi-Chi’s prices. Today, a large cheese pizza at Caruso’s is $ 16.30. A large pizza at Chi-Chi’s (which I also believe is a slightly larger large than Caruso’s) costs $ 15.95.
Next time, I’ll take my family to Chi-Chi’s. Better food, better ambience, and greater quantity for basically the same price.

My family and I love this place. Great food, priced well and good small business vibe. My favorite is their pizza and ravioli.

We have been eating at Caruso’s since the early 90’s; we moved to Hawaii over ten years ago and always make sure we stop in several times on every trip back to the area. The bread, pizza, sandwiches, ravioli, lasagna, chicken Marsala, desserts – everything are just fantastic! We have nothing like this on the island. The entire staff at Caruso’s are wonderful and so helpful– we love this restaurant and wish we could persuade them to open another location in Hawaii.

After a bottle of Port, my friends and I decided that walking to dinner would be far wiser than driving. Since this place is just a quick jaunt down the road from my home, we ended up here. As we walked in, an nice old lady welcomed us, and asked us if we wanted a booth or a table.
We requested a table and nice old lady lead us to one. I’ll admit, she kinda reminded me of my grandmother who passed away some years ago. Not the fastest thing on two legs, but really extremely helpful and nice. We sat down at our table, and perused the menu nice old lady handed us. After some debating, the three of us decided upon the ravioli family dinner for four ($ 60). We thought the two people wouldn’t be enough, and the next level up was four people. It’s okay, the three of us are what one would call, ‘healthy eaters’.
Nice old lady hobbled off with our order and soon (ish) came back with three salads on a tray. The salads were cold and crisp, cheese covered lettuce, tomato and onions. An Oil & Vinegar dressing was in a small tub alongside the salad. As we were finishing up the salads, nice old lady delivered a basket of garlic bread. It was heavily buttered and garlicked. I heartily approved.
Before we were done with the bread, our ravioli plates came up. Four plates of steaming beef ravioli covered with a thick marinara sauce. I let my two friends share the fourth plate, as I was getting quite full on the food I’d already eaten. Both of my friends commented on how good the marinara sauce was. I agreed with their comments. It was good stuff. The ravioli that it was with was also quite tasty.
Just as I was finishing my ravioli, nice old lady came back yet again, this time with a large cheese pizza. I moved the pizza tray from the wall, and she placed the pizza on the raised platform. The pizza was mostly cheese, bread and oil. Very little tomato sauce. But the slice or two I managed to get down was pretty good. My friends commented on how much they liked it. I was okay with it.
After we were done, nice old lady came back with the fourth salad in a bag, and box for the leftover pizza.
As we finished up, we decided that with the amount of food, we’d have been content with the two person dinner. The pasta, salad, bread, and pizza were all good. Well worth the money we paid for it. AND it’s within walking distance of my home. Good job.
I’ll definitely be back here in the future. Seems like it would be a pretty nice date place.