Rustico Trattoria

This is a diamond in the rough in this part of Westport. Don’t let the looks deceive you. We’ve passed this place many times. My family generally don’t eat Italian because most places have a limited selection beyond the ‘olive garden’ fare, poor pasta, and heavy sauces. However, this place has some great dishes. We also like how the place is quiet. We can eat & have a discussion. Definitely recommend getting a reservations as it can fill up quickly.

My family and I had dinner here recently. Could not have been more excellent. The service, the ambiance, the food. Superb! Highly recommend — try the pappardelle, out of the world.

I am so excited! We are relatively new to town and we just found out favorite local Italian restaurant! It is perfect for date night or with another couple. The food is amazing. So much better than I anticipated. The atmosphere perfect small Italian restaurant. We have been so many restaurants — really good popular restaurants and this measures up or even better and I am so glad it’s right down the street.

Just discovered this delightful little place a few days ago. It does indeed fee like an authentic trattoria, with owners and staff still clearly working on their Englilsh but perfectly helpful and welcoming as only authetnic Italian service can be.
And this comfortable and quietly elegant place is a welcome relief from the typical rather pretentious and pricey and rather pseudo «Italianesque» places all over the Westport area. It doesn’t go out of its way to be «charming», but it just naturally is.
The menu choices are dazzlingly excellent and excellently prepared. The cuisine is a combination of southern Italian with the spicing and creative flourishes showing more than a hint of sophistication deriving from the background of the chef in the Cote d“Azur area.
We sampled a delicious mussels appetizer with zucchini and wine sauce, a ristotta with shrimp that was ample and scrumptious and a very nice pasta with lamb meatballs, feta cheese and a wonderful hint of mint.
It is an ideal and truly welcoming restaurant to go with friends for a relaxed but yet elegant dinner and I myself plan to take a date their soon. We noted that they had installed a quite attractive looking bar, but I would not hesitate an instant in having a festive family gathering there either. I don’t usually provide reviews but this Trattoria deserves to be known better.

This restaurant has the best food and the best service in all of Fairfield county. Chef Miguel D’Onofrio has consistently cooked my fish, meat, pasta, and (most importantly!) veggies absolutely perfectly. Broccoli is always just right — not too un-​or-​over cooked.
Tonight, my tuna with pesto sauce was spectacular, while my companion always gets «Sauce Rustico» consisting of a mélange of veggies with cherry peppers on nearly any main course — tonight on cod — and it simply can not be beat.
And their home made grappa or limoncello is always a delicious ending to an amazing meal!
Moving here from Manhattan, the food shock was a bit depressing. Thankfully, we found Rustico. And you should too. Run, don’t walk (as they say), to this restaurant.
Soon they will have a social bar… stay tuned! I’ll be here. Will you?

My family and I had a fabulous dinner. Burrata was fresh and creamy, the prosciutto was perfect, thin and fell apart, the way it should be! My pasta was out of this world and it was fresh, it was cooked an impeccable al dente. The owners are Italian so who better to cook and serve Italian food? Awesome restaurant and I plan to go move often after so enjoying our first time!

Excellent menu with the freshest ingredients and first class service. Candlelight and gentle Mediterranean music create a «worlds away» enjoyable environment. Reservations are a great idea for Thursdays thru Saturdays.

We had dinner at Rustico on Saturday. Very small place, not enough room to move once seated. I ordered chicken which was suppose to be pan roasted, it was not. The chicken was boiled and hard rock, had difficulty in cutting it, it was old, and the red pepper should have been roasted, it was not, it was boiled and probably preserved in a jar. My husband ordered sausages over pasta which had no taste. No sauce to cover the pasta nor the shaved sausages. We then ordered desert; apple strudel, which was burned and we told the waiter that this is burned strudel, he just did not say anything. The ice cream with the desert was the best.

We took my parents here for their wedding anniversary. None of us had been to Rustico, but the reviews seemed pretty good.
Overall a solid dinner spot. I will agree that the menu is rather limited, but it seems like they really shine with their daily specials. They had an app special, a meat special, a pasta special and a fish special. Both my boyfriend and mom ordered teh pasta special and they said it was amazing — gnocchi with fresh figs, mushrooms, broccoli, tomatoes and ricotta cheese.
We started out with some calamari — which is the only complaint that we had. The calamari should have been fried, but instead it was a little undercooked. The taste of the calamari was excellent, just the frying was not great. We also had the burrata — yum! The mozzarella was perfect!
For dinner I had the pappardelle, which I asked if they could substitute sweet sausage instead of hot. The waiter told me that they only had hot sausage, but the flavor of the hot sausage would not be overwhelming. And he was right — while it offered a nice flavor, it did not dominate the dish. I think everyone at our table really enjoyed their meals — I heard no complaints! The portion sizes were also good — enough to be filling, yet not so much that you felt stuffed and gross afterwards.
For dessert we had the crème brûlée and the chocolate cream puffs — both were great!
It was a little quiet here on a Tuesday night, but I wouldn’t take that as a bad thing. The waiter informed us that the head chef is also the owner, so clearly he wants to make sure his food is good. Totally worth a try and I can’t wait to go back and try some other things!

Just had a phenomenal meal at Rustico tonight.
First time as a guest, but my husband has taken clients here on several occasions in the past year and he was very impressed each time. Not only is the food authentic, fresh and flavorful, but the service was exceptional. Our waiter was Jose and he is a pro. He made a wonderful wine suggestion that we all loved. Yes, the wine list is brief, but it offers a nice variety and did not disappoint.
Our dinner guests were raised in first generation Italian households. My husband and I have traveled and enjoyed home cooked meals in Italy. Everything we ate at Rustico could easily compete with our expectations of a proper, authentic Italian dish.
I am stumped by the less than stellar reviews written about this restaurant last year. All I can say is that we experienced the complete opposite. Great food, great service.

Love the service here, very hands on and makes you feel right at home. we ate here last week (date night) and my husband got the pork special, it was thinly sliced and garnished with oranges. DELICIOUS! Had to order a second!

My family (kids are teens) and I go to this restaurant a couple of times a month. Each and every time the service is outstanding. The wait staff is attentive and knowledgeable and the food is always delicious. The Osso Bucco is excellent as are the pasta dishes. They are also extremely accommodating such that if there is something that I want that is not on the menu, they are happy to make it if they have the ingredients.

This place is almost across the street from my office and today I went there for lunch. The menu is somewhat limited as pointed out by others and so is the wine list however, the food was good and considering the price, it offered a great value. The staff was very attentive.

Friendly and helpful staff but menu is limited and food only average. The Veal Scallopini had little taste and was cold. Sea Bass was average. Wine list also limited (although affordable) and they were out of my 1^st choice Barollo. Pleasant experience but not more.

I’ve eaten here about a dozen times and haven’t experienced any of the complaints of the negative reviewers. I’m glad I didn’t find these reviews before I started going, they would have scared me away. This is one of my favorite restaurants. It the restaurant I go to when I want upscale Italian food in a comfortable atmosphere. The staff go out of their way to make us feel welcome and the food is always high quality and cooked perfectly. I love their stracciatella romana soup, roasted figs wrapped with speck procuitto (seasonal), clams vongolle, Chilian sea bass, and so much more. The homemade tiramisu is the best I’ve ever had.

What a disappointment! Had heard good things but it was just not good. Called to ask what time the restaurant opened and was told 5 o’Clock. But was told by the person who answered the phone to «not come at 5 p.m. because they were out shopping for the food.» WHAT!!! So we arrived around 5:15. Place is dark and not charming at all. We ordered a sparkling water and a glass of prosecco which came promptly. When I asked about any «specials» for the evening I was given an abrupt answer that the chef was not ready with the specials yet.. Sat with our drinks — no bread. I asked about bread and was told it was not ready as it was in the oven!!! WHAT!!! No olive oil but a small, very small, dish of tapenade came finally with some very ordinary little crusts of bread. The service was very ordinary and I felt we were not treated graciously. The appetizer of peppers and sausage was all right. Should have been served hotter. Our main dishes of papardelle with broccoli rabe and sausage was less than average. The sausages were okay but the papardelle had obviously been boiled earlier — the edges were overdone (it is a wide pasta so you can tell) and it also was not cooked well or served hot enough. We left with no coffee and no dessert. But we were asked to make sure and come back again. WHAT??? It was not cheap and unfortunately quite awful. Also empty at 6:30 p.m. Perhaps others are feeling what we felt. Never again.

The staff here is just so warm and friendly that you want to patronize the restaurant. The bread was better than average and the tapenade served with it was a nice touch. The salad, while excellent came out on a dish that was hot from the dishwasher which is just bad form in my mind. The burrata was yummy. My son had the filet mignon special which was excellent and cooked exactly the way he asked. medium rare. The roasted potatoes that came as a side need improvement. I had the pasta dish with broccoli rabe, sausage, and garlic and enjoyed the pasta texture and the sausage was quite good. The check came and I found it to be fair for the experience. Once again… the staff make this place a pleasure!

We went into Rustico despite the fact that it was empty in a town where lots of people eat out. I think we had such fond memories of Pane Vino that we just had to try it. I had no problem with the wait staff who were friendly and prompt and did not bother us unless we needed something. Unfortunately the food is really mediocre – MUCH better Italian can be had for much less in many other places. The bread was forgettable (not the chewy, crispy crust we favor) and the flat bread was soggy. I had a lamb chop dish with arugula and shaved parm but the dish was oily and too salty. The lamb chops were nice, well cooked and with a bit of crispy edge but the salad just did not work. It needed to be lighter, maybe with a touch of diced tomato and way less grease. My companion had lasagna which was also just fair. The tomato sauce (which should be glorious with sweet tomatoes this time of year) was drab. The melted mozz cheese was salty and lacking in freshness. We did not even consider dessert. Also to note, my glass of chardonnay was awful, it was tart and had no depth. I drowned it in ice but did not much enjoy it even then. Not a keeper.

We had dinner last night at Rustico and it was good + … I really liked the home made focaccia bread and the minestra soup with escarole. The other stuff we had was also good and there was attention to detail with preparation and service. You could tell a chef ran the kitchen and the business. We were part way through the meal and we were saying how everything was good and we both sort of realized we might never come back !!! Why you ask? There are so many good places to go, the menu here was very average, nothing jumped out at us. I like to eat at places that it is actually a tough decision to figure out apps & entrée because everything sounds so good. Like I said, everything was good, but the competition is stiff these days — and the life spans of restaurants are growing shorter. I hope if this review reaches the right ears, that they dig deep, reach high and make the right maneuvers to stay in business. I always lean towards simplification — make your menu 8 items — but each one is a complete winner. Good luck.