Rustico Restaurant & Wine Bar

I have been going to Rustico for years. Sometimes it’s great, sometimes it is not so great. I visited the restaurant last week and it was the worst I have ever had there. Their flatbreads are half the size they used to be. On the one we ordered it was supposed to have prosciutto ham, but the ham was lucky to be a cooked ham from a local grocery store. The salad we ordered was with poached pears and pine nuts however it contained canned pears and no pine nuts.
I really wish this place could be consistent but unfortunately I can’t afford to chance it anymore. There are too many places in the area we can go and count on our food being good and use the ingredients they promise.

Dined at Rustico 1÷27÷16 — would have given a five star rating but the restaurant was understaffed on our visit.
However, our server did an excellent job. She helped with our wine selection, we were there on ½ price wine night a great value, and answered all questions regarding the menu. Both the food and service by Jenny were both excellent. Will visit again.

This place has the best food. The happy hour prices are amazing. You must try the baked Brie.

My wife and I had dinner and it was the best meal we’ve had in years! I had the lobster ravioli which was absolutely phenomenal, and she had the Crêpe Aubergine (egglplant appetizer) which was so good, she ordered another as her meal! I don’t even like eggplant and I loved it too. The wine was fantastic and the atmosphere was perfect! Definitely the best restaurant around!

One of my Kent Island favorites! Service is impeccable each and every time! Jenny was out server tonight and couldn’t have been any better! The crab bisque was flavored to perfection and we didn’t know where to begin on the antipasti platter! Followed that with both an Italiano and crab flatbread. Both were superb!

Based on the star ratings, Rustico gets a, «Meh, I’ve experienced better,» which is probably generous. Service tonight was not on point. We waited over an hour and fourty-​five minutes for our main course. Heck, we waited over 15 minutes just to be seen once seated. A $ 32– filet was just OK and my wife’s entrée was cold. We’ve eaten at Rustico before, albeit over a year ago, and the experience was very different. The 15% tip we left, which was actually very generous for our party of five, obviously insulted the waitress, as she threw the bill down and walked away without a smile or goodbye. (She had to run the credit card manually which took an arduous amount of time, as the credit card system was down.) We will write this restaurant out of circulation until we get a strong recommendation to reconsider.

They need to get their credit card system fixed. Second time in a row was manual. Not good. This is not 1990s.

We gave it a second trial, order something completely different. In general, the seasoning is too salty. It is true for the crab bisque and for the rockfish too. My crêpe is an OK, but not impressive. Bread is still good, fortunately. So far the new chef and the new food is only not bad, but not perfect. Especially with its new higher price, I don’t think the new food meets the expectation and standard of the price they are asking for.

… great service. great food. Can’t go wrong with anything on the menu. Seafood and pasta paired perfectly.

This quaint restaurant is the gem of Kent Island. Not only is the food outstanding but the service as well.
My husband and I were there on Friday and ordered the Wild Boar Ragu with Saffron Fettuccine and the Seafood Crepes.
Upon ordering, we weren’t sure what wine to try so our server, Jenny, suggested a wonderful bottle of red. She was quite knowledgeable with what to recommend after inquiring about our tastes.
Needless to say, we will be back again and again. It was very relaxing and a wonderful way to spend our Friday evening.

My family & I traveled up to MD for a relaxing weekend on the bay and didn’t venture far to find excellent crafted dishes. There were five of us and every entrée was flawless. The seafood was spot on in top quality local fair paired with excellent service from Amanda. A must visit for anyone searching for an unforgettable dinning experience.

In town for a wedding, came here with some extended family members on a Friday night for dinner. Big group so we were probably a lot to handle but our waitress was extremely friendly and attentive!
We started with calamari and caprese salad, both were good, but the calamari was half the size of what you would get at a normal restaurant and it was extremely salty.
For dinner some of us got pasta dishes, my mother got the salmon, and my father got the rockfish. I enjoyed my gnocchi, although the pieces were a bit too large and some of them weren’t cooked all the way through. My mom loved her salmon and my dad loves his rockfish, but the pasta-​like things that came on the side of both dishes were not properly cooked, they were clumped together almost as though they had been heated by a microwave. It also took a really long time for our entrees to come out, I’d say about 50 minutes after we ordered, so we were there much longer than we wanted.

I’m still dreaming about my pasta from last night. We have enjoyed dinner at Rustico two weeks in a row. We have tried two of the specials and two menu listed pastas and they were all heavenly. Wednesday is half priced bottles of wine which doesn’t hurt either. The flat breads are great as well. Try the Siciliana flat bread and the orrichette Mediterranean pasta.

My party of seven had a great dining experience at Rustico! The service was fast and attentive; our waitress was very helpful with the menu and wine list. The wait for the food was not too long and all of our plates came out piping hot. We shared a few appetizers and each got our own entrees.
There were no leftovers! We ate all the delicious food… but don’t worry, the portions were very generous (we just had big appetites after a day on the beach haha).
I recommend getting the seafood items (though the pastas are also very good)!

Nice atmosphere with bar seating, dining room seating, and outdoor seating as well. Traffic can be a little noisy outside but not bad enough to spoil the evening.
Wine selection is great and their Flatbread is very good as well.
Service is okay but they have different specials depending on where you are sitting and it gets very confusing for not only the patrons bit staff as well. Got 3 different answers about specials the last time I was there.

It’s amazing what new ownership and a new chef can do for a restaurant. For quite some time I had heard about how good Rustico was and when we finally got an opportunity to go there, it was underwhelming. That was then and this is now.
They are under new ownership with a new chef and a new menu (thank God). Even more impressive, the chef knows how to cook. We had dinner there tonight and it was excellent — I was very happy to see dishes like confit of rabbit and wild boar ragu on the menu. Carpaccio in Stevensville? Yes and it was awesome. The menu is well thought out with a wide range of Italian selections to please just about anyone. It is gratifying to see both the owner and the chef stray from more mundane Italian fare into a menu that is more daring and contemporary.
The wine selection is excellent (and yes, they now have chillers for white wines!) The entrée portions are enormous and are competitively priced — with this quality, service, and selection they could very easily end up putting some of their competition out of business.
We like the new Rustico very much and intend to make this a regular stop.

Disappointed in this visit.

Very good meal and excellent service. This is casual fine dining at it’s best. I would have to say with their new menu and chef this is the best restaurant on Kent Island. They also have a wine selection second to none on the Eastern Shore.
I got the Agnello (mint crusted New Zealand lamb on plumb tomatoes and asparagus, with mashed potatoes). It was cooked to perfection with a generous portion of lamb. Much bigger than most fine dining sizes.
My wife got the Ragu al Chinghiale (wild boar ragu with safron fettuccine). It was delicious, also with a generous portion.
For dessert we shared a Truffle Cake. It was just good, but the sauce was outstanding.
Our server, Jenny, was very attentive and knowledgeable of the menu.
I would highly recommended making reservations, especially on the weekends. We saw several people turned away that had not. You can easily make reservations online.
They are no longer serving lunch and are now solely focusing on their dinner service with their new, very skilled chef.
We ate early and our food came out quickly. However, I have heard that on busy weekend evenings there is sometimes a considerable wait time for food to arrive. With that said, I will say the food is fresh and cooked to order. This is no reheated, frozen food, chain restaurant. The prices are not cheap either, but you do get what you pay for.
My only negative is parking. There is limited parking out front about a block down the road. The parking lot in the rear is very dark, filled with holes, and was very muddy on our visit. The owner needs to have the lot paved and lights need to be installed before someone gets hurt.
I can’t wait to visit again soon.

Living on the Lower Shore as I do, I don’t often have occasion to dine at Mid-​Shore establishments. I selected this place from a list a friend searched for online while we were in town as his child participated in an athletic tournament shortly after Christmas. The place looks rustic, all right, with earth-​toned furnishings and wall colors and wines racked on the walls. We were seated promptly and attended to by a cheery waitress whose name, sadly, I don’t remember. I selected the mozzarella caprese for an appetizer (pic attached). The tower of ingredients fell apart immediately as I tried to cut into it and the layers slid around, but the taste was still good – delicate, fresh-​tasting mozzarella and appropriately sweet-​piquant balsamic glaze. This appetizer will be better when Eastern Shore tomatoes are in season in all their summer glory. For my entreé, I chose a salad I don’t see on the online menu any more (the menu is changing this week), composed of greens, goat cheese, strawberries and pine nuts; I asked for a piece of salmon on top. The salmon was lightly dusted with Old Bay, and was a touch dry; the goat cheese of the salad, however, was among the best I’ve ever had, delicate and creamy, not floury as some goat cheeses tend to be. Were I the chef, I might have stuck to dried cranberries and walnuts, since strawberries weren’t in season when we were there. However, the strawberries and pine nuts I did get were just fine.
Friend ordered a pasta which I also no longer see on the menu, but might be similar to the Cavatelli Pugliese, a tomato-​sauced pasta with chunks of sausage and herbs. It might have been a nightly special he ordered. The serving was generous and rich – Friend is a big guy, but he couldn’t finish it all. (I suspect filling up on the Amber Sun ale from 16 Mile Brewery didn’t help!)
I brought home the cheesecake of the day, a white chocolate amaretto from neighbor bakery Peace of Cake. It is a standard Italian-​type cheesecake, meaning it has a slightly more grainy texture than New York-​style because of the ricotta cheese used. The amaretto flavor dominated; the white chocolate flavor was barely detectable. I did eat half when I got home and half the next morning for breakfast.
The ambiance that night was friendly and convivial; conversations did not need to be shouted, which I appreciate and which was a bonus considering there is little to absorb sound in the main dining room.
The check for two, including tax and tip, came to about $ 76.
I would like to come back when the weather warms up a bit and try one of their pizzas. All in all, a good dependable place to eat Italian on this side of the Chesapeake. I’d give it 3 ½ stars for the food, but since half-​stars aren’t available, I’m rounding up because of the nice server. I see some other reviewers here had bad experiences with servers, but we can’t say that about ours; she was friendly, helpful, and prompt.
PS to Rustico’s menu writers: I found several typos on the menu, including «mozzerella,» «Ceasar,» «Puglesi,» «studel,» and «Mediteranean.» Some of these words are spelled correctly elsewhere on the menu, and I know you can spell, because you got «prosciutto» and «mascarpone» correct (the next restaurant that spells it «proscuitto» or «marscapone» gets zero stars from me). A little more attention to detail is much appreciated.

My favorite pizza hands down is what is known as «Pizza Rustica» in Rome, Italy. The crust is thin, the sauce is light, and the garnishments and taste are simply incredible. When we travel to Rome, this is always a MUST, and trying to find it anywhere else is simply «mission impossible».
As we visited Rustico yesterday from Annapolis to have lunch with friend, I was so pleasantly surprised to see other guests enjoying what can only be characterized as the closest you are getting to that scrumptious taste of Pizza Rustica from Rome. We ordered two for the table (3 of us) and couldn’t have been more pleased.