Queer Quisine - Caruso's Italian

Hello again, fellow food lovers!

Today I'm doing Caruso's down on 4th Ave.

Caruso's is what I like to call No Frills Italian. There are some days when I go out to eat when I like my food to look pretty, but there are some days when i don't want to bother with tons of pointless garnishes or a pretty plate arrangement. Just about everything at Caruso's falls under the former category; the food speaks for itself.

Be warned: Just about any time you go to Caruso's there will be wait. How long of a wait depends on the time and day you decide to go. But if you're in a hurry to get in and get out, I'd definitely save Caruso's for a time when you can kick back and hang out.

The atmosphere was almost a little too dark for my taste and we were in very close quarters. In fact, when we were first seated we had to move the table in order for me sit down. Our server wasn't quite up to par either, I'm afraid. It took him several minutes to come to our table with bread (which was actually pretty good!) and to get our drink orders. He never once asked if we'd like more bread of if I'd like a refil on my Coke. In fact, I had to ask him for a refil which he promptly forgot about, requiring me to catch him and ask again. I dont think he asked how our meal was once. It was unfortunate, really, because had we had the right server the experience would have been close to perfect.

Both my dinner date and I got the 1/2 and 1/2 plates: 1/2 a plate of spaghetti, 1/2 ravioli (in this case, we both got cheese ravioli). Faye had her's with marinara sauce, I had mine with meat sauce. Both were good and there was more than enough food. My meat sauce was as close to traditional bolognese sauce as you could get, and I heard no complaints coming from my companion. One nice detail is that there were actually quite a few vegetarian items on the menu that weren't just pasta drowning in marinara sauce, eg. Eggplant parmigiana, veggie lasagne, and cheese manicotti.

The only issue in regards to the menu was with the wine list. The selection was fairly limited and the pinot grigio that Faye ordered wasn't near as crisp as it should have been. But considering the rest of the food was pretty darn good, we can forgive this one thing. It's just too bad that the wine wasn't the only issue with whole experience.

I almost always over-tip, especially if the service was excellent. If the service was good but not outstanding I'll tip the usual 15%, but this guy was so bad I barely left him 10%. That says a lot.

So i'm going to give Caruso's 2 scores; 1 for food, 1 for service, based on my experience of course... here's hoping yours is better!

Caruso's Italian on 4th Ave.
Food: 8/10
Service: 4/10

Caruso's Italian Restaurant
434 4th Ave
Tucson, AZ, 85705 United States