Pizza Rustica

I went to Rustica almost every Friday for pizza and salad. The manager behind the counter is there eve time and is extremely rude. But I dealt with it. This last time I came in to pick up my pizza and was on the phone waiting in line. Finally after I waited about 5 minutes while he totaled receipts which he always did and made me wait, he’s said he would not serve me until I was off the phone.
Keep in mind all I had to do was pay! I realize it was not the most polite thing but I was not talking rather listening to a very dear friend who was upset.
I said I would not get off and could he just accept my credit card and I would get my pizza an leave. He refused went and got my pizza three it in the garbage and said it dropped and refused to serve me.
He was always rude and angry but this was over the top. I won’t go back which is a shame since I went every Friday. Where is the customer service. He is rude and angry and does not know how to interact with people!

Their margherita pizza is very good. My family will send me out of my normal route home just to pick up a pie to bring home. I have only gotten takeout. Parking can be limited depending on the time of day. I prefer that the pizza slices on a whole pie are more equal to one another than not, and I have often received pizzas slices that vary in size. Not really an issue, unless you have kids fighting over the how much pizza they get.

We’re East Coast natives new to California and the Bay Area and everyone back home said, «good luck, it’s hard to get a good pizza out there.»
But Oakland was defying all the nay-​sayers and we’ve had excellent pizzas from Zachary’s, Star, and Slicer.
We were in Montclair Village tonight when our kids declared they wanted pizza. So we followed Unilocal to Pizza Rustica. Unfortunately, we did not have as good of an experience as other Unilocalers and feel very fair in saying we will not order here again.
We walked up and ordered at the counter and ordered a half rotisserie chicken, a side of sweet potatos and a medium (14″) «Carnivore» pizza.
Our kids love rotisserie chicken but I noticed that the rotisserie oven was clean and empty in the front so I asked to see if they even had any tonight. The guy at the counter said yes. The menu said chicken was only available after 4 and it was 6. But the chicken — while mostly good — was also dried out on some parts. Indication that the chicken was probably cooked long ago. Bummer.
The pizza was vaguely horrifying. It was so badly burnt that they cut off part of the crust. But this isn’t like overdoing your toast and scraping off the black bits. Even with the parts they cut off, there was still plenty of char on the crust.
Thankfully, the toppings and the center of the pizza tasted alright so it wasn’t completely inedible. Though a word of warning: the «Cajun sausage» is a «loose» sausage. The flavor isn’t terrible but it’s not particularly spicy for something that’s called Cajun and the texture is a little too similar to cat food to enjoy without pause.

This review is for the pepperoni slice I ate about five hours ago. It was roughly $ 2.5 and priced fairly well. If I wanted a thin (New York-​esque) slice of pizza I would normally go to Pizza My Heart but DAMN, this place has done it right! The sauce is zesty and the pizza tastes just about perfect. I spoke with the owner who recommended some pizzas for me to try next time. She’s nice. I believe I have found my new go-​to pizza spot!
P.S Sometimes when they give you a slice that’s too big for the box, they cut it and it’s literally two full slices. Or maybe the owner thought I was cute and tossed me a bone.
Thanks Italian Owner!
— Garrett

Had delivery two times recently and were very impressed with the food taste and quality, delivery time, everything.
The second time was because the first time was so good — ordered an All-​American pizza, Caesar and then a Insalata Mista Verde salad, ½ of a Tuscan roasted chicken. Really good flavors, especially the balsamic vinaigrette on the Mista salad, and the Caesar salad dressing was on the light side, which is good, and had good taste as well, both were excellent in terms of the quality of the lettuces, etc.
The roasted chicken, Tuscan we ordered, which is lemon and rosemary basically, was fantastic. Moist, the flavor ran through the meat of the whole chicken, fall-​apart good, the skin perfectly crisp. The All-​American Pizza is your basic, classic, meat-​type kitchen sink style with a relatively thin crust. The crust could have been crisper, but that also could have been the fault of the delivery process, which can’t be helped if we’re getting it delivered, but the flavor and amount of ingredients was great.
Delivery time was reasonable and within the window mentioned at ordering. The delivery people both times were pleasant and friendly, even though once it was pouring rain. Like very much how when we call, once we give them our phone number, they have our name and address so ordering is quick and easy.
Very nice operation, will definitely bbe doing this again.

I’d give it five stars if I had eaten here more than one time. The potato, pesto pizza was amazing! We can’t wait to eat here’s again.

Their balsamic roast chicken is delicious and they deliver their chicken dinners right to your door, which is great. But a chicken dinner for two is pricey — almost $ 30.00. Also, their sides are really marginal. I simply can’t order their broccoli with garlic any more because it is inedible. The quality of oil that they use to roast the broccoli is absolutely horrible, the broccoli is over-​cooked and they throw in copious amounts of uncooked garlic. The other sides are lousy too — beet salad is really sweet, the mashed potatoes don’t taste fresh or homemade. Hence, three stars — good, not great and expensive.

The chicken was way overcooked and dry as a bone.
Maybe the pizza is the way to go here…

Average pizza slice at best. The slice lacked sauce, the crust is thin but lacks flavor. There is nothing special about this pizza.

Great pizza. The chicken is to die for. A must try. The potato salad is so good. Services was awesome. Pretty cool people.

Hands down, probably the best pizza I’ve ever had!
I just visited the place last Saturday, and ordered a BBQ chicken and pepperoni pizzas. Just the right amount of crispiness and chewiness for the crust, and plenty of delicious toppings. The service is fast and friendly. I will be back for sure to try other pizzas.

the pizza may be great but I would never know it. I have now tried to order from this place TWICE and been hung up on, told «I can take your order but it’s too busy, there are too many people walking in here». Come on. Maybe be a little less rude, we can all understand a busy restaurant. I would have been willing to wait on hold if you weren’t such a massive d*#k. Too many other great options in this area and more every day.
Just called my order into Fists of Flour!

The pizza is awesome. I’m new to the area and tried round top and red boy. This pizza is much better as I prefer a thinner crust. We also got a rotisserie chicken and loved it. We will be come back.

I’ve been going to Rustica for, I’m guessing, more than 15 years. I used to love the place, love the food. Sadly it’s deteriorated over the years to a sad, dreary little place in need of a through cleaning and updating. I’ve learned over the years to put up with the guy who seems to be the manager/​owner but sadly his attitude has deteriorated over the years. I still enjoy both the Tuscan and Greek chickens as well as many of the salads but going there can be an annoying experience. So please… get on some antidepressants, take the edge off of your attitude and get the place cleaned up… it can be a great neighborhood place again.

Delicious pizza and I love that they deliver to my place. The flavors are balanced, sauce is great, and I’m a fan of the cornmeal crust. One of the things that I love is they make their own sausage. While I think it could be tastier, the blend of herbs (plus fennel) is what makes the sausage.
Minus one star for not quite getting my order right. I’ve ordered pizza over a dozen times and unfortunately more often than not, there’s something wrong with the order. I’ll keep ordering but have come to accept that the pizza that comes to my door won’t be exactly what I’ve ordered.

I have never been to a place where the staff was ruder than here. After waiting in line for 10 min to order a to go pizza, I tried to place my order with the rude man behind the counter, who cut me off mid-​sentence and said «no it will take too long, look at the line» and immediately moved on to the person behind me without even giving me the option to wait (which I would have been happy to). What kind of service is that??? Definitely not (attempting) to go here again.

I love their chickens! I can’t really speak to their pizzas, but the chickens and veggies are amazing. I love that they are Mary’s Organic Free Range, and they are marinated so well you don’t need anything else to have a scrumptious meal that also happens to be healthy. Their beets are incredible too, and they always have a great veggie of the day. So far I’ve had broccoli, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts. And if you order 2 sides you can make it a meal. And you can ask them to cut your chicken into 8ths. Their bread is amazing too, but it can get into trouble since I try to avoid gluten.
The only downside to this place is the spotty customer service. Sometimes I get a guy whose gracious and amazing, and other times I get guys who seem annoyed that I called and keep trying to end the call before I’ve finished my order. Once I placed an order and waited there at a table for it to be done. They told they’d call me when it was ready but when it had been 45 minutes I checked in and they got it from on top of the pizza stove where it had been apparently sitting for a while. Boo. But the food is so good I’m willing to put up with it.
Insider tip, call ahead and get it to go! They love it and it’ll cut down on wait time for you.

Pizza Rustica open during farmers market. deli items, (salads) and pizza slices available.
eats: cheese pizza (3.22)
–generous serving of 2 ½slices.
strings of cheese stretched out when i much on the pizza,
–tomato, cheese, and slight saltiness made pizza tasty
–lack of dough crispiness was dissapointing, crust was limp, not hard.
3 stars
crumbs:
–fast, quick service

I was (note past tense) a VERY regular customer at Pizza Rustica, mainly for the chicken. I order the same kind every time — Tuscan — so when I brought home a chicken last week, I didn’t expect it to be anything but that. But nope, it was a Greek. The Greek flavoring is quite strongly flavored with oregano, so my family was quite disappointed. We didn’t think about returning it, but I did call and let them know and asked for a credit. Begrudgingly, they gave me a $ 10 credit on the next order.
Fast forward to today (yes, I get a chicken a week when my son is home from college!) The owner actually chose to argue with me about the credit, saying that I should have called him to tell him the chicken was the wrong flavor before rather than after trying it. Hmmm, not easy to know what the seasoning was until we tore into the bird, right? But he wasn’t having it and decided to rip me a new one right there and then while waiting for the Tuscan to get packaged up.
Maybe the dude was having a bad day (I waited 10 minutes while he angrily did the account on the cash register and reprimanded his worker about an overage on the balance), but whatever happened to the old adage, «The customer is always right»? Or just simple good business sense to try to retain a regular customer. From the rest of the reviews here, it is clear that customer service is not a priority, and quality seems to be slipping as well.
Good thing there are many options for good food elsewhere.

The food is amazing. I think it’s definitely the best in Montclair– though that cute little village is not the culinary haven you might expect. (That’s a mystery for the ages: how in the world does a neighborhood full of expensive cars and people in tennis clothes have so few really good restaurants?)
So this place has a family style concept. Super smart. So you can score a whole roast chicken and some yummy sides for your brood. Along those lines, the «small» salad is so big, my husband and I can’t finish it. (And that’s saying something. Oink!) Full of fresh high-​qualitiy ingredients and accompanied by delish dressings, these are the best delivery salads I’ve ever had. For serious. They also come with homemade fresh bread that I usually hide from my husband and toast the next morning because toast is more important to me than marital bliss. And the pizza is tooootally yummy. Tasty whole grain crust covered in top-​notch toppings. And weirdly, the sauce is actually my favorite part (which is why I don’t recommend the margherita– you just can’t miss that sauce!).
The phone service is pretty good. They keep my credit card on file, which is a convenience I really appreciate. And the drivers are always nice.
But I gotta tell ya: after reading other Unilocal reviews, I’m not going to head into the location in person anytime soon. I’m a bitter, unforgiving woman (read: Irish), and I can’t risk a rude encounter coming between me and that delicious pie! I just will not take that chance. The owners care about making great food, and that’s all I need (want!) to know.

Worst pizza. Yuck! There is nothing more unpleasant on a pizza than uncooked eggplant. You’re supposed to cook the eggplant beforehand. It was like having dish sponges on a pizza.
Everything about the pizzas we ordered was slop. Globs of oregano here and there, cheese in some places and nowhere on other slices. The green peppers and onions looked like they were boiled and then dropped on the pizza after. Flavourless sauce, if you could find it.
Honestly, I am stunned to have such a lousy pizza for $ 30 no less.
The cooks seem to be following a recipe without regard to the outcome. I can’t imagine they actually eat what they cook.
My kids wanted to rate this zero but we sincerely hope these guys get their act together… soon.

We’ve ordered pizza here for years, so I was surprised by how bad the pizza was tonight. The crust was heavy, pasty and tasteless. It was like something made of old flour and water: soggy, flavorless, no joy. The sauce had so much oregano in it, it threatened to overwhelm all other flavors. The cheese was also bland and industrial. We ended up throwing half of it away. What happened to Rustica? They were never the best place on earth, but they were okay. We won’t be back unless we hear that they’ve improved. Even pizza from the frozen food aisle would have been better than this.

The guys working were not especially friendly, but were quick to get our order, prices were ok, turn around for pick up was good. We wanted a Greek salad but they were out and only the Mista was available. Ordered a half Mista salad and a medium sausage & mushroom pizza. Once I got home and opened it up I was very disappointed. The salad had a ton of shredded Parmesan dumped on top! The salad underneath was good, half was a large portion, but I had to scoop all the Parmesan off. Pizza was undercooked, doughy, I had to bake it again for a while at home. Pizza sauce was boring but at least the sausage and mushroom were good. Again though, it looked like an extra handful of shredded Parmesan was dumped in the center at the last minute.
Feel like I wasted my money here, won’t be back and won’t recommend.

The customer service here has never been notably friendly — the cashiers are often brusque and everyone behind the counter seems a bit overwhelmed by customer demand.
Look at the dates on the photographs of food — some are 2009, some 2012. The food is not the same as it was.
The food is not that good & the customer service here is consistently TERRIBLE in my experience.

The customer service here has never been notably friendly — the cashiers are often brusque and everyone behind the counter seems a bit overwhelmed by customer demand. But until my last visit, the quality of the pizza made up for it. I adored the Basilico in particular. Indeed, this was my Oakland go-​to for thin crust pizza, on those tragic occasions when deluded associates refused to countenance another deep dish from Zachary.
But the last two pies I’ve gotten from here had soggy crusts, sub-​par tomatoes, and on one occasion, a distinct scarcity of artichoke hearts. Color me sad. Actually, color me triumphant: perhaps my deluded confederates will no longer mount protests when I suggest we order from Zachary’s once again.