This place is mid. The staff is nice, the atmosphere is not bad. I suspect it’s loud when it’s busy but it wasn’t when we went there. But the food….I hate to say it but it’s underwhelming. From the appetizers to the main course it just seemed like each dish was trying hard to be good but fell just short. The food isn’t very seasoned which gave a sort of bland-ness to it. For example, I ordered a grilled chicken Caesar salad and the chicken was thin, seasoned with salt and pepper but definitely not grilled. Not even seared. It was cooked, certainly not raw or anything, but definitely not grilled and lacked that depth of flavor. The selection was small, the menu was printed on Xerox paper. Maybe they’re just starting out? I don’t know much about it. I don’t think I’d be back, at least not for awhile but I hope they stick around and improve a little bit. The staff was attentive and thoughtful.
Robert Delo
Went last Friday to give this location a second chance as we had gone shortly after they reopened and chalked up the lack luster service to growing pains. This time however ended up even worse than the first time. A shrimp appetizer consisting of 8 of the puniest shrimp imaginable arrived 45 minutes after we had ordered and the food arrived after another 30 minutes still in which my fish was essentially room temp. The waitress seemed more concerned about the potential for some bar crawl group backing them up later than actually checking on us throughout the extreme wait we were experiencing.
Deborah McElroy
My husband and I stopped in to try our new Rizzo’s in East Amherst . We ordered the Wednesday special Chicken Parmasean/ side of Spaghetti bread with homemade pest . Delicious !! $12. 99 Server was excellent . Try it . Full Bar
Brian Schaefer
We stopped in on 10/19, no reservations and were readily accommodated and seated. It was the last weekend of restaurant week and there was a special menu. We had a new server that tried so hard to do a good job and he did. The brassiole was delicious, hot, and more than ample. The drinks and the deserts were of equal quality. The maitre’d stopped by our table to welcome us and spent time with us to make sure all was fine. We look forward to our next visit!
Gary Schaffer
Rizzo's, whether it be in Amhert or Tonawnada, offers great food, service, and a friendly environment for a great price. You simply cannot beat it. At. At a time where inflation is higher but price guaging from restaurants is even higher in my view, I feel Rizzos had been above fair in their prices. The service is great and they make it work. I wish everyone would go there bc it is such a local treasure. The staff and owner deserve to be rewarded for being so fair to customers regarding price, service, and atmosphere. 40 bucks for pizza, 20 wings, and a picture of beer is unheard of. Great job!
Darcy
Food was excellent. Service was a bit lacking, mixing up beverages & dinner entrees coming out too quickly after salads delivered. Also had to flag server down to ask about dessert & get check.
Steve Goldstein
Food was great ! Bartender was awesome . Don’t sleep on this place . Prices are insanely reasonable. If you went to the old lssscala it’s def worth giving it a shot !
EdwardS
Very disappointing experience at Rizzos on Transit. The physical restaurant is extremely attractive .... Just need to dedicate a little more attention to cleaning and removing window planters full of dead vines. Meal was way below expectations. Music was so loud our conversation was high decibel. Could be a really great place. Needs a lot of attention and tlc. Probably not going to be returning anytime soon
Food and service were great, however there was Hardly anyone in the restaurant, they were out of 3 major dishes, host's attitude was like he was bored. Dead plants in window (get silk or assign someone to water them?) They only opened a few months ago but they should be getting staff training on hospitality or at least how to fake it. I fear this place will fail if they don't make an effort to make the experience more welcoming. We loved Rizzos back in the day when it was in a “too small” building in Williamsville.
One of our party ordered a broccoli pasta dish. She was served some sort of artichoke pasta. After the amount of time we waited for our food, she decided not to say anything for fear it would take a good half hour to get a replacement. Out of lasagna at an Italian restaurant? Really?? The chicken parm was far more breading on it than I've ever seen before. The sauce wasn't bad if you like a sweeter sauce. Even with the order mix up, we loved our server. Super friendly and fun! Unfortunately, we won't be back. Just wasn't very good.
Excellent service. Our server was pleasant. Food was delicious. Love that there is a great variety from pizza to pasta. Personal favorite is fried calamari for an appetizer and pasta al vodka with chicken my friend had eggplant parm. Both came with salads. Absolutely love the creamy balsamic dressing and really loved the bread and pesto. I am a little surprised there was only cannoli for dessert but other than that food and cocktails were delicious!
Peter Fletcher
We ate dinner here on Saturday, May 18, 2024. Got seated right away, and the waiter appeared promptly to take our order. Things then started to go downhill! I ordered Veal Francaise, I think my wife ordered Chicken Marsala. We didn't order appetizers, but both of the Entrees include a house salad. After a few minutes (not an unreasonably long time), our salads arrived, and we ate them reasonably slowly. After a further few minutes (probably a total of 20 minutes after we put in our original order), the waiter returned with the news that "the chef was out of veal". My principal problem with this is not that they had run out of veal, but that it had apparently taken 20 minutes for anyone to notice! I would have expected them to have a system to ensure that unavailable items were immediately flagged up - even if the waiter had not known about the issue when he took my order, I would expect him to have found out about it immediately when he submitted the order. I then ordered Cheese Ravioli, expecting to get the usual 1" pasta cushions. What I actually got was rather strange - it seemed to be a pile of cheese filling with some strips of pasta in it. The taste of this was OK, and the sauce was decent, but I wouldn't have described it as ravioli. My wife's entree was more or less what she expected and was reasonably tasty. Nevertheless, we will not be returning in a hurry.
LukeP
Seated within 5 minutes of reservation. Busy night. 2 large parties of 16. Might have gummed up the works a little. Out service explained that food would be a a little slow coming out. We had a few delicious apps and drank a little wine. When it came out everything was delicious. Our compliments to the chef. He stopped by to thank us for being patient. We will return
SheldonK
The food was great and typical of Rizzo's. The red sauce is outstanding as is the house salad dressing. They were out of a few items when we were there for our 7:30 PM reservation. I know they are still trying to settle into this restaurant. But, we had plenty to choose from. The service was good and friendly. We miss the ambience of the old restaurant on New Road, though. It was like a neighborhood cafe. But I admit that it was sometimes overcrowded. This spot is much larger.
Festivas
I've been a fan of Rizzos for years and was excited to try it again. Ordered my usual meal of pasta, vegetables etc but the meal was dry, had to add pesto to give it flavor. Bread was not as good as the site on Eggert road My husbands chicken parm was much better than my meal. Service was efficient. I will be back when the restaurant gets their act together and improve meals that have been on the menu for years.
This place is mid. The staff is nice, the atmosphere is not bad. I suspect it’s loud when it’s busy but it wasn’t when we went there. But the food….I hate to say it but it’s underwhelming. From the appetizers to the main course it just seemed like each dish was trying hard to be good but fell just short. The food isn’t very seasoned which gave a sort of bland-ness to it. For example, I ordered a grilled chicken Caesar salad and the chicken was thin, seasoned with salt and pepper but definitely not grilled. Not even seared. It was cooked, certainly not raw or anything, but definitely not grilled and lacked that depth of flavor. The selection was small, the menu was printed on Xerox paper. Maybe they’re just starting out? I don’t know much about it. I don’t think I’d be back, at least not for awhile but I hope they stick around and improve a little bit. The staff was attentive and thoughtful.
Went last Friday to give this location a second chance as we had gone shortly after they reopened and chalked up the lack luster service to growing pains. This time however ended up even worse than the first time. A shrimp appetizer consisting of 8 of the puniest shrimp imaginable arrived 45 minutes after we had ordered and the food arrived after another 30 minutes still in which my fish was essentially room temp. The waitress seemed more concerned about the potential for some bar crawl group backing them up later than actually checking on us throughout the extreme wait we were experiencing.
My husband and I stopped in to try our new Rizzo’s in East Amherst . We ordered the Wednesday special Chicken Parmasean/ side of Spaghetti bread with homemade pest . Delicious !! $12. 99 Server was excellent . Try it . Full Bar
We stopped in on 10/19, no reservations and were readily accommodated and seated. It was the last weekend of restaurant week and there was a special menu. We had a new server that tried so hard to do a good job and he did. The brassiole was delicious, hot, and more than ample. The drinks and the deserts were of equal quality. The maitre’d stopped by our table to welcome us and spent time with us to make sure all was fine. We look forward to our next visit!
Rizzo's, whether it be in Amhert or Tonawnada, offers great food, service, and a friendly environment for a great price. You simply cannot beat it. At. At a time where inflation is higher but price guaging from restaurants is even higher in my view, I feel Rizzos had been above fair in their prices. The service is great and they make it work. I wish everyone would go there bc it is such a local treasure. The staff and owner deserve to be rewarded for being so fair to customers regarding price, service, and atmosphere. 40 bucks for pizza, 20 wings, and a picture of beer is unheard of. Great job!
Food was excellent. Service was a bit lacking, mixing up beverages & dinner entrees coming out too quickly after salads delivered. Also had to flag server down to ask about dessert & get check.
Food was great ! Bartender was awesome . Don’t sleep on this place . Prices are insanely reasonable. If you went to the old lssscala it’s def worth giving it a shot !
Very disappointing experience at Rizzos on Transit. The physical restaurant is extremely attractive .... Just need to dedicate a little more attention to cleaning and removing window planters full of dead vines. Meal was way below expectations. Music was so loud our conversation was high decibel. Could be a really great place. Needs a lot of attention and tlc. Probably not going to be returning anytime soon
Food and service were great, however there was Hardly anyone in the restaurant, they were out of 3 major dishes, host's attitude was like he was bored. Dead plants in window (get silk or assign someone to water them?) They only opened a few months ago but they should be getting staff training on hospitality or at least how to fake it. I fear this place will fail if they don't make an effort to make the experience more welcoming. We loved Rizzos back in the day when it was in a “too small” building in Williamsville.
One of our party ordered a broccoli pasta dish. She was served some sort of artichoke pasta. After the amount of time we waited for our food, she decided not to say anything for fear it would take a good half hour to get a replacement. Out of lasagna at an Italian restaurant? Really?? The chicken parm was far more breading on it than I've ever seen before. The sauce wasn't bad if you like a sweeter sauce. Even with the order mix up, we loved our server. Super friendly and fun! Unfortunately, we won't be back. Just wasn't very good.
Restaurantji Recommends
Excellent service. Our server was pleasant. Food was delicious. Love that there is a great variety from pizza to pasta. Personal favorite is fried calamari for an appetizer and pasta al vodka with chicken my friend had eggplant parm. Both came with salads. Absolutely love the creamy balsamic dressing and really loved the bread and pesto. I am a little surprised there was only cannoli for dessert but other than that food and cocktails were delicious!
We ate dinner here on Saturday, May 18, 2024. Got seated right away, and the waiter appeared promptly to take our order. Things then started to go downhill! I ordered Veal Francaise, I think my wife ordered Chicken Marsala. We didn't order appetizers, but both of the Entrees include a house salad. After a few minutes (not an unreasonably long time), our salads arrived, and we ate them reasonably slowly. After a further few minutes (probably a total of 20 minutes after we put in our original order), the waiter returned with the news that "the chef was out of veal". My principal problem with this is not that they had run out of veal, but that it had apparently taken 20 minutes for anyone to notice! I would have expected them to have a system to ensure that unavailable items were immediately flagged up - even if the waiter had not known about the issue when he took my order, I would expect him to have found out about it immediately when he submitted the order. I then ordered Cheese Ravioli, expecting to get the usual 1" pasta cushions. What I actually got was rather strange - it seemed to be a pile of cheese filling with some strips of pasta in it. The taste of this was OK, and the sauce was decent, but I wouldn't have described it as ravioli. My wife's entree was more or less what she expected and was reasonably tasty. Nevertheless, we will not be returning in a hurry.
Seated within 5 minutes of reservation. Busy night. 2 large parties of 16. Might have gummed up the works a little. Out service explained that food would be a a little slow coming out. We had a few delicious apps and drank a little wine. When it came out everything was delicious. Our compliments to the chef. He stopped by to thank us for being patient. We will return
The food was great and typical of Rizzo's. The red sauce is outstanding as is the house salad dressing. They were out of a few items when we were there for our 7:30 PM reservation. I know they are still trying to settle into this restaurant. But, we had plenty to choose from. The service was good and friendly. We miss the ambience of the old restaurant on New Road, though. It was like a neighborhood cafe. But I admit that it was sometimes overcrowded. This spot is much larger.
I've been a fan of Rizzos for years and was excited to try it again. Ordered my usual meal of pasta, vegetables etc but the meal was dry, had to add pesto to give it flavor. Bread was not as good as the site on Eggert road My husbands chicken parm was much better than my meal. Service was efficient. I will be back when the restaurant gets their act together and improve meals that have been on the menu for years.
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