Russo's New York Pizzeria in League City

Wow this place is great. The happy hour on Thursday is a great deal. Margarita pizza is one of the best I've eaten.

A couple years ago, I read reviews that had this places pizza rated .1 below Grimaldi's, and I've been dying to try it since. Tonight I wonder what those reviewers were thinking. Were they college kids? Were they drunk? We got a pepperoni pizza, spaghetti with meatballs, cheese sticks, and Buffalo wings. The cheese sticks were underdone, with marinara too chunky to dip them in, and keep any on them. The pizza had WAY too much cheese, was floppy, and had such little sauce it couldn't be seen or tasted. Had to pour a solid cup of water out of the spaghetti, and the meatballs were complete, tasteless mush, and. watery. Had the mouth feel of a ball of breadcrumbs soaked in water. The wings were the best thing we had. They were 5/10. We won't be back. Just go to Grimaldi's. You'll be WAY better off. I had such high hopes...Edit:Make sure you're aware you have to order at the counter and our prepay. They WILL let you sit at the table for 30 minutes and never address you, even if there ar...

After a mid-afternoon visit to this location, I was reminded in multiple ways why I don't generally care for chain restaurants. Russo's New York Pizzeria is a cool, slightly dark and comfortable spot. It's clean and roomy. The adornments are a mixture of colored chalk signs and trite New York black-and-white prints (I swear, does every pizza joint have to use that same print of the workers siting on a steel beam?). The background music during our visit was quite eclectic -- Bush and Michael Jackson being played back-to-back. Strange for a place that bills itself as a New York pizzeria. The real reason we came here though, was to grab a couple of slices. My wife ordered a plain (cheese); I had two slices -- one each of pepperoni and breaded eggplant. As far as I was concerned, the slices were major disappointments on most fronts. My wife was a little more forgiving. The crust: While they might make this stuff fresh every day, someone skimped on the olive oil in the recipe (it's what gives true NY pizza a slight crisp and chew). Not only was the crust on all three slices at least a half-inch thick (that's way more than it should be), it lacked flavor and chew. It was basically like hard toasted bread. Fail. The sauce: Any good pizza joint starts out with crushed tomatoes as a sauce base and goes from there (typically w/ basil, a little oregano and garlic). Russo's sauce tasted like they star...