Brusco's Italian Restaurant in Lighthouse Point, Florida Review

A new restaurant opened up a few blocks from our home in Lighthouse Poit, FLorida. We love Italian food so we had to give it a try. Parking was easy. Brusco's is It's in a strip mall area.

The restaurant itself is rather small but not too noisey. We went a little on the early side with my daughter. Service ws reasonable. We got water and our setting but bread took a little while. It was fresh and tasty. I ordered mussels in garlic but got clams in garlic sauce by accident. I like either seafood in garlic so it wasn't a problem.This turned out to be a good mistake. They were absolutely delicious. It was a portion of nice fresh clams and lots of garlic all in a sauce so good I ws sopping it up with my bread. Hubby had a seafood pasta, Zuppa di Pesce full of mussels, Clams, Scungilli, Shrimp and Calamari . There are many more seafood offerings, Shrimp Marinara, Seafood Combo, Snapper Francaise all in the $16.95 to $17.95 range. My husband's dish was market price.

My daughter had her favorite,Angel hair pasta with Chicken and Broccoli. The Brocolli and Chicken are $2.95 extra. We all shared one Cannoli for desert at $3.25. It was good, fairlyauthentic although I prefer a filling with dried fruits. This Cannoli had only chocolate chips.

Our waitress was friendly, pleasant and fast.

We liked Brusco's enough to try it again. This time we went with a couple we know who are in the food business. Unfortunately this time was not as impressive. I got a similar dish to my first dish , clams in garlic sauce only over pasta this time. The portion was a huge amount of pasta but the amount of clams and garlic were still a small appetizer size. Our bread didn't come out until half way through the meal and the meal our friends both chose looked very ordinary. It was Chicken Cutlet Parmagiana over pasta for $15.95 and was not memorable. Now, this is a new place, so I imagine the meals will be uneven for a bit, unfotunately. Sometimes a new restauarant opens and everything is consistently wonderful, sometimes the glitches are still being ironed out. We all had Pasta Fagiole before our meals and this was absolutely awful. It was more like water with pasta and vegetables in it. It had no taste whatsoever. We added Parmesan cheese, slat and it was still plain bland.

The next week we tried their take out pizza. This was nice enough. We ordered a large Mushroom Onion pizza with big chunks of Mushroom and pieces of Red Onion. The crust was good. You can order take out with a minimum $10.00 order. They offer a Brusco's special, Sicilian style ($13.95)and Sicilian Special with extra toppings ($20.95). Toppings include Pepperoni, Susage, Mushrooms, Onions, Green Peppers, Meatball, Garilc, Broccoli, Green or Black Olives, Ham, Artichokes, Salami, Eggplant, Pineapple or SPinach.

Hoagies are available. You can get anything from Veal Parmagiana, Veal & Pepper Pepper & Egg, Chicken both Milanese or Parmigiana, Eggplant Parmagiana or Sausage Parmagiana, Ham & Cheese or the Hoagie SPecial that run from $6.95 to $8.95. You can also get Calzones with cheese $6.95, Sausage & Pepper Roll or Stromboli ($8.95).

Brusco's has a liqour license so beer and wine are available. A carafe of wine is s $16.96.

For dessert Brusco's offers Spumoni, Cannoli, Tartufo or Tortoni at $2.95 to $3.25.

Early bird dinners are $8.95 to $10.95 so that might be a good time to try Brusco's for the first time. Early bird offers 16 different meals from plain Spagetti and Meatball to Veal & Peppers over pasta.These are avalable Tuesday through Saturday from 4:00 to 5:30 and include Soupr or salad, Beverage, Dessert , Bread & Butter.

There are a nice assortment of appetizers and salads. You can get Veal, Chicken or Seafood with assorted pastas.

I would give the restaurant one more try since I found the pizza good and my first meal of clams in garlic appetizer excellent.