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Bruno's Mexican-Italian Restaurant & Pizzeria
Rating Details »
- Price Range:
-
$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Street
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- Yes
- Delivery:
- Yes
- Take-out:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Alcohol:
- Full Bar
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Il Bistro
- 83 reviews
- Neighborhood:
- Downtown
"Italian food is one of many guilty pleasures...and I am a tough customer ;-) Randomly decided to have dinner at this spot on a Friday…" read more »
26 reviews for Bruno's Mexican-Italian Restaurant & Pizzeria
This place is an institution! i first went there something like 14yrs ago and the place is still going strong. Bruno still looks the same! went there for lunch today and it was a bit pricey for my normal lunch, but i had a very tasty meatball sandwich that came with a small salad.
other stuff: there was a older guy sitting by himself nearby. he kept coughing and groaning. he sounded bad off. he didn't have any food and just sat there for most of our meal. i thought he was a homeless guy warming up, taking a break from being outside, but i later saw a cell phone on his table next to his ciggies. anyways, after a long time Bruno came over and asked him what was going on. asked him if he was going to order or not. also asked him to move cuz he needed the table. i loved it cuz it was the main man himself taking care of the dirty work. he greets you like an old friend at the front door with a warm smile. and he'll come over and also ask you WTF you doing if you just sit there forever and act like a homeless guy. so great...
As someone who is fluent in Spatalian, I give Bruno's 4 stars! It's genius! Bruno married a Mexican woman and together they openend this restaurant. How do you not love that?
The reviews on Yelp clearly indicate this place isn't the greatest for lunch. We went for dinner. The menu is so vast it's overwhelming! It's the perfect marriage of Italian and Mexican dishes...aww, just like the marriage of Bruno and his Mexican wife!!!
The reviews I read had mentioned that the pizza isn't great.However, I was craving pizza so bad I was going to order it regardless, but as we were walking to the back of the restaurant, I caught sight of the sad looking pizza and decided to pass. I looked at some of the Italian and Mexican dishes people were feasting on around us and everything looked decent.
My cousin's friend who used to work in the neighborhood and lunch here a lot had the lasagna which was that night's special because he said he'd had it before and recalled enjoying it. It came with a salad. My cousin ordered a chalupa. I do not recommend you order a chalupa because what you get is a tostada salad HA HAAA! It looked good and she liked it, but it wasn't what she was expecting. I think I had the beef enchilada plate. For the prices you're paying this food is completely acceptable. I guess a few of the dishes are hit or miss, but when you take into consideration the sheer number of options available if you end up with something bad then it's your own damn fault for making a crappy crappy choice HA!
Super cheap pizza slices are a great thing!
The crust was rather crunchy and it's a bit dark and such in there.... but we were in a rush, wanted to fill up quick, and why not do that while only paying about $1.93 (after tax) per slice of cheese pizza?
I don't go here often and when I do I stick to the slices... which is apparently a good thing. The other reviews have me convinced that I should never explore the menu any farther!
Bruno's serves their food cafeteria style and by menu. They have some great specials, (lunch $5.99 and dinner $9.99). And I got a really nice slice of vegetable pizza for $2.75.
Celia Cruz music and Christmas lights in an Italian-Mexican Restaurant to set a romantic vibe could be deemed tacky. But I didn't mind. And my pizza was cracker-like with a slight adobe flavor, however, it matched the music.
The music made me content. And a pizza slice with Coca-Cola left me satisfied for lunch.
I won't ever eat here again, once was enough, especially after what happened to my boy on a previous outing. Even after what he went through, I gave this place a chance and fully back up that it's terrible.
Go ahead, keep flagging this review, it's still going up since it is first hand experience. I have been here, it's terrible and my boy ate here once and had the following experience 2 years ago:
This review is from 2007:
So my boy eats downtown on a regular basis, meaning I reap the rewards. He tries it and if it impresses him, I usually venture out next time with the group and share it with everyone here. (two levels of filtering!)
On this particular occasion, they trusted a co-worker's advice that this place was his wife's favorite place to eat. Obviously his wife enjoys eating from dumpsters and near death experiences. Kinky.
What ensues is a strange lunch, starting with marinara passing as salsa. And a confusing menu of either Mexican or Italian. He chose the chicken parm sandwich, a reliable standby and relatively safe. Most of the other guys got Mexican-like food. While the sandwich was unappealing, in his own words, "I've eaten worse" but being on a time schedule there was no room to complain. The service was a tad slow and paying the bill seemed like a hassle.
What happened next makes me curse this place. He got sick. Really sick. The kind of sick you only get once in a few years and wish you could turn back time to prevent it from ever happening. This from a man I call Tupperware. I mean, nothing gets this guy ill. But as soon as he arrived home, he spent the night in the bathroom. Turning white and in obvious pain. This dance of pain and toilet visits lasted the whole night. With me re-hydrating him and hoping a hospital visit would not be necessary.
Two days later and he's over the worst of it but still not himself. Meaning the probable salmonella poisoning has run its course and his body is recovering. Of course I'm relieved since we are leaving for a European trip tomorrow. And I'm sure he will still be feeling aftershocks.
So in all, I would avoid eating here unless you really enjoy risking your health.
I came in after walking around 3rd ave to find a place to dine. I was craving for some type of burrito or Italian. I dunno, it was hard to choose since they have quite a range of selections. I end up having the Bruno's chicken burrito since it was a lunch special. It was eh, alright to say the least. It had chicken veggies smothered with some type of tomato/salsa sauce with cheese and sour cream. I really wish it had guacamole, it would have made it a bit better. It tasted a bit bland.
The workers were nice, and the decor isn't all that bad. The music was decent too. However, I doubt I'd come back here again.
Very kitsch, and not in a good way... Certainly not an impressive restaurant.
It's sort of a hole in the wall, and their pizza's a bit weak. Thin crust, lame sauce, etc.
I can't speak for their Mexican food, but according to my ex, it's not worth your trouble.
Yet, in spite of these flaws, I stop here fairly often when I'm downtown, to grab a slice or two. Maybe I'm a sucker for punishment?
Anyway, if you want real italian food, you probably oughta go somewhere else. If you just want to grab a quick slice, Bruno's will do...
For what it's worth, their pasta is okay. Not great. But, okay.
The hubby and I got adventurous and headed out to Seattle Washington.
On the first night I was really craving spaghetti, and as we were wandering the streets of Seattle we walked past Bruno's and decided to give it a try.
The best way I can explain this place's food is that it tastes and is served like food would be at your own house. I hope that makes sense. For example my spaghetti tasted good, but I wasn't olive garden spaghetti it was more like the spaghetti I make for myself at home. The garlic bread was tasty but wasn't olive garden garlic bread, it looked like a french roll cut in half with added butter and garlic.
The food was good but like I mentioned above not really restaurant style food, that's not always a bad thing.
The place inside was kind of dark with aging decor, but for being a newbie to Seattle I figured it was all part of the experience.
Definitely edible, and I didn't get sick, so that should say something :-)
Italian meets Mexican in a back street alley and guess what... it's ugly!
I know real Italian food and there is nothing to be found here. And I'm also half Mexican. Sorry, Bruno... you and the wifey are cool, but this place doesn't cut it for me. I will return (before a rock show around the corner) only because I think the owner is a hardworker and he loves his business. I am loyal to small business and the food hasn't killed me;-)
This is the weirdest combination ever. The whole place is decorated in post-modern Mexicrap. Sombreros and Mexican art mixed with posters of Italian countryside.
The menu is almost perfectly divided between Italian pastas and burritos. You'd think with two major cuisines they'd at least be good at making one of them, but no.
The only reason I'm giving this place two stars is because of sheer entertainment value. The whole experience is ridiculous to the point of hilarity. When you're done laughing at the menu and the decor, take note of the large LCD TV that alternates between the Spanish channel and E!. There's nothing like eating Italian food in a Mexican restaurant while watching Forbes Most Expensive Celebrity Divorces.
There's something that's not quite right about a place that serves both Mexican and Italian. I've been here once and that was one time too many for me but I do send my enemies there all the time for lunch.
If you're downtown on 3rd Ave and hungry don't stop here unless you want a stomach ache from H-E-double hockey sticks.
** Overall, so bad it's entertaining except I had to eat it
What I bought: Chips & Salsa, Garlic Bread, Salad, 2 Calzones. Total: $30
Well, what to say, what to say... this place confuses the heck out of me, I half expected someone to jump out during dinner and say "gotcha!" or "you're on candid camera!"
Back when we first moved to Seattle, my bf and I were on a bus and just saw "Bruno's Pizzeria" out the window, we were tired and decided pizza sounded great. Well, when we walked up to the place, it said not just pizzeria, but Italian Mexican pizzeria (Warning #1 - 'fusion' food!). In the name of giving it a chance, we walked in and the place was deserted at dinner time (Warning #2 - there is a reason people don't eat here). The guy at the counter was friendly and told us to sit wherever, so we obediently took our place at a beat up looking table on the Italian looking side (Warning #3 - there is a partition in a 'fusion' food restaurant but they serve whatever on either side)
So on to the food, or the show as I like to call it, because we never really did get dinner. The "chips and salsa" were the cheapest corn chips thrown in a microwave and served with canned tomato sauce and some attempt at spices. The "garlic bread" they brought out was a stale hotdog bun, cut in half and served with the lightest hint of butter. The "ceasar salad" looked like a bag of old lettuce dumped on a plate with 8 croutons and the tiniest cup of dressing on the side. But the crowning achievement, the Pièce de résistance, was the lump of charred dough they served as a calzone. The dough didn't taste real, and inside... were two chef boyardee sized meatballs CUT IN HALF with some cheese whose sole purpose in life seemed to be remaining as one tough chewy piece that I could choke on. Oh, and there wasn't any sauce... Seriously, I couldn't make this stuff up!
We were so flabbergasted that someone could actually A) serve this stuff as edible fare and B) charge you for it! Avoid like the plague unless you want a hilariously bad dining story to share with friends - I have to give this place that much - it wins every worst dining experience story contest we've ever told it in. And for that: 1 star.
It should have been my first clue that its Mexican and Italian, but I was hungry and couldn't go far from the bus stop. I ordered an enchilada thinking it safe, it was a cross between spaghetti and bad nachos. I ordered the side but they charged me the "special" for $6 and weren't able to fix it because they couldn't understand me (which is fine if they are nice about it, but they were rude). They charged me for my sour cream, and $4 bucks for a Corona? Just to let people know I was very nice the whole time, the only person that was nice back was the girl that rang me out and opened my beer. Thankfully I hadn't eaten in like 6 hours so the beer worked quicker than usual and I was able to endure the meal, that being said I had a stomach ache for over three hours afterward.
Overall: Sorry no recommendation here, too expensive
I remember my first brush with fusion food... fois gras shumai at Blue Ginger in Boston. My eyes were opened to the synergistic magic of mixing cuisines.
Bruno's is proof that there is more to the art than simple mixing. Most of what I've had there was pretty average, or even weird. But I must say, the place he pulls it all together is in the Menudo. The addition of tomato and basil, mixed with onions and jalepenos is simply wonderful.
Bruno's is one of those places that you have to visit just because of what it claims to be: Italian and Mexican food. This reminds me of Orange King in the U-district (hamburgers and teriyaki) in its diversity. It's one thing to have geographically-related cuisines, such as Greek and Middle-Eastern, but another thing to have Italian and Mexican food. Thus, for the very premise alone, this place earns an additional star.
I've been to Bruno's twice over the course of 3 years. The place is brutally elemental- there's nothing remarkable about it once you move past the kitchen. Chairs, tables, salt and pepper shakers- they all look amazingly generic. If there was any attempt at decor, I missed it.
When you walk in to Bruno's, you are assaulted with menu choices. Not only is there a massive menu to your left when you walk in, but at lunch there is a large lunch special menu to your right. To take it all in at once, you'd need to be standing literally in the doorway as you walk in.
I've only eaten from the Mexican side of the menu, so I feel like I'm missing out on a good portion of the restaurant. Even still, my review continues.
The food is remarkably unremarkable. How can some place with such a cool premise have such average food? I had a beef chipotle enchilada ($6.95 + $1 for beans/rice), my lunch companion had a chicken soft taco ($5.95). Each plate was reasonably sized. The enchilada was properly spiced, but the tortilla was a little too chewy and the beans/rice combo was subpar. The chicken soft taco was very edible, but the red sauce was very watery- almost like it were the base of a marinara sauce (hmm... Mexican AND Italian... I see...).
This is also one of those places where the aspect of a tip makes me uncomfortable. I placed my order while standing in line and picked my own seat. The cashier brought us the food when it was ready. But since you have to pay FIRST, they already know what their tip is, so I feel a little blackmailed into tipping (I'm very wary of what people do with my food if they know they aren't getting a tip). Maybe better etiquette for the restaurant would be to NOT have the obligatory tip line on credit card signature slips.
So I settled on 3 stars instead of 2 - 2.5ish because of the novelty. You won't break your bank by eating here, but you won't be sharing your new find with friends at the office.
Went here for lunch today to meet with some ex-co-workers. I've been here a couple times before when service was much faster. Today seemed to be on the lagging side, in terms of speed of service.
Usually we order up front and bring our food to the tables. Today we decided to order at the table. Service was friendly but we received our food in a not-so timely manner and they forgot our drinks.
Mexican food is all I've ever tasted at Bruno's. Had the taco salad and tried my friend's tortilla soup - both quite tasty. Their daily specials are priced just right at only $5.95.
I'd go back for their tasty food but next time, I'll be sure to order at the counter then sit. AND because Bruno was completely adorable with his small jokes and flattering comments. Haha. *blush blush*
I haven't been there in years but when I did we would get the whole office and go there for drinks and food, the servers were great and we all liked what we had, the drinks good price. I will have to pop down and check this place out real soon.
I try and go here for lunch with a friend atleast once per week. I've never ventured into their Italian food, mostly because I just can't get enough of their Mexican food. It's delish and the gentleman making it is always filled with compliments. They have a broad selection of lunch specials for only $5.95 and a raunchy Mexican soap opera is always on the TV for your viewing pleasure.
Blech. Bad Italian and Bad Mexican together in one restaurant! I hate to denigrate a place that has been established for so long, but there just isn't much to like here. I appreciate a quick casual lunch as much as the next worker bee, but there are definitely places downtown which put way more care and thought into their food than this place.
I went here for lunch with coworkers who ordered a large variety of things, but we all agreed; Bruno disrespected us all.
Pretty good lunch spot if you work downtown. They have an excellent Tortilla soup and pretty good enchiladas. I go here more for the Mexican, than the Italian and in case you were wondering...the husband is Italian, the wife is Mexican.
Me and my significant other were looking for a place to eat one Friday night. We met downtown from our jobs, and we were very tired from work. We kept playing the "what are you in the mood for" game...and finally I just said, "Chose a place, I don't care." And we ended up here. Didn't seem that bad of a choice, however I was a little skeptical that it had both Mexican and Italian food. Didn't seem like those two foods should be kept in the same establishment. I should have went with my instinct, but I was hungry, and a growling stomach sometimes wins.
We enter the restaurant. A guy says "you may sit anywhere you like". The restaurant is nearly empty, and it is 6 at night. The decor was....stomach churning. We sit near a flat screen television. A tabloid show is playing, Entertainment Tonight. BLAH! It takes a while for the waitress to come over, but she seems nice. And also on drugs. Looks at our IDs for an hour (not really, but it felt like it) and Jen got a Mango margarita and me a corona. $4. The beer tasted like it had been in the cooler for years and years, and didn't taste very good. They messed up her margarita. It tasted really weak. We both had vegetarian Mexican food. I had a burrito, which made me the sickest I have ever been in my life. My significant other didn't get sick, which was odd, as we both had similar food. The salsa was disgusting. One time I had accidentally poured left over pasta sauce in our salsa glass can, and my girlfriend went to dip a chip in there and she said "Um, this is interesting....tastes sort of like pasta sauce." Well that is what their salsa tastes like. The burrito tasted god awful, I ate only two bites of it. Jen didn't finish all of her food. It takes the waitress forever to come over with a check. Eventually we get tired of waiting and want to get out there, so we go up to the counter and pay.
I start to feel sick on the bus ride home. I go to bed early, and it is a Friday night. I wake up numerous times during the middle of the night...wanting to throw up to get it out of my system, but my body doesn't want to. Whatever I ate feels like it is forever trapped in my stomach/intestines. My body aches. It feels like someone is crushing my bones. My back aches, worse then PMS. My throat hurts. I feel like I have mono again. Saturday, we wake up and I feel like death. I feel like I have food poisoning. But it is weird, because I can't throw up or go #3. My body aches, I have a stomach ache from hell, a headache from hell. I feel like I'm being beat with a baseball bat. My girlfriend goes to the store to buy things to help me. I take lots of Tylenol PM just so I can go to sleep, not to endure this awful pain. I don't tend to complain that much, but damn, this is the worst sickness I've ever had. Finally on Monday, 3 days later, I finally get to throw up and do all of that fun stuff....all day long. Food hasn't seemed appetizing for 3 days already, and anytime I did try to eat...the food reminded me of what I ate at Brunos. Which is sad, because I love me some waffles, and I tried to eat them on Sunday to get food in my body, but they tasted like the nasty burrito from Brunos. I finally can't eat something until Wednesday, 5 days later. I feel fatigued and dehydrated. Worn out. Still throwing up and shitting my brains out. Finally, I feel like myself on Thursday, almost a week later. It felt like a combo of the flu, mono, and food poisoning. I felt fine before I entered that place. Maybe there was flu and mono cells in their food. And the food was just old and stale. I wouldn't be surprised.
The place gets one star, because surprisingly enough, their bathroom was very clean.
The part of the review where it asks you what a place is good for. We should have the option of selecting "Nothing".
I'm sorry Bruno. Maybe you should read some of these reviews and realize that food poisoning is pretty common at your place. Start shopping at the local markets for your fresh produce, and learn how to make salsa.
I just paid $5.47 for two slices of cold pizza. As Roast Beef of Achewood fame would say, "What the HELL people."
I've been working in the WaMu tower for a short time, and recently decided to start branching out from my usual lunch spot. I saw a sign proclaiming "pizza by the slice," briefly questioned the wisdom of buying pizza from a Mexican restaurant, decided not to sweat it, and headed in.
A nice man invited me to "sit anywhere you like" and then quickly disappeared, so I just hovered over a couple of pizzas until he returned several minutes later. And the pizza didn't look that good, but hey, I'm not a picky guy when it comes to these things.
The nice man put my two asked-for slices on a plate, dumped some unasked-for parmesan on them, turned to me, and asked, "Parmesan?"
"Sure."
"Peppers?" The pepper shaker was already in his hand.
"No. Thanks."
I'm here to tell you, this pizza is some of the funkiest... it isn't exactly what you would... it tastes like the box you get your... it leaves a lot to be...
Man, this pizza sucks. I mean, I really will eat just about anything that is, was, or may one day become food, but it is difficult for me to avoid using highly offensive expletives and anatomical references in describing this pizza here.
Here's a simile: this pizza here is like the pizza you got from Papa John's last week that's been sitting on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator for the past five days because you're too lazy to throw it out. You think you want it, but you don't. Just trust me. Don't eat that pizza.
I eat here once in a while, but that was before I read all of the food poisoning reviews! Yikes.
Great potions and prices. Italian and Mexican restaurant under one roof! Order at the counter and pick a table. Full bar. Great tasting food.
Painfully bad Mexican, unless you like your green chili made with marinara. I've been to Seattle many times, and on one particular visit, we had the urge for some Mexican and so we stopped at Bruno's. I've had microwave burritos that were significantly better than this.
