Cucina Rustica

This was the second Lisa Dahl restaurant we visited and clearly she knows what she's doing. Efficient service, beautiful dining room, and the food was excellently prepared and flavorful.

Standouts:
--the "Brutus Cesare" with hearts of Romaine tossed with their signature Brutus lemon-caper dressing, shaved Parmesan, and focaccia croutons
--Angelica pasta, linguine with [huge] prawns sautéed with garlic, lemon, and white wine, finished with parsley, chile, and arugula. One the best versions of this dish I've eaten.

All I can say is wow. Food was 10/10, service was top tier, and all the people behind the bar were very friendly and cracking jokes!

I had to make sure I saved this spot just so I come back and try a couple new things on the menu.

GO CHECK IT OUT!

Cucina Rustica is as steeped in quaint Italian ambience inside as it is beautiful on the outside. The servers are not only attentive, but know the menu, dishes and wines exceptionally well. The menu features classic Italian dishes, slightly elevated with the touch of finesse chef Dahl infuses. The wines are carefully selected.

Overall, the value (it is fine dining, expect fine dining prices) is very good. Well worth the investment.

One of the nicer restaurants in Sedona, however if you want to eat here expect to wait for your food. It took at least 1.5 hrs before our entrees reached our table, I was starving after a long day of hiking. Our servers were apologetic, but it didn't help expedite our meal.

Food - The bruschetta and kale salads were good. Definitely will get the bruschetta again! The seafood pasta was a special so it wasn't on the menu, I didn't care for it, not worth the $50 in my opinion. I got the garganelli don quixonte and its penne pasta in a spicy Cajun cream sauce, highly recommend it. I got an affogato ordered for dessert and it was not good. They charged 16 in total for it, since it wasn't on the menu I paid for gelato and an espresso shot.

Drinks - extra dirty martini, was pretty well made. They also have an extensive wine list.

Overall, for a total of $260 for two people, this place does not justify the price tag. Food was just average at best.

We made reservations to celebrate our anniversary. The hostess seated us in a nice booth, sprinkled flower petals on our table, and wished us a happy anniversary. That was lovely and unfortunately the high point of our night.

There was a violinist walking around playing chord progressions to add to the ambiance. It didn't sound like he was playing any actual songs.

The mocktails were ordered were fine. Mango mocktail was very sweet.

We placed our order and after 40 minutes our food hadn't come out yet. We were starving. Our waiter apologized for the delay and said the food staff was behind so he asked them to hold on serving our entrees because we hadn't received our appetizers yet, which led to more bad news. They were now out of the osso buco that I had ordered! So instead, I got the lobster pasta. The manger apologized and comped one of our appetizers.

We finally received our food an hour after we ordered. The burrata appetizer was okay. There was one slice of prosciutto hidden under the focaccia. There was honey or caramelized sugar on top, which I thought was strange.

The Caesar salad had more dressing than I would've liked, but I was very hungry and just ate it.

The bread was good. It was warm and came with olive oil with some sort of minced herb. This probably was complimentary since we waited so long?

My husband had the gnocchi and he thought it was a bit bland, but fine. I tried it and thought there was a strange after taste that I couldn't describe very well. Like a seafood brine-y taste or weird meat taste?

The lobster vodka pasta was delicious, but it was no osso buco. I had high hopes for osso buco.

As the night wore on we could see other tables were unhappy with their food and service. With this, we could tell our waiter wasn't very happy with having to deal with unhappy customers.

Overall, we were very disappointed with this dinner. I had high hopes and came based on someone's high recommendation of this place around Christmas time a few years ago. It's sad to see that other recent reviews aren't great either.

Came back for more! And it did not disappoint!

A full year later returned to this place after hiking through Sedona. I had completely forgotten that we needed reservations but was craving the Mediterranean appetizer again and wanted to actúa try the food this time. They told us the wait was going to be like 2.5 hours and I almost cried knowing it was my bad for not organizing this better but the host was incredibly sweet! She suggested we add our name to the list and if one of their reservations did not show up that we could have the table for three! I said a little prayer and before I was done the Lord answered with the perfect table for our little group!

It was the perfect night! The service was amazing we each ordered a different dish but they were all equally delicious (I had the white fish). We had wine, our Mediterranean plate and ended the night truly happy and satisfied.

As a note - this is the kind of place you may want to dress up a little for, we showed up in hiking gear and stood out like a sore thumb but I really appreciate the fact that all the staff was super respectful and did not glance twice at our outfits

It is always a treat to dine at one of Lisa Dahl's restaurants and this visit we were staying in VOC so it made sense to dine at Cucina and Italian is one of most favorite cuisines.

We were impressed with the Beet Royale and we are not Beet people. My husband had the Seafood Diavolo special and I had the Vitello Saltimbocca. We were savoring every bite. The Old Fashion was made perfectly and I can count on getting a glass of Seghesio's Zinfandel.

The only way the evening could have been better was a warmer night dining on the patio and getting a chance to talk with Lisa. Our last visit was with the opening of Pisa Lisa in VOC.

Five stars for food, service, ambiance, and overall experience!

Hubs and I made dinner reservations at Cucina Rustica to celebrate my birthday while in Sedona. We arrived ~10 minutes early and were greeted and seated right away. There was a note in the reservation that we were celebrating a birthday and we were pleasantly surprised that not only did they give us a big table (for 6), there were rose petals sprinkled on the table. I appreciate when restaurants actually pay attention to the notes in the reservation!

Our server was phenomenal. He was very polite, helpful, and quick to respond! He also made great recommendations, which influenced our dinner choices. We ordered the following:
Espresso martinis
Burrata appetizer (special)
Rustic Bruschetta
Vitello Saltimbocca
Chilean Sea Bass (special)
Flourless chocolate torte

Everything was excellent -- from the espresso martini and burrata appetizer to the entrees and dessert. Every dish was flavorful and the sides complimented them well. The portions were great; we were stuffed! We even had leftovers to take, which we later enjoyed in our hotel. We would order everything again. Thanks Cucina Rustica for making my birthday dinner a special one!

Nothing from my original review changes, other than fabulously great and even better than our first jaunt to this incredible culinary corner of Italia tucked away just outside of Sedona. We had the tremendous opportunity to meet two extraordinary gentlemen who behind the scenes help make things happen to make Cucina Rustica what it is. Beto our Server extraordinaire, and Huicho the fab Line Cook. When ordering my beloved Frutti de Mare dish, a recipe that traditionally is prepared in an Arrabbiata Sauce, in speaking with our server I requested if it specially be prepared in Marsala Sauce instead. Wow! He spoke to Huicho and bravo it was magnificent. And, I was very happy Huicho came tableside to see if I enjoyed it! The service and the cuisine extraordinaire! That's why we keep coming back!

Cucina Rustica is not a spot to miss out on when in Sedona!! We arrived with our party of five a little early for our reservation. Two of our group got drinks I believe they got the limoncello spritzer? Both of them said they were great.

We were seated promptly after getting drinks at the bar. The service was phenomenal. I forget our waiters name but it was an older white gentleman with glasses. He was fantastic. I believe he had a younger woman training with him as she helped him throughout our dinner.

For appetizers we got the seasonal burrata app over arugula I believe? It also came with marinated mushrooms and cannelloni beans. The mushrooms were delectable. You also can never go wrong with burrata on toasted bread. Yum!

We also got artichoke beignets. I did not try them but those that did said they were good.

For our entrées we had two eggplant Parmesan, chicken Parmesan, Tortellini del Bosco and the lasagna. We all agreed the food was phenomenal.

As if we didn't have enough food with all the apps and pasta dishes we all had bread pudding for dessert. Minus one of us who had tiramisu. The bread pudding was soft, perfectly cooked and the perfect amount of sweet. I don't know that I have honestly ever had bread pudding in my life and I really enjoyed it!

Everything about our experience with Cucina Rustica was perfect. The service was fantastic, staff was friendly and prompt and the food was perfection. I will absolutely be returning if and when I'm back in Sedona.