Rustico Cooking
“Micol gave us excellent directions and made suggestions we could apply to our daily cooking at home.”
“We made pasta from scratch which was really something i was looking forward too, and of course cooked with wine.”
“I enjoyed my pasta class at Rustico.”
Rustico Cooking
Takes Reservations: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Has TV: Yes
Price range.
$$$$ Price range Above $61
5 reviews
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Quite disappointed. It was fun but I can't say I learned much of anything. Most importantly, it was not worth the price I paid.
Beginning – You walk in, put your name tag on and munch on appetizers paired with water. Then the group is split into two and the class starts.
I attended the pasta making class and it's more of a group project. The reviews written are pretty accurate. The ingredients for the sauces were either precut or semi-premade. We just had to mix it in the pan and heat it up. By "we" I mean there is only one pan and we take turns stirring.
Pasta time! This I guess was the fun part because everyone got to use the pasta machine. The instructor made the dough in front of us and answered any questions we had.
The end – Eating. We ate at the large dining table. They had bottles of red and white wine and water for us and in addition to the pasta we made, they gave us salad and dessert.
I'm vegan and the menu was not. But I was able to try one of the pasta dishes because we didn't use egg in the mix. The instructor was willing to make me a separate dish with olive oil but luckily one of the sauces we made were vegan, tomato, so I was able to have pasta with tomato sauce. Def not worth $95. My non-vegan friends enjoyed the pasta dishes though. Their fav was the gnocchi.
Overall – Pricey. If you want to learn and get hands on experience, I do not suggest coming here. This is more for socializing and eating.
I was taken here with a private party and had a lot of fun! I'm not sure what the cost was, but I see that it can be pricey.. honestly worth it in my opinion! We got aprons (not sure if that comes with Rustico or not), and lots of wine. I agree with other yelpers that this place is a little beginner – although we did get to roll our own pasta, and absolutely everything was made from scratch! All the prep work was done – so no knives – but we cooked things on the stove, boiled pasta, baked polenta fries, and more. It's a really fun time if you ever have a something you want to do with a big group of people! After cooking, you get to eat your creation, while feeling that great sense of accomplishment for actually cooking and not ordering delivery or take out.
The chef-teachers were so nice, and were also great servers, pouring us wine while eating. They seemed to know when to leave us to our on conversations and when to come back in when we needed a little more guidance. Beautiful space!
I'll have to echo everyone's sentiments that this isn't really a cooking class. You work with the very personable chefs and can volunteer to help, but other than that, there's very little prep work involved, and you don't get to see multiple courses all the way through.
Once you set your expectations, it's a fun time for a work group activity. Google took us out here as a holiday party, and I must say, I really enjoyed it. We made some nice cheese gnocchi with pork sauce, mashed potatoes, and cheesecake.
The wine tasting was also quite a treat, as I didn't know it was part of the night. Costas really knows his wine, and taught us a lot of basic techniques to keep with us for the rest of our wine-drinking days (as well as some tips to fake it if we have to). The timing of the wine and the meals could've been better though, as we had to delay eating to finish the wine parts.
I can't comment on the price, as it was a corporate event, but I don't think I'd come back on my own.
I came here for a corporate bonding event with around 40 people. The space is pretty tiny for a group this size and we were extremely hot due to the confined space and use of ovens. They split us into two groups – half of us would cook and the other half did trivia. The trivia was silly questions about food but was kind of neat to learn about. For food, we cooked chicken, smashed potatoes, homemade pasta and a chocolate molten cake.
Although I do not know the price since this was organized by my work, if we paid the same amount that others paid I just think this was really too pricey for what we got. The "appetizers" included small quiche squares, pieces of a quesadilla and chicken on toothpicks. We also had wine, but this was very minimal and also not good quality. We had a glass when we arrived but were not allowed to have any more for over an hour when we finally sat down to dinner. By the time we ate, I was definitely the sleepiest girl in the entire world (because wine has a way of doing that to me)
So I enjoyed making homemade pasta and appreciated the instruction there so that was enjoyable. The issue came when we sat down for dinner. It frankly was just not very good food and wasn't a particularly enjoyable "party" as we felt like we were in an assembly line grabbing food. The chicken was dry, the smashed potatoes had a funky flavor that kind of tasted like they were dirty, and the pasta was super watery. And they were super stingy on the wine I mean come on – home girl didn't have to get super drunk but home girl was def tryna get her drank on a bit. People legitimately were fighting over the wine so that they could have a second glass.
I think the issue with this was we came in to the event with such high expectations because we attended another venue last year and had an unbelievable experience. Maybe this place is good for the individual cooking lessons with a smaller group but for a corporate bonding event I have to say that this just doesn't work.
First off let's talk location. The kitchen we were working in had an amazing space.. something any New Yorker would die for. Unfortunately the pleasantries ended right there.
A group of us (15 co-workers) decided that cooking our own meal would be a good social event for everyone. However, if you expected to actually prep and cook from scratch, you got the wrong impression. All the ingredients were already cleaned, cut, and organized so you didn't have to think about anything. I felt like I was back in 6th grade home-ec. You also didn't have to worry about cooking temperature/time, or any technique whatsoever.
The food is second-rate, and really nothing you really couldn't do at home by following a simple cookbook. Perhaps some other menu would have been better, but I highly doubt it. Although the wine was not a focus point of the class, it certainly wasn't very good either.
Overall, it was a little pricey for what you got. Everything is an extra charge (beer, aprons). For our purpose it may have worked-out well, as we got to socialize more than concentrate on cooking. Nevertheless, the owners seem to be well-established and the business is probably geared towards the right people.
2 and 1/2 stars for the nice place and a good (not cheap) spot for a social work event. 2 and 1/2 off for what turned-out to be an "assembly" class, rather than a cooking class.
Note: No drinking and cooking.. it's not allowed and you could kill someone. Also, wear casual clothes if you don't want your work clothes getting dirty (no aprons were provided).