Tried Ruffino's for the first time on Father's Day. What a mistake. The biggest problem was the service. It was obvious that the waiter was more interested in watching the World Cup than taking care of his customers. The food was average but the abominable service impacted our enjoyment of the food. As we sat there wondering where the food was , we could see the waiter standing in the bar area watching the game. Finally the food came. One of our foods sauces had congealed and had to send another back to get reheated. He never returned to the table to refill drinks or to check up on the quality of our meals When we arrived there was only one other person dining. But to show how uninterested the waiter was in taking care of us, I had inadvertently left one of my Father's Day cards on the table as we left. Before we got to our car I had remembered and returned to the restaurant. Couldn't have been more than four minutes. Went to the table which had been cleared. I asked the waiter for the card which had been addressed to "Pop". He went behind the bar and handed it to me. HE HAD OPENED THE ENVELOPE AND READ MY CARD!!! WTF. Who does that? It was clearly addressed to me by my son. Do I really have to say more? read more

Owner (I think? bald older guy who also was the bartender and server) was crazy rude. Came to pick up my food and he spoke to me as rudely as I've experienced at a restaurant. felt like I was bothering him just by being there. Completely unprofessional and explains why the restaurant was next to empty. won't be coming back. read more

Fantastic food. Kids loved it. Very family friendly. The service felt like a very Italian Homestyle restaurant, loved it.

This is a great little restaurant, locally owned. I ordered the Chicken Parmigiana a few weeks ago and it was fantastic!! Great portion. Chicken well cooked. Saved some for leftovers. Just as tasty the next day. Very good meatball sub as well. read more

Can't believe out of fries on a Saturday. Food always great when available, but run out of things often.

The food is not bad. The atmosphere is terrible. The service is absolutely terrible and they brought me my wrong food.

Delicious crispy Eggplant Parm Entree with large side of Linguini. For $20, I received a generous portion of Eggplant Parm and an entire to go container of linguini smothered in marinara sauce. My pick is for Eggplant Parm entree over the sub, the sub isn't as flavorful and you get a lot more with the entree! I agree with fellow Yelpers that I wish Garlic Bread was offered with the Entree and fries would be nice with the sub. read more

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Solid seafood portofino with good portions. Lots of flavor. I'm a big flavor guy. C'mon yelp, 85 character mininum!?

The chef is actually really talented and the food can be tasty. But they never have drinks!!! They are constantly out of alcohol as the owner is too cheap to have more than one bottle of booze at any time. They have 20 bottles displayed but most of them are empty - Jack, Buffalo Trace, Jim Beam.... all empty. I really liked going here and have spent a lot of money but my boys and I are going to the horrible Ocean Shack or Cowboy -- they actually manage their bar. God forbid you have lime, or lemon, or more than 2 wine selections. This place is now sort of an embarrassment. Although the parking in back is pretty good. Get it together on the bar!! read more

Ruffino's Spaghetti House - This is the "bar" which, if you look carefully, is full of empty bottles. WTF!?!? - Italian Near Me - Arlington, Virginia

Our little neighborhood classic. It's like walking into a warm hug... with great food. No pretense, chill vibe, low-key server (perhaps named "Sid"?) with a wicked sense of humor. Tender veal parm, and outstanding seafood pasta with cream sauce. Love to support our locals - especially when it means a solid meal alongside a nice bottle of Chianti! read more

Ruffino's Spaghetti House - a fork full of pasta - Italian Near Me - Arlington, Virginia

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Met up with a friend for dinner here after passing this establishment many times. An old time place for sure, but was it good, I had wondered. We started with the garlic bread which when it came looked ordinary but smelled good. I dribbled on some of the marinara sauce and took a bite and was hooked! It and the house Merlot and I could have called it a night. But I ordered the parmigiana with the pasta and it was magnificent! I get it, it's old school and parking in back of the restaurant is not optimal but why was this restaurant empty? Service was good. Prices were reasonable.... read more

Ruffino's Spaghetti House - Italian Near Me - Arlington, Virginia

Quite disappointing. The Ruffino's of the past had average comfortable food in an intimate setting that was always crowded, but enjoyable with inexpensive entrees. The new owners have severely jacked prices at a location that is modern and sterile. However, on a Sunday at 5:30 there was not another single diner. The food was pretty good, but $24 for penne pasta and $17 for a simple manicotti with slices of bread and $7 beers was quite expensive for such simple Italian comfort food. Seriously, no customers and the server / bartender / only employee we ever saw seemed indifferent at best. Have lots of great memories over 40 years of dining here, but now its just another overpriced Italian restaurant with an experience and simple food that fails to live up to the price. read more

A very cute hole-in-the-wall spot with wonderful service. We had the chicken parmigiana and piccata pasta dishes. Food tasted very good with perfect portion sizes that were just enough to leave us full, but not doubling over! For dessert I'd recommend their cheesecake which tastes homemade. read more

Last night my roommate and I ordered delivery from this location. She got the Chicken Angel Hair Pasta and I got the chicken castellana and both were very good. We had also ordered the mozzarella sticks. The portion size is enough for two meals. It was a little pricey but I think it was worth it! Update 09/27: I was finishing my food today since I had leftovers and I noticed a small hair in my food and it was not mine. It was in between the eggplant and the chicken. I immediately stopped eating. read more

nice quiet place i order to go most the time. great subs the eggplant and Italian sausage never disappoints.

Great food and excellent service! The portions were the perfect size. Vegetarian selections as well:)

Ruffino's has becomr my hangout the last year with the bartenders Sid and Eric, and some regulars. Stop by for a A good pour, and good company. read more

Ordered a Large Pepperoni and Sausage pizza and was pretty bad. Came lukewarm if that. Hardly any pepperoni and sausage on the pizza. Cheese was not good. Had barely any sauce on it and nothing noteworthy about the sauce. Don't get the pizza. Way better options around Arlington. read more

1.) The menu price is misleading as the actual price on the bill is different. The waitress said when asked they changed the price but did not yet update the menus. 2.) Food came out at all different times. We were a party of 2 and we waited for the other person to receive there food for quite a while. 3.) The chicken parm was plated oddly. There was a large plate just for the chicken parm and a separate large bowl for just the pasta and no room on the table. I had to transfer the pasta to the plate with the chicken and put the bowl on the floor. My wife had to do the same. 4.) Garlic bread was the worst I have ever seen. Firstly, whatever bread it was, was certainly stale. Secondly, I hate to even call it garlic bread, it was smeared with something but it was awful 5.) Service was slow 6.) Mariana Sauce and the pasta were very bland 7.) My wife is gluten free and got spinach as a side instead of pasta. It was cooked in margarine and all we could really taste was the margarine On the plus side, the chicken parm tasted good read more

Outstanding Food and Service. We held a luncheon for 30 people at Ruffinos and it was an outstanding event. The owner was very flexible and helpful planning the event and offered tasting plates of the selected food items. The venue was the perfect size and could have easily handled 40-45. The food (spaghetti, meatballs, chicken parm, salad, garlic bread) was fresh and hot served buffet style. The marinara sauce was perfection. Service was prompt and friendly. And the fresh cannoli were great. The most frequently heard comments were, "The food was great" , "We have to come back and check out the regular menu" and "How did you find this place". read more

Ruffino's Spaghetti House - Italian Near Me - Arlington, Virginia

From our home in Virginia Square, we were looking for an affordable Italian restaurant with not just a routine pasta and pizza emphasis. Yelp turned us on to Ruffino's, easily less than 5 me minutes up Glebe road from Ballston at the corner with Lee highway. We had ordered in advance with Sara for the veal piccata with calamari as an appetizer. Although the menu only offers fried calamari, Sara influenced the kitchen to prepare sauteed calamari for us and it was tasty and well prepared. The veal was delicious - nicely seasoned and tender accompanied by a huge serving of linguine. With convenient parking behind the restaurant, it was a breeze to pick up the order. read more

This place is a gem. Food was fantastic, portions were more than enough and the service was prompt, professional and personable. I would highly recommend this restaurant. read more

Ruffin's Spaghetti House is ok for a local Italian joint. The veal piccata is was good. Strong lemons and capers. Spaghetti was good. I like a softer spaghetti and this was traditional so a bit tougher noodles so normal if you're used to traditional Italian. I had a house wine which was ok for $7/glass. Consider a place to try for your palate. read more

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Delivery order review. An update will follow, as I was pleased enough to try a sit-down experience another day. Looking for Italian food beyond pizza on a Sunday night after 8:30 p.m., DoorDash took me to Ruffino's, chosen for seeming to be locally owned, and within a delivery time of 45 minutes. Both seem to be accurate (DoorDash, GrubHub, Deliveroo have delivered not-pleasant surprises before). My first trial of an Italian restaurant if I have time is either lasagna or risotto. For take-out, lasagna survives travel better, so that was my choice. A hefty portion made me a little less skeptical about the price/value concern the menu prices had given me. It's a good, solid lasagna, with a more tart, "bright" tomato sauce. I anticipated a hint of a sweet spice, but I might be confusing Italian lasagna with Greek pasticcio. No herbs/seasonings were overly-highlighted, not a bad thing. My friend chose angel hair pasta with marinara sauce and meatballs. The tasty, herb-aroma'd sauce seemed slightly different from my lasagna (suggesting there's not a singular "tomato sauce recipe" being used), the angel hair survived travel well, and we both found the quantity and quality of meatballs surprisingly good. As mentioned, I'm pleased enough to plan for a sit-down visit later. *Note: My delivery order menu items were priced $1 each more than the posted menu prices. This may be to defray the costs of packaging. End Note.* read more

~GrubHub review~ I ordered the linguini with clam sauce & the tortellini with meat sauce. I have VERY high standards for linguini with clam sauce since I'm Italian and my mom makes the best linguini with clam sauce in the world, hands down. This was pretty good, though. Not as good as hers by any stretch of the imagination, but I'd order it again. I tasted the tortellini and it was disappointing, though. The sauce was heavy af and totally overpowered the actual pasta in terms of amount/volume/thickness. It was also too sweet for my liking. 3.5. read more

One of my biggest holdups of D.C is that there are not a lot of long time running, authentic restaurants left. Everything seems new, "hip", and trendy. I like places that have some culture to them. Maybe some old decorations, family owned, etc. Ruffino's isn't in D.C but it's right there so you can count it. I go here often. It feels like you're walking into a family owned Italian restaurant in an old Godfather movie. There's always parking. You can park in the back or on the street. What restaurant do you known that has a backdoor entrance? If you're on a date just tell her "you know a guy". It looks like your important when you go in the back. You have to love it. The staff is always friendly and quick. A couple of times I did have to ask for the bread at the beginning which is kind of so-so, and the bread isn't amazing. If you're starving it will hold you over though. I enjoy their fried calamari and always get the chicken parmigiana. I never leave dissatisfied. Like I mentioned the staff is always friendly and the food is always filling. I come here as often as I can because you get a home cooked meal feeling. I also like the fact that it's never crowded. I've never had to sit next to another table. I am a very tough reviewer and so I can't give them five stars because on multiple occasions I had to ask for bread that is automatic at most restaurants and it's not that great. I would highly recommend visiting this restaurant for a nice intimate dinner. read more

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This place has great food I don't know why the rating is so low. I've gotten different pizzas here and they all have been amazing. Their mozzarella sticks are very good. Hopefully one day I'll try some pasta read more

Ordered two spaghetti meatballs via Postmates and spent almost $40. The pasta has little sauce yet extremely sour, the meatball was okay and overall taste was bland. I had to add salt and pepper to make it taste decent. Oh well. read more

Ruffino's Spaghetti House - Italian Near Me - Arlington, Virginia

Ordered garlic bread it was 4 small squares with some kind of flavorless spread, the bread was heavy & soggy like from frozen but not completely cooked enough. French onion soup looked muddy color and no cheese or croutons on top, no flavor. Spaghetti & meatballs was a mix of spaghetti and linguine pasta and the sauce had a slimy like texture with no flavor. Meatballs appeared grocery store type. Marinara Seafood dish again was a mix of both spaghetti & linguine pasta, had the same flavorless glossy slimy sauce several mussels, bay scallops, larger shrimp, calamari all ruined by the weird sauce, not worth it for the price. Greeter/waitperson said "how many" not at all pleasant or welcoming. I gave this place 2 stars because I felt sad for it and wanted to be generous with the hope they can somehow improve over time. read more

Ordered delivery so I can't speak for how good the in-restaurant stuff is. I ordered the tortellini alfredo and it was decent. Nothing special, but decent enough. Portions were large so I had leftovers. I also ordered the garlic bread, which again, was decent but nothing exceptional. I noticed some complained it was too greasy - I had the opposite problem, it was too dry and not moist enough. The food did get here pretty quickly, which is a plus. read more

The service was great. Everyone was polite and attentive. But when you go out to eat, the food is what matters. And it was terrible. I started with the minestrone soup. The vegetables were fine but the broth tasted like tomato-flavored water. Hardly any seasoning, including salt. The breaded chicken on my salad was also unsalted and too bland to enjoy. However, at this point, I wasn't too bothered. Everything was relatively cheap so it wasn't a huge deal. You always run this risk when trying new places. But then I tried my wife's tortellini... It's hard to make tortellini alfredo look unappetizing but they managed it. It looked like melted spackle over frozen, store-bought pasta. As expected, it wasn't seasoned at all. It tasted like thick, warm milk and nothing of cheese or garlic. I can't imagine it came from a can because then it would at least have some salt in it. If I need to add salt to the dishes, something is wrong in the kitchen. I wasn't surprised to see that a lot of reviews had the same to say about the bland food. I can't understand how a restaurant stays open for nearly 50 years with food like this. It was comfort Italian food cooked with the care of some back alley diner. Would not recommend. read more

Unbelievable, no one there... I wonder why food is complete crap... Didn't want the $14 calamari it tasted like cardboard but the poor guy couldn't remove it from the bill because the owner locked him out of doing so..... $27 for seafood marina where all the seafood was ice cold... absolutely horrendous read more

Very disappointed with our experience. The waiter was unfriendly when we asked to see the drink menu, and continued to be that way through our entire dinner. The garlic bread was very soggy and flavorless. We both ordered pasta, the fettuccine Alfredo was decent and the build your own was good as well. The end of our meal was disappointing, though, when the waiter came over to inform us that he had doubled charged us for sausage on the build your own pasta (which was $6) and couldn't for whatever reason take it off the bill. He gave us two desserts instead which was nice, (although the tiramisu and cannoli were not great and seemed to be a few days old) but we much rather would just have had the extra charge taken off. Overall, the food was decent but we will unfortunately not be returning. read more

This place is the best in Arlington for good old real Italian cooking they've been here for many years for a Good reason the food is phenomenal but the place is dated read more

You order something from the menu and you don't get it. They charge for items on the menu that they don't have. They are committing fraud by selling and charging for items them at are not delivered. Stay away!!!!! read more

Worse meal I have had in decades. Will not go back! Calamari was very dry. Clams in white wine sauce was uneatable (tasted like sauerkraut, with a lot of italian seasonings that don't go into this dish). Veal Picata was tough and strong seasonings to cover up old taste. Not the Ruffino's it use to be. read more

We came in here today for a late lunch, because I've driven past this place for years but never had the opportunity to stop in because the parking is somewhat obscure. I've learned that this restaurant has been here for 45 years, so they must have been doing something right! I love spaghetti anyway so I had to give it a try. I was seated and the Server came to my table quickly. Without even seeing the menu, I already knew what I wanted, I ordered the spaghetti with meat sauce and a bottled Perrier. My girlfriend orders the chicken marsala. In less than 60 seconds the bottled water and complimentary garlic bread was brought to the table. In about 5 minutes the spaghetti and chicken marsala was delivered. The portions were humongous and everything tasted absolutely awesome! read more

Ruffino's Spaghetti House - Italian Near Me - Arlington, Virginia

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I stopped in for the first time today and it was awesome! I had a couple of drinks and ordered the lasagna while I chatted with the owner. I have to say the food was delicious and the atmosphere was lovely. I was the only dine-in customer, so obviously it was quiet but I can only imagine how busy it's going to be as soon as people realize they're open for in-room dining! They're set up for social distancing as well, and all the staff were wearing masks, so I felt completely safe. I'm definitely making this a regular go-to for an after work drink and an amazing meal! read more

Wish I could rate higher, because the food was actually pretty good. And the service was very friendly. I think the problem I had, wasn't their fault entirely. They offered me a single page menu with 2 fixed-price options... 3 course lunch for $20 or 3-course dinner for $35. I learned later this has something to do with Fairfax Restaurant week. But at the time, I thought this was my only food option. No other menu was shown to me. I didn't want a $20 3-course dinner, just a simple sub and drink. I asked if they could do that and at first he said "sure, you can have just entree only. But it's the same price." ... after I made a face he said "actually I can make you a sub with fries for $12, ok?" I said yes and the steak and cheese sub was above-average, and just the right size. The price was fair. Whatever this Fairfax city promotion is, it's probably hurting more than it's helping. It's unclear if the normal menu is available. It's unclear if the dinner fixed-price menu can be had during lunch, or vice versa. If there's no normal menu during restaurant week, it probably hurts the restaurant. People want options, not to be forced to spend extra on appetizers and desserts. Less than 5 stars because in addition to the menu confusion, I requested just steak, cheese, mayo and he seemed to understand, but it came with peppers and other stuff anyway. And even though the person who helped me was very nice, I had to find him to get a refill and the check. Will try it again when restaurant week is over. read more

I've ordered take out maybe 3-4 times and finally ate in recently. This place is so good! I've enjoyed all of my meals here. A hidden gem, at least to me. I will continue to go back and enjoy their delicious cardinal sauce and garlic bread! read more