Critic's Review
Most of the eateries in this neck of the woods don't speak much English, so Caruso's is easy to overlook. This was Lucarella's before; a not so good place. So I wasn't excited about trying it.
I was going to eat in, but once I got here I decided to take out. It's pretty clear that this is a local regulars operation because they don't even have menus out. No menu behind the counter; I had to ask for one and the guy had to fetch one from the back. The counter guy was vaping, which isn't something I want to see in a Deli type restaurant.
They have a buffet for $10 (all you can eat), but it's not much of a dining room and doing a buffet on a Saturday is probably a bad idea. I ordered the Lunch eggplant; apparently you can get it as a sandwich or with pasta which led to some confusion. The menu doesn't SAY that; these guys don't know how do deal with people who've never been in before.
It took around 15 minutes, which seems like a long time to melt some cheese. I checked out their meat case to see if they had Guanciale, but no such luck. Watching the guys behind the counter, for some reason I was thinking about the prison cooking scene in Goodfellas.
The bag filled the car with some aroma; I didn't anticipate the garlic rolls. When I opened it, I wasn't disappointed with the portion size; 4 pieces of eggplant and a load of spaghetti.
No eggplant stack like at Anthony's, but a lot more cheese.
The eggplant had a very tight, uniform breading which makes me believe that they bought it pre-breaded. I made myself a small plate; I didn't like the sauce too much. It was OK but this is clearly Pizzeria food. At least there was no skin.
I ate the rest of it for dinner; I have a way of fixing any sauce, and it was really quite good. Of course after a couple of glasses of wine everything tastes better.
Conclusion
This is standard pizzeria fare served in a messy Deli-esque environment. No bad food, but nothing you can't get at 10 other places.