Gusto

Catching up after work last Thursday, Kate W. and I headed to Gusto to take advantage of their pre-​theatre menu for £19.95. We booked for 6.15 as this particular menu is only available before 7pm, and were seated promptly on arrival. The restaurant was packed; a mixture of large groups, couples and individuals simply having a drink at the bar made for a buzzing but not overpowering environment.
Our waitress came over to apologise for a small wait of about 10 minutes, and returned soon after to take our order. The pre-​theatre menu is stingy on starters — 3 variations of bruschetta only — but generous on mains, with fish, pizza, a burger and pasta options available, plus an aperitivo cocktail to start. Not wanting to delay anything further we ordered both drinks and food at the same time, then simply sat back and waited for everything to arrive!
Unfortunately, our food came before our drinks, so we instantly felt on the back foot service wise. My tomato and basil bruschetta was okay, with nice crunch bread, but parts of the chopped tomato were far too salty for my taste. The drinks arrived roughly half way through; my aperitivo was vanilla based, topped up with soda and prosecco, and tasted not unlike melted ice cream. Lovely, but better before the meal rather than as an ‘in between’ courses addition.
We ordered a bottle of wine when the starter plates were removed, and this arrived more promptly, with an ice bucket just to the side of the table. This addition, although welcome for a chilled bottle, did make leaving the table quite difficult and we felt very close to the neighboring tables.
My main of goats cheese and red onion pizza was a marked improvement on the starter, with the toppings well dispersed and plenty of gooey goats cheese. The based was nice and doughy, though could have done with a few more minutes in the oven for some real personality. Kate’s carbonara looked lovely and, based on the forkful I had, the pasta was cooked lovely and al-​dente.
Ever wanting to stretch a meal further, we also shared some of the doughnuts with cream and chocolate sauce. The doughnuts were served warm but with cold sauce, which seemed odd, and there was evidence of it splitting during some kind of heating process in the past.
The meal was good but not one I’m rushing to revisit; although the food was okay, it didn’t stand out as anything special.

I have been to gusto a couple of times now and the food has been excellent. Friendly staff whom are reasonably quick at serving, considering how busy the place is. Most impressed with the waiters that know how to correctly make a Negroni, my favourite drink.

First visit for Gusto yesterday. Gusto was one of the many restaurants in Manchester which are having specials offers in January — in the case of Gusto, it was 50% off food like most restaurants.
The inside is very large. It sort of has a 1950s New York hotel/​bar/​restaurant style — which wasn’t expecting for an Italian restaurant. Thats what I think anyway. Their web site says style is inspired by the traditional grand cafes of Europe
As usual, I had a quick look at the menu before visiting but I saw that they did rib eye steak — which always catches my eye. Anyone who knows me, will know I love steak! For starter, I went for calamari. Can’t go too wrong with deep fried calamari — although actually if cooked bad, it can be chewy. Tasted nice though. Nice dip which it came with but although bit lacking of much green on the plate — would have been nice a bit of a small salad (maybe being bit picky).
For the main, I had the rib eye steak. As already mentioned I do love steak and whenever its on a menu, more often than not I will order it. It was a 10oz steak according to the menu but when it came it looked bigger than that.
The actual steak was «OK». I found it too salty, it wasn’t that tender and had to use a fair amount of effort to cut it. Also, you could argue it was a bit too charred out the outside. I ordered mine medium-​rare and it was probably about right (maybe a bit more towards medium).
My cousin had the rib eye steak too and even though the steaks were the same size, his was almost rare in the thicker bits. Luckily hes OK with it like that.
The steak did not come with any chips (fries) so had to order those as sides.
Currently there have an offer on their signature cocktails — £5 I think instead of £8.95 — although it has to be when you’re at the bar — so I couldn’t take part of the offer with my meal.
Service was not too bad. Its one of those times where half marks in Unilocal would be good. Would have been 3.5.

This is one of my favourite places to eat in Manchester, purely because it never lets me down every time I visit. I have ate here possibly around 6 – 7 times with it being facing my office, and on each occasion I never have any complaints or niggles.
Although it is ‘just an Italian’ and is part of a chain, the menu is extensive with so many offerings that deviate from the normal bog standard Italian dish. Of course there is the regular tomato and garlic pasta, but there are also so many pasta and risotto dishes with lobster, prawn and various seafood which you don’t always find. The pizza choices are also slightly adventurous, with duck, tuna and butternut squash as some of the more unique topping choices.
I opt for the roast pork gnocchi the majority of the time, which comes with cherry tomatoes, rocket and pesto. It doesn’t sound anything overly fancy but it’s my favourite pick from Gusto, as the pork is delicious and the overall dish is just extremely tasty.
On my last visit, I went for cauliflower soup as the starter, which I feel may be a new addition to the starters It’s lovely and creamy with a herb crust topping and foccacia bread — just light enough for a starter before a heavy pasta meal.
The interior is beautiful — an old grand building with high ceilings and smart little booths. Possibly one of the other reasons I love this place so much.
A tiny negative is that sometimes the staff can be fairly slow to attend to you. I usually find this is the case at this particular Gusto, however my latest visit wasn’t like this, so keep it up staff!
Can’t recommend enough

Not a great experience at Gusto. We arrived at the restaurant with a warm welcome and was shown to our table which seemed ok at first. Until we noticed that it was right next to the kitchen. The staff was making a lot of noise. Ive been to open restaurants before where you can see the kitchen but never have i heard so much chaos and shouting from one place.
So we asked to be moved to a much quieter part of the restaurant which they did.
We then ordered some signature cocktails from the menu and when i asked if they were on offer on the board near the entrance way for £4.95 he said that it was only available at that price at the bar? so i decided to go to the bar to order them, then the waiter came over and said he would do it for that price and take my order from the table, i asked if the mojitos was in the offer and he said yes, but then he came back to me and said they weren’t?
My friend said that he would pay for them, half way through eating our starter the waiter came over asking my friend to pay for the cocktails which i found very rude and they should have waited before we finished before coming over to make sure that we had paid for our cocktails.
The meal was pretty nice to be honest and my tagliatelle with prawns and garlic was lovely. The rest of the evening was great but had a few issues at the beginning, so if you decide to eat at Gusto make sure your table is not near the kitchen.

Service was excellent and they managed to get us a table almost immediately even though it was quite crowded. Waitress was extremely attentive and provided very good food recommendations.
Ambience wise it was really nice and cosy and gave a sense of warmness. Locations also superb as it was very close to the city center.
I ordered the cauliflower soup and the carbonara. The cauliflower soup was cream based and it was extremely flavourful. The richness of the soup went really well with the olive bread they provided. The carbonara was very traditional Italian in which it wasn’t cream based but tossed with egg. An absolute delectable delight.

Sad to report of a poor experience at the hands of Gusto Manchester just recently. Not a busy Sunday evening when myself and 2 friends visited and to which we were all looking forward to. We were seated for our allotted time of 7pm, and the service was poor to say the least. Initially we ordered some water for the table whilst we were perusing the menu, and after around 20 minutes we had not been visited again to take our food and drinks order. I attracted the attention of one of the members of staff, who took our foods — without writing them down, and he managed to get them right ! The starters were lovely and we managed to attract another member of staff to order some drinks — including cocktails. The cocktails were extremely good and very much enjoyed by my guests. We had ordered our mains too, and these arrived after a bit of a wait. The mains’ bar the pizza’s were good; the pizza’s which myself and one of my friends had ordered we felt were a little over cooked. We did overhear from another table that there had been problems on this particular evening — relating to the kitchen; however I felt it was a combination of kitchen and the front of house staff. Due to the problems we were having we decided not to have any desserts and requested our bill. This came with an apology and 50% (or 40% off; can’t quite remember) off the food only. Hate having to do reviews like this, and after two lovely visits to the Didsbury and this newer Manchester branch in January of this year. Hopefully next time will be «business as usual» and an enjoyable experience.

The Good: Our mains were nice, in particular my wife’s gnocchi dish.
The Bad: The crab and avocado bruschetta we he was not very good (the avocado was more like a cheap guacamole) but worst of all was the cocktail I had. I’d expect a place which has a cocktail menu to make a half decent old fashioned. I sent my first back for being essentially bourbon and water. They offered to make a second, which they did, and to take the price off my bill. Good service, but even the second was pretty poor. Here’s a hint, if I can see a pile of sugar on the bottom of my glass, it isn’t stirred properly. And way too much ice and no indication any fruit was muddled. I’d expect the rest of the cocktails made here would be lacking.

I’ve been there twice and both times the restaurant has been crazy busy. Yet, the staff were so lovely, so accomodating and funny! I’d definitely have been flapping about stressed with the amount they had to do. It’s reasonably priced around £10 for a pizza or pasta dish and even more reasonably priced if you book on the site for 40% off. I’d definitely return. P. S the building is stunning and worth a visit if only for a cocktail

It seems Gusto has taken over from where the Olive Press left off. Very family friendly and they do cater well for children.
A definite improvement in surroundings and very swish toilets!
The food was good, there were 16 of us dining and I didn’t hear a bad word said. I would say it’s at the top end price wise for a chain. My crab spaghetti coming in at £16 with wine at £6 a glass.
Will definitely come back though for the family friendly atmosphere above everything else.

I highly anticipated the opening of the new Gusto on Deansgate. I had been given fantastic feedback about other Gusto’s — particularly the one in Alderly Edge which is meant to be lovely — and with this being Living Ventures 10^th Gusto Restaurant I knew I wouldn’t be left disappointed.
The restaurant has set up home in Elliot House, on Deansgate, with its entrance being just round the corner on Lloyd Street. It’s a lovely building and gets even better when you go inside.
A few small steps lead you up into the reception area, where we were greeted by two lovely hostesses, one of whom found our booking straight away and led us through the restaurant to our table. First impressions, very pleasant.
The restaurant itself is very large — a lot bigger than I was expecting — but the décor was elegant and classy and the layout of the tables complemented the space even further. It is dimly lit, allowing for a romantic and cosy atmosphere but yet still remains quite formal.
There is an island-​style bar standing proudly in the centre of the restaurant, serving up some outstanding cocktails. My favourite, the cherry and coconut sour!
The menu boasts classic Italian dishes and some more contemporary ones too!
To nibble, I started with some Marinated Olives, which were lovely. And ordered the Fritto misto of sardine, prawn and squid with pan fried garlic polenta, green gazpacho and lemon purée for a starter. It was lovely and just the right sized portion for a starter. Tim C. ordered the deep fried Calamari with lemon mayonnaise and he really enjoyed it.
For my main course, I debated a while — so many things on the menu sounded lovely. I would have ordered the whole salt baked sea bass, but sadly they were out of it so I opted for the smoked salmon and dill rigatoni tossed with cream, peas and spinach. It was a large portion and it was good. I may have ordered a garlic bread with mozzarella too.
A spicy nduja salami and potato pizza with sweet tomato sauce, mozzarella, mascarpone and sliced white onion came for Tim. He found it spicy, but spot on!
I wasn’t going to have a dessert, but when I was shown the menu I could not pass up the opportunity to try their Nutella and mascarpone calzone — yes, a Nutella pizza! My two most favourite things in the world. and Oh My Lord. it was incredible!
Overall my first Gusto experience was fab — and with the 50% off offer on throughout all of January too, there’s just no excuse not to come here! As far as Italian restaurants go, this is one of my favourites in Manchester.

This is my first visit to Gusto since it opened so when a friend suggested we go there on Christmas Eve Eve for a cocktail after work, I thought why not.
Well, «a cocktail» turned into 3 cocktails and dinner.
My first cocktail was a Black Raspberry Sling and my friend’s first cocktail was the Vanilla and Strawberry Martini. My drink was very nice and I could imagine it being very refreshing in the summer. The second and third cocktails were the Fig and Hazlenut Martini and boy it was so nice, I highly recommend it.
Part the way through our second drink, my friend’s boyfriend turned up with work colleagues. They had been out all afternoon and had booked a table for food on their way to meet us. I had my arm twisted into staying out for longer — it’s still hurting now.
My food choice was the gnocchi with pork. It was absolutely gorgeous and would highly recommend it Next time I will wash it down with a nice glass of red. My friend had the taglitelle arrabiata with pepperoni. I had a taste and it was very nice, although spicier than other arrabiata’s I’ve had in other places. Others on the table ordered the seafood pizza (very nice apparently), steak with spinach and butternut squash (also nice apparently) and then someone ordered the mussels from the starter menu. Apparently the sauce with it was really top notch and better than others in Manchester.
Also, love the décor in the place, very 1930s.
I highly recommend a visit to this place, if you haven’t been already.