It’s been a while since I ate Italian, and I was excited to try out the new dishes at Gusto Cookridge. I haven’t actually been to a Gusto before but heard nothing but good things about the small chain. I didn’t get off to the best starts after traversing Leeds to get there during rush hour and multiple accidents on the way so when offered a drink I went straight in for the bad boy of all soft drinks- the Mint Aero Shake – maybe more of a dessert drink to have- after I ordered I found out it was 3 scoops of ice cream and a full mint aero! It was however blooming delicious! #NoRegrets
We then moved onto less liquid food and onto their new starters! My fave was the Roasted Butternut Squash And Chickpea salad. It was so refreshing and perfect for starting the meal off with.
After trying bits of the other starters (Mrs and cheese boards in my case) we went onto Pizza and Pasta. The Seafood Tagliatelle was amazing especially the mussels in it, and the Florentina Pizza was the surprise winner of all 4 dishes of this course. Who knew that an egg baked into the centre of a pizza would taste so good?!?
Then it was time to try out the mains, The Fillet of Pork ‘Saltimbocca’ just pipped the nearly equally amazing Lamb Cacciatore which is a fabulous stew, to top stop as the pork fillet was buttery soft so just stole the show for me. I didn’t get chance to try the fish here but it got many oohs and ahhs from the group so worth going for if you’re a fish fan!
Phew! Luckily we were only trying small amounts of all these so still had room for dessert. There was basil and mint pannacotta, not for me I’m afraid, but the plum compote it was served with was divine. The vanilla cheesecake was also nice- however when I go again I’ll be having the milkshake for my dessert I’m sure of it!
Thanks to Gusto for having me and reinvigorating my fondness for Italian food, I will be revisiting as one of my friends lives just around the corner so will be perfect for a group catch up one evening (we’ll just have to avoid the traffic!). I’m definitely up for their Christmas cocktail making which includes that and a meal, so think I’ll be persuading them go for that when we go!