Gustissimo

8 Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  9      Service  7      Value  7     

Went here with my boyfriend for dinner on a Saturday night and the place itself has beautiful decor, loved the checked tablecloth! We were served a menu and drinks immediately, the waiter was extremely friendly.

Our food was served quickly after ordering, however, there was an issue with my order being incorrect for the type of ravioli I ordered. The waiter we had was very polite and apologetic and advised me that to correct it may take some time but could be done. I opted instead to have the ravioli I was served because he said it would be excellent, and it was. The lamb ravioli is fresh and cooked in an amazing tomato sauce!

My boyfriend had a chicken dish, however, was not happy with his choice, he said the food itself was great just not his cup of tea, he could not fault it. The food is very traditional and authentic italian.

The food is a bit pricey but you are paying for good quality, fresh food and the servings are quite large, we were both stuffed afterwards!

Friendly service, lovely food and nice service, we had a great time despite minor hiccups!

Response from Management:
Thank you shaunao18 for your nice review. Firstly we apologise for the incorrect order. Sometimes these minor mistakes do happen and we thank you for your patience. We are glad you both had a good time regardless and hope to see you both in the near future.

May 20, 2012 

10 Highly Recommended

Food  10      Ambience  10      Service  10      Value  10     

I am a regular at Gustissimo now for the past 18 months since they opened their door, and I am also a local. I am stunned to read some reviews on eatability, actually my mouth this morning would not close for the surprise. I can assure you that every meal that comes out of the kitchen cooked lovingly from David's Mum is cooked always to perfection... I cannot comprehend a review like this last one as "dog food" is just not on Gustissimo agenda, never been. People should consider and think before posting something so disgustingly untrue. But people are people after all and the previous review on this page is actually saying that the garlic bread was inedible, instead this last review is praising it... so as David is justly saying, "We cannot please everyone!" Don't worry David we will continue to be patrons of your restaurant and come out from it fully satisfied every single time!"

Response from Management:
Thanks Michael T for your glowing review. It's always such a pleasure to serve you and your lovely wife. As you so rightly point out it's really hard to please everyone all the time, but it's nice to know that we can still satisfy 99.9% of our diners, including you both. Hoping to see you again soon.

Mar 20, 2012 

1.5 Not Recommended

Food  2      Ambience  1      Service  1      Value  2     

The garlic bread was amazing! It took me back to my younger years growing up in Rome. Overall it was a great night, until the main course was served. Cold, salty, and boring. Though extremely busy, I refused to be served something that I wouldn't give to a dog. I referred my complaint to a waiter, seventeen minutes past and still no explanation for the meal that ruined my week. I put the meal aside and against my better judgement I paid for my bill.

I read some of the reviews on here a week ago. I paid attention to the good reviews and ignored the bad. In hindsight I should have read the negative views and spent my evening making dinner at home.

Response from Management:
Thank you for the positive comment regarding our garlic bread. However in regard to the meal that ruined your week, firstly let me assure you that all mains on the menu are cooked to order and the food is served within one minute once being dished out, so I highly doubt the main you were given could have chilled that quickly. Secondly, every complaint, and I can assure you we do not have many, are immediately referred to the kitchen and my mum the chef personally comes out into the dining room to investigate what the problem is. This is a practice we have always employed ever since we opened the restaurant. Busy or not busy we take every complaint very seriously and we would have addressed yours no matter what. Unfortunately my waiter and myself don’t have any recollection of your complaint especially around the time you posted your review, because if we did, we would have dealt with it as we always do, promptly and efficiently. 95% of all our dishes come back empty, the other 5% due to the fact that our servings are large hence the stomach is a bit full. Just to refresh everyone's memory, our mains are: - Free range chicken pieces pan seared in butter, red onions, cherry tomatoes, pine nuts, salt, lemon pepper, a bit of chilli and chives and then finished with cream, it is our best seller. Veal in marsala, white wine, or cream and porcini mushrooms, floured, then pan seared in butter, and added to the above ingredients. Angus fillet steak cooked in butter, rosemary and garlic and to the client’s request, rare up to well done and then finished off with green peppercorn and a dash of white wine. The warm calamari salad, calamari cut and cooked in oil, garlic, lemon pepper, lemon juice until tender, and served on a bed of salad, fresh tomatoes and black olives.

So for you to tell us that your main was cold, salty and boring, it really is mystifying. You chose your main from reading it from our menu, we didn't choose it for you, so maybe you chose the wrong dish. You do not specify what you ate saying that you would not have given it to a dog! It just does not add up as my mum is a very good cook and she would never in a million years serve something that is not fit for human consumption. And by your own admission we were extremely busy the night you came, so if we served dishes that you wouldn’t give to a dog, then why would we be busy pretty much every night of the week? For staying at home and cooking your meal instead of coming to our restaurant I am afraid that is a decision you will have to make, and from our part you are very welcome to do so.

Mar 18, 2012 

9 Highly Recommended

Food  10      Ambience  9      Service  10      Value  7     

We made a reservation for 2, it was for my wife and I for our second wedding anniversary. After reading mainly good reviews on here we decided to give Gustissimo a try. We were really impressed with the friendly service and although we had an early booking 6:30pm the restaurant began to fill very quickly.

The food was cooked to perfection and seemed to be cooked with love, true Italian style. The service was speedy and unobtrusive. Being a licensed venue we tried a bottle of red from the menu and again were quite happy. My only suggestion to the owner would be to have the drinks list separate of the menu so when ordering drinks first you have already seen the list.

Overall a great night and we will be happy to recommend this place to anyone. Thank you Gustissimo for a great night!

Response from Management:
Thank you Adam M for your kind words. It was a pleasure to serve you and your wife on your special occasion and I'm glad you had a wonderful time. And thank you for your suggestion for the wine list. We are going to be changing the menu format in the near future. I hope to see you both soon.

Mar 18, 2012 

1.5 Not Recommended

Food  1      Ambience  2      Service  2      Value  1     

Garlic bread was over heated, a little hard throughout. Almost unedible. Their excuse for their lousy service was that they were a little busy tonight. What does that mean? Is this their only excuse for poor customer service. Senior staff seemed sleazy!

Response from Management:
Wow, you're the first person to complain about our garlic bread in the 18 months of us being in operation (which we make with real chopped garlic, not that jarred crushed stuff from the supermarket and with fresh bread we buy daily). If you were unhappy with the garlic bread, we would have been happy to exchange it. As for the service, we are not and will never be silver service, so if that is what you expected then obviously you came to the wrong restaurant (and yes we do get busy but our standard is always high, as you can see from our other reviews). As for senior staff (i.e. me) being sleazy, I have no idea how you could get that impression. I've got a warped sense of humour and maybe I can be a bit eccentric at times, but sleazy? Maybe you confused my outgoing personality as sleaze? Whatever! It just goes to show that you can't please everyone all the time.

Mar 15, 2012 

9.3 Highly Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  9      Service  10      Value  9     

Fantastic food, sensational service and amazing atmosphere (No more alliteration, I promise). My Girlfriend and I ate here last night and were very impressed with the service, food and overall friendly, warm aesthetic. The staff were very lovely, professional, with a real sense of a family atmosphere and even gave us a good laugh from time to time.

The food was top notch, and after a recent Pizza tour around Europe Gustissimo was certainly up against a lot of tough competition, but they came through with flying colours and delicious pizza. After eating our way around Europe recently, it was nice to find an authentic taste of Europe once again. Thank you very much.

Response from Management:
Thank you very much Stuart O for your kind words. We did a lot of research with our pizzas to try and get them as authentic as possible to traditional Italian pizzas (with a bit of artisitic license) in regard to topping combinations, portion sizes and above all taste. And I think we are very close in achieving that goal as our pizzas are by far the best selling items on the menu. I'm glad our pizzas lived up to your expectations and I hope to see you and your partner in the near future.

Jan 14, 2012 

9.5 Highly Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  10      Service  10      Value  9     

Great Meal, Great Atmosphere and Great Service. This mother and son management combination has truly brought a winning business to the Blue Mountains. A small restaurant, in a town where convenience rules for tourism' sake, Gustissimo serves for those looking for exactly what is written in their name: Northern Italian Cuisine. My Northern Italian experience is derived only from Firenze (Florence) Italy, my memory was certainly cast back reminiscing the similarities to my travels in Italy primarily in atmosphere.

For those not used to real Italian atmosphere, here you will suffer an encouraging culture shock where the head waiter asserts his way around his customers, bringing playful banter with his trusting staff and also his mother in the kitchen.

The food was fantastic. Truly the result of one that has been cooking most of their life. The food quality on the whole well serves its atmosphere, restaurant location and head chef.

On those comments by others on food quality, regardless of their superhuman ability to detect the difference between supermarket and chef quality produce, as one that has eaten in most Katoomba Street restaurants, you will be hard pressed to find such quality within the Katoomba town for the same price, with the same jocund atmosphere.

A happy repeat customer

Response from Management:
Thanks very much warrimoo for your glowing review. Your remarks are why we are in the restaurant business: people who understand that producing meals with passion as opposed to just trying to get more bums on seats and churning out any old crap is of the upmost importance to us. I'm just glad that we are able to please the vast majority of our customers, which makes the long hours of shopping and preparation worthwhile. Obviously we can't please everyone all the time, but at least in your case it's gratifying that you have enjoyed your experience with us on several occasions, and I hope many more to come.

Jan 08, 2012 

4.3 Below Average

Food  4      Ambience  4      Service  5      Value  4     

We booked in advance just before Xmas based on the good reviews. Unfortunately, this place did not live up to the hype. Angus "scotch fillet" was chewy and one third gristle and when I mentioned this to the waiter he said the last few deliveries had been like that as though this was nothing unusual.

Apparently trimming meat is not part of their program. The pesto was clearly not made with fresh ingredients (the parmesan appeared to be those processed granules from the supermarket) and the constant pacing of the wait staff throughout was disconcerting. Not an experience we would want to repeat.

Regardless of the management's comments on the placement of the fat, the meat had gristle down the side and was tough even when I requested medium rare. The restaurant was not busy when we were there (one other couple) - the staff pacing was thus not due to a need to serve. Parmesan cheese dries out and loses flavour if it's not freshly grated.

In response to the management's comment that a deli sells the cheese grindings not a supermarket ('even the deli owner laughed', management writes), I'd say the last laugh is on management as the cheese might as well come from the cans in the supermarket---it tastes just the same. Apparently at this place the management is always always right!

Response from Management:
Thank you for the review, however we need to set the record straight. Firstly, the scotch fillet cut will always contain some fat. In contrast to the rib eye cut which is lean, scotch fillet has a top vein of fat that will vary slightly in size from fillet to fillet. The scotch fillet is found on the back of the animal and runs from the striploin (sirloin) to the chuck. Being a ‘support’ muscle not subjected to the heavy work of moving the animal around, scotch fillet steaks are tender, as they rest on the ribs. All of the other outer fat (which is really only skin and not fat) is removed by the butcher when we buy it, and then we do trim it again (yes we do trim our meat on the contrary of what you state). Then we ALWAYS give two slices of fillet of about 250 grams each, plenty of meat to eat even with the small amount of fat. The actual "gristle" would make up less than 10%, not the "third" as you claim.

Secondly, the pesto is always made daily with fresh ingredients: basil, pine nuts, butter, garlic and olive oil. The granules you detected in the pesto are the pine nuts and not the parmesan, as the pesto has to be coarse and not too smooth.

Thirdly, the parmesan is served separately with the pasta, and we source that from a deli in Sydney which they grind for us from larger pieces of imported Parmesan from Italy, not from the supermarket. Then we keep it in the freezer until we serve it, taking it out bit by bit so it remains always fresh. Even the deli owner had a laugh when I told him this as he knows how much Parmesan I buy from him weekly.

Lastly, the constant pacing is because we run a busy restaurant and we did get busy while you were there, that is why our staff was moving about. If we had only four people as you state our staff would have not walked incessantly for no reason at all. But then with a dining room of only 32sq metres, it is kinda hard to be invisible. I believe our customers would rather have visible efficient service than staff that are barely seen.

Jan 02, 2012 

9 Highly Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  9      Service  9      Value  9     

Wonderful meal! Have just spent an amazing evening here enjoying fantastic food. Such a young chef but what he creates is truly bellisimo! The host is a wonderful man who has his eye on each table to make sure that all is going smoothly. Even if you are not a tiramisu fan you Have to try it here! It is Grandma's recipe and is to die for. Will definitely go back again when in ara and would definitely recommend it.

Response from Management:
Thank you Christemere, we really appreciate your comments. We're glad you and your husband enjoyed our restaurant. Yes our young apprentice chef is learning from mum at a fast pace, and I'm glad he was able to duplicate mum's dishes with the high standard that we strive for. Hope to see you again soon.

Nov 19, 2011 

10 Highly Recommended

Food  10      Ambience  10      Service  10      Value  10     

A fantastic Northern Italian place. And dare I say it comparable and even on par to Lucio's in Paddington which is supposedly the highest rated Italian in Sydney.

Unlike Lucio's (which is very good btw) it's not pretentious and it doesn't pretend to be either. Fresh ingredients in the 2 pastas we had as well as the pizza and the Nutella pizza is epic.

And as some of the comments below by the manager show, they don't use cheap ingredients and as such the food is more than worth the price.

So expect good quality home made style Italian with a lot of flavour (a common lacking feature with most home style Italian restaurants). Worth the trip from Inner city Sydney.

Response from Management:
Thanks very much ncfc for your high accolades. We are just a family run restaurant which strives to give fresh and top quality traditional home style meals at reasonable prices. And of course we are humbled by your comparison with the two chef hat Lucio's in Paddington (in fact you made mum our cook blush!!) We are glad you enjoyed your dining experience with us and hope to see you again in the near future.

Nov 18, 2011