Restaurant Review

I haven't a restaurant review in a long time, but last night went out to dinner at a new-to-me place so feel a review would not be amiss. Several friend and I went to Gusto Osteria, which serves Italian food. While it doesn't have an extensive wine menu, the house pinot grigio was very lively.

We began the meal with stuffed mushrooms and parmesan potatoes, both of which were outstanding. The mushrooms were a creamy, delicious blend of 'shrooms and cheese that melted in your mouth, and the potato chips were very crisp,uniformly toasted, and sprinkled with enough parmesan to make your taste bud want more, and I don't even like potato chips. My only complaint--there were just 4 mushrooms (all of which I could easily have eaten myself).

Your happy diner had the enchelloni, their interpretation of what would happen if a cannelloni/manicotti and an enchilada were blended in a creamy catastrophe. Two manicotti-sized rolls (either a very thin pasta or actual tortillas) stuffed with chicken, vegetables, and a creamy sauce, with fresh parmesan on top--delicious! I ate both. Someone else ordered them and had the self control to eat just one. How, I don't know. The other friends had the manicotti and the meatball ricotta (which I tasted and which was also delicious).

Gentle readers may not realize that I have a separate stomach for desserts, much like a cow, and so we shared two amongst us: the dolce de patricia and the special that night, which was a raspberry cake. The slice of the white cake with raspberry icing was generous, but seemed a tad dry in comparison to the luscious and very moist dolce, chocolate pudding sandwiched between two yellow cake layers and capped with a thin layer of delicious chocolate icing (not too thick, not too rich).

Because it was a Tuesday, the restaurant was not crowded, and we weren't rushed at all. In fact, we sat talking for an hour after finishing our meal and no one said a word. I suspect we'll be back. One of our party lives about a mile from the restaurant--lucky woman.