Review: Gusto 101

Last month my girlfriends and I decided to go to lunch at Toronto's Gusto 101- a restaurant that prides itself on its rustic Italian fare with a world influence.

Actually, we went for brunch not lunch, but the lunch menu looked so good we couldn't help but have a full-out meal there. This restaurant has a nice casual ambience with an open concept kitchen so you can watch the chefs preparing your food.

There's tons of natural light too which I appreciate because it felt like we were eating outdoors.

If you really want to feel like you are eating outdoors, you can just actually go outdoors, as Gusto also has a cozy patio out front and an additional open air space upstairs. 

We started our meals with the Polipo- a char-grilled octopus, olive tapenade, celery root cream, baby zucchini, chorizo with a sherry-smoked paprika vinaigrette. I for one, am not a fan of the way octopus looks in general, but it's so damn tasty and Gusto plated it beautifully. The flavours were great together and you really can't beat char-grilled seafood, so I'd order this again for sure. 

Next, I had the Fettucine ai Funghi. A pasta made with portobello, porcini, oyster mushrooms and truffle paste in a light cream sauce. It was truly amazing and my photograph of this deliciousness has been since featured on quite a few Toronto food blogs- so to my fellow bloggers- thanks for sharing!

More people should know about this light, creamy, delicious...well you'll just have to taste it for yourself.

The grande finale was a beautiful cappuccino which was frothy and delicious. But of course we didn't stop there...and I'm really glad we didn't. We decided to continue with the Dolci Platter- our choice of three of the desserts on the menu. We literally couldn't decide and that was probably the best decision. We ordered the Bavarese- an orange and coffee mousses with orange tuille, Tiramisu- with marscapone cream, pistachio and strawberries and the Tortino Cioccolato- a gluten-free chocolate cake with kumquat compote. 

They all tasted as incredible as they looked and that is saying a lot considering we actually gasped when the platter arrived (our dessert also got a lot of attention from neighbouring tables).

In conclusion, go to Gusto 101, it's an Italian gem in our city and if you do go, as a reader of this blog, you're not allowed to leave without having dessert.