Gusto Osteria

First time here. Monday night around 7:30. Almost empty. We were greeted and seated promptly. We ordered the stuffed mushrooms. 4 in an appetizer order. They were delicious! I ordered the manicotti and my husband had the penne with sausage. Both were Just fantastic! The portions looked small but they were filling. Very pleasantly surprised. Will be coming back again.

A large group of us (7) celebrated my mom’s birthday dinner there. We ordered the antipasto which was nicely varied and plenty for all of us. They also served a soft focaccia bread and delicious herbed dipping oil as a starter.
We didn’t have soup or salad so I can’t comment on that. I was a little disappointed with my entrée which was the Pork Ricotta. It tasted like the meat had hit a hot cast iron pan and it left some of the iron flavor on the meat. Not my favorite flavor. But otherwise it was okay.
The Seafood Soup looked good and the Roasted Beet Salad was well received.
I was very favorably impressed by our waiter. It’s nice to see a truly professional server in action. The staff could not have been more accommodating.
When we made the reservation they agreed to let us bring a small cake which after dinner, they brought to our table, with our supplied candles lit. They also cut and served it at no extra charge. This is something that, of course, increased the tip, as it should.
My sisters declared that the wine list was good and we had three bottles of a tasty Chardonnay.
The coffee was flavorful and strong but not overpowering.
All in all, it was a delightful evening which my mother seemed to enjoy. We’re just happy that we have this locally owned restaurant, charging reasonable prices on the east side of Tucson.

My husband and I stumbled across this place the other night and decided to try it! Yes, I know it was a Monday so there was only like 6 tables and one waiter (That I saw) Anyways, this place is full of assumptions which I didn’t appreciate at all. When our waiter took our drink orders I asked if there tea was sweeten and he was kind of smart Alec and when he told me no he moved the sweetener closer to me and made a sly remark. Then once we got our drinks, he disappeared for like 5 or more minutes and then came back to take our order. Normally waiters say they’ll be bad etc etc. this one just gave us our drinks and walked off. Then when it was finally time to order I asked if they had a half order (which they do not) so I went with the Caesar salad. When I ordered it he told me that they had a «spaghetti and meatballs plate that was like 8.95 and about the same size of a half order» not only did this piss me off because he didn’t know what I was thinking of getting a half order of or why but he assumed I was being cheap! I can guarantee I make good money and so does my husband so why would I want to come back to a place that doesn’t have confidence in their customers? Oh and he assumed my husband was paying, which is a completely different story! Overall I will not be back because I have no confidence in this restaurant based on the character I was assumed to be. Plus the food was not worth the prices. Go buy some Caesar salad in a bag and a be some bow tie noodles, meatballs, and some pasta sauce and you have a date night at home for cheaper and less insulting.

I was recommended to Gusto’s by a friend about two months ago and my husband and I already think of it as our go-​to Italian restaurant. We’re working our way through the menu, but everything we’ve tried is great. Hubby says their Italian sausage is the best he’s had in the city; evidently they make it from scratch.
Only negative aspect is that the bread, while flavorful, crumbles apart and doesn’t really complement the food somehow. Anyway, minor issue overall. Give it a try!

I just enjoyed my third visit to Gustos Osteria. The service was fast and our server, Jason, was efficient and friendly.
Once again my friend and I were not disappointed in the food. I had Minestroni and the spinach salad. In addition to the usual bacon bits, etc Gustos adds walnuts, feta cheese and dried cranberries to the salad and it blends very well. The dressing was so light that I wasn’t even aware of it and I really liked the flavor.
My friend had a pasta dish and proclaimed it to be delicious. A bread basket and
olive oil for dipping was brought upon request.
I have a hearing loss and Gustos is one of the few restaurants that are quiet enough for me to carry on a conversation.
I highly recommend this restaurant if you like Italian food. I think it ranks among the best in Tucson for delicious food.
My only complaint is that they are not open on Sunday and that’s the day my daughter and I like to eat out.

Great restaurant! The food is great, as is the service. The veal special changes daily and does not disappoint. We have been coming here since it opened and will keep coming back.

Our first and only visit to Gusto Osteria was really a big disappointment from start to finish. So one star since no zero’s are available. Left feeling awful because our hopes were high since my daughter recommended the place.
Our waiter Jason appeared to be tired and overheated, his forehead was covered in
sweat perls; he seemed overwhelmed. It was a Friday night and not busy at all, we were told to sit wherever we want. We ordered appetizers, the stuffed mushrooms, OMG a dry mush of breadcrumbs with three artificial looking dry cheese shaving. A Caesar salad arrived at room temperature and was starting to wilt. The other salad was a pasta con salmon and was flavorful, loaded with pasta but missing the salmon :(
Two of us split the seafood soup and it was just ok, not great, not wonderful just ok. Unfortunately that is not enough for $ 24 dish. The weirdest part was that the shrimp were prior breaded/​fried and made the coating soggy.
The veal special was cold, the gravy soupy, zero flavor and zero presentation served on a small plate overflowing the edges, (who quality checks in the kitchen??) So this dish went back and we asked to speak to the manager. The manager had no words for us, no smile, no apology.
We left very disappointed, stopped by another place for a burger and vino, to fill the void of the lost veal meal.
One thing was good: the friendly bus boy, sorry didn’t catch his name.

Just had lunch and it was amazing the Penna Pasta with sausage was incredible.
The portions are huge a the staff was friendly and out going. Not only will I be back but I will recommend this restaurant to friends. Keep up the good wk

Went to Gusto Osteria for lunch yesterday with my daughter and husband.. The pasta and sandwiches were wonderful. So was the bread and pesto. Great service and atmosphere. Will definately go back soon.

Stopped in on a Monday evening for a light dinner and some decent wine. Homerun. We had the manicotti appetizer and a bottle of pinot noir recommended by the bartender. Food was quite good and the wine was very nice and reasonably priced. We’ll be back soon and sample the dinner menu.

Went to Gusto for my 1^st time today. My Caesar salad was good & so was the Penne & Sausage! My complaint is that we were not served any bread with our food. What Italian restaurant doesn’t serve good bread, garlic or otherwise, with their meals!

This is the best food I’ve had at a restaurant in a long time. I had the cannelloni which was divine — I could literally drink a cup of the sauce, it was so good! My dinner companions were very happy with the pork scordato and the veal special. The food and service were absolutely outstanding. We will definitely be back soon!

I give then 3 stars because they have a great happy hour. But I went here for dinner and was very disappointed. The pasta was under cooked even though we had to wait over 20min for our food and the meat portions were small. I did like that they were very accommodating for the two children in our group.

my wife and i came here for the first time on Friday night for dinner. We had the antipasto app the pork grilled, and the cannelonni. All of the food was very high quality, superbly prepared, and just delicious. the service was friendly, prompt, however a bit unpolished (ex. asking which person had which item at a two person table); maybe a bit nit picky if anything. the décor and ambiance were lacking a bit and could reflect the authentic italian cuisine more than trying to appeal to the southwestern masses.
Overall, I’d say this is some of the best italian (read: not everything has marinara and parmesan cheese) you can get in Tucson.

Stopped in for lunch and was very disappointed. Actually, 2 stars may be overly generous but it is almost Christmas. There is zero ambiance, in fact, except for fresh paint and some pictures on the wall, I don’t believe they made any improvements from the previous establishment. As for the fare, pretty damn boring. The home made potato chips were good but cold. The mushroom soup was very good but a bit salty. Meatball sandwich was soggy and without flavor and the beet salad was so-​so.

It’s pretty rare I rate a restaurant at 1 star. I like to look for something redeeming about it. But my first (last) visit to Gusto Osteria was really disappointing from start to finish.
They have a sign out from advertising $ 6.95 lunches daily; the only thing at this price on the lunch menu is the Caesar salad. Their lunch menu is actually in the $ 11 range. This wouldn’t be awful if the food were worth the price.
When I walked in, I stood at the door for five minutes waiting to be seated. There were 4 tables already seated and plenty open. The waiter walked out of the back, cleared a table, returned to the back, and then finally came out and seated me. His service was otherwise pretty reasonable, but I do hate to wait during my lunch hour.
I ordered the Enchelloni (an Italian spin on the enchilada). It came with a side salad or Caesar salad; I chose the Caesar. When it arrived, the Caesar salad was larger than I expected and the lettuce was fresh and green. But the dressing was actually disgusting, and I couldn’t bring myself to take a third bite of it. I’ve never had a Caesar dressing so foul.
When my Enchelloni arrived, I couldn’t believe how small it was. This was my $ 11 lunch? Perhaps it’s bigger on the inside, I thought. It wasn’t. It was the size of one small enchilada. The creamy tomato sauce was greasy (the grease might have come from the cheese, but there sure was a lot of it). The pasta shell was hard. Not «al dente» hard. Just hard. The chicken inside was dry, and the only things I could taste in the dish were the tomato sauce, cheese, and the mushrooms. The inside was also remarkably hot for something that had taken less than 10 minutes to assemble and bake. That combined with the hard pasta and dry chicken made me think they just have a shelf of these in the oven, waiting for some unsuspecting fool with too much money to spend on lunch.
So congratulations, Gusto Osteria. You managed to disappoint on every level except. I should have gone to the amazing tamales shop next door, spent half as much money, and had a good lunch.

Went there with a friend for dinner. The place is a bit small but has some outdoor seathing. It is located in the safeway shopping center kind of in a corner. It is on the northeast corner of Sabino Canyon road and Tanque Verde. Service was excellent. the shrimp scampi appetizer was great and the sauce was good for dipping the wonderful bread. The veal paramsa was on a bed of spaghetti and had a wonderfulflavor. The meat was tender and tasty. The tiramisu was good. Not the best I’ve had but easy to eat.

The salads are disappointingly small for the price but the food is really good. The customer service was good, too.

THIS IS FOR BAR ONLY!
OK, I like this place. Please see my prior review. That said – my wife and I stopped in for a drink (without kids! Woot!) before dinner at another restaurant. I ordered the PERFECT MARGARITA – which I have had and liked before.
The menu CLEARLY tells you what is in this margarita – and it is NOT TRIPLE SEC, but PATRON CITRONGE. My confusion came from the fact that I was sitting at the bar, chatting with the bartender (who was very pleasant and nice) as he made our drinks – and I very clearly saw him pour a cheap well triple sec (maybe even Dekuyper!!!).
This is quite disappointing –as if you pay $ 9 for a margarita I do not expect there to be the cheapest quality ingredients.

Wow, this place seems to have tanked recently. We’ve been twice in the last month, and what a different experience from my gushing reviews when they opened.
No longer is there a formal host, head waiter, or a manager walking around. Just a bunch of waiters. It seems very disorganized and not as welcoming as it was.
The food no longer seems fresh. Our last visit was on a Monday night. I’m pretty sure we ate leftover food from Saturday, at best (they’re not opened on Sunday.) We had the pollo bolognese, and the chicken was terrible. It was very tough to cut through. It was dry. The breading was soggy, but the inside of the chicken was almost like chicken jerky. It was hard to chew. I was going to suck it up at first, but the middle of the chicken got so bad, that I ended up spitting my food out. My husband, who also ordered the bolognese, had the same experience. We used to love this dish; craved it, in fact. But nothing is good when it’s not fresh. And this was not fresh.
Our waiter said Gus would be out to speak to us and apologize. Alas, Gus was too busy to be bothered, so the waiter apologized and took the meals off our bill. They still did charge us for our sodas, though. So I ended up giving this place $ 10 for nothing but a bunch of my time that they wasted. We ended up at Denny’s.
I honestly won’t return. Two bad experiences, both times indicating food freshness issues, have chased me away. I will not give these places a dime of my money if they don’t care enough about me as a customer to prep my food the same day. Another one bites the dust.