Gusto Italiano — Restaurant in Waitematā

Went to Gusto Italiano for a spontaneous dinner with family.

I ordered the Gnocconi Ripieni 2 pieces which was like two large cheese filled pasta things - they were good for me since I recently got braces so I can only eat soft food. They were very tomatoey, tasted healthy, not exactly what I look for in a meal but that’s my fault for not reading the menu properly. Overall, the dish was pretty good. Then I tried every other persons at the tables dish so read below.

My Mum got Gnocchi De Zucca which was a Pumpkin-type Gnocchi. Hers was pretty good as well, like mine it was really tomatoey-saucy. Didn’t love it but again, not my preference.

One of the people we were with ordered the Pesco Del Giorno AKA Fish of the Day. The fish was snapper and it was served alongside some roast vegetables. Definitely my favourite among the dishes, the fish tasted quite fresh. I really enjoyed it. Didn’t try the vegetables but they looked yum. He finished his plate. We all did to be fair. Good sign ;)

The other person we were with ordered Pollo Alla Senape Main. Which was a chicken dish with sauce on top and something on the side that I can’t quite remember. That was a pretty good chicken, the sauce was kind of sweet and the chicken was cooked well, not dry at all.

The staff themselves were great, super helpful, had a one-year old with us who was over tired and hysterical but they did there best to help us, sorry to the other customers if you were there tonight.

The interior was also quite nice, nice mood lighting, the tables and chairs were a bit crowded inside, not much room to walk around but not unusual for a restaurant so that’s understandable. The restaurant sits on the main road, therefore quite...

I visited this place with my little sister and my boyfriend on Tuesday night. It was a last minute thing and we made a booking for 9 pm because we wanted to give the restaurant an option to cancel our booking if their kitchen was due to close. However, our booking was accepted and when we entered the restaurant, a female staff gave us the coldest stare. She looked at us with a very angry face, so angry that we felt very unwelcomed and as if we had done something wrong. She was frowning so much I almost walked back out. When my boyfriend told her about the reservation, she just said "what?" back to him. The manager or the owner, or whoever it was then appeared and told us we can take a seat. From then, we could see the female staff and the manager discussing something but obviously very poor customer service to discuss about the customers in a unhappy manner right where they can see you? At this point I wanted to leave, but we had starved so long so we really needed to eat. We then ordered a few things. The service attitude was very poor and rude, and even the food was very disappointing. It LOOKED really good.

The calamari was weird - it was like the calamari had just been dipped in breadcrumbs and served like that without frying or anything. Just weird. The pasta was undercooked. UNDERCOOKED. The pizza was soggy. It was straight up soggy. I could not believe this was one of the best rated restaurants. If you did not want people coming in at 9pm, you can just tell them kitchen's closed or something. Worst experience. Horrible night. Never going back, never recommending to any...

DO NOT GO HERE - there are plenty other Italian options nearby that won’t treat you so disgustingly. Been here twice. The first time, our order wasn’t put through (which we weren’t told at the time, and only told at the end when settling the bill) and waited over an hour for food, which was on top of the 30+ mins just to order. The food was lovely, hence the second visit and thought we’d give the restaurant the benefit of the doubt, as this may have been a one off thing. However, the second visit we were NOT attended to, treated as if we were non existent. Waited for about 40-50 mins and STILL our order wasn’t taken. We decided to leave, and we were met with words directly from the manager or owner (unsure which) “You are lucky we booked a table for you, we were too busy and shouldn’t have booked you in.” And made it completely seem like our fault! If this was the case, they should’ve not booked us in and that would’ve totally been fine. They showed and treated us with disgusting behaviour. We remained calm and let it be known we didn’t want to make a scene at all, however the owner/manager kept piping up, implying it was completely our fault for NOT being served. They ended in an aggressive tone “this is not MacDonalds, this is not a fast food restaurant.” This is not an exaggeration at all. We are very patient and calm people, and love to support local businesses. There are clearly some issues needed to be sorted regarding management. We have never been treated in such a distasteful way in a restaurant. Don’t waste your time and money on this place unless you want to be...