Gusto — Restaurant in Denver

Came here because of IG. I picked it out for my belated birthday dinner with some friends and the vibe was pretentious and uppity so clearly that's a big L. Food was good but nothing special or high quality. The service is what got them the deserved 1/5 stars since the staff was condescending especially the bartender who barked at me saying I can't taste my friend's drink. I don't drink alcohol but I'm not going to decline a sip. The entire experience was just really unpleasant being talked down by the bartender who was supposed to be our server too. It took forever for him to tell these annoying girls who were crowding and taking up my space as I was eating. Trash. This really killed the my vibe and my patience. I was upset by the whole experience at Gusto. TJ was nice to the basic white girls at the end of the bar but was very short with me, a non white female and my 2 gay male friends. I felt like there was racist undertones (and possibly not gay friendly) which kinda shook me. This is why I waited until the dinner was over and we left the premises to write this complaint.

I work in the service industry and I've been a bartender and server for a couple of years and a barista for over 7 years. I know how customers want to be treated and it's not by being talked down by service people who act like they're too good to be in the service industry and treated with tension just because they may not fit your stupid clientele demographics. This is not a millionaire exclusive club/restaurant. The prices are basically like Olive Garden. This restaurant might actually be owned by a restaurant business group that owns Olive Garden. This place is better suited for ppl coming with their Tinder date and be delulu enough to actually believe this place is impressive and above anything that's like a Chili's or Macaroni Grill. Actually, chain restaurants like Chili's, Olive Garden, etc. actually do give you better customer service and treat you way nicer than here so they're really superior to Gusto. Either way this was waste of my night, and ruined my birthday dinner that I was looking forward to all week. I gave my friends $31 cash for my dinner portion and they were nice and left that money as the tip but the bartender did not deserve it with talking down to customers like that. This is proof that my friends and I are classy people and just because we aren't white and don't dress like boring millennial yuppies with zero personality or taste, doesn't mean we don't have money to spend.

DO NOT GO HERE, especially if you’re a person of color and/or LBGT. Spend your money at restaurants that treat you like a human being than being talking down to and looked at like you're something found on the bottom of the uppity wait staff’s busted worn out shoes.

Update: received phone call from the restaurant manager. I gave Mike a chance to come to terms and if he really was concerned with the negative experience I had as an actual customer then he would have tried to make it right. Instead Mike double downed and took the defensive combative route and tried to bully me into amending or removing my review. I firmly stand by my review as that is the truth, my account is real, and no one can buy nor influence my reviews. This was my experience as a real customer and it sticks out badly which is why I am so upset. There was no acknowledgment that what I felt is valid and instead, I was accused of falsifying my review and told I’ll be banned from all Cholon restaurants and social media. Now I know for sure Gusto and the rest of the Cholon restaurant group is shady and why they hire people who are bad with customer service. Manager don’t take accountability for staff’s missteps and instead of listening, tried to gaslight me as last ditch effort and yet is so completely unaware that this is what contributed to my upsetting experience in the first place. The fact that you were defensive about this proves to me you know better but just don’t want to do better. This further solidifies the poor review you...

Being huge fans of Cholon, we decided to splurge on Gusto's wine night; unfortunately, it was quite a disappointing experience (ESPECIALLY for the price). The first course was basically an icee (they called it a granita, but it was nothing like the granitas I've had in Sicily, plus granitas there are considered a breakfast or dessert - not a first dinner course). The second course was basically burnt, fried cheese. The third course was a bitter and acidic pasta - two adjectives I've never experienced with a pasta, and hope not to experience again. The fourth course was baby chicken with polenta, which was fine, but didn't taste any more innovative than the Sunday dinner we make at home. The dessert - a fancy 'donut' - was yummy, though!

As for the wines, two of them were quite delicious, one was fine, and one was simply not good - and several tables seemed to agree. They also had to switch out their final drink, as they'd said their first group of the night had not liked it. The replacement was fine, but nothing I would drink again. Having 2 of 5 wines in a $250+ wine tasting menu for two be enjoyable is pretty substandard. Perhaps Gusto's actual menu is better than this, but we'll never know, as we won't be returning. Not...

I went to Gusto recently to celebrate my birthday. Service was just okay. They didn't take our dinner order until after we finished appetizers. Instead of consulting us on wine options when we asked about some of their Barolos, they just brought one out. It was good, but I'd preferred to hear about them and choose it myself. They brought the food out one by one creating an awkward situation for those with and without their food. They did it again for dessert (which were all pre-made). The food was mostly good. Some of their dinner portions (like ravioli and gnocchi) we pretty small and the gnocchi wasn't crispy at all. I got the Italian sausage penne and that was probably the best dish we had. The wagyu meatballs were too greasy for me. The bread was underwhelming and not worth even the happy hour price. The worst part for me was the tiramisu. It had no coffee flavor whatsoever and the ladyfingers in it were pretty dry, which made the whole dessert way too sweet. I always question Italian restaurants that can't get a tiramisu right. The best thing was the prices were overall reasonable given how expensive it is to eat...