Guiso Latin Fusion — Restaurant in Healdsburg

Guiso! (pronounced [EE-soh]) From the time that we walked through the door until the moment we left, we felt like part of Chef Carlos's extended family.

The Good: Lets start, for once, with the staff. Valeria, our server, was such a friendly and fun person that we felt more like we were having a meal with friends rather than at a restaurant. Don't get me wrong, she was professional and efficient, but made us feel completely at home. She explained the menu and the concept behind the restaurant and told us a few of her favorite menu items. We also met Chef Carlos later in the meal. We had been watching him move through the open kitchen all evening, and it was nice of him to take the time to come to the table and say hello. Now on to the food. The first appetizer we had was the Brucelas con Chorizo. There were so many interesting flavors popping up through this dish between the house made chorizo and the crema and the jerk flavored butter, that every bite brought a new, welcome layer to dish. We shared it between 3 people, and while it started out with everyone being willing to share, it rapidly turned into a mini brawl to see who would get the last spoonful of brussel sprouts. Now when is the last time you could say that?! Next there was the Media Noche Sliders described as mojo marinated pork shoulder, smoked ham, homemade sweet pickles, mustard, and Swiss cheese. These were good, but not quite the wow factor of the brussel sprouts. We found that for our tastes, if we pulled one of the two pickles off each slider it dropped the acidity level to a more pleasant counter note. The pulled pork was a little on the salty side, but the homemade rolls were soft and delightful. Last appy was the Guiso Vegetariano. This is a don't miss menu item in my opinion. Valeria described it as vegetables in a tomato based stew, but I don't think that really describes it well enough. The vegetables in the guiso vary with seasonal availability, and ours contained potatoes, sugar snap peas, baby squash, and a few others that all tasted so fresh and well prepared that I thought they might have come out of someone's garden. But the real star of this dish is the guiso/stew base. This isn't just another tired ragout. There layered flavors in this stew that that go way past tomato sauce and add delicate cumin and chile spices that dance around the vegetables celebrating their freshness. DO give this a try. Evidently he uses the same guiso base for his shrimp appetizer, but since I don't do seafood (unfortunately) we did not get that one. The stew base was so good that we ordered the house made rolls JUST TO SOAK UP ALL THE GUISO LIQUID IN THE BOWL! The entrees were also quite satisfying. I ate the After Church Burger which was small but very tasty accompanied by tarragon roasted potatoes with a really tasty yogurt chile sauce for dipping. I'd order it again just to get that sauce. My table mates ordered the Paella Caribena which was more soupy than the dryer rice-heavy versions I have seen elsewhere. I mentioned earlier that I don't eat seafood. I wish I could because most of it looks very appealing, but the smell usually causes my stomach to turn. The paella arrived with chicken, linguisa, prawns and clams looking more like a cioppino than a paella, but it smelled absolutely wonderful. Even my sensitive nose couldn't detect any seafood smells whatsoever. By my table mate's accounts, it tasted as incredible as it smelled.

The Bad: Nothing.

The Mediocre: There were no pupusas that night because the chef's mother, who makes them, had just arrived back from traveling from El Salvador. How dare she take personal time to recover from jet lag instead on making me a pupusa?! Such Nerve.

Overall: This is a very nice, comfortable, homey place to enjoy a meal that uses Salvadorian spices and influence to elevate their food. I can't tell you the last time I enjoyed a meal this much. So run, don't walk to see chef Carlos and his...

I really wanted to like this place. The food is delicious!

However a couple of weird things happened

1. the waitress insisted that we order everything all together. Fine. But then they never said it was tapas style so we ordered mains thinking they’d come at around the same time. There was about an hours gap between the first main arriving and the last one arriving. Again there was no heads up. The final main took so long I thought they forgot. There had been no warning to how long the arroz con pollo takes! And it seems unlikely they started cooking it all at once since other tables also received their food while we were still receiving food.

2. when we asked for coffee post dinner, the waitress got all judgmental. Telling us “most people” don’t want coffee so late. Idk why she felt the need to mention that. When we said we still wanted coffee only then she revealed they only had decaf. We ordered the decaf. I asked if they typically only had decaf coffee and she said no that they had run out. Um what? How do you run out of coffee? A basic staple? And why are you judging your patrons food choices? Everyone processes caffeine differently.

3. the place was closing up, we were the last people. We felt super awkward and wanted to order dessert while one of us finished the final entree. Again the waitress was super weird about it and insisted she not give us the dessert menus until she cleared all the dinner plates. So we took even longer.

4. they don’t have their own bathroom. It’s connected to the community theatre and they share a restroom. It’s not ideal. Especially when a show just gets out!

5. they ran out of the pupusas on a Saturday night. Not totally their fault but disappointing as we had hoped to try them.

6. portions were on the small side. And no guidance given on how many plates to get. Wish we’d ordered double, I was still hungry after.

Overall, the food is really good. But the service...

Came here for lunch to celebrate our anniversary, and I can't wait to go back! This place is hands down one of the best places my husband and I have been to. The food, atmosphere, service, and just overall vibe is top notch! Food is like home, it's full of flavor and the menu is such that you can try a bunch of different things. The food is brought out as it is ready so we had a few different dishes at a time, and it's family style - which I love-. My favorite was the Cachapa, Papusa's and Papas de Camote...but honestly everything we had was amazing!! The service was probably some of the best. The service was attentive, nice, warm and welcoming. You have a view of the kitchen and chef Carlos is right there and is so friendly. Everyone who worked there was so nice. We celebrated our 18 year anniversary and there was a nice card on the table and they surprised us with sparkling wine, so thoughtful! I love that most of their menu is GF and specifies such. Make a reservation even for lunch, they get busy! Can't...