Il Gusto Ristorante — Restaurant in La Plata

An outstanding Italian gem in La Plata!

Im new to the areas. I’m a New Yorker. Born in Brooklyn and lived my entire life in New York. So I know great Italian food!

For those of you who have never been to NY, there’s an Italian spot on almost every corner. And almost all of them are amazing and authentic. It becomes a matter of which restaurant has bigger meatballs or a friendlier staff…or gives more bread, than about how good the food is.

So being in southern Maryland has been a challenge to find good Italian food. Then, I stumbled upon IL Gusto.

I’m big on ambience.

So this place was a bit lacking in that area. But it is nicely decorated for being in a strip mall setting. One strong suggestion that I would encourage is for IL Gusto to play some light music. We couldn’t help but hear the LOUD THUMPING of the music coming from the next door bar. I believe that light music would add to the dining experience and help to mask the loud thumping of the next door bar.

I appreciate exemplary service.

Well they scored extremely high. Once we walked in, we were greeted with a smile, were friendly, and seated us promptly. Our waitress was prompt to fulfill our order, attentive to fill our empty beverages and always made herself available. She had the right balance of being around, but not being intrusive. If I had to criticize her, she could have checked in on us to make sure all was going well. But she must have known we were enjoying ourselves.

The food.

They really scored big here. We started with the calamari appetizer. It was cooked to perfection. Lightly breaded batter, crispy but not overly done. The flavor was a harmonious medley that was amazing. It is a “must have”.

My fiancé ordered the salmon dish and I had the fettuccine Alfredo with grilled chicken. Both dishes were homemade. The fettuccine was perfect and cooked Al dente. This was a quality dish. They both were!

I’m not a big dessert guy. But my Fiancé ordered the tiramisu and she said it was a “10”.

Overall, the portion sizes were a bit on the small side. It’s probably the actual size you SHOULD consume. But I’m more used to the “family” style portions in most NY Italian restaurants. But I’m not one to prefer quantity over quality. This place has HIGH QUALITY, GREAT TASTING food that you must add to your places to go!

Great job IL Gusto! We...

I can only speak for the service and the atmosphere with complete satisfaction. My son asked me to join him because he was hungry being in the area. Service though I first felt upon arrival was a bit slow because there were only three sitting areas being occupied. Then I ran outside to grab my phone thinking there would be some type of unwarranted wait, but this is my son. People, I am extremely proud to say I was wrong. Two seconds after walking in we were seated. Then we were hosted by a nice cold bottle of water in which we didn't get a chance to drink before we were approached about out beverages of choice. I've been to quite a few Mexican restaurants and is well skilled to Mexican menus and well aware of what I want and when I want It. So I pretty much knew what I was going to get because he was also anxious to get some sleep just getting of from work which happened to be my favorite restaurant. No lie this was the first time I had ever been asked which taco I wanted. It could be that I frequent chipotle, but it still wo7ld be nice if asked no matter how often I've been. Now, this is the reason I can only issue three stars; Because these were the best shrimp tacos I had eaten in about three years and IL Gusto's still being better, I will not judge their food on the one thing that made me happy without trying something else on their menu. This rating in no way was a scar buy more like an attempt to get them to recommend some of their other dishes. I look so forward to my next visit. I might be able to experience that cold water the next time. ...........or the next time. Or the time after that. You never know. I have already thanked my son an unmount of times. It time I...

We went several months ago and had an issue with the woman who serves water. She took our food leftovers away before we were even finished dining. It was impossible to communicate with her, she spoke hardly any English and definitely was not Italian. Portions were tiny and overpriced. Figured we would give it another try and went 2 weeks ago, and it was just one thing after the other. Took them forever to come to the table to take our drink orders but had plenty of time to hang out at the bar on their phones. We were the only 2 people in there. I paid $32 for my bowl of maybe 5 or 6 bites of pasta and asked the manager about the portion, we have no good explanation. Was told by the manager "that is the european way". Seriously? We were then served a $12 piece of tiramisu that was the size of a matchbox. When it was time to pay my bill, I received a receipt for twice the amount it should have been because the water girl charged someone else's dinner onto my card. Our server , who had an attitude, said that English was not the girl's first language and that she was new, yet this is the same girl several months ago that we had an issue with before. So not "new". I replied with, if she is going to be charging people's cards and working with the public, maybe it's best to learn the English language a bit better. The server continued to stand over me at my table and argue and was way out of line. 2 strikes, you are out. We will not be going back for overpriced min portions, incompetent servers and bad,...