Gus Gus — Restaurant in Saint Paul

This was a shock and awe campaign against my senses! Reflecting today about the intensity and pleasure that overwhelmed my capacities and left me confounded. I'm at a loss on the magnitude of the experience, I'll start at the beginning, let me esssplain:

At first I drove past this restaurant, it is very unassuming and blends in with the surrounding neighborhood. Massive speakeasy vibes which for me heightened the anticipation, likened to standing at the alter with your bride, knowing what is to come, the mystery, suspense and forecast of pleasure to come. I know this sounds sensual at this juncture but anything short of sensual would be an injustice to the Gus. - The lighting is intimate, the space is warm and the food is climatic. The experience is straight from a romance novel and today I'm reeling.

We were a party of four, we ordered:

2 Cheeseburgers Poutine Ribeye Scallops Gnocchi Sea Bass Old Fashioned

CHEESEBURGER - I am personally not a burger fan, burgers are typically lacking flavor, lots of bread, and I try my best to dress it up with ketchup or BBQ sauce, but Gus Gus just rewired my brain in 15 short minutes. This burger is charred to perfection, layered with cheese, onion and a sauce that curls your toes. They swaddle your burger with a newborn and bring it out to you, its that precious. I'm pausing my review to put on a bib, my mouth is dripping wet.

POUTINE - I'll never order another poutine that comes on fries. This one comes on something I couldn't identify but is perfect, maybe a pierogi or something similar. Braised oxtail wonderfully tender and tasty smothered in a gravy sauce, this dish sings of holiday's around the table with your favorite family members, its a classic homestyle comfort food, if I lived local I'd order a few of these and lay in bed watching hallmark movies with sauce all over my face and sheets.

RIBEYE - WHAT THE HECK?! This melt in your mouth meat had to come from a cow that spent it's life standing in marinade. It's so tender that I imagine when I lose all my teeth this will likely be my only food, I'll gum it up toothless for the rest of my life perfectly content and thankful. The crust is spectacular, the flavor pops and the experience is unforgettable.

SCALLOPS - Perfectly done and resting on a bed of lemon flavored risotto. Delicious and will hold up against any high end seafood restaurant. My only complaint would be if this were my only food I would have to order two in order to fill up, small dish.

GNOCCHI - No complaints, delicious but order one of the above dishes, they will blow your mind, this was also good but didn't compare with the Ribeye, cheeseburger or scallops.

SEABASS - Compared to all of the other food we ate this one was a disappointment. I hate to even put that in this review because Gus Gus will ignite your senses. But I don't recommend this, Gus Gus, please do yourself a favor and don't tarnish your menu or reputation with the sea bass. It may have been overdone, lacked flavor and was dry. With the amount of other things we ordered I didn't bother taking another bite, I wasn't going to waste my pallet on this one.

OLD FASHIONED - Again, outstanding job Gus, perfectly sweet, perfect whiskey choices and mixed to perfection. Consider smoking this drink to really bring it home. Wonderful job, as an old fashioned connoisseur I approve this drink.

If you have any desire to elevate your dining experience, taste something that rises above, you have to go to Gus Gus. I'll be here every time I come to the twin cities, sipping on an old fashioned, gumming up some ribeye and relaxing in the romance of it all. Gus Gus will make tens of thousands of dollars from me in the years to come.

Thank you Gus Gus for all that you do for...

2nd time here. I’m opposed to the 4% (or any silly thing) surcharge which is just a price adjustment, which prevented me from coming for awhile but I decided to try. Came the first time party of 3, tried a lot of stuff. Came 2nd time party of 4 including 2 fairly serious restaurant aficionados.

It’s a great place, hands down. Service was really nice both visits, different servers each time but very well informed on menu, very nice and truly attentive. They have good hiring practices it seems and hopefully retention of FOH is good.

Having sampled about 15 of the dishes now, have to say it’s very well executed, which must be hard because the menu is super diverse with not a lot of ingredient reuse. Have to have stellar cooks for this. Everything we had both occasions, good with zero complaints.

The highlights for us were the seabass - personally I think this an overused blank canvas in the twin cities right now - but this dish is about the dish, people who really care about food created this. And the lengua. Not the whole slider - just the lengua. Having grown up in AZ around very traditional Sonoran culture tacos de lengua along with other staple dishes, and attempted multiple times to cook this protein, there is no question this is by far the best I’ve ever had. Truly remarkable.

Prices including the 4% coward charge are very reasonable, I would actually call it a great value compared to the competition. I own a restaurant and I couldn’t put out this caliber of food at these prices this consistently. It really is impressive and I’m guessing takes a very hands-on approach from the owners.

You’re missing out of you don’t try it. Did I mention the 4%...

It’s a 3.5 really. I think I was expecting more for the current (4.9) star google review and while nothing was bad I was underwhelmed.

I’ll start with the good - the food we had was mostly delicious. We had the brussel sprouts which were awesome, and the lengua sliders which were also awesome.

The bad - The poutine had good flavor but a less than appealing texture. I liked the idea of using gnocchi instead of fries but found them spongy and off-putting in this dish. The cheese was overly thick and rubbery (not melty) and required a knife to cut through.

The worst - cocktails were not worth the price tag. I’m not a bargain foodie but they do my least favorite restaurant “trick” here and charge $13 for a drink that has 2oz of liquid in it with a 2lb chunk of ice to make the glass look full. When that’s the case if the 2oz liquid is mind blowing, I can still justify it. These were just ok/fine, and therefore extremely overpriced.

They are apparently known for the fancy jello shots. We got two, and they were ok I guess. Definitely a unique menu item, but $7 a pop for something that tasted marginally better than the junk I ingested in college.

Ambiance- Others have said it but man this place is loud. It’s in a basement which can be ok but in this case really felt like a basement - simultaneously enclosed and echoing with very short ceilings and an intense paint job.Some might say cozy, I say a little rough around the edges aesthetically and claustrophobic.

I honestly did enjoy my time here but I will not likely be back.There are just too many other places doing it...