Gusto 101 is an Italian restaurant that serves its fine foods in a converted mechanics garage close to the corner of King and Portland (on Portland). The restaurant itself has a modern and industrial feel because they kept a lot of the original architecture and added modern day conversational pieces around the restaurant. During the day the restaurant is vibrantly lit from the natural sun light from the front of the restaurant since the entire front wall can roll up like a garage door. At night the restaurant does a 180 and becomes a romantically soft lighted environment where one can easily fall head over heels for the person in front of them (This is the romantic in me speaking).
I have to warn you that this restaurant does have a unisex bathroom, which completely confused me when I was searching for the washroom (oh the shock on my face when I walked into the washroom to find a woman washing her hands). The individual stalls are actually individual rooms themselves and offer complete privacy from the opposite sex. For those shy people, it does take some getting used to but it really isn't that big of a deal.
Once again, my companion and I decided to each choose an appetizer and entree each: Calamari and Rigatoni Lucani for myself, Wild mushroom arancini and Spaghetti Chitarra all’Amatriciana for my companion.
(Calamari)
According to the menu description the calamari appetizer consisted of "jalapeño & cucumber giardiniera, roasted garlic aioli." The pickled vegetables were interesting and tasty because they were not that tart but had a little bit of a sweet taste to them. The calamari were nice and tender and the accompanying garlic aioli complimented them nicely. The calamari was good but it definitely was not great, don't get my wrong, there was nothing wrong with the calamari it's just that I could recall many other places where i thought they were better.
(Wild Mushroom Arancini)
Next up was the Arancini (rice balls for those scratching your head wondering what they are). The arancini was presented very nicely on their tomato sauce and looked very appetizing. When you first break into the rice ball you are welcomed with some gooey fontina cheese. The risotto itself was tasty and had a very earthy taste from the wild mushrooms. Mixing every element on the plate will give you quite the tasty bite.
(Rigatoni Lucani)
The rigatoni lucani is described on their menu as rigatoni pasta with "shredded braised lamb shank, fresh herbs, shaved pecorino, peperoncino".You may not be able to tell from the picture but the rigatoni lucani was a massive dish of pasta. I was actually quite surprised by the portion size because I would have been satisfied with about half the amount. The pasta was cooked al dente (as it should) but i thought the ratio of sauce to lamb shank was a bit off. I never thought I would say this but it was too much lamb shank.
(Spaghetti Chitarra all’Amatriciana)
The Spaghetti Chitarra all’Amatriciana was another mammoth dish of pasta that consisted of (according to their menu) "tomato, Pingue guanciale, thai chili, pecorino." The spaghetti was quite thick and was more a bucatini type pasta but it was also cooked perfectly al dente like the rigatoni. The sauce was good but it didn't taste like it was seasoned enough, it taste more like seasoned crushed tomatoes then sauce to me. Maybe some people like that but for me it seemed a bit under seasoned.
The food overall was good, it just wasn't great. Maybe my expectation of this place were a bit too high because of the hype. Don't get me wrong this is still an awesome place to go and I still want to try the other items on their menu. Gusto 101 has a lot of positives like its comforting environment, friendly staff, and most importantly $1 per ounce house wine. I will definitely make my way back to this place, especially when they finish their construction on the heated roof top patio.
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