My subpar experiences in western restaurants and especially fusion restaurants initially had me very skeptical of Gochiso. The idea of pizza and pasta by way of Japanese inspiration sounded nice in theory but could it really be pulled off well? Surprisingly, yes.
The first time I experienced Gochiso was via delivery. A few hungry heads and I scoured for pizzas throughout TST and finally decided we wanted our own individual pizzas instead of going massive with something from other nearby spots. I was prepared for something incredibly mediocre, but the craving was real.
Enter our three pizzas: salmon + avocado, margherita, and Japanese rice cake + cod roe. All three were thin with a crispy crust, a bit skimpy on the fixings, but tasty overall. No one saw this coming and we devoured our 11 inch pies like wild boars in the jungle. The sweetness from the cherry tomatoes on the margherita, the creaminess of the avocado and salmon, and the "mentai" flavor from the rice cake and cod roe were impossible to ignore.
Next day we decided to dine in and get a feel for the place. The initial impression was that it was quaint overall, somewhat bistro like if anything. There was a bar counter that had all sorts of red + white wines that presumably would pair well with their Italian inspired fare. The bathrooms were clean, but it was expected considering this was located inside the K11 mall.
The well dressed servers were excellent. They were polite and attentive, which is all one can ask in this crazy service climate of HK. We discovered the pastas were also solid, though the presentation was lacking somewhat. It didn't matter in the end, we managed to clean our bowls up of the pesto shrimp, linguine carbonara and a few pizzas to share. Nothing was overly outstanding, but given our reasonably low expectations this was a solid meal. Pizza connoisseurs might be confused with the toppings, but considering the limited quality pizza options here, Gochiso is alright by me. read more