My friend and I had an enjoyable dinner at Giusti tonight, about a week from when the place first…read moreopened for reservations. Taking over the old Bar Susu spot, Giusti's $75 tasting menu option harkens back to when the previous establishment that owned the space did affordable $55 tasting menus once upon a time. So, we were happy to opt for this option and try a little bit of everything instead of deciding on a la carte options. I appreciate the adventurous feel this menu has with its carefully selected ingredients and everything sounded quite thrilling.
This $75 tasting menu consists of 7 dishes, which includes a dessert to share. For wines, the list has decreased in size from Bar Susu, filling up a one pager on the backside of the menu, but in return offers interesting carafe sizes at 500ml, alongside by the glass or bottle prices. We opted for the Tantalus Blanc de Noir in the carafe size for our meal and it was a very nice choice. Fine bubbles, fruity, orange blossom notes, without the fermentation funk and stayed bubbly for a long time.
Our server, Chris, was appreciative to the notes of improvement and positive feedback we had for some of the dishes throughout the tasting menu experience and we had a good conversation. Something that stood out was that you can also make requests to your server if something in particular catches your eye on the menu that you'd like to see included in the tasting menu, and they delivered on both my requests of the Bagna Cauda and Pumpkin Cappellacci. Savio Volpe's Bagna Cauda still reigns supreme for me, but the Giusti one hit the spot as one of our green courses. The inclusion of the squash, radishes, radicchio etc. was a nice touch.
They typically do ONE dessert to share, but Chris went above and beyond, and we were lucky enough to be able to get the apple crostata and the pear sorbetto both.
Pacing wise, we had a 5pm reso, got water and wine at about 5:20, first two starters at 5:30. Second round took a little long, and we waited to 6pm to see the 2 greens. Third round felt faster but appeared at 6:30, with dessert happening at 7pm.
My absolute fave of the night was the meatballs on sourdough for the second starter, and my friend's fave was the cavatelli with stewed beef (one of the two pasta dishes in round 3). We are STILL thinking about these dishes!
Maybe just a personal preference, but I will say the dough things tasted doughy or lacked a certain oomph of flavor? The cavatelli had a nice handmade taste and texture quality to it which I appreciated. Maybe try giving it a good mix before dividing it up.
I think I realized one of the salads was misintroduced to us by another server and was actually the Crispy Potato and Punterelle salad with fried pigs head and feed, mustard and pickles. We thought this was a little confusing on being cohesive, but this one kind of grows on you on the third and forth bite, and there are a lot of textures to discover on the plate.
Ambiance wise, Giusti seems like it has the potential to be a place that is great for families, and with the great prices we saw on the menu, we love to see more places like this in Vancouver.
