Gusto in West Bridgford

Gusto in West Bridgford is a relatively new arrival to the West Bridgford Dining scene. It moved into the space vacated by the Monkey Tree pub back in the Spring of 2017. The actual Monkey Tree is still there but not sure that it is filled with much gusto of it’s own these days.

The sign outside says established 2005 but that refers to the Gusto chain which opened it’s first outlet in Alderley Edge back in that year. They now have apparently 19 outlets across the country. When we went in they were advertising a George Michael tribute act, which apparently is playing them all.

To be honest I hadn’t really planned to dine here, but one of my good friends Alison who accompanies myself on many a MyFoodHunt adventure was having a lunchtime leaving do, so I followed the crowd to eat some pretend Italian food amongst the beautiful people. Not sure why I keep on taking the micky of the West Bridgford set as I live amongst them and have done on and off for more than 40 years 🙂

Spaghetti Pesto

Lets get straight to the food I ordered as that was the stuff I ate, and the most important bit of my chowing on this day 😉

I ordered something different for a change by picking the Spaghetti Pesto which was essentially Spaghetti mixed with Pesto, so it was very green. It came served with green beans, sun-dried tomatoes, and rocket for £10.50. I also took up the option of adding chicken which took the pricepoint up to £11.50.

I was pretty nice to be fair, I really liked the freshness of the pesto, it all seems quite vibrant on my plate. I kind of liked the chewiness of the sun dried tomato, it was kind of meaty. The green beans were also good and a bit of a strange mix to the plate, they add a nice bit more crunchy texture.

I really liked the freshness and the pepperiness of the rocket leaves that were mixed into the pasta. I would have liked a few more tossed casually across the top of the dish so that I didn’t just get hot wet ones. There was a fair amount of thickly grated hard cheese scattered on the top, which added a bit of salt. Even with the cheese and the rocket I did end up having to season slightly aggressively to enliven things.

All in all I quite enjoyed this bowl of pasta, I am never that happy about paying for pasta as it always seems to be a lot for a bowl. Having said that I really could not be that arsed making my own pesto so I prefer to pay someone else to do that for me.