Buon Gusto Ristorante

So my family and I tried to visit this place Christmas Eve, our tradition is to try a new restaurant on this day. I had been wanting to try Buon Gusto since i moved to the valley and since our first choice was closed we headed here.
we walk in and stand at the hostess station where, there does not seem to be a hostest on duty, the place is moderately busy and after maybe 5 – 6 minutes we notice what appears to be the only male server motion to us 1 moment. We wait and then notice another female server, apparently not busy, makes eye contact with us and then turns away. another 5 minutes or so passes and the bartender looks in our direction… but no service (i should note there was empty tables) 5 minutes more pass and a woman comes from the back looks at us and yet still no service no one approaches to tell us how long we should stand in the doorway/​host station looking lost. After 25 minutes my wife tells me she is not feeling comfortable/welcome…the male servers looks apologetically and motions again one moment… I had enough, told my family lets go and we headed to North Hollywood to Spumante Restaurant, were my Wife, 14 year old daughter and I was treated as customers should be. needless to say, i have since removed Buon Gusto from my Bucket List.

In a word, disappointing.
The pizza was pedestrian, with an almost freshly frozen flavor.
The meatball was super dense, lacking a fresh taste I had hoped for and the sausage, like any basic restaurant, was nothing special. What could anyone expect when items like the sausages and pasta aren’t made from scratch.
The pasta bolognese had a decent sauce, but it was watery.
The restaurant was pretty full, which is a good sign, and the service was nice and attentive and they had a friendly staff.
All these years I’ve always driven by, wondering if this was a restaurant worth stopping by for. From this day forward I see no reason for applying my brakes again.

I went on a business meeting and it was amazing. A few months later I took the kids and we agree that is our favorite Italian restaurant.
Can’t wait to go back!

The food was ok but I’m upset at the false prices. I ordered a eggplant parmigan listed at $ 9.95 on the online menu and grilled veggies listed at $ 8.50 which is still true at the time of this writing. When I arrived to pick up my food the total was $ 31.00. They said the prices online don’t reflect the actual prices and are subject to change. I asked to speak to a manager and there was none on duty so the server offered me 15% off the price. I think giving me the food at the advertised price would have been better but I was hungry so I just took it but I probably won’t be coming back anytime soon.

Good little hidden gem, I had angel hair pasta with pink vodka sauce chicken and artichoke hearts, so yummy! Our waiter was sweet and made sure our drinks were refilled before we even asked. Definitely coming back.

Celebrated my bosses 80^th birthday here last night The restaurant has been around for a long time. It does have that Italian feel. It’s old but cozy. I ordered the Penne Bolognese with meatballs and sausage. It was really good and definitely authentic Italian taste. My boss ordered the Shrimp Scampi which was just as good.
Too bad our waiter Jerry was the only one serving all the tables. And boy, was he nice. The restaurant was busy. But he did his job well with a smile. We had to wait longer for or orders, but I wouldn’t complain… I have to be fair to Jerry. Thumbsup to you!
The desserts were good too. Of course I will come
back to try other stuff in their menu.

Great service, food made right to order, and amazing flavor! This is one of my favorite Italian places! It is open reasonably late and the restaurant is always clean and welcoming. The staff is very friendly and open to questions or feedback. Definitely give this place a try! I’d suggest their trio pasta and chicken alfredo. The sauces are amazing!

I love this place! Its a small quaint place, but they treat you like family! I recently ordered food to go for a small dinner party. The ladies loved it and it was a perfect amount. I came in dressed very casual and they asked me if I wanted a drink and just were so on top of it and friendly… Never once did I feel out of place. Great food! Great service! Great ambiance!

Terrific, fresh garlic heart-​shaped rolls! (Ask for the olive oil and balsallmic vinegar if you don’t want the butter.)
We enjoyed the fish special tonight. Other times, the pasta has been great. My gluten intolerant friend said that it was the best she has ever had.
Good service.

Came here with some buddies on a Saturday night and for some reason they weren’t as packed as we expected. First off, the place has to be family owned cause the place just had an authentic feel to it. Second they have a FULL bar. Got some spicy bloody Mary’s and they were good. Enough vodka to know you’re not getting cheated. The bread wasn’t to die for but still fresh, fluffy and heart shaped. Pizza was good. Dough cooked right and toppings tasted fresh. They got me with their pasta though. So much flavor for a dish that seems so plain. It may not be the cheapest food in town but worth it to know everything’s getting made fresh and good sized quantities.

I do not recommend this place at all. The service was nice but the food itself was subpar. I had the gnocchi with pesto sauce and it tasted straight out of a box. The stuffed mushrooms were way too cheesy. The mozzarella sticks were dry. The eggplant parmigiano was too greasy.
To make things worse they messed up one of our orders, we asked for the penne with pink sauce and vegetables but it came out as a penne with vodka sauce and chicken.
Only thing that was good was the free heart shaped bread they give out, but other than that I didn’t enjoy anything. We didn’t even take the leftovers home.
I don’t plan on coming here and I don’t understand why this place has more than 4 stars.

Excellent service, delicious food, amazing experience. I had passed by this place various times (it’s across from where I usually get my nails done) but I disregarded it because it didn’t look like much of anything. However, I decided to give it a shot after reading some reviews and I’m so glad I did.
I came here with my boyfriend on a Tuesday night around 8pm. The table settings were adorable, had a casual yet elegant feel. They give you complimentary bread shaped like a heart (how adorable).
I ordered a lasagna and my boyfriend ordered the fettuccine Alfredo. We were blown away by the freshness of the pasta. Very tasty and delicious. Our waiter was amazing. He constantly checked up on us and even helped me choose a wine that suited my taste. He noticed I didn’t drink the one I ordered and switched it out. The second one was much better. I was completely impressed with the food and the service. We will definitely be coming back.

Came to lunch on a weekday last week.
I ordered the spinach salad and my mom ordered a pasta dish off the lunch special.
My mom asked for a side of vegetables in particular asparagus.
She was told they did not have asparagus but they could do broccoli and if she preferred they could add carrots.
She agreed and did not notice till we went home that these vegis cost her more than her entrée.
Over $ 12 for a side of vegis!
Service was good and food was good as well but that is steep.
My mom is kicking herself for not catching the charge while we were there.
May go back but will just be careful with what we order and cost.

Nice experience, good food, friendly staff. They play Italian opera and oldies, so of course after our meal, i just wanted to go home and watch the movie goodfellas.

I’m not sure if this restaurant’s extremely high ratings speak more to the taste-​buds of the area or to the fact that there just aren’t a ton of really good restaurants in the Granada, Panorama, etc. area.
It was alright, for sure, but I felt there were some issues surrounding the place.
For one, it was a cool, windy night. Make your restaurant cozy! Instead, it seemed like they didn’t really care to provide a comfortable environment, and it was cool and a little damp feeling inside. I rarely get cold, but I kept my sweatshirt on throughout the meal.
The buttered free bread was nice. Merits on that.
The food itself was pretty good. I got the sausage/​meatball pasta, which was what you’d expect, though I didn’t expect the sausage to come in one mighty link. Cut that sucker up, friends — I want to curl it into the pasta bites, not gnaw on a giant frank while pasta dribbles out of my mouth.
My wife and our friend split some lactose-​y things that I couldn’t have — I think a pesto gnocchi, which they agreed was excellent, and maybe some cream-​based pasta.
Water refills were a bit slow, and the price was a bit high. Again, food was decent, but many aspects need improving. I think a 3-​star review is generous, but I had a nice time, so the 2.5 gets the half-​star bump.

This place is a comforting family place. Just had my work holiday dinner here. It was a party of 15 and the service was excellent. I had delicious red Layer Cake wine. The appetizers were amazing. I had a lot of the stuffed mushrooms, calamari, and the bruschetta. They even have a lot of gluten-​free options!
The bread was really tasty. For my main course I had the linguine with a variety seafood. It was really light and flavorful and it didn’t seem like a huge portion but it definitely filled me up in the end.
I was so bummed that they ran out of the tiramasu because Unilocal was raving about it. However, I ended up having a crème brûlée. My only negative thing about it was that it was too tiny! The top was a little bit too hard on the teeth but the custard itself was to die for.

So we decided to check out the restaurant for a 2^nd time on New Years Eve. I was disappointed by the initial service. When we walked in there were servers walking around to tables but no one upfront to greet us or direct us to a table. We were there for a few minutes before anyone acknowledged us. I understand it’s New Years Eve, however it should have been handled differently since there were several couples who entered after us and had the same reception.
The food was ok, I ordered a seafood linguini. The cost did not match what I was actually able to eat. There was shrimp, scallops, mussels and clams. The presentation was beautiful. However, some of the seafood had expired. Two of the four clams were dead (shell closed), those should not have been sent out in the first place. One of the mussels was gray, I’m used to seeing mussels slightly pink after they are cooked. The shrimp, more than half of the shrimp were spoiled and the texture was mushy. When you bite into a cooked shrimp, it should not be mushy. That is a sign of bad shrimp. The scallops were fishy. Yes, I know that sounds dumb, but a properly stored and cooked fish of any kind should not smell or taste fishy.
I did visit the restaurant a few months back for dinner and had a wonderful pasta puttanesca. I would return to try some of the other dishes. I just wouldn’t trust the seafood.

First time at This Italian restaurant and it was delicious as well as clean. The ambience was relaxing, superb, the service was very good very nice humble and friendly people. I am definitely going back!
Fully recommend this Italian place! You can tell it is fresh made food not like some Italian chain food restaurants.

Had dinner here using the groupon deal for 2.
Soup/​salad: nothing special, didn’t enjoy either. Salad was poorly prepared. Soup came out practically cold.
Small pastas (that come before entrée): Simple, but not bad.
The Main entrees we selected were the fish and penne with sausage. The penne was good, the fish was pretty good.
House merlot: ok
I don’t recommend the groupon. You’re basically getting full off of so-​so, bland starters before enjoying your main entrée, with a very limited selection. The presentation of the food was also lacking.
The service was actually great, but not enough to make up for the (mostly) boring food.
I have a feeling that I will have a much better experience if I come here without a groupon, and order off the regular menu. We’ll see…

Great Italian food, and great service!
Party of 6, and we all had a great time! The service was great, although our waiter spilled a full glass of water at our table, but he cleaned it up right away, apologized and we were able to move to another table asap.
The food was delicious! I like how they have a separate vegetarian section on the menu, it helps out a lot to choose what I can and can’t have on the menu.
The bread that they bring out is so cute! They are all in shapes of hearts! (see my pic) It was soft and warm as well, and went great with dipping with olive oil and vinegar.
Sammy’s Salad was good, I liked the vinaigrette dressing, it was perfect, and the sweet raisins were a nice touch to the mix.
Penne Almalfi (Vegetarian) — the cream sauce was amazing! And they do half portions, so it was perfect for me! Pasta was cooked perfectly and the roasted red peppers gave the dish a nice accompanying flavor.
Vegetables of the Day Pasta — half portion, it was good, pasta and veggies were all cooked perfectly and flavor was great.
Dessert:
Tiramisu (surprise! on the house!) — it was delicious and nicely decorated! Thank you!
Copa Gelati-​passion fruit, mango, and raspberry ice cream covered in white chocolate was amazing! The gelato tasted so good! It was very nice of the watier to cut pieces for all of us to share.
Overall everyone really liked their food, we all had a great time, and we will be back again!