{"id":799,"date":"2012-08-01T12:18:12","date_gmt":"2012-08-01T12:18:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.leilappetit.com\/blog\/?p=799"},"modified":"2012-08-01T12:28:53","modified_gmt":"2012-08-01T12:28:53","slug":"review-of-locanda-de-gusti-for-bite-magazine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leilappetit.com\/?p=799","title":{"rendered":"Review of Locanda de Gusti for Bite Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7246\/7550978690_f9bc62e315.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"333\" height=\"500\" \/>\u2018Look! I whispered to the Silver Fox.\u2019There. He\u2019s doing it again!\u2019 We\u2019re having dinner in Locanda de Gusti and I\u2019ve just noticed that Head Chef Rosario Sartore actually smiles at the moment he\u2019s ready to hand his creations over. A little tweak of a garnish here, a quarter turn of the plate there, the smile, and it\u2019s ready for service.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">For anyone who\u2019s still under the misapprehension that Italian cuisine mainly features cheese and tomato on top of some form of carbohydrate, I\u2019d encourage a visit to this stylish restaurant for a masterclass in how big Mediterranean flavours can be presented carefully and enthusiastically. So much so, they\u2019ve recently opened a small deli and shop so that everyone can take a little flavour home with them.<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7134\/7550931934_ee89cc975e.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" \/>The front of house team are effusive in their welcome, and brought us home-made rolls and antipasti to snack on whilst looking over the menu. An entire page is devoted to specialities from Scottish waters, and so to start, the Silver Fox netted himself the zuppa di pesce (\u00a38.95). Almost overflowing from the bowl were just-cooked langoustine, clams, mussels, squid, and at the bottom a tangy broth with lively notes of tomato and basil. I embraced the authentic \u2018pasta\u2019 as first course option, and had the mezzannelli (\u00a37.95) a skinny long macaroni with chunks of pancetta, sweet scallops and a light but creamy butternut squash sauce. My appetite surprised me, as nearly every one of the al dente little tubes disappeared from my plate!<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/farm9.staticflickr.com\/8004\/7550898724_b541c27705.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" \/><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7139\/7550839926_91f6775809.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" \/>Next, I had the lamb rib chops (\u00a316.95) with acacia honey, breadcrumbs served with saffron-scented couscous. The little lamb lollipops were succulent and garnished with a sprinkle of \u00a0rosemary, and the dish presented itself pretty close to perfect. With gusto, my amore approached his main course of orchiette pasta with an oxtail rag\u00f9 (\u00a311.95). It was topped with a generous dollop of soft ricotta which melted amongst the pasta.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\" dir=\"ltr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7122\/7550748990_9dc9c0f819.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" \/><br \/>\nGiven the sheer enjoyment of the preceding courses, desserts (all \u00a35.95) were a must! My fella had the show-stopping savarin al limone &#8211; a sweet, sticky cream-filled bab\u00e0 that just (but only just) overshadowed my ricotta and pear tart in its deliciousness.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/farm9.staticflickr.com\/8292\/7550658034_0cfdd0815b.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" \/><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The food, ambience and service were nothing short of exemplary, and I left knowing we\u2019d return &#8211; pronto!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.urbanspoon.com\/r\/342\/1612038\/restaurant\/New-Town\/Locanda-De-Gusti-Edinburgh\"><img style=\"border: none; padding: 0px; width: 200px; height: 146px;\" src=\"http:\/\/www.urbanspoon.com\/b\/link\/1612038\/biglink.gif\" alt=\"Locanda De Gusti on Urbanspoon\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>\u2018Look! I whispered to the Silver Fox.\u2019There. He\u2019s doing it again!\u2019 We\u2019re having dinner in Locanda de Gusti and I\u2019ve just noticed that Head Chef <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/leilappetit.com\/?p=799\" title=\"Review of Locanda de Gusti for Bite Magazine\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/leilappetit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/leilappetit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/leilappetit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leilappetit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leilappetit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=799"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/leilappetit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":802,"href":"https:\/\/leilappetit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799\/revisions\/802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/leilappetit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leilappetit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leilappetit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}