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Giusi (pronounced joo-zee) is a Neopolitan girls name, short for Giuseppa or Giuseppina. Famous Giusis include the actress and film-maker Giusi Cataldo, the presenter of 'Italia's Next Top Model' Giusi Ferré, and the Olympic Gold Medal water polo player Giusi Malato (or Giusi Sick as Wikipedia likes to call her in English, perhaps taking the translation concept a step too far). It's not clear if the restaurant is named after any of these ladies. Probably not the water polo one.
If you type 'Giusi Restaurant Chiswick' into Google, the second most popular search is the OpenTable link which says 'Permanently Closed', which isn't great for business. To be fair, it was beginning to look like the place would never actually open. Canta Napoli closed down in Devonshire Road at the end of 2015 and ChiswickW4 reported that it would re-open as a new Italian restaurant after Christmas. In January the Giusi Twitter page said it would be open in a month, which soon became less than 2 months, which eventually became 9 months. It finally opened in October - they tweeted us to say "we brought our menus to the next level and are ready to rock & roll! :)". So we went to rock & roll with them.
Giusi aims to bring the definitive Italian experience, offering traditional recipes with its own "unique spin". It has even got its own hashtag - #properitalian - presumably to distinguish it from all those improper Italians in Chiswick like Pizza Express and Caffè Nero.
Our waitress had clearly read our review of The Roebuck because she wrote everything down longhand in her pad ve r y s l o w l y. But she got it all right (take note, Roebuck).
While we waited for our starters we shared some Mediterranean "mixed" (i.e. all the same) olives and a "selection of artisan organic bread". Well I can't vouch for whether or not it was artisan or organic, but it was definitely not a selection. It was three pieces of the same (pretty good) bread, cunningly cut in half to make it look like six pieces. At around £3 (or £1 a slice) that's quite some margin.
The wine is less obviously over-priced, but it is confusingly priced. A 250ml glass of organic Montepulciano d'Abruzzo costs £7.50 (i.e. £22.50 for 750ml) or you can buy a whole 750ml bottle for £28. So in contrast to nearly every other restaurant they actively discourage you from buying more - a very responsible but not particularly commercial approach. So I removed maths from the selection process and went for a bottle of Primitivo di Manduria instead.
Younger Miss WEST4URANTS started with the Vizioso - Burrata cheese and Parma ham with pesto and crostini. It definitely ticked the 'definitive Italian' box - a generous amount of ham, well toasted crostini and fresh pesto. My roasted tomato, buffalo mozzarella and pesto tower was very good, though I must admit to a few pangs of jealousy. Mrs WEST4URANTS went for the verdure alla griglia con salsa salmoriglio, which is grilled vegetables but sounds so much better in Italian.
We all chose pasta for main course. One orecchiette alla campagnola (Italian sausage and friarelli), one rather pale risotto ai porcini and two of the daily special seafood linguine. The trouble with choosing pasta in a restaurant is you often feel that you could have cooked it just as well yourself at home, and this was no exception. All competently executed but nothing to write home about.
Or write a blog about really.
Food (for 4): £75.15
Drink: £25.00
Total: £112.67
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