Review: Ci Gusta (Victoria Island)

Restaurants

Jan 14

Ci Gusta

Ibyinka Olorunbe Close, off Amodu Ojikutu Street, Victoria Island | Instagram | 0915 150 0000

Happy New Year, folks!

It's still holiday season in my head and I want to keep it that way 🥺. Anyway, I had been quite keen on checking out Ci Gusta with a couple of friends, because good pasta and a fake trip to Italy is always a good idea in my book. Finally, we picked a date and made it happen - in one of the rare-ish events where the plan actually makes it out of the group chat.

My first impressions were that the interior was really clean, open, and 'soft'. It had a smooth layout and the kind of open-plan vibe that I love to see. You could watch the chefs making your meals, and the smell of the fresh pastry, and how nicely everything was displayed, got me in a pretty good mood. An important thing they also had was a kids' section, which I thought was super because most Lagos restaurants aren't kid-friendly. I don't know if this is generally deliberate or just an oversight, but it's a thing I've definitely noticed.

Onto the food: Our meals took about 25 minutes to get to us. We all knew we wanted to try out pasta of some kind, in addition to starters and dessert. I got the Salmon Gnocchi, while the others had the Penne Arrabiata, Linguine Marinara, and a Salmon Salad.

I have to give credit to Ci Gusta for their Salmon Salad, as it is now on my list of the best salads in Lagos. It was good - fresh, everything was crunchy, and overall, very satisfying. The focaccia it came with was also really tasty and fresh, and the cream cheese with the hint of lemon really made this whole dish stand out.

(Ed Note: Aint no way that’s focaccia. Somebody is lying)

However, something that stood out for the wrong reasons was my pasta dish. It wasn't what I was expecting. My gnocchi, which came in a cream base, was quite meh, even though the salmon bits were a good size and you could tell the pasta itself was made fresh (I found out later on that all their pasta is made from scratch). It just wasn't fantastic in terms of flavor, but it's not the worst thing I've ever eaten.

The Penne Arrabiata was everyone's least favorite though. It was sort of dry, not up to par when it came to the taste, and overall, just didn't live up to its potential. We chose a tomato base for it, maybe we should have opted for something else? It also didn't come with any meat, so that might have contributed to it as well. Everyone agreed to rate it a 3/10.

The Linguine Marinara, on the other hand, was YUM. Once again, because it was freshly made pasta, the texture was different from the regular linguine we're used to, but in a great way. This dish came with grilled salmon and it hit the spot. A solid choice. Oh, and we also ordered a batch of chicken wings, which we all kind of agreed we could have done without. They were just mid.

As for the drinks, I ordered the Mighty Fruit Shake - a mix of various fruits (to be honest, I couldn't quite tell you which ones 👀) but it was good, a proper 10/10. It was, naturally, everyone's favorite. Then we got the Vanilla Frappe, which was very average, but quite pretty to look at if you're into "Instagrammable drinks". The syrup even had glitter in it! The last drink was the La Vie en Rose and I really liked this. It had sparkling water and strawberries, and went down really well with the table.

How could I forget the best thing we had there? The smell of fresh pastry tormented us pretty much throughout our visit, especially before the meals came, and so we finally gave in and got their plain croissant and pain au chocolat. When it comes to pastry, Ci Gusta knows their stuff - or should we say dough? 😏 The croissant and pain au chocolat were flaky on the outside and perfectly fluffy and buttery on the inside.