08/08/2024: Very good restaurant, very good food and impeccable service, they make the effort to speak in English and even French.
08/08/2024: To begin, I was absolutely bewildered at some of the negative and some outright ridiculous reviews (in my opinion) regarding this business, therefore as a level 8 contributor with over 13 million views to date as well as being a frequent traveller to Italy, Liguria in particular, I hope you will read this as being truly honest and genuine.
My wife and I had to stay overnight in Genova enroute back to the UK and as we were in the Brignole area around 7pm I took to Google to find a nice eatery rather than being somewhat restricted around the airport. Rustichello Restaurant looked ideal, only a few minutes walk from the train station, our kind of local cuisine and it opened for dinner at 7pm, perfect.
We arrived a couple of minutes before opening however the female staff member setting up the outside tables was extremely friendly and accommodating directing us (and our luggage) indoors and to a table and were we lucky as by 7.30/8.00pm they were full.
The staff were professional, courteous and friendly and although busy within a short period of time, were always attentive and quick.
Onto the food, well what can I say, other than outstanding. To begin you are given some lovely warm, fresh bread and focaccia which was regularly replenished. Our starters were their popular trofiette al pesto and a pasta with salted anchovies, butter and crushed walnuts. Both dishes were definitely fresh and homemade, perfectly cooked and very flavoursome. The pesto was thick and creamy accompanying the trofettie perfectly and definitely traditional. The anchovy and walnut pasta was also very good with good depth of flavours and topped with a small fried squid which was a nice touch. The dish was and only in my opinion slightly dry with maybe benefitting with more butter or some oil but overall full of flavour and perfectly cooked.
For our mains, we had beef tagliata and the crispy octopus. Again both dishes very tasty and full of flavour, the beef cooked perfectly accompanied by a few roasted potatoes and a rocket salad. The octopus was perfectly cooked then what seemed deep fried for a very short time in order to crisp the exterior, served on a bed of puréed, buttery potato and a lovely red onion and olive side.
For dessert we opted to share the homemade tirrimisu as we always do no matter where we go, probably just to compare regional recipes, not that we need a reason and their’s was not to disappoint. The highlight however was what we ended with. We shared a lemon sorbet with fresh basil and pink peppercorn. Wow, this was a palette cleanser on another level. The basil flavour was bold yet did not kill the lemon flavour just strange seeing a green lemon sorbet, it was a sure winner to finish off the meal, well apart from the obligatory limoncello that is, chilled and not cheap and syrupy like many.
We had 2 or 3 bottles of sparkling water and a bottle of Cinque Terre Ligurian white wine.
Overall we were just over €100 which for 3 courses of that calibre with wine, I feel was a great price and for that quality of food elsewhere down the coast i.e Santa Margherita Ligure, we would have been €150 or more.
Finally as we paid, the very friendly owner struck up a conversation about golf and whiskey with us being from Scotland even offering us a free dram from his collection.
Overall, the staff, service, food and price was very good and to then get the customer service we did at the end, money really can’t buy!
We will be sure to visit again the next time we are in Genova.
Grazie Mille
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