Margie's Monthly Dinner at Buon Gusto

Saturday. February 2, 2019

This months dinner was held at Buon Gusto in Huntington Beach. www.buongustohb.com.  Weather has been terrible the last week and today was no exception. Heavy rains and driving winds. Since the group was originally supposed to be seated in the enclosed patio with the weather concerns Pete the owner thought we would be comfortable in his other restaurant, Green Street Cafe, which was only a few doors down from Buon Gusto. Green Street is only open for breakfast and lunch.  Small place but it did accommodate us nicely.  Instead of one long table we had  4 tables for 20 people. This change work out very well for our group for comfort and privacy.

The big issue was that since we were not at the working restaurant we had to have a buffet set up and be able to order individual dinners  and could only have pasta dishes . Why I have no idea, Buon Gusto does catering so what would the difference be in pasta dishes or protein dishes. Chicken Cacciatore and Veal Parmesan are dishes you find on buffets.  Food came in large aluminum catering trays.  Margie picked out Lasagna and Chicken Alfredo. These along with a house salad served buffet style and rolls was the dinner.  But after some negotiating on Margie's part we were able to order appetizers. So what would be the difference in having some protein dishes on the buffet unless they were trying to keep the dollar amount low. I personally along with a few others would gladly pay more to have a better selection. Everything was brought to us in aluminum buffet trays.

Since we could now get appetizers I ordered Grilled Artichoke and Deep Fried Calamari. This was my dinner instead of the pasta on the buffet. Out of 20 people 12 ordered appetizers. I was the only one who had them in place of the dinner. 

When dinner was ready I looked at peoples plates and although the food is very good at Buon Gusto the plates looked anemic. White sauce for the alfredo and it looked like a white and red on the lasagna. But those two items in one large bowl type plate was not appealing. Minor color contrast. The salad was made from iceberg lettuce and it was very pale green.  You eat with your eyes along with your eyes and mouth. Personally this just did not cut it for me.  But that is me. Eating to me is an experience not a necessity. 

I am not going to list the wines as I usually do. There were 27 wines and 20 people. I tasted about 10 of them. All were decent, a few very good.  Most  were reds but enough whites, roses and sparklings to have a nice selection. 

All in all the change in venue and the buffet type dinner worked out really well for us.