Gino’s Pizzeria
94 Gloucester Green
(01865) 794446 Italian food and Italian restaurants have taken Oxford by
storm over the last couple of years, bringing with them a
superior offering of pizza and pasta to that previously supplied
by the dismal doughy Pizza Hut. At the very pinnacle of Italian
eateries, sits Gino’s. For some reason, and I have yet to fathom why, this place
isn’t particularly well known. I think it’s in the
marketing. Gino’s serves the best pizza and pasta I’ve
ever had outside Italy and yet it’s very often empty. This
is a sad, sad thing. I’ve often chatted with the manager
about how he could better market the place but he seems more
interested in the quality of his sauces. The silly man should
learn the lesson from Pizza Hut that quality is apparently
irrelevant. And it’s not as if the punters are going for cost over
taste, Pizza Hut is hardly cheap and, of all the pizza
restaurants in Oxford, Gino’s is certainly the best value.
Two courses won’t cost you more than a tenner. The quality of pizza is all in the dough. Gino’s dough
actually tastes homemade. It’s soft and flavourful and not
smothered by the toppings. The pasta at Gino’s is actually
as good as that offered in the restaurants of Florence and Siena.
The Spaghetti Amatriciana is the best: chilli sauce (not too hot
so as to overwhelm the other ingredients) with bacon. A perfect three-course meal at Gino’s would start with
mussels (avoid the bruscetta, I have to admit it’s quite
poor and you can certainly get better at ASK or Pizza Hut), move
on to the Spaghetti Amatriciana and finish with the chocolate
fudge cake with cream – heaven on a plate. Perhaps the best feature of Gino’s is its atmosphere: a
tiny, cosy place with paintings of Italy on the ceiling and
walls, all tucked away next to Glouster Green bus station. Cheap,
cute and succulent – what more could you ask for?ARCHIVE: 5th week TT 2004
EAT: Gino’s Pizzeria
