Casa Gio - still the best Italian in Stavanger?

Gard Karlsen

2 hours ago

3 min read

It's always a pleasure coming back to Casa Gio. This Italian restaurant in Pedersgata has been going for a good few years now, and there's something lovely about having places that become regulars over time. So the question is: are they still as good as ever? Is this the best Italian restaurant in town? Stick with us to the end for the verdict.

Entrance
Menu
Kitchen

We went on a Friday evening and the restaurant had that warm, easy buzz about it. As before, the menu is announced at the table (and chalked up on a board as you walk in), and there was plenty on it that tempted. This evening there were three starters and four mains to choose from. My decision came down to the porcini risotto, a dish we love making at home with dried porcini hauled back from trips to Italy, the tagliatelle with ragù, which is also firmly in our home repertoire, or ravioli filled with nduja. Not an easy call at all.

Wine menu
Wine
Wine cellar

We started with wine, and the list is still a good one, almost entirely Italian. We went for a Praesulis Pinot Noir from Gump Hof – Markus Prackwieser in Trentino-Alto Adige.

Nikki opened with an octopus salad and it's great to see a restaurant putting octopus on the menu. It's a seriously underrated ingredient in Norway. Here it came with vegetables and a good broth, and thankfully there was decent bread alongside for a proper scarpetta. IYKYK, as they say. I had peppers stuffed with mozzarella and tomato, which made a lovely start to the meal.

Bell pepper
Bread
Octopus salad

Service at Casa Gio is relaxed and friendly, and the food arrived at a pace that suited us nicely. No rushing, no waiting around.

Nikki's choice was porcini risotto with Cinta Senese ham, and a very good one. The texture was spot on and the porcini flavour came through beautifully. On top of that, it arrived decadently draped in that lovely ham from Tuscany along with a little more porcini. The ham was a wonderful contrast to the risotto underneath.

Ragu
Risotto
Food bloggers

My pick in the end: homemade tagliatelle topped with a ragù made from duck, beef and crucially pork. You could reasonably call that the holy trinity of ragù. It was rich and full of flavour, with proper defined pieces of tender meat running through it.

Since I was on a roll by this point, I finished with a creamy, very good tiramisu. It's a simple dish, obviously but it's a genuinely excellent one when it's done right.

So is Casa Gio still the place to go?

On one hand, the restaurant hasn't evolved a great deal. They're running much the same concept they were ten years ago. Some would no doubt call that a weakness but we think it's exactly what makes the place so appealing. In a world where everyone's chasing the next trend, Casa Gio simply carries on serving good Italian food made from good ingredients, with love.