Part 2 – The Food

As mentioned in previous post, Gina’s is special. As if beautiful men weren't enough, yet the food is spectacular too.

Here is a run-down of the four times I have been to Gina’s.

#1 – I’m pretty sure I ate bruschetta, followed by pizza, and finished with a warm brownie cake with a gooey centre and deliciously cold ice cream. But, the details are fuzzy due to the unexpectedness of the whole evening. Read about that here.

#2 – Luckily, I basically had the exact same thing on this visit. For starters it was a mixed bruschetta. The toppings were all well thought out, well proportioned and well presented. It was well good.

For main it was a case of sharing a couple of pizzas…

Bodo’s Speciale (Ham, salami, mushroom, capsicum and olives)

A thick fluffy crust with some reasonably nice toppings, makes for a reasonably nice pizza.

Alleluia (Roasted chicken, basil pesto and pinenuts)

There isn’t much that can go wrong with this combination. And that’s basically the end of the story…nothing much went wrong. The only thing I would wish for is slightly more topping going to the edge of the pizza.

And then for dessert. The plan was for the whole table to get the cheesecake (as it came highly recommended). Unfortunately, due to 'unforeseen circumstances' (ie. popularity), it was unavailable. So I went back to my previous dessert of a warm chocolate cake with the gooey centre and ice cream on top. And yes, it really does taste as good as it looks.

#3 – This visit was a little different. There was no pizza this time. Nor was my chocolate delight the dessert of choice. For starters we just had some warm breads and dips which, if I recall rightly, were lovely. Then for my main I went with Fettuccine Mari e Monti (Fettuccine with prawns, chicken and mushrooms in a tinted marsala cream sauce, roasted walnuts and truffle oil topped with pecorino cheese). The strong and intense flavours made this a truly wonderful dish.

For dessert, seeing as I had missed out last time, I went for the cheesecake. Although it was nice, there was nothing exciting about it, so I ate it while happily dreaming about that gooey chocolate cake.

#4 – My most recent visit was, again, a little bit of food heaven. We stuck with our traditional mixed bruschetta and it was unanimous that it was the best so far. Perfectly crunchy bread and an abundance of toppings that had all been seasoned perfectly. I forgot to take a photo, but it looked just like the first photo I promise.

We chose three pizzas this time. We went for the Bodo’s Speciale and Alleluia again, and as you can see it would seem there is a new chef who has a much more rustic style. They were ridiculously good.

Now the third pizza was a little on the strange side. We had ordered the Massimo Grande (Roasted chicken, eggplant and sun-dried tomato)…mmmmm, I know. But what came out was the Ortolana (Roasted and chargrilled eggplant, capsicum, courgette and carrot)…that’s right, carrot on a pizza. It was weird. But it tasted fine and we didn’t bother complaining because, at the time, we didn’t actually remember what we had ordered in the first place.

And then finally, my beautiful dessert was Tartin di Mela (Puff pastry spread with almond butter topped with sliced apples and caramelized sugar. Served with whipped cream and cinnamon)…it wasn’t quite what I was expecting, but it was definitely enjoyable and I would recommend it. Although, next time, I will be getting the gooey chocolate cake and ice cream goodness.