A Brief Paen to Bombolini: Sticky Faces All Round at Gusto Didsbury

So. I hadn't really planned to blog about last night's visit to Gusto, Didsbury village's ultra-reliable Italian restaurant. Not because I don't like it there, but because I go there quite a lot, and often order exactly the same things - thereby leading to a plethora of blog posts along the lines of: went to Gusto with (insert name), great atmosphere, busy but friendly staff, decent menu, big bowl of pasta/risotto (delete as appropriate), trip to toilet up scary spiral metal staircase leading to discovery of small blob of tomato sauce on chin, leave complaining have eaten too much. You could probably write it yourself, so familiar is the basic plot-line to you, and save me the whole faff and bother.

And yet. The visit IS actually worthy of note for two reasons. Firstly, there's still time to catch the 50% food discount offer, which runs to the end of January, and results in a three course meal for two greedy girls AND a decent bottle of red costing the faintly risible amount of £37. There are a few exceptions to the deal, but not many, so as long as you don't wish to dine on lobster or other fancy-pants items you should be fine. Mr Liz is sorrowful at the thought of missing out on this deal, and so I may be, ahem, forced to go again before next Tuesday in the role of good, loyal, dutiful wife; a position I take most seriously (when it suits).

Secondly, and most excitingly, the menu seems to have changed a little bit since my last visit. The dessert menu - something I often eschew in favour of eating extra garlic bread - is now a thing of astonishing beauty and temptation; if you don't believe me, please consult the pictoral evidence to your left.

Those smart fellows at the front are BOMBOLINI - home-made mini doughnuts, dredged in sugar, and served with hot chocolate sauce for dipping - and each one was a deep, deep joy. Hot, crispy, sweet exterior; pillowy-soft, chewy interior...I could live on these for the rest of my natural life, and have calculated that with the addition of a small side-salad I could probably argue it as a complete meal. Even better, as they are essentially the equivalent of the hole out of a normal doughnut, by my calculations they have few or no calories, particularly if you nobly leave the rather superfluous cream that accompanies them *loosens belt a little*

The perfect dessert? Almost. I managed to uncover but two flaws:
1. The trip to the toilet up the scary spiral metal staircase is now likely to reveal not just tomato on your chin, but an attractive smear of chocolate sauce as well, and
2. If you are recovering from tonsilitis, and are still a little husky-voiced, your cloth-eared husband is liable to mishear your blow-by-blow account of what you have consumed and go about his business under the mildly puzzled impression that you have had mini turnips for pudding...

- Gusto is at 756 Wilmslow Road, Didsbury M20 2DW, tel. 0161 445 8209.