MILFORD — Drivers heading up the Boston Post Road have been passing the same brick-pillared sign for a long time: “Gusto,” in a dark script, and underneath it the restaurant’s promise, “The Italian Art of Living.” The trattoria at 255 Boston Post Road, just off I-95 Exit 36, is easy to take for granted if you have lived here long enough. Chef-owner Riccardo Mavuli has been cooking in that building since 1997. What a lot of regulars still light up about, especially on a Tuesday night in season, is the tableside cheese wheel.
Here is who is behind the restaurant, what the state records show, what Google reviewers keep talking about, and what the current menu costs.
Almost 30 years on the Post Road
The restaurant’s own website names “Riccardo Mavuli, Chef and Owner,” and invites diners to “treat yourself to an afternoon or evening in Northern Italy.” State business records back the timeline. Anela, Incorporated, a Connecticut corporation classified as a full-service restaurant, was registered on Sept. 18, 1997, at 255 Boston Post Road, with Riccardo Mavuli listed as its principal. The Better Business Bureau, which uses the same start date, also lists Ellen Mavuli as an owner. A second company, Mavuli, LLC, was registered at the same address in December 2006, again with Riccardo Mavuli as principal; that filing is classified as a real-estate entity.
The name on the corporation, Anela, turns up again inside the building. The website says private parties can be held in three rooms, “including the Stanz Anella Room, with its separate entrance,” for showers, rehearsal dinners and anniversary parties. Lunch parties can start at 11:30 a.m. and dinner parties at 5:30 p.m.
A cheese wheel, a new pavilion and music outside
A banner on the restaurant’s website this fall announced, “Cheese Wheel Back starting in September!” The lunch menu lists “Cheese Wheel Every Tuesday Night (Seasonal).” In customer photos, a cook in a green jacket flames a hollowed wheel of cheese at the table, spoons glowing over the rind. It is the kind of small-room flourish people remember, and Google reviewers mention the cheese wheel often enough that it has its own review topic on the listing.
The other change regulars will notice is outdoors. The website now advertises a “NEW Outside Pavillion” for al fresco dining, with live music on Fridays and Sundays, weather permitting. The posted music times have varied slightly on the site, so it is worth checking before you go. Kim, writing on Google five months ago, said a staff member named Tim kept working to light the fire pit, and that an entertainer named Michael “set the tone” and “made our anniversary much more special.” She called the Limoncello cake “OMG!”
What Google reviewers say
Gusto holds a 4.4-star rating across more than 1,040 Google reviews. The recent ones, like most restaurant threads, are a mix of love letters and complaints.
Jeffery, visiting four months ago before checking into a nearby hotel, said the meal “brought back memories of living up in upstate New York.” He called the food “fantastic” and “old school,” and he remembered a server named Jennifer. His one gripe was being charged for each refill on a Coke. Keith, two months ago, was “very pleased” with the grilled salmon and the New York strip. He found the service friendly, but his wife had asked for a cold beer and was poured a warm bottle into a chilled glass.
Shelley, on her first visit four weeks ago, loved “the bread with roasted garlic” and called the staff friendly. She ordered a Margherita pizza and said the sauce was fresh, but she found the crust “a little underdone and floppy.” Mel, five months ago, was disappointed, writing that a hostess stayed on the phone and “came across as rude,” and that the food “did not live up to expectations.” Mel did praise the server as “very kind and attentive” and said the room itself “looks very nice.”
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What to order
Prices below come from the restaurant’s own menus at gustotrattoria.com, reviewed on Nov. 13, 2026. The site notes that prices are subject to change, and that sauces and other items are “prepared fresh daily.”
The roasted garlic and the bread. This is the starter Google reviewers mention first. Shelley called the bread with roasted garlic “amazing.” It is the kind of simple, warm plate that tells you whether you are going to settle in.
Pizza Margherita ($17.95 at dinner, $15.95 at lunch). The dinner menu lists it with pomodoro, mozzarella and fresh basil, baked in the brick oven. Lunch also has a pesto-and-broccoli pie and a grilled-vegetable pie, both $16.95, and a shrimp scampi pie for $18.95. If you want something richer, the dinner list includes a fig pizza with goat cheese, spinach, walnuts and a balsamic reduction, and a Pizza Tartufata with gorgonzola, sun-dried tomatoes, prosciutto, balsamic and truffle oil, both $20.95. There is also a white clam pizza for $19.95.
Pasta, made the way a trattoria should make it. Rigatoni alla vodka, “our customer favorite,” is $24.95 at dinner. House-made pappardelle with braised short rib, mushrooms and ricotta is $28.95. Linguine vongole with baby clams in a garlic white wine sauce is $27.95. Potato gnocchi in basil pesto with a touch of cream is $23.95, and a Zuppa de Pesce of mussels, clams, calamari, scallops and shrimp over linguine is $34.95. The menu also offers lobster risotto with shiitake mushrooms, grape tomatoes, fontina and truffle oil, $28.95, and a pan-seared bronzino “Mediterranean” served with fregula sarda, $31.95. A note at the bottom of the dinner menu tells diners to ask if “our Sardinian style cheese board from the number 1 blue zone in the world is available.”
A chicken or veal plate. Dinner chicken Parmigiana, served over ravioli, is $26.95; chicken Marsala, Francese and Milanese are $28.95. Pollo Paesana, roasted chicken with cherry peppers and rosemary over risotto, is $29.95. Veal dishes run from $31.95 to $33.95. At lunch, chicken Francese, chicken Marsala and chicken Parmigiana are in the low $20s and come with pasta or broccoli.
Something from the grill. The dinner “La Griglia” list includes a double lamb chop with a garlic demi-glace, asparagus and baby potatoes, $36.95; short ribs over mashed potatoes, $34.95; a Hatfield Reserve pork chop with pineapple raisin chutney, $33.95; and a New York strip or filet mignon, both $42.95. Keith’s wife had the New York strip and was pleased with it.
Save room for cake, and maybe the fire pit. Kim’s anniversary dessert was the Limoncello cake. The restaurant also has a full bar. “Thirsty Thursdays” are advertised, and the bar’s Saturday and Sunday hours start later than the dining room, at 4 p.m.
Before you go
- Hours: The website and Google both list the restaurant as open 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Friday, 1 to 10 p.m. Saturday, and 1 to 8:30 p.m. Sunday. The bar listing starts at 4 p.m. on weekends.
- Closings: The website says Gusto will be closed Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 27, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.
- Parties: Three private rooms, including the Stanz Anella Room. Call 203-876-7464.
- Budget: Lunch pastas and stone pies are mostly in the mid-teens to low $20s. Dinner pastas and meat plates run from the mid-$20s into the $40s for steaks.
GUSTO TRATTORIA AT A GLANCE
Address: 255 Boston Post Road, Milford
Phone: 203-876-7464
Chef-owner: Riccardo Mavuli, per the restaurant’s website and state records for Anela, Incorporated (registered Sept. 18, 1997)
Known for: Fresh pasta, brick-oven pizza, Tuesday cheese wheel, private dining rooms
Hours: Monday–Friday 11:30 a.m.–10 p.m.; Saturday 1–10 p.m.; Sunday 1–8:30 p.m.
Google rating: 4.4 stars, 1,040+ reviews
Online: gustotrattoria.com
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