Il Guscio Highbury Restaurant

A main course of poorly cooked, gristly pork chops larded with thick slabs of cheap Parmesan on a lump of rocket does not increase happiness, neither does un-​garliced bread loaded with watery tomatoes (Bruschetta Classica). My partners Pizza was overloaded with cheap ingredients.
NIce place, staff mainly friendly. but I came to EAT.

This place is a gem, we have been here several times and it just gets better each time. As soon as we are sat down complimentary olives and water arrive on the table, and the meal is always rounded off with another complimentary limoncello, great little touches.
The quantities are large, so take the tip and only get one starter between two of you. The food is good quality authentic Italian. The boss is terrific and his regular staff are friendly and efficient. Sometimes there has been a young girl playing her acoustic guitar which fits in well with the whole ambience, this is quite a small place but oozes a lot of atmosphere.
The service is what keeps us coming back, recently a party of six of us turned up with no booking late on a Sunday, we were told a table should be available in about 20 minutes, so we asked if they could telephone us when it was ready and we would go to the pub over the road for a beer. The boss did better than that, he came over to the pub and told us the table was ready and waiting for us, now that is TOP TOP service.
Keep it up guys, you are a winner here.

Over the past year, this has become my girlfriend and I’s favourite restaurant on Blackstock. It’s a great spot for an unfussy, unpretentious weeknight pizza or a sneaky Sunday plate of pasta. The food is fairly unspectacular but predictably tasty and the portions very generous. Reassuringly, there’s always a crowd and you see people return week in, week out. The manager is usually in amongst it, and is up for a friendly chat, and the service has always been solid.
Highly recommended.

This is fast becoming our Friday night staple in the local area.
Unpretentious, great traditional setting and is always busy with the locals — something you can’t always say about the other Italian restaurants on the same road.
What this place has that they don’t is a cosy atmosphere, reliable service and the quality of the food has never let us down. I think there’s a garden at the back, and so hopefully in the Spring/​Summer I’ll get to add a review of that onto this too!

This place just opened a couple months ago. Although I hear their pizza is to die for, I had the veal scaloppini with mushrooms. It’s served with a side plate of courgettes and aubergines. Good low carb option. The veal was fantastic, with tons of garlic and the mushrooms were served in a marsala sauce.
I washed this down with a chianti, which was delectable.
The Apple tart isn’t really that great though. Feels ready made and nuked in the oven.
Good service.
They have a nice garden out back, perfect on a hot summer day. Nice local. I’m happy.