Winchester Italian restaurant La Gastronomia has opened its doors

As previously reported, the restaurant is located on Bridge Street which had previously been the site of Asian eatery Nuudle Bar, which closed its doors last year due to the cost-of-living crisis.

The new restaurant, La Gastronomia, had its soft opening on Monday, February 13, and is owned by local resident Sergio Mitrano. The deli-restaurant offers both meals and Sicilian produce for customers, with all the food made fresh each day.

The interior of La Gastronomia (Image: Newsquest)While the restaurant contains minimal seating, Sergio has plans to expand the restaurant into an upstairs space, with seating for around 18 to 20 people, as well as plans to sell and serve Sicilian wine as soon as a licence can be acquired.

The restaurant will also offer masterclass lessons so customers can learn how to make Italian food themselves.

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Sergio explained: “We can do this if they want a simple lesson or something in the kitchen we can do a masterclass. And upstairs we can feed people; you come in, you sit after cooking, you pay one price, for example, £55 and you get the aperitif, anti-pasta, starter, main course, dessert. All with the masterclass.

La Gastronomia owner Sergio Mitrano (Image: Newsquest)“Because for everything there will be a story about where it is coming from and the style of the recipe too.”

Sergio said that he wants his restaurant to serve Italian food, similar to what his parents cooked for him growing up. He continued: “The food is in a traditional, very old style. That is what I try to cook.

“I’ve already seen some Italians, they came in here yesterday, they’ve been living here for four, five years, and they say ‘Finally, it’s good to see Italian, true Italian food'.”

La Gastronomia is open from 11am to 9pm Monday to Saturday.