GiGi Gusto Griglia, the Italian grill room and cocktail bar in Deansgate’s Grade II-listed former City Library, has launched a new Sunday menu. It brings the British roast together with the Italian tradition of the long Sunday lunch with la famiglia.
The Roasts al Forno were created by chef Sam Astley-Dean, formerly of Onda and Lina Stores, and are priced from £22 and served every Sunday. Four slow-roasted centrepieces lead the menu: dry-aged rump, porchetta, flat iron chicken and delica pumpkin. Each is carved to order and served with roasted potatoes, braised carrots, buttered greens and a Yorkshire pudding.
Guests can add a sauce or butter, choosing from peppercorn, red wine and rosemary, béarnaise, or bone marrow and anchovy butter. Sides include rosemary fries, smashed garlic potatoes, fennel gratin and the GiGi Caesar.
Grill menu and small plates
The roasts sit alongside the restaurant’s grill menu, which features grass-fed, native-breed steaks dry-aged for at least 28 days. For sharing, the GiGi Florentine is a T-bone cooked on the bone and served with pink peppercorn sauce, red wine jus, fries and green salad. A butterflied whole sea bass with almond romesco (£28) is also available.
For a longer lunch, tables can begin with focaccia or Porthilly oysters with Tropea onion mignonette, followed by small plates such as Fratelli Amodio burrata with delica pumpkin, fig and pistachio pangrattato. Pasta includes truffle fettuccine and Cornish crab linguine, alongside pizzette.
Sam Astley-Dean said: “A British Sunday roast and an Italian Sunday lunch come from the same place: the whole family around the table, something slow-cooked in the middle and nobody rushing off. We roast everything slowly, carve it to order and serve it with all the trimmings, Yorkshire pudding included. And if you want to stay Italian, the Florentine is there for the table to share.”
Wine and Negronis
Every wine on the list is available by the glass. Before or after lunch, guests can visit Bar Eleganza, which the venue describes as Manchester’s first House of Negroni. It pours the GiGi Negroni, made with No. 3 gin, Campari and Cocchi di Torino.
Founder Jamie Barber, the restaurateur behind Hush Mayfair and Villandry, said: “Partly growing up in Florence, I knew Sunday lunch as the moment the whole week slowed down: everyone around one long table and something that had been roasting for hours. You could still sense the glamour of that era, and that’s the feeling we wanted to bring to Deansgate. Sundays at GiGi are about taking your time. Come for lunch, order a bottle of wine for the table, carve into a proper roast and stay for the afternoon. It’s exactly the Sunday I’d want for myself.”
About the venue
GiGi Gusto Griglia opened in the former Manchester City Library building on Deansgate in September 2026 as a reimagining of Gusto Manchester, combining open-fire Italian cooking with cocktails, live piano performances and DJs. It is at 4 Lloyd Street, off Deansgate, Manchester M2 5AB.
Elsewhere in the north, Trinity Leeds has opened The Christmas House, a festive pop-up restaurant and bar.
Details and image via GiGi Gusto Griglia.
