A special evening at Gigi’s Restaurant, Pudsey

It was my lovely friend’s 70th birthday this month and she’d invited all her girls to celebrate in our local town of Pudsey. Feeling priviledged to recieve an invite, I was looking forward to finally trying out the local Italian Restaurant – Gigi’s.

Despite me living in Pudsey for nearly a decade, I’ve never been here! Which is wild since Italian food is my favourite. So I put on my gladrags and headed for an evening out.

There was such a large group of us we almost had the entire restaurant booked out for our 7pm reservation! I hope i’m this popular when i’m 70.

Having all pre-ordered the day before, we knew what we were waiting for and had chance to enjoy a catch-up over a drink. Being significantly younger than 70 myself, I didn’t quite know everybody who would be attending but I love to socialise and meet new people so it was nice being in a quiet friendly setting where we could all hear eachother! Sometimes you find with restaurants you never know what you are going to get.

Gigi’s was beautifully presented with an entrance leading upstairs to the bar area and tables. I loved that I could grab a drink before taking a seat and get a glimpse of the many gins they had on offer.

I had pre-ordered the diavalo pizza minus the ham. I’m not one for meat on a pizza but not wanting to be awkward ordering the four cheese and adding as many toppings as I could individually, I felt it would be easier just to remove some meat from an existing pizza! I’m strange like that.

It was the right choice because the pizza was absolutely delicious. The perfect level of spice too.

I enjoyed a local Pudsey plum gin with my meal complete with slimline tonic. It’s great to see them serving local spirits.

The prices were standard for eating out in the UK and I was happy with what I paid.

The staff were friendly and accommodating and overall I think everybody enjoyed themselves!

During the meal I sat with a lady who met the birthday girl on holiday in Romania with her family. They stayed in touch and have now known each other for nearly 40 years. I have people like this who I have met travelling and they’ve played such an important role in my life.

I enjoyed talking to her about all the places she has travelled which is often the conversation I end up having with older people. I find people so interesting when they have travelled. What’s sad is so many young people haven’t so I can rarely have these conversations with people my own age. Unless of course I met them whilst backpacking because then they have the same adventurous spirit as I do!

We ended the evening with cake because what birthday doesn’t end in cake? Some of the ladies enjoyed dessert at Gigi’s and even said they’d return for the tiramisu alone it was that good!