About Hosteria Giusti
The salumeria at Via Farini 75 has been in continuous operation since 1598. The Morandi family's shop is among the oldest in Modena — the counter still piled with culatello di Zibello, aged prosciutto di Modena DOP, coppa, salame, and bottles of traditional balsamic vinegar at various stages of aging. The restaurant opened behind it in a small, retro-style room that has accumulated the atmosphere of a century's worth of significant lunches. Michelin recommends it. Netflix filmed Aziz Ansari's Master of None here. The four tables remain as hard to secure as ever.
The menu is a document of traditional Emilian cooking at its most serious — and most restricted. There are no flights of creativity here, no chef's signatures, no contemporary reinterpretations. What arrives at the table is the food of Modena's gastronomic heritage, executed by people who have spent their professional lives learning to make it correctly. Crescentine — the small fried dough pillows unique to this region — arrive with the cold cuts from the counter next door. Tortellini in capon broth, lasagne verde al ragù, tagliatelle: the great pasta canon of the region, each one made by hand in the kitchen each morning.
The room seats a maximum of twelve guests across its four tables, which creates an intimacy that no larger restaurant can manufacture. You are aware of the other guests; the conversation from adjacent tables mingles with your own. The service is conducted by the Morandi family with a warmth that belongs to a private home rather than a professional operation. Reservations are essential: the restaurant is open for lunch only, Tuesday through Saturday, with a deposit required to confirm the booking.
There are very few restaurants in Italy that create conditions as naturally suited to a proposal as Hosteria Giusti. The four-table room — intimate, historical, insulated from the world by a counter of ageing salumi — confers a sense of occasion that no larger restaurant can replicate. A lunch here, preceded by the effort of securing the reservation, demonstrates the kind of commitment that precedes a proposal. The food, the family, and the 400-year-old building do the rest.
What to Order
Begin with the salumi from the counter next door — culatello di Zibello, prosciutto crudo, and a plate of crescentine, the small fried dough breads that are the correct Modenese vehicle for cured meat. The traditional balsamic vinegar, aged in the Morandi family's acetaia, appears in several dishes and should also be ordered neat at the end of the meal, in the small glasses in which it is traditionally served.
Among the pasta dishes, the tortellini in brodo is the canonical choice: the correct Modenese filling of pork, mortadella, Parmigiano, and nutmeg, in a capon broth of absolute clarity. The lasagne verde al ragù is also made with the seriousness it deserves. Secondo options follow the seasons and the market — whatever the Morandi family has chosen at the Mercato Albinelli that morning will arrive with the same care as everything else.
The Experience
Hosteria Giusti is open for lunch only — service runs from 12:30pm to 2:00pm, Tuesday through Saturday. Dinner is available for pre-arranged groups of between 12 and 24 guests, with a specific set menu and a deposit of 50 euros per person required at booking. Individual diners will occasionally find a cancellation at short notice; calling directly on the day is always worth attempting. The restaurant is a ten-minute walk from Osteria Francescana and from the Mercato Storico Albinelli, making a morning spent at the market a natural precursor to lunch here.
Guest Reviews
How was your lunch at Hosteria Giusti? What did the crescentine taste like against the culatello? Was it worth the reservation difficulty?
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