Family-run eatery Ristorante Pieno named best restaurant in Glasgow at 2022 Food Awards

A family-run restaurant in the city centre has been named ‘Glasgow Restaurant of the Year’ at the 2022 Food Awards this week.

Ristorante Pieno won the title of best in Glasgow after just a year in business. Run by the husband and wife team, Annie and Roshi Kanushi, the family business took home the award for their ‘impeccable service and authentic Italian food.’

A number of titles were up for grabs at the Food Awards, hosted at the Marriott on Argyle Street, including Restaurant of the Year, Bakery of the Year, Best Italian Establishment, Best World Cuisine, and many more.

Ristorante Pieno got the honour of being named best in town, following a tough few years for the hospitality industry across the UK. The restaurant opened its doors in March of 2020, and have struggled with pandemic restrictions on their business since opening.

Despite this, the family persevered and kept their business alive, pushing to make their dream of running their own restaurant a reality.

Annie Kanushi, who heads the back-end of the restaurant while her husband and nephew take on front-of-house, spoke with GlasgowWorld about winning the award. She said: “We really can’t believe that we got the honour of winning the award. We didn’t go into it thinking we would win anything, we just wanted to take some of our staff for a night out to celebrate getting nominated.

“There were some really big names nominated, and in our heads we looked like the odd ones out - so we’re over the moon to be named best restaurant in Glasgow. I still can’t really believe it!

“We opened in March of 2020, which obviously wasn’t ideal, but we did what we could to come out of the other end of it - our proper opening was a year later in May of 2021, and we’ve been growing steadily since then.

“Six members of our family are working together to make the restaurant what it is, and we know all our staff from our time in the hospitality industry. My husband’s spent 20 years and I’ve got about 10 years of experience - so we’ve managed to build a really strong team for the restaurant.

“We’re really confident in our food, our head chef is just fantastic - and the Theatre Royal across the road has been a massive help in getting new and returning business.

“We’ve still had some difficult times like everyone else of course, but we’re focused on building what we’ve got and living up to people’s expectations by keeping up our old school service, and getting our heads down and back to work. We’re certainly not taking any of our success for granted.”

The family-run restaurant is also nominated for several titles at the Italian Awards coming up in November - including best family-run restaurant, best family friendly restaurant, and best newcomer.

Ristorante Pieno is open seven days a week, from noon until 10pm, on Hope Street - right across the road from the Theatre Royal.