Taste buds can easily turn into viciously passive-aggressive taste frenemies without proper attention. Keep your tongue from gossiping behind your back with today's Groupon to Buon Gusto Ristorante & Bar, located in Mission Hills. Choose between two options:

• For $9, you get $20 worth of Italian fare and drinks, good during both lunch and dinner hours.
• For $16, you get two tickets to a wine and appetizer tasting, hosted at the restaurant on Saturday, April 2 from 3:30 p.m.–5:30 p.m. (a $32 value).

Buon Gusto's classic Italian menu mollifies appetites with a spread of savory pasta plates. Start off with flavorful appetizers such as crab cakes with lobster sauce ($6.95), bruschetta ($5.50), and a belly-warming bowl of pastina in brodo (chicken broth with pasta; $7.50). With your appetite aptly antipastoed, try out pasta dishes such as the fusilli alla fantasia, a magical ride through toasted pine nuts, cream, brandy, shallots, and gorgonzola ($12.50). Sink seafaring pearlies into the linguine with clams or mussels ($17.50), or opt for the alla paillard, its tender veal kissed with extra-virgin olive oil and lemon ($17.95). Buon Gusto also tops tables with pizzas ($8.50–$16.95), calzones ($10.50), and family-style dinners ($10.95 per person), just right for patrons who prefer to control the migratory patterns of their dinner plates. Alternately, for the special wine tasting, guests will stop by to sip from a selection of four notable Spanish wines, each handpicked to tango with complementary appetizers.

Modestly tucked into an unassuming strip mall, Buon Gusto's interior welcomes patrons with a profusion of natural light streaming in through floor-to-ceiling front windows. Feel free to park at the bar, where an extensive wine list is available for perusal while you plan your meal and silverware acceptance speech.