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Vetri's Osteria


Vadouvan

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We were at Osteria last week. I may have a new favourite in the Frico appetizer. It's the kind with potatoes, doctored with bacon. While not 100% traditional, it is very good.

Pizzas have become... almost too thin and crunchy at this point. Ingredients are still very good though.

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  • 1 month later...

The "Bocconcini" Pizza; Pigs Trotters Meatballs, tomato, mozzarella, crispy capers.

gallery_23992_4247_6794.jpg

The meatballs themselves were plainer than I expected, not at all bad, but not as distinctive as I thought they might be. But the pizza as a whole was excellent, with a perfectly crisp crust, just the right amount of excellent tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, salty capers...

"Philadelphia’s premier soup dumpling blogger" - Foobooz

philadining.com

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After a very disappointing NYE dinner at Le Bar Lyonnaise, Hubby and I dropped by Osteria (without a reservation) for a nightcap at around 10pm. Could not have been more delighted! We were offered comfortable seats at the bar and ended up ordering some half-portions of 2 pasta dishes to take away the disappointment we had experienced earlier.

I ordered the squash gnocchi with brown butter and mostarda, and Oh My Heavens. Ambrosia from the gods. Perfect texture, just a bit of resistance on the tooth before it dissolves on the tongue. Flavor absolutely delicious -- I refused to share with Hubby and practically licked the bowl. Left the restaurant wishing that we had started at Osteria for NYE! And planning to return soon.

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  • 7 months later...

I was there not TOO long ago, and thought it was pretty great overall. It's hard to go wrong with any of the pizzas or pastas, and the roast pork, if they have it, shouldn't be missed. But it's pretty rare that I'm disappointed in anything, so knock yourself out.

I've never been able to get all that excited about their antipasto platter - it's perfectly pleasant, just a little plain. I've always liked their salumi, although a recent selection seemed a little meager compared to some of the impressive platters we've gotten at other places around town, like James and Fork. But that's not really a comment on the quality of the product, more on the portioning and presentation.

Anyway, yes, good choice, go.

Edited by philadining (log)

"Philadelphia’s premier soup dumpling blogger" - Foobooz

philadining.com

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all the food we had saturday night was very, very good. expensive, but worth it in my opinion.

my only gripe here is the wine list. decent enough, but not interesting for what they charge. in their defense, that's probably more the plcb's influence than teh restaurants.

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I've heard others make that point - I guess I'm not knowledgeable enough about Italian wines to get bored!

But one thing to keep in mind is that it's always worth asking if they have anything interesting that's not on the list. This is especially good if you're sitting at the bar where the wines are kept, there often seems to be a few bottles around that they're considering adding, or perhaps someone requested them, or who knows, but there are sometimes some bottles that haven't made it to the printed page yet. They're even sometimes open, and one might be able to get something by the glass that's not normally offered that way.

Never hurts to ask...

"Philadelphia’s premier soup dumpling blogger" - Foobooz

philadining.com

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agreed.

i also will add that the sommelier (sp?) was a huge help in the wine selection process. he let us try two or three different things before we decided. i was happy with the wine we had with dinner.

i just find the list kind of uninteresting and overpriced for what it is.

but, damn the food is good!

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Well….I may have had a different meal given the fact my girlfriend is a Pescetarian and I ordered appropriately. But, given those parameters in an Italian restaurant – Pizza, Pasta, and vegetables? the meal still left me lacking. Pizza wise, we had the Pannochia with allegedly charred scallions, corn, bufala mozz, and the idea of black truffle and along with Melanzana with eggplant, provolone, pine nuts raisin, and basil. I’m not sure if it this always the case but the crusts were extremely thin, wet in the middle, and under cooked. The edges were blond, not dark tan or brown and tasting a little too much or bench flour. The Pannochia was ok at best, the corn was excellent and the cheese as well but there scallions were few, uncharred and I did not detect any black truffle visually or olfactorially. The Melanzana was better (albeit the crust was still the same) but the toppings were as noted and balanced in taste and texture. Starters, the tricolore salad was ok, the Culton Farm summer vegetable crudo was quite good but at 12.00 for literally a forkful of vegetables – I would pass next time. Pasta wise, the Robiola Francobolli with royal trumpet mushrooms was fine….just fine. Texturally and visually, an average dish. The wood grilled grouper was very good, probably the best dish of the night but that’s not saying much. The wine list was overpriced and I didn’t see much in the way of interesting. Looking at the whites, The ‘typical” headlining Jermann Tunina at 175.00 and a Bastianich Vespa Bianco were showcased. Prices are out of wack using the typical formulaic core of 1.5x the entrée pricing. I started with a bottle DeForville Chard that was young at 55ish and then had a Coppo Costebianche that was tired at 70ish. Desserts, the polenta budino was good and the chocolate molten something was good but the pistachio gelato was excellent. Maybe a meal of a lot Salumi and red wine or the suckling pig was the way to go, but I probably wouldn’t revisit any of the food or wines I experienced. Someone tell me where I went wrong

PS - I forgot to mention the oysters with cucumber and raspberries. The oysters were good but the sweet raspberries were too much of a prominent sweetness for me taking away the savory character of the dish.

Edited by GordonCooks (log)
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Wow, I've never had that problem with the pizzas, and I've had a few... Similarly, I've always been really impressed with the pastas. Sounds like they were really off their game that night, sorry it had to happen when you were in town! It really is a good place, honest!

"Philadelphia’s premier soup dumpling blogger" - Foobooz

philadining.com

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