Osteria

640 North Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19130

http://www.osteriaphilly.com/

For quite a while, we’ve been coveting a reservation at Vetri, the little Italian boite in the gayborhood that many laud as the finest Italian restaurant in Philadelphia, if not the eastern seaboard, and therefore presumably America. No, I’m serious. Mario Batali said so.

However, reservations are difficult to come by, so all of Philadelphia rejoiced when Marc Vetri opened Osteria, a slightly less formal and definitely larger restaurant north on Broad–an odd place to put a restaurant, but give him marks for gumption.

We tackled it with fellow foodie, Donna, who had heard great things about both places from the national paper of record. We made a reservation on Open Table, and, though we were a bit early, they seated us relatively quickly. However, the table left some things to be desired. First, we were placed in the adjoining greenhouse space. The problem with the space was not temperature-related, though I assumed on a cold winter’s night that it would be cool. The problem with the space is two-fold: it is noisy (as conversations rattle off of the glass walls and the stone floor), and it just lacks any warmth of character. The tables are far apart, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but the arrangement lacks the excitement of the interior spaces. Second, the table was plainly a two-top that had been transformed into a three-top. I asked the server if this was indeed going to work, and she assured me it would. It did, sort of: as the meal progressed, we were soon playing a game of plate and glass Twister, trying to find space for everything, and eventually moving things to the ledge above us to create more space. Overall, I felt like I was getting a bad a less-than-great table in a less-than-great space: not the kind of first impression one should give–everyone should have similar experiences of comfort, as much as possible.

However, the food made up for the space, as did the service. Since my memory is horrible, I can only remember what I had (this was about a month ago), and barely that.

We shared the pizze polpo — octopus, tomato, red chili flakes, and mozzarella:

Yeah, it was that good. It was perhaps a bit more “done” (read: burnt) than I would like, but the flavors and textures were wonderful.

My primi piatti was a gnocchi with parmesan, because I love me some gnocchi. The first place I ever had gnocchi? Salzburg, Austria, August 1992. One remembers these things. Anyway:

A little crock of heaven, frankly. I can say with certainty that this was the best gnocchi I have ever had. Unlike most gnocchi, these didn’t go into your stomach and expand, creating eight times their weight in dumpling goodness. No, these were light gnocchi, but certainly not “lite,” as that cheese and oil were there to help things along. God it was good.

Finally, I had a venison special, because, well, why not? I don’t remember how it was prepared, but it came with some potatoes:

It was very good. Not knockout, blow-me-down, but very good. (Also, can you see how cramped we were? Sheesh.)

From what I can remember, Rick had a soup (very good) and lamb (I think?); I don’t remember Donna’s first course, but she got the rabbit for dinner, and it was good as well. Perhaps they can fill things in in the comments. Here are pics to refresh their memories:

Perhaps I went in with crazy expectations, but who couldn’t? The meal was very good–food quality across the board great, excellent service, and fine drinks (limoncello!). However, I really think that initial impression somewhat soured me; moreover, I just wasn’t slapped upside the head by anything except the gnocchi, and that was just a little crock. I would definitely go again, and I would definitely recommend it, and I definitely still want to go to Vetri, but…it’s not in my Top 5. Sorry.