Osteria Suggestions

[foodadelphia]

I'm excited for Osteria tonight and I have my eye on a few dishes for each course, but I'm looking for enthusiastic suggestions. Most likely, I will not have pizza, but instead an app, pasta and entree.

What should I eat?

[foodadelphia]

Thanks everybody for the suggestions. You talked me out of cannoli and into the polenta budino, which I am quite happy about. I took your advise and went with the pizza, antipasti and pastas, and skipped entrees.

What we had:

Drinks: I had a couple of Eagle Rare Old Fashioneds and a Knob Creek Mahattan. She had a Ferentano (white), a Ciro (rosato), a Barbera (red). And we each had a Proseco (sparkling) for dessert.

Le Pizze: We split the Lombarda

Antipasti: We split the smoked sturgeon crudo, I had the sweetbread saltimbocca and she opted for the antipasti special, tuna tar tar.

Primi: We split the robiola francobolli, the chicken liver rigatoni, the wild hare ragu with pappardelle, the candele with wild boar bolognese and the pig's foot cannenoli.

Dolci: I ordered the polenta budino with gianduia mousse and candied hazelnuts (best dessert I've had), and she had the chocolate espresso cake with cappuccino gelato.

Everything was amazing. there was a tie for my favorite pasta dish between the wild hare ragu and the wild boar bolognese. But candele is my new favorite noodle.

But the winner of the night and possibly in the top 5 of my all time favorite dishes was the sweetbread saltimbocca. I just started drooling while typing that.

Everything was amazing. I can't wait to go back.

Pictures attached. Not pictured are the sturgeon crudo, drinks or desserts.

[foodadelphia]

The rest of the photos:

[foodadelphia]

Can anyone tell me which dishes are in these pictures?: http://bit.ly/c1gyOu

[Buckethead]

Just right-click the picture and hit Properties or View Image Info

[Delucacheesemonger]

Thank you for this computer information, never knew this trick, bless you.

[foodadelphia]

Usually a description is written in the alt (alternative) attribute of the image tag so you only have to hover your cursor over the pic and the alt content will pop up. This site didn't have that, but, yes, the filenames are descriptive.

[Philly Ray]

Looks like that visit is from 2008. Osteria's menu usually changes seasonally, so no guarantees that they will be serving all of those dishes now.

[foodadelphia]

Thanks. I'll be finding out soon.

Thanks all for the suggestions.

[Philly Ray]

This is the latest menu on their website...

http://www.osteriaphilly.com/menu/

[foodadelphia]

That is the latest menu on their website? Ok. Good. That's what I've been drooling over. My girlfriend said that they always have a roasted pig, as well.

[Buckethead]

If I were you I'd skip the entree and get a pizza, the pizzas are one of the main things that make Osteria good. The candele with wild boar bolognese is my favorite pasta but I haven't been in a while and haven't had most of the pastas on their current menu.

[Beulah]

We almost always have a pizza, 2 appetizers and 2 pastas. The pastas are absolutely amazing. We think the pizza and the apps are wonderful as well, but the entrees do not blow us away, and we're usually full after our pastas. We think all the pastas are fabulous.

[Hungryin theBurbs]

The vegetable antipasto is always amazing. It changes, and the call it a special, but they always seem to have some version of it. It's a great light starter. For pasta, even though it's been on the menu for a long time, I'm a sucker for the candele w/wild boar bolognese. Also, if you like liver, the rigatoni is amazing.

[foodadelphia]

Yes, I love liver. The chicken liver rigatoni is where I was leaning for my pasta.

Has anyone had the sweetbread saltimbocca? I am a sucker for sweetbreads and my girlfriend works at Amis (so she got to try everything there before they opened) and said their saltimbocca is amazing.

Although their pizzas look great, I think I'm leaning more toward the rabbit casalinga or the braised pork ribs, but we'll see.

[FrancisdeR]

If you get to dessert, I was blown back by the Budino di Polenta (and I'm not usually a dessert person). I don't think you can go wrong with any of the pastas. I was there at lunch and saw a whole pig roasting, presumably for that evening. Never tried it, but my mouth was watering just looking at it.

[foodadelphia]

Sounds good. I may have to try that even though I'm a cannoli guy.

I'm planning on going to Amada this week for the roast suckling pig feast, but I'm sure Vetri's swine is just as amazing.

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/570767

[jl0328]

I agree with FrancisdeR - save room for the Budino di Polenta. I enjoyed this dish so much I'm trying to recreate it for a dinner party.