Osteria Mozza is probably the Los Angeles restaurant I have wanted to visit the longest. I have always been a huge fan of Mario Batali and Pizzeria Mozza is one of my favorite pizza restaurants anywhere, so it would stand to reason that Osteria Mozza is probably pretty good too. It worked out great because this is the first weekend Christal has had off in over a month and it is the day before the sixth anniversary of Brent's plane crash so it was a good time to go out for a special dinner.
Walking in to the restaurant from the corner of Highland and Melrose it opens up to a large dining room. All the tables are covered in white linens and there are rich dark wood accents and light blue trim around the room. The whole space has a very comfortable and relaxed yet elegant feel to it.
After we ordered they brought us an amuse bouche of crostini with ricotta, olive tapenade and basil. For being so simple it was surprising how balanced the one bite crostini was. The salty bitterness of the tapenade was toned down by the rich ricotta cheese and the basil helped to make it feel light on the palate.
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| Crostini w Ricotta, Olive Tapenade & Basil |
Christal ordered the market rucola and wild cress salad with oro blanco grapefruit, avocado, Picholine olives & walnut aillade for her starter. The salad was a really refreshing start to the dinner. The arugula and cress were crisp, herbaceous and peppery and was balanced well by the sweet and acidic grapefruit and the rich avocado. The walnuts and walnut aillade added some crunch and textural contrast and the olives rounded out the salad with a nice hit of saltiness.
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| Market Rucola & Wild Cress w Oro Blanco Grapefruit, Avocado, Picholine Olives & Walnut Aillade |
For my starter I ordered the burricotta with braised artichokes, pine nuts, currants and mint pesto from the mozzarella bar menu. They served the cheese on a couple of pieces of toasted bread. The braised artichoke was extremely tender and there was just enough of the currants and pine nuts so that you could taste them, but they neither overpowered the cheese or the artichoke. The mint pesto helped to really keep everything light and gave the dish an added zing.
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| Burricotta w Braised Artichokes, Pine Nuts, Currants & Mint Pesto |
We both really wanted to try their pasta, but we couldn't both order pasta and a main course without feeling guilty about it so we ended up sharing the orecchiette with sausage and swiss chard. For me, this dish was probably the highlight of the night. The orecchiette at Osteria Mozza had a larger diameter than at other restaurants I have had it at and it was also slightly thicker, which gave it a really nice chew. The sausage and swiss chard sauce was meaty and rich with a background spiciness that was just short of making you reach for the water glass. It had an unctuousness that only comes from hours of simmering over low heat and the swiss chard almost melted into the whole sauce. They finished the dish with a sprinkling of bread crumbs at the table, which gave a subtle crunch to the dish.
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| Orecchiette w Sausage & Swiss Chard |
The wild striped bass alla Livornese was Christal's main course. The bass was cooked absolutely perfectly. The skin was as crispy as a potato chip and the flesh was firm and moist. The Livornese sauce was basically a garlicky tomato sauce. It had enough acidity to pair well with the fish and the large caper berries in the sauce gave a nice salty, tart kick. They topped the fish off with a light salad of parsley and celery leaves that added a little fresh crunch to the fish.
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| Wild Striped Bass Alla Livornese |
I ordered the veal breast stracotto with funghi misti. The veal breast was slow braised, which made it tender, but not to the point where it would fall apart. They sauced the veal with some of the braising liquid that was reduced down to a rich, syrupy consistency and you could feel the melted collagen in the sauce...so good. The mushrooms were cooked till they were perfectly caramelized and a deep mahogany color. When all the components were together in one bite it was absolute harmony. The rich sauce soaked into the tender, milky veal with the caramelized mushrooms adding a chewy and crispy texture was a truly pleasurable experience.
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| Veal Breast Stracotto w Funghi Misti |
Christal got the strawberry and fig crostata with Meyer lemon panna cotta & pinecone bud syrup. In my opinion this was my least favorite dish of the night. It wasn't a bad dessert, I just felt like it was kind of plain and the panna cotta overshadowed the crostata a little bit. The crostata was topped with something that resembled a strawberry and fig jam and the crust was a good short pastry, but I thought it lacked some freshness. I think some brunoised strawberry or chiffonaded mint would have helped to refresh the crostata. The Meyer lemon panna cotta had a great texture and was packed with the tart and sweet flavor of the Meyer lemons, but when eaten with the crostata the tartness of the panna cotta masked the strawberries and figs. I was really excited to try the pinecone bud syrup, but it was a little too subtle and I couldn't really detect it when I ate all three components together.
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| Strawberry & Fig Crostata w Meyer Lemon Panna Cotta & Pinecone Bud Syrup |
My dessert was the bombolini with huckleberry marmellata, lemon mascarpone and vanilla gelato. The bomboloni are Italian donuts that are rolled in sugar. The dough is a raised yeast dough and the texture of these bomboloni were soft and light, almost cloud-like. The huckleberry marmellata was exactly what you would expect, sweet and tart and full of huckleberries. The lemon mascarpone had the texture of a lemon curd and it paired really well with the huckleberries. The vanilla gelato provided great contrast to all the other components of the dessert. It countered the tartness of both the lemon mascarpone and the huckleberry marmellata with its creamy richness, and it gave great temperature contrast to the fresh, hot bomboloni.
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| Bombolini w Huckleberry Marmellata, Lemon Mascarpone & Vanilla Gelato |
Food 4.5/5
Service 4/5
Christal's Rating 3/5
http://www.osteriamozza.com/
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