For my recent birthday, my parents treated me to a dinner at Osteria Mozza at Highland and Melrose. Because of my embarrassingly vast pop knowledge of TV chef personalities, I already knew that Osteria Mozza is owned by Mario Batali. Batali, a wide-girthed, good natured Italian chef, always makes the most incredible looking dishes on his show, dishes that made me drool on my couch and wish I had a fat Italian uncle. I had an image in my mind of Batali himself in the kitchen, two saute pans in each hand, and I got incredibly excited. So Osteria Mozza it was.
Going out to fancy (read: pricey) restaurants always makes me a little nervous. It’s one thing to have a bad meal at some little lunch spot you’re trying out; if you don’t like your food, you’re only out ten bucks. If you go to an expensive restaurant and the food isn’t very good, it’s much more disappointing.
Thankfully, Osteria Mozza lived up to its swanky prices. In fact, I would even go so far as to say it exceeded them. The meal was absolutely fabulous from start to finish. I was elated to see that the restaurant had a mozzarella bar - never in my wildest dreams had I envisioned an entire section of the menu devoted to mozzarella cheese. For my appetizer I ordered burrata, which is a soft, creamy, gooey, mild, divine mound of mozzarella. Mine was served with sauteed asparagus and a variety of other ingredients that I could not confidently identify but which contributed to the most perfect sweet/savory, crunchy/smooth deliciousness I have ever eaten.
The wine list presented to us when we sat down was worthy of entry into the Library of Congress. It was so extensive and so daunting that we petitioned for a somelier to help us. He asked us what sort of wine we normally liked to drink, then gave us three selections from the menu that were basically Italian versions of that wine. It worked - the bottle we ordered was amazing.
For my main I ordered butternut squash mezza luna, which are basically crescent shaped ravioli. They too were delicious. I ordered an entree size and it was the perfect amount. My mom ordered an oxtail ragu that was delicious, and my dad some sort of wild boar pasta which was also, coincidentally, delicious.
By that point the meal was going so well we decided to order dessert, despite the fact that there were cupcakes from Vanilla Bake Shop (SO GOOD!) waiting for us at home. We ordered a flourless chocolate cake with bourbon sorbet and a rustic berry tart. Delicious again! The bourbon sorbet and chocolate cake were impossible to stop eating. The berry tart wasn’t quite to the same extreme level of divinity that the chocolate cake was, but that just might be my slight bias towards anything chocolate.
If you have a special occasion you would like to celebrate or a special person you would like to treat, Osteria Mozza is the perfect place to go. Make sure you make reservations though, because otherwise you won’t get in.
If you want something a little less expensive, you could try Pizzaria Mozza located right next door. It’s run by all the same people but it has a more casual pizzaria menu. I haven’t been there, but after my experience at Osteria Mozza I’d be more than willing to give it a try.
Osteria Mozza
6602 Melrose Ave
Los Angeles CA 90038
323-297-0100
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2 responses so far ↓
1 Tara // Jun 8, 2008 at 8:07 pm
I’ve been meaning to try this place and now you’ve upped the ante for me, thanks for the review
2 Laura Leigh // Jun 9, 2008 at 11:23 am
This place sounds great!
You had me at “Mozzarella bar.”
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