Showing posts with label mario batali. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mario batali. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Lunch Prix Fixe at Mario Batali's Del Posto (New York, NY)

One of the things I love about New York is the lunch prix fixes, allowing you to try some of the city's best restaurants for a lot less money. When I went with my mom and my aunt last time, we tried Del Posto's lunch: $49 for three courses (with an option to add pasta for $10). With three of us, we got to try a lot of things!

The lunch started with some complimentary finger sandwiches and Cauliflower soup

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Bread service
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The menu at Del Posto is seasonal, of course, though you might still find some mainstays like this
Vitello Tonnato (olive crostone, caper shoots, lime cells, lemon basil)
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Vitello tonnato is a Piedmontese dish of veal slices served in a creamy tuna sauce.

Cotechino (stewed pistachios, chopped Preboggion - that's just mixed green leafy vegetables)
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Cotechino is a pork sausage, but the distinction is that this pork sausage is typically made by boiling over low heat for a few hours. It gives a softer flavor than many other charcuterie.

Monday, September 15, 2008

Backpost: Osteria Mozza and My Mozzarelas

This is a backpost from ... oh I don't know months ago. This was my trip to Osteria Mozza and after loading the photos I lost access to my desktop due to many reasons. But now here it is! See if I remember anything.

We made a reservation and got there right on time but the table wasn't ready anyway, so I had to wait at the bar for 10 minutes. Oh, well :/

First I ordered the mozzarela tasting appetizer since I am at Osteria Mozza after all!
mozza tasting
Bufala, burrata, and fior di latte. This was waay too much cheese for 1 person (or 2 when one of us doesn't really like cheese). They also put lots of olive oil on it as you can see. I mean, it's yummy but seems a bit too fatty.
bufala
I couldn't really distinguish the tastes, but the textures definitely had noticeable differences. I liked the bufala a lot in the beginning but after eating a half of it, I found I liked the burrata's texture better.

We also split an order of gnocchi (this is a half):
gnocchi
The gnocchi was great and the sauce was tasty. It was supposed to be "wild boar ragu" though which was the reason I ordered it, but there was not much wild boar to it. Still tasty food though.

We also shared the Crisp Duck al mattone.
duck
Impressive presentation, IMO :)
Duck was definitely crispy. Pretty juicy, flavorful. But ... a weeee bit too overcooked - just a wee bit dry ...

Now ... I'm so sorry but I don't remember what I had for dessert. Whatever it was it wasn't anything too special.
dessert

Overall I liked the food, although I would wait until the hype has gone down before coming back, so that 1)I can get reservation semi-last-minute and 2)I can eat in peace ...

Osteria Mozza
6602 Melrose Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90038
1.323.297.0100

Osteria Mozza on Urbanspoon

Monday, July 14, 2008

Pizzeria Mozza: Pizzas and Hypes

With all the hype surrounding pizzeria mozza, I got curious and decided to walk in and try it one night. I called the day before and couldn't get reservations, but there was only two of us and we got seated at the bar immediately. Lucky :)

As with other hip restaurants, the place is loud and it's hard to hold conversations unless you're sitting right next to each other so the bar actually ended up working out just fine.

We placed our order and waited. It took a while to get served - we were starving so it might have seemed longer than it really was. We saw a bunch of salad dishes going by and they all looked really great. Too bad we didn't order any this time around but next time we definitely have to try one.

We got the mussels for appetizer:
I really liked the bread and the broth, but I didn't really dig the yellow sauce. It was a slightly spicy mustard-based sauce and I thought it overwhelmed the mussels! I would've been much happier with just the mussels and that yummy broth :(
I've definitely had better mussels elsewhere.

For our first pizza we had: Prosciutto Di Parma, Rucola, Tomato & Mozzarella
It was definitely good prosciutto, and the rucola is a great touch. Personally though I'd like more tomato and cheese. You might say that that's just because I'm used to the normal pizza and want something similar, but I still think that this pizza is a little bit on the dry side. But again, though, the prosciutto is definitely good.

The dough is good and as you can see their crust rose more than normal pizza crusts and is "puffier" which is also a plus. It's not as dense and filling.

On average the pizzas are $15 and each one is little more than an individual serving. In our mind this was definitely expensive for pizza, although it is better than most (but is it a better deal than, say, Zelo?).

For the second pizza we got: Wild Spinach, Finocchiona & Cacio Di Roma
The spinach was crispy and there was a little spicy kick to it. Overall it was closer than a "normal" pizza, although with much better cheese and dough. The prosciutto was tastier and more interesting.

I also saw them making this one pizza and put a raw egg right in the middle:
I didn't remember from the menu which pizza this could be, but it looked really interesting - I'll have to find it and try it next time.

All in all I thought the pizzas were pretty good. I wouldn't mind coming back, although it is expensive at $15 per pizza. On the other hand, it wasn't so spectacular that I would be craving to come back anytime soon ...
I do want to try those huge salads that looked really yummy, though.

Pizzeria Mozza
641 N Highland Ave

Los Angeles, CA

(323) 297-0101

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