Osteria Morini

There are few other restaurants that open in NYC with such hysteria like those operated and own by Chef Michael White. His newest adventure is Osteria Morini in Soho which has now been open for a few months and is dedicated to the food and drink of Emilia-Romagna, in the north of Italy. 

I made a reservation for a special occasion while my girlfriend was visiting. The atmosphere is very laid back seems as if it’s trying to feel like an old Italian farm house but has an eclectic music selection including 80’s pop which is somewhat confusing. However, as soon as we walked in we were greeted by a friendly hostess and immediately seated.  The service was decent but nothing to rave about.  Now moving on to the good stuff!

Each table comes equip with a beautiful clay bottle of olive oil which was absolutely amazing! Fruity and perfect for dipping the warm bread. 

We started with three appetizers (I know I know..but we had too) including the trio of fried cheeses, the meatballs and the seafood salad. The salad is made with calamari and fresh scallops and tossed with capers, olives, and plenty of lemon juice. The cheeses were good, but didn’t knock my socks off. I really enjoyed the béchamel one but the other two didn’t measure up. That being said the meatballs were very good! Juicy and delish, you could taste the mixture of pork and veal which went splendidly with the rich cheesy sauce. After devouring the balls, the sauce made an excellent choice for dipping the hearty Italian bread in. I have to say we could have done without the seafood salad, it was bland and left us wanting more.

Luckily the entrees more than made up for the lackluster  appetizers. We shared the cappelletti which are pillowy little numbers stuffed with truffle-scented mascarpone and topped with garlands of wispy prosciutto served over a puddle of melted butter....how good do those sound?!  These were out of this world! So fresh and tasty, and a must have here.

We also split the tagliatelle dish which was wide ribbon pasta served with classically dense veal-and-pork ragù. This reminded me of the traditional delicious tasting ragus I’ve have the honor of tasting in Italy. It was a really solid dish but the cappelletti stole the show!

We capped off the evening with a chocolate hazelnut tartufo which was absolutely divine! Chocolaty, creamy with a crunchy layer of hazelnut on the bottom what more could you ask for?

All in all Little Star gives Osteria Morini a solid 3 stars…there were dishes that were mind blowing while others just didn’t measure up. So you may ask...is it worth a visit? Most definitely just be sure to order the pastas!

Happy Eating!

Little Star

oxox