One of my favorite joints for Italian food in the city. The pasta is excellent value, especially Monday nights after 9pm when they serve ten dollar pasta. For the quality, ambiance, and brand, $10 is exceptional.

Ambiance

The restaurant has a warm and cozy atmosphere that makes you feel like you're in a small Italian joint in the middle of nowhere Italy. It's not modern or overly pretentious, but still maintains a clean semi high caliber appearance. It's down to earth and relatively low key with wooden decor.

Food

I've yet to try a pasta I didn't like, except the cappelletti—truffle ricotta ravioli with prosciutto—the combination of butter+cheese+prosciutto is extremely strong. It makes me feel itchy for some reason. Objectively speaking it was very good, but in general, the overly cheesy/buttery texture along with prosciutto makes me slightly uncomfortable. However, everyone I know that has been to Osteria Morini loved the cappelletti. I'll admit a few dishes were slightly too salty but their complementing sauce helped tone it down. Overall the pasta is solid—simple and traditional. The pasta is handmade, which is the bare minimum for good pasta. The desserts are also quite good—not too sweet.

A few of my favorite dishes:

1) Garganelli

As mentioned above, I did not enjoy the cappelletti yet I did really enjoy the Garganelli—very similar in taste—but a much better balance of flavors. The radicchio is the main player that helped calm the heaviness of the cream and prosciutto.

2) Stracci—wide ribbon pasta with wild mushrooms

I love wild mushrooms. The wide ribbon noodles are cooked al dente with the rosemary oil moisturizing every bite along with the way.

4) Tortellini di mele

This is more of a dessert pasta in my opinion. It's on the sweeter side but not overwhelmingly sweet. A good replacement for dessert if you're in the mood for more pasta!

4) Torcia squid ink pasta

Not nearly on the same level as the squid ink pasta at Ai Fiori but it is definitely a solid runner-up with crispy brussels sprout to enhance every bite.

5) Tortellini panna

6) Gramigna—macaroni with pork sausage

7) Dark chocolate almond tart

8) Goat cheese custard with figs and grapes

Price

The best value is Monday nights after 9pm. I would expect to spend about $25-35 per person including tax and tip depending on how much you order. For two people, 3 pasta and a dessert is more than enough. Any other day I'd expect to spend $35-50 per person including tax and tip.

Wait

Reservations are not too difficult to get. During peak times such as Monday and weekend nights, I think the wait can be as long as 1.5 hours. I definitely recommend reservations during those times.

Osteria Morini

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