Mauro Deffendini
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If you are up for Italian food and around the Kendall area, this casual cozy Osteria 🇮🇹will surprise you. The spot is not pretentious at all, it is more along the lines of Miami's suburban areas, so you might miss it if you are not careful enough to spot it while driving by.
We went to dinner on a weekday and were welcomed by JC, the host and server. He had a table ready for us, as we already had a reservation, and right away sent the other waiters to refresh us with some water, as he presented the wine menu. There were plenty of options, from Chianti to Piedmont, and we opted for a recommendation from JC, a Puglia wine that was one of the best things we tried during 🍷our dinner.
As an appetizer, we tried the fried calamari, with zucchini and lemon. An option I wouldn’t order again as it didn't have anything special. Just a simple fried calamari with a regular dipping sauce.
Then some of us were encouraged to order the specials, like the Bistecca ai Ferri (Grilled Skirt Steak 🥩), which was tender enough to easily slice through. This would be my favorite dish (something very odd, as being an Italian restaurant you expect the pasta to be superb). The second-best dish could be the ravioli di mare 🐠🐟🍤🦐 topped with pink wine sauce). This type of pasta is not the one I would ever order, but it surprised me how good the consistency was.
Then I could state the Ravioli di Zucca Burro e Salvia, Fresh homemade ravioli filled with ricotta, pumpkin, and amoretti cookies 🥠in a 🧈butter sage sauce. The pasta was al dente and the filling was very tasty, but a little bit too sweet. If you are a sweet tooth kind of person, definitely this is your choice. I love sweet stuff, but this was too much, even for me, still, I would give it the third and final place, and this is because I wouldn’t suggest the other two dishes.
JC was friendly enough to split my plate so I could try the ravioli ricotta, as well as the Penne Zucca e Pancetta because I was undecided on which to order. The Penne was al dente, but the cheese sauce was too heavy and the Zucca was just sliced and mixed in the sauce, not adding any real value to the dish the worst part is that it was not real pancetta, it supposedly was prosciutto, but to be honest it didn’t taste like it. At least having the options of the two dishes combination balanced out the sweetness of the Ravioli.
And the most disappointing dish to me was the Paglia e Fieno ai Funghi 🍄🍄🟫 which was supposed to be bathed in Truffle oil, but I never tasted it. The pasta was so dipped in sauce that it wasn’t even al dente and that’s a killer for me.
The overall problem with the pasta was that the chef suffocates them in sauce, and if they were genuine, only with a scent of sauce it would be more than enough to excel.
I do have to admit that I was obsessed with the garlic 🧄warm 🍞bread served on the table, I couldn’t stop eating it…In the end, the extra sauce from the pasta worked perfectly for dipping the bread with it, and always asked for it to be served warm, it makes all the difference.
For Desserts, they brought some classic cannoli, which were too stiff and the cream was glued to it. We also had a white chocolate, lemon 🍋mascarpone with a scoop of ice cream 🍦, that actually was pretty refreshing because it balances the sweet and bitter on a sweet tasty spot.
I would actually like to give it 3 stars and a half, ⭐️⭐️⭐️ but there is no option for it, still I would stop by this Italian restaurant if I’m around and hungry for pasta and of course the garlic warm bread 🍞!
