Osteria Morini

Michael White is regarded as one of the best Italian chefs in New York City today.  His flagship restaurant Marea, is arguably the best Italian restaurant in NYC, gaining national attention and two Michelin stars.  On the other side of the Michelin spectrum is his casual downtown hotspot, Osteria Morini, offering affordable, authentic Italian fare at the crossroads of Little Italy and Soho.

Osteria Morini is named after Michael White's mentor in Italy, Gianluigi Morini, chef and owner of Restaurant San Domenico in Italy, where Michael White spent much of his early career in.  Osteria means "host" in Italian.  Here, at Osteria Morini, Micheal White hosts guests with food and techniques he learned while traveling through Italy.  The result is a great Italian meal that will not break your wallet, only surpass your taste buds.

Osteria Morini is designed after a 1700's Italian farmhouse, although you probably would not have known it unless someone told you.  The ceilings are high-beamed and wooden, but the walls are very minimalistic and bare.  The restaurant is tiny, and the tables are pushed so close together you are almost within elbow's reach of the table sitting next to you.  They offer the full menu at the bar, which surprisingly is a bit more spacious, so if given the option, decide against a table.

My friend and I arrived on time for our reservation, but were seating at the bar while our table was still being set.  After ordering a round of drinks we were asked if we would like to move to the table or stay at the bar.  Being our first time here we opted for the table.  We now know better for the future as I felt I was pushed too far into the table to allow ample room for servers to get behind me comfortably.  My chair was kicked a few times as well, a very big pet peeve of mine.

The service is very cold, as I couldn't tell if our server was just having a bad day or really didn't care if we were there or not.  Seeing how packed this restaurant is, and how many tables they turn, makes me believe the latter.  I didn't even get her name through the course of the night, even though we only saw her twice.



As minimalistic as everything is, the food does make up for the fact.  We started off with a crostini platter.  You can mix and match your crostini from a set menu of five choices.  We settled on olive oil-poached tuna, rabbit confit with preserved lemon, and buffalo ricotta & nepitella pesto.  The rabbit confit (confit means cooked slowly in its own fat) was one of the best meat confits I have tasted.  Rabbit is a very lean meat, and to cook it in fat was to me, a great idea.  It caused it to gain this fatty texture you normally don't see with this gamey beast.  The lemon brought it to a whole new level.  The olive oil-poached tuna was very good as well, paired with olives and potatoes.  The buffalo ricotta was a somewhat letdown, as it didn't have as much flavor as we expected.  It needed something acidic, like lemon or olives paired with the other two, to brighten it up.

From top Buffalo Ricotta, Rabbit with Lemon, and Olive Oil-Poached Tuna

The next platter were two choices from their charcuterie section.  House-made lardo just melted as it hit your tongue.  I took a few slices of it and paired it nicely with the rabbit confit to heighten both flavors considerably.  The duck liver mousse with passito wine (an expensive sweet wine made from raisins or semi-dried grapes) was good, but not one of the best I've ever had.  It was a touch too sweet for my taste, but the texture was silky and the flavor irony as is expected from a good liver mousse.

Lardo and Duck Liver Mousse

Osteria Morini is known for their pastas, and we both opted for the gnocchi verde.  The gnocchi is a house-made potato dumpling made with nettles (also known as stinging nettles, they are bitter greens with "stinging" or sharp hairs).  Fennel sausage, escarole, and mushrooms also garnished this dish.  It was very good and we both finished it very quickly.

Gnocchi Verde

Onto the dessert.  I went for the torrone.  It is a white-chocolate and almond semifreddo paired with apricot, candied fennel, grapefruit, and meyer lemon granita.  Although the semifreddo itself didn't wow me, the citrus flavors really lifted it and made it a memorable dessert.  The meyer lemon granita was by far the best component to this dessert.

Torrone

My friend had the gianduja budino, which was a bit more complex.  It is a classical creamy Italian pudding but at Osteria Morini they turn it into a custard and pair it with hazelnut.  It is garnished with a lambrusco (Italian red wine) poached pear, and a stracciatella gelato.  Stracciatella is similar to American chocolate-chip ice cream, but not really.  It is made by using small strands of chocolate that run throughout the gelato, resulting in a smooth texture with the slightest crunch in every bite.  It is acheived by drizzling in chocolate during the final stages of churning the gelato. A complex technique resulting in a few amazing bites.

Gianduja Budino

Although the food at Osteria Morini was good, I have to admit the cold service was a huge turnoff for me.  If you can get past that, this restaurant is a great neighborhood spot. But if you can't, I'm sure you can find great pasta just about anywhere in New York if you look hard enough.

Osteria Morini

218 Lafayette Street

New York, NY 10012