L’Osteria

I love this place. It’s cozy, the food is great, the drinks are great, it’s one of my favorite places to eat, and I’m very picky about having good, fresh Italian food. Highly recommend!

This place came highly recommended by friends. Guess they haven’t been here in a while. Got a nice table by the window when we arrived. Then the waiter moved us because he said he had a six top coming in. Okay we moved to a table with a high beam light in my eyes. Moved again. Ordered mussels as an app and they apparently think 11 mussels, half of which were empty is a good value at 13 bucks. Tried to order the only decent bottle of white wine on the menu and of course they didn’t have it. A 20 bottle list and they can’t order properly. We just left after the apps. To add insult to injury on our way out there was another deuce seated at the table where the six top was going to be set. If I didn’t spend so many years in the business I would have completely stiffed the lying waiter/​host. Too many good Italian restaurants in the area to waste your money here.

Very nice restaurant. Mario the proprietor is a nice guy. Food is creative and excellent. Service was good. Small place but has lots of character. In a neighborhood of other excellent restaurants. Reservations usually needed on weekends (we were told that by two regulars). Mario told me you can walk in without reservations on week nights. The busy nature of it tells you how good it is. We will go back again.

This place is super nice and the food is awesome! Not a lot of places have fresher food then here. i’ve never had a bad meal at this place and I don’t think you have a would. Very delicious! Enjoy

This is where my husband and I go for special dinners. Delicious!

How can you tell if a restaurant is really Italian? Listen, smell, soak in the room; if you hear Mario bark out a drink order to his beautiful wife Sofia in dialect, while you watch Serie A Calcio, as you sip on a classic Tuscan blend, well, then you know you are at L’Osteria. My family and I love this restaurant. The food and service are excellent, the menu authentic but not all that peasant inspired. You just cannot go wrong with ordering the Chicken under a Brick. We had our son’s first communion reception for 30 at L’Osteria. The food was so great my wife’s elderly aunt from Italy cried, Mario, the owner turned to her and kindly said in Italian, «Do not cry, your fork may miss your mouth». That just about sums it up.

No Chicken
This place gets a lot of love from Unilocalers and I can see why. It’s a charming little Italian Bistro with limited seats and very classic feel.
Now comes the weird dilemma. The food was really good in some ways and disappointing in others. My wife and I ordered the white bean bruschetta. Great bread, tasty beans, good seasoning, However dry as a bone. White bean and sausage dishes need the pan sauce. It’s like they threw it away.
Strange #1
Now my wife gets braised beef fresh ravioli as an entrée. The dish itself was very good, However the beef inside the ravioli was like hamburger.
Strange #2
I ordered the pesto chicken pasta. This dish was really good. Aldente pasta, wonderful pesto cream sauce, However the dish says grilled chicken and there was virtually no chicken in the dish. The dish had a few tiny little shards of chicken, like they cut up ¹⁄₈ of a chicken breast in tiny little pieces.
Strange #3
Overall:
I want to like this place, 75% of the dishes were great and the service was very attentive, but the odd issues can’t be overlooked. I’ll try it again.
Thanks

I’ve been here a few times. My wife loves the pasta fazool. I got the antipasto dish and the steak. I felt the food was heavy and a little oily. I got a side of pasta with marinara which was cooked PERFECTLY. Its pricey for what you get. Aesthetically its a nice place and the staff is friendly and good. I’ll probably give it another try and do a pasta dish

The criticasters of Cranston — clearly missed the excellent mark on this culinary café. In Italian l’osteria, is one fine tavern.

Who waits 15 minutes for the server to ask you if you want a drink? Same menu for years, make some modifications for God’s sake! What a piece if work, avoid at all cost! SUCKS!

We had an excellent time great atmosphere staff was exceptional good food knowledge. Excellent sampling of wine we ended up ordering two bottles couldn’t ask for a better night or better food awesome

I used to go with my family when I was a young adult and remember the food being very tasty. This Wednesday, after a great whale watch, I took my children back. We had such a great time. A special app was the fried Zucchini flowers stuffed with cheese and other yummy stuff. My daughter gobbled her two down. I had to be quick, she would have eaten mine too. My son had a ½ salad and he enjoyed it too. We all ordered pasta, I had the clams and pasta. My daughter had the bolognese. My son had the ravioli stuffed with braised beef in a vodka sauce. We all joined the clean plate club. Service was friendly and fun. We closed the place down. I think we are all looking forward to going back. It’s a winner.

Chicken Under a Brick is AWESOME!!! Great food and service. Very clean restaurant. Small parking lot in the rear.

Excellent little Italian Restaurant!
My husband and I came here on 6÷3÷15, all the way from MA. We started with a great bottle of Chianti followed by the Antipasto and on to the entrees. My husband has spent some time in Tuscany and we think they have done a great job recreating the simple flavors of the region. Would highly recommend.

Everything from service, cocktails, appetizers bread & entrée then followed by dessert e’café — haven’t been here in years can’t wait to return! Unfortunately they’re closed tomorrow — or I’d be back! — L’osteria you never skip a beat! — yes those complainers might think they’re being overlooked but the restaurant is true Italian with owners from Italia where life is sweet not overbearing and food is delicious always !!! It’s 5 star plus — Salute’ L’osteria — delicious siempre! Abbraccio

I would even go up to 4.5 stars. Had dinner here Saturday night. It’s very small, so thankfully we had a reservation. The restaurant was pretty full, with only a couple of servers, but our waiter was attentive and we had our drinks within ten minutes of sitting down.
We started with an order of calamari (which is not breaded) and mozzarella bruschetta. I loved the bruschetta, loaded with fresh basil, cheese and tomatoes.
I had the sirloin steak special with kalamata olives on top, which may sound weird, but it was soooo good. Just the right amount of saltiness, and cooked just right.
Great food and service, I would definitely return!

Still a favorite of mine, love the green beans that they serve with dishes. Also cooked and seasoned to perfection!

Excellent traditional Italian food with great atmosphere.
This place is very small but it packs in, get there early.
The service is excellent and very friendly, the food is absolutely awesome, I love the lemon chicken with pasta, they don’t drown the pasta with a whole lot of gravy, they put just enough on so you can taste the semolina.
They also have a great wine selection.

I was at L’Osteria last night and had a really nice reminder of just how great this place is. I was fairly new to Rhode Island 20+ years ago when I just happened to drive into Knightsville with some friends looking for a place to eat, and we walked into L’Osteria on what turned out to be their first night. I grew up on good food (I like to say both my folks could cook Julia Child out of the kitchen — in several cuisines) and recognized this place as the real deal. I returned there many times over the years, with many friends from out of town. (My folks came up from the Cape to corroborate it’s excellence.) Normally, people might think of going «into town» with visting friends, but, although it’s not glitzy and pretentious, when you enter this cozy space and peruse the menu, you know you’re at a destination. It was nice, last night, to see several faces that I’ve seen there many times through the years, and that familiarity really does add to the experience. These folks have always been so welcoming and they never disappoint. I feet like, after all the great times I’ve had there, the least I could do is mention it.

I had not been here for many years and we decided to go here to celebrate my mother’s birthday. We had thought of going to one of the restaurants on Federal Hill but I had no desire to deal with the traffic. We were a party of 8 and we were not disappointed. Being mid week it was not very busy which was fine with us. I had the risotto special (braised veal) and my wife had chicken piccata and we both enjoyed our entrees. Others at the table enjoyed their dishes and the service was pleasant and attentive. We called ahead and asked if we could bring a birthday cake and they were fine with our doing so.
The only cons voiced were a“a little too salty” and better Italian bread would be nice. The prices of all of the dishes were quite reasonable. Overall a very nice evening and look forward to my next visit.