Osteria

Overall a good dining experience. Typically this menu is designed to go with Dinner Wine. If I was a wine drinker it would of tied the entrées together exquisitely! The atmosphere is quite noisy so look to talk very loud if you’re going along with someone. The food came out in a timely fashion. The waiter/​waitress were kind as well as efficient. The Maitre’d was a very pretty African American girl. I just felt the need to mention it because she was the first thing that my husband and I were greeted by at the door and she really stood out.
I had a Seasoned Marinated Vegetable Antipasto… It had a tasty leafy green salad in the middle of plate, drizzled with a delicious homemade salad dressing topped off with cheese surrounded by various vegetables like roasted tomatoes, pickled beets, Roasted Artichokes etc. (very tasty)
My husband had a Wood grilled chicken with apple stuffing, the chicken was seasoned beautifully reminded me of the seasons my Mom used to use for her Sunday Roast Pork when we were little girls.
I would definitely go again. Next time I’d like to try the Wood grilled Octopus w/​cured lemon, potatoes and chive.

Just ate here for lunch with my family. I ordered the cheeseburger (medium) with a salad. It came out like a hockey puck very well overdone and the salad was tasteless. My wife had the octopus salad which was ok (I thought the octopus tasted too fishy) and it was pretty small for an $ 18 salad. The pizza that the kids shared was good (the only reason for two stars and not one). The service was ok. For the prices they charge, I expect more. I will not be returning to this restaurant.

Great food, really good service and awesome atmosphere. Wine list was small but less quantity meant better quality wines. The family style vegetables platter appetizer was out of this world!!!

Had lunch there yesterday. It was my first time there. The place was very nice. Service was mediocre at best. We ordered the margarita pizza as an appetizer for the table… it was very good. I had the chicken alla (something) it was not very good… mushrooms were very dry and burned and the chicken itself was not very tasty. I would try the place again but would not order the chicken dish again. Some of the other items on the menu looked really good so I will try them next time.

Osteria is underwhelming.
My mom and I came here for brunch one Sunday and were really looking forward to our outing. The place itself is very nicely decorated but we found the staff to be bored and uninterested. I rarely ever say this, but I actually felt a little uncomfortable, like we were bothering them. There were literally only two other people in the entire place besides us and like I said it was a Sunday afternoon — most places are usually packed for brunch.
We both ordered a glass of wine, it was ok. The bartender brought over two sugared donuts which we found out is served instead of a bread basket. They were delicious, but I found it didn’t really go well with the wine I was drinking.
Our bartender kept asking if we had any questions, but didn’t say anything else to us. There were no recommendations or suggestion, there was no banter or chit chat. Just «do you have any questions?» We both felt really unwelcome and so we ordered a pizza off the appetizer portion of the very limited menu. It came out quickly and was pretty good. Our two glasses of wine each and appitizer pizza was a tad over $ 60. I don’t mind paying for a great experience, but $ 60 + tip for a cold shoulder is not my idea of a good time.
We left hungery and literally went next door to get something to eat.
Disappointing, I really wanted to like this place.

Great Italian food. I got the pork meatballs, the butini with San Marzano tomato sauce and fresh torn basil. Delicious!!! They have a wonderful homemade honeydew sorbet for dessert.
I’ll be in the Philly area for the next few months on business and I’ll definitely be eating here again
I’ll take pics next time. The waitresses were so friendly and amazing. Great place.

Wine selections — incredible. One of the best bottles of wine I’ve ever had. I only wish I took a picture so I could remember what it was!
Bread — Also incredible. Served warm with a lovely olive oil
Also got the arugula salad special with roasted vegetables and a special pasta. Both were pretty good, but not spectacular. The portions were all pretty small, too. The chicken with mushrooms and polenta is probably the dish to get here.
While the service is incredible and the food is pretty great, the price knocks it down from 4 stars for me. At almost $ 100 per person, I’d like to leave full, and not still slightly hungry.

I’m glad that I gave Osteria another chance. I came by last year when they had just opened and there were a few kinks to work out, but I’m happy to say I had a solid 4 star experience this time. I saw an ad for PREIT SJ Restaurant Week $ 35 for 3 courses– it sparked my interest (especially since my entrée alone was $ 32 on my last visit). It was easy enough to make an Opentable reservation and I was excited to see the restaurant has expanded their bar to both sides and now the space feels much more open. For starters the Margherita and Pulpo pizzas were a hit. Asparagus and Apricot salads were good for an individual portion, but much too small to suffice for an entrée or to share. The stuffed pepper appetizer was literally half of a pepper… I wouldn’t pay $ 10 for that. The pizzas and fusilli pasta was a larger portion than I remember, but the my entrees are just as small. They run $ 26 – 32 and I don’t think the portion size is reasonable. My Bronzino was accompanied by a swipe of sauce and barely any mashed potatoes. They’ve added a burger and panini sandwiches to the menu so I would stick to those. The pizza was really great but $ 15 – 19 for an individual portion might be more than some customers want to pay. Either way I’m happy to see this spot living up to the Vetri name!

We stopped into Osteria for lunch and it was definitely up to what we expect from Marc Vetri. Osteria Philadelphia and Osteria New Jersey are definitely cut from the same cloth but are unique delights on their own merit.
I had the sangria which was good, less sweet and citrusier than most I’ve had and it had an interesting cloudy pinky rose color.
We ordered the spicy pork, currant agrodolce and almond bruschetta and it was phenomenal. A braised shoulder of pork blitzed into a spreadable forcemeat-​like consistency and topped with an amazing spicy (not hot spicy) currant agrodolce and almonds. It is served with a olive-​oil doused and grilled Pane Siciliano. The grilled bread is an important element of the dish and brings it all together.
For my entrée, I had the Grilled Berkshire Pork Scallopini, which was served with with stone ground polenta and stone fruit caponata. The stone fruit in this case were the deep dark cherries that are currently in season and it was also delicious. My dining partner had the chicken liver rigatoni with cipollini onions and sage and it was also an amazing dish — I am not a chicken liver fan and I could easily eat every bit of this dish.
We finished with the pistachio and cantaloupe gelato — both were fantastic. Creamy, rich and delicious, without cream and full of pistachio and cantaloupe flavors.
Lauren our server was great — attentive, knowledgeable and truly delightful.
Located conveniently in the Moorestown Mall, Osteria in New Jersey is definitely a place we will be returning to soon.

Delicious. Loved sitting at the counter for happy hour. ½ price pizza (which was delcious) and drink specials.
I could have eaten an app or 2 for dinner– the portion sizes were perfect. Pizza was 4 good size slices.
The grilled octopus salad was fantastic. Also had the mushroom and corn polenta. It was a small plate but very good.
The ricotta and honey bruschetta app was perfect.
Definitely sit at the lively bar for hapy hour, Monday-​Friday 5 – 7.

Moorestown, NJ, is up and coming to compete with the Cherry Hill Mall restaurants and Philadelphia. The mall has been renovated and lots of new and interesting restaurants have been added. A new favorite of ours is Osteria. Wonderful food, service and ambiance. Our favorite server (Son-​say sp?) got promoted to a manager, so glad to hear that.
We love the octopus appetizer, always good. We have eaten here many times and it is always good.
On 11-​2-​2015 we stopped for lunch and learned that Osteria is closing and changing formats… a great loss in my opinion!

So far the service has not been good at all. Here with a group of 9 and it took forever to order and get appetizers and drinks. After complaining services picked up. Food subpar Italian won’t come back. Fish dish should be healthy-​NOT

Overpriced and tasteless. Not sure if i would call this «Italian» dining, more so american with Italian menu names for inspiration.
The meatballs were actually delicious and for that i give this place 2 stars. The «flan» was actually just a chocolate cake with a syrup inside… Umm last time i checked that is not flan at all.
Did not have much of a drink menu, 3 cocktails at most, wine list was so so. Not a beer drinker therefore I did not bother with it.

Just ate here for the first time last night (2÷24÷15) with a group of girl friends. We bought one of each pizza (8 in total) to all share. They were all so good! Our server (which I’ll get back to shortly) highly recommended the octopus (polpo) pizza and it was, without a doubt, my favorite. 2^nd favorite was the Spinaci! We had at least 4 servers/​runners helping our table (along with our main server), whether it was bringing out food, new silverware/​plates, or more water. They were all so helpful and polite. Our server, Tino (Tito? So sorry, terrible with names!) was EXCELLENT! He was very personable/​engaging and helped make our monthly dinner date the best one yet.
Overall, the happy hour specials (half off pizza) are very inexpensive. And how could I forget the huge bread basket and oil they give to your table right when you sit down?!? I will 100% be back soon!!! :)

I stopped in for dinner last night (2÷13÷15). We were seated immediately. The tables are close together and the chairs and benches are wooden. While they were probably going for a rustic look, they are very uncomfortable which makes me unwilling to linger. The closeness of the tables makes it awkward when another party is seated right next to you when there are many tables elsewhere.
We were greeted quickly by a nice waitress who’s name I’ve forgotten. She left us the drink menu which is actually an iPad. We opted to keep it cheap though and stuck to water.
After ordering we were given a bread basket with 4 different kinds of bread and two pieces of each — so there was no arguing over who got what. It was served with olive oil. We liked all the breads, but the soft white was our favorite.
We shared the ricotta and honey bruschetta appetizer. It was good but it was too much ricotta for me. My sister loved it and happily ate my portion.
We got the torteno pizza. It came with arugula, figs, and speck. We had to ask what speck was — it’s a cured ham very much like prosciutto. The pizza was delicious!
My sister opted to try the maple bacon gelato. Neither of us liked it, however our waitress never asked about it and dropped off the check. We both felt she avoided asking about the dessert in order to keep the item on the check. This was the only part of our whole experience that we felt negatively about.

My mom has been raving about the lunch she had here, so on New Year’s Eve I finally went to try it for myself (with mom in tow, of course). She wasn’t exaggerating at all — for $ 15, we got a delicious two-​course lunch that left me satisfied until late that night.
The Express lunch deal includes an appetizer and your choice of entrée, which is either a pasta, brick-​oven pizza, or sandwich, plus a soda. I started with the fried mozzarella, which was pretty much indescribably good, but I’ll try — decent-​sized bricks of fresh mozzarella are fried in a light, crunchy coating, and served with plum tomatoes. It’s amazing — if you go, definitely try it. As an entrée, I chose the margharita pizza, and was not disappointed. The sauce was fragrant and sweet, and the crust perfectly crunchy. Plus it was large enough that I took a slice home for later.
The space here is sort of small, but comfortable. It’s wonderfully decorated, so you completely forget you’re in the Moorestown Mall. The service was excellent, some of the best I’ve had in a long time. The staff was very accommodating, allowing us to pick a table away from the windows and making sure we enjoyed everything.
It’s taken me too long to try this spot, but you can be it won’t be long until I’m back!

Some girlfriends and I decided to do dinner for New Year’s Eve. As soon as I showed up, a hostess offered to check my coat. We were seated off to the left in the dining room. Tables are situated fairly close together, but not invasively so.
Our waitress was a sweetheart. She offered the drink menu on ipad, which was pretty handy. Then we got down to the business of deciding what to order. This didn’t take very long, but we were in no rush and I appreciated that Osteria wasn’t either.
We started with the grilled octopus, the pear salad, and scallop carpaccio. The octopus was tender, nicely seasoned, but my least favorite of the three. The salad had a lovely dressing. It was a bit scant on the spiced nuts, but this only occurs to me now as I write about it. The flavors were bright and balanced. To my surprise, the scallop carpaccio was the star of this round. It was my favorite dish of the evening. The green apple highlighted the delicious marinated scallops. I could eat at least three orders of these.
An order of the candele with boar ragu and a side of butternut squash followed. People have a lot of good things to say about the candele, but it did not spark any sort of revelation for me. It was definitely good, but on the heels of lighter, brighter tastes it was less memorable. The roasted butternut squash was actually more wilted spinach than squash, but it was sweet and satisfying.
For dessert, my friends ordered gelato. The pistachio was heavenly, and the vanilla with cardamom was almost as good. My cardamom crème brûlée with carmelized pears made less of an impression. The pears were pretty good, but I found the custard too thin and the crack of its surface slightly unsatisfying. This led to a brief discussion on the appropriate consistency of crème brûlée, and I am pretty sure I was the more correct of the two of us (FYI: reading columns online re: the perfect crème brûlée is quite entertaining).
Ultimately, my friends and I spent an enjoyable hour and a half with good food and friendly service.

I’ve been back to Osteria twice for happy hour and both times have been solid. If you arrive early you can have your choice of seats at the bar; the crowds don’t start rolling in until after 6.
Glasses of prosecco, a red wine and a white wine are all $ 5. Pretty solid! There is also a beer and cocktail on the happy hour list as well. I’m a fan of the prosecco.
All pizzas are half off and there is a variety of small plates — I tried the trentino and parma pizzas and both were great. The wings were also very good. They are small and cooked perfectly and have a slightly sweet glaze and some seasonings.
Pro-​tip: you can get from Osteria to Distrito on the inside if you need to avoid the elements!

I went to Osteria during a South Jersey restaurant week because I had heard a lot of buzz surrounding this establishment when it opened. It was a bit hot out, so I made sure that the waitress seated us inside, where it was dark and cool (a very welcome change from the outdoors).
I ordered the carpaccio (delicious), which was drizzled generously with olive oil. My main course was the rabbit with polenta. The waitress did her due diligence in warning me that the rabbit was not deboned, which I appreciated, because it gave me a second to prepare myself instead of rushing in and crunching a bunch of bones. I ended with a hazelnut pudding type of dish, which I gobbled down. I also loved the iPad with the wine list – it definitely made my choice easier.
This is a good way to introduce the casual South Jersey diner/​mallgoer to real Italian food (ie, not Olive Garden) if you can’t convince them to come into the city for the meal.

Too pricey for the quality of food.
The service is great. The waiters are very professional and ensures that your time is well spent at the restaurant, so I would give 5-​stars to the service.
The food was sub-​par. I have dined at way better restaurants at the same cost or cheaper and had a better tasting dish. My appetizer was the quail, sausage and polenta. The polenta was overly oily, the sausage was tasty, however the quail lacked flavor. It need something other than salt. Overall, the app was alright. Nothing special.
Next comes the pheasant lasagna which sounded interesting. What a bland dish! It needed salt SOOO bad and yet there is no salt or pepper provided at the tables. I understand that restaurants do that to ensure that you do not need to adjust the flavor, however, they did not even add flavor to the dish to begin with! Also, the most disappointing factor was that I bit down on a bone. A BONE! I was REALLY done with this dish and Osteria.
The best part of the meal was the fresh bread and oil.
I will NOT return to Osteria anytime soon. Their chefs needs to taste the food prepped before serving or adjust their recipes because this was terrible, especially when I’m paying the price for food that is suppose to be «high quality.» I really had high hopes for this restaurant.
I hear their pizzas are not too bad, but nothing is telling me to return anytime soon.
I do not recommend this place for the food.