Osteria Coppa

The thing I love about Osteria Coppa is when I dine here I know I am going to have a delicious farm to table fuss-​free meal. I appreciate consistency like that.
My older daughter and I had dinner here before going to a movie a short walk away.
We enjoyed a delicious sausage pizza with an added egg as our appetizer. So good! She had a crispy chicken entrée and I had the risotto. We each had a lovely dessert — she had Tiramisu (I was lucky to have a bite) and I enjoyed my Affogato — they gave me extra espresso.
The risotto was too salty for me. The culprit was probably the abundance of pancetta which most people love. I don’t eat a lot of salt or pork so it was overwhelming.
My server Shannon noticed I barely ate my entrée and asked if everything is ok. I explained how salty it was so she took it off my bill without fuss.
Most servers don’t do that. They burden and blame the customer for not taking initiative to tell them why they didn’t eat what was served to them. An EXCELLENT server notices when plates are barely touched and they take initiative to inquire, not blame, in order to do what it takes to smooth out the dining experience.
This is why Osteria Coppa gets 5 stars for my last visit. Everything but the risotto was delicious. The handling of the risotto was perfect.
I will gladly return soon.
They have a special Four Course Wine Lover’s Dinner featuring wines from Dry Creek Vineyard on Feb 25^th for a mere $ 90/​pp. The Dry Creek Old Vine Zinfandel I had with my dinner was very nice so I imagine the pairings will be delicious!
Thank you Shannon and everyone on shift during my visit. I appreciate another delicious fuss free meal, especially because this was mother-​daughter date night.

Visited this nice little restaurant in San Mateo downtown for lunch. It was less crowded for a weekday lunch time. They served bread which was just ok. For the meal, I had the baked cannelloni and loved it. It was well cooked and right out of the oven. Customer service and ambiance were good. I would definitely try this place again.

My first visit here was fantastic but since then every time I’ve been it has been a little worse. This is not a trajectory that a restaurant wants to be on. For example, the first try of squab blossoms was fantastic. Crispy on the outside and not greasy. Second try, soggy, greasy, and limp! Third try, fuggadaboutit! The food here seems to be losing flavor with every visit.

I pretty much get the same thing every time I come — pork ragu tagliatelle. The texture of the pasta is perfect and unlike anything I’ve had anywhere else. It’s fresh, cooked perfectly al dente, and picks up the sauce really well. It doesn’t look like much when it comes, but they’ve simplified the dish and executed it perfectly. There’s not much variety on the menu, but that’s fine with me because this dish is all I need.

Because it’s in downtown San Mateo, parking can be absolutely terrible.
The restaurant is cute and has a nice outdoor seating area. The service is pretty good — they’re quick to refill your water and check in on you periodically.
I’ve only ever had the Tagliatelle Bolognese, which I really enjoy. The noodles are flat and a little al dente. I think I heard that they’re made in-​house which is always cool! The bolognese sauce is yummy, but sometimes I feel like the pasta doesn’t come with enough sauce. (I love my pasta with extra sauce.)
We also had the salumi plate which was decent. Nothing too memorable about it though. Will most likely be back.

Always a fun place to go for really good Italian food and wine. I most recently came here for dinner on NYE and had the best service. The pizzas are excellent– especially the specials they have. We had a pizza with Brussel sprouts, caramelized onions and feta cheese. Sooo good. Definitely worth coming for an occasion. Try to get a reservation on any busy night!

Went here last Saturday night to treat the in-​laws for a birthday dinner. The evening started off bad as parking in downtown San Mateo is always a horror show. Making things even more stressful is the restaurant’s policy of not seating a party until all guests have arrived but not holding your reservation for more than 15 minutes. We were able to find parking and get in pretty much exactly 15 minutes past our reservation time though so we were OK.
The tables are MUCH too close together in my opinion and navigating to our table was a bit of a pain. The waiter took our order and our soup, salad and appetizer pizza arrived fairly quickly. The mixed green salad with mandarin oranges was quite good but the Margherita pizza was nothing special. I asked the waiter for red pepper flakes but I gave up on waiting as it took a while and the pizza was getting cold. He did not return until after I had already received my pasta entrée. At least I got to put pepper flakes on my pasta. I ordered the Tagliolini with Rock Shrimp and the wife had Osso Buco. The pasta was pretty bland but the wife really enjoyed her Osso Buco.
The food here is pretty good but I docked the review one star because the waiter never checked up on us. That is a huge pet peeve of mine. After you bring my food you better check back to make sure everything is OK. Also, the waiter never cleared any dishes. He left wine glasses that we were not using on the table for about 20 minutes.
Also I ended up ordering bottled water, (which I never do), because the water they serve tastes disgusting. Maybe it’s a downtown San Mateo thing.

It was ok. There weren’t too many options on this cold and rainy night along w/​the fact that 75% of restaurants in the area are closed in preparation for the holidays.
Clean and spacious restaurant w/​a bar. Ordered the Grand Salumi Charcuterie but they gave us the basic one instead. Difference is that Grand platter had 3 types of cheeses. Not a big deal. After having Union Larder recently, this isn’t really a fair comparison. The meat wasn’t bad but it wasn’t mind blowing. My Tagliolini came out ok. Not a whole ton of flavor but I didn’t feel too weighed down by it after. My friend liked her cannelloni.
Bill was inexpensive. Each dish was under $ 20. Our waters were filled each time it was low and our host was very nice.

Well, due to my past experience, they invited me back to dinner, which was nice, and I truly appreciated.
The food is def good, There was just no wow factor in the service or anything, as a somewhat fancier restaurant you expect, as you are paying a nice amount for a nice meal.
So overall, Unless someone invited me here or something, I wouldn’t go out of my way to come. Food is good, just wasn’t enough wow factor for me. I did come right at opening time on a weekday, so maybe that’s why they were all still sleepy and getting ready as I know I can sometimes feel this way the first 30 – 60 min at work.
I did appreciate the nice gesture of inviting us back for a 2^nd chance though, definitely A for effort & Food.

Great pastas. They make an amazing marinara sauce. I had an amazing spaghetti carbonara dish.

Brunch was good! Great breakfast menu. Ordered the wild mushroom frittata, it was delicious, only one little complaint, the cream sauce underneath was a bit heavy for my taste, would’ve been nice to have the option to have it on the side if I knew about it!
The service was pretty good.

This Italian resto is in a tie for me with Stella Alpina for being the best Italian food on the Peninsula I’ve had. Both places excel at what they do, but the food is completely different.
At Osteria I feel you must order the fresh of the day salumeri (sliced, homemade in restaurant cured meats) plus any other specials such as the crostini and fig, prosciutto & arugula pizze. The specials are awesome and I also love their wine list. Quite extensive on the Italian wines.
For the hard liquor set, the bar is carrying daily specials as well, and the bar is a very nice chill way to eat and drink something after work. Not the craziness of the other bars within a few blocks, this is setup much more luxuriously with space to actually eat if you want.
I recommend Osteria for dinner or lunch. A very nice experience without busting your wallet.

I’ve been meaning to try Osteria Coppa for a while, and finally had the opportunity last week for lunch with a coworker.
Their menu reads fairly upscale, and the prices match. The cheapest non-​appetizer on the menu is a $ 13 Chicken Caesar Sandwich, but the entrees mostly run $ 15 – 20.
We both tried their express lunch special, which they seem to have every weekday from 11:30am — 2pm. It comes with a set salad and entrée, which changes every week.
When we were there, we had a simple green salad with faro and a balsamic dressing, and the main was Beef Spezzatino. The salad wasn’t all that interesting, although the dressing was nice. The spezzatino was delicious. A rich, thick beef stew with carrots served over a course yet creamy polenta. I’m not Italian, but there was something about this dish that still felt like comfort food.
So it’s expensive for lunch, and the salad didn’t really do much for me, but that spezzatino was so good and so memorable that we’re definitely going to have to come back.

Fancy italian place in downtown San Mateo
Having walked by many times, I always wondered what the food here is like. Especially since everyone there seems to be drinking wine. Lots of wine.
Turns out, inside the setting is actually quite nice. A lot of warm lights. The staff service are also really really good – they replaced my friend’s pizza for free, completely, just because he mentioned some minor issue that wasn’t even that big of a deal. They seem to care a lot about customer service.
The baked rigatoni is AMAZING. Small, but filled with flavor. Especially the oil mixed with cream sauce. Definitely get it.
The bread they give you at the beginning was also really good. The olive oil for bread dipping is fantastic – just the right amount of denseness to complement the plain bread.
The cheese board is amazing as well. Definitely get it.
Overall, a good place to go when you’re celebrating something special

I came to Osteria for dinner with a good friend. Oh my scrumptiousness!
We had great seating, in the front of the restaurant, by the window. (I had made a reservation.)
We were excited to try the bread, with olive oil that we had heard rave reviews about. My friend mentioned that she couldn’t discern its terrificness, as she is not an olive oil connoisseur, but noted that it was good. We ordered the squash blossom appetizer with ricotta and arugala. It was okay.
When we tried to order the pork chop, we were told they were out of it. My friend also requested a drink she saw online, as well as a squid ink pasta. They had neither; the pasta stopped being featured on the menu last week. Darn.
However, what we DID end up with was sooo delicious! I had the steelhead trout, with beautiful and delightfully tasty vegetables. They were buttery and fresh, and the fish was perfectly cooked.
She had the fettucini in sweet white corn cream, with mushrooms and shrimp. She enjoyed it, and the shrimp I tried was yummi.
We got a complimentary lava cake with ice cream, because (as our awesome waiter mentioned) we had been unable to order things we’d seen online.
It is a beautiful restaurant, with great service and food. Definitely recommended!

OC continues to be my favorite place to take friends from out of town or when I have that yearning for some good consistent Italian good when in the San Mateo area. Despite the fact that the opening chef has left to start his own Italian restaurant in Puerto Vallarta, the new chef has seemed to make a smooth transition keeping many of the favorites intact.
With that being said, I dined here earlier this week and ordered the tagliatelle bolognese pork and beef ragu along with the hearty portion of their Caesar salad both of which I have had many times before. I only wish they topped the Caesar with white anchovies which would make it an over the top salad.
Service was consistent with the server giving us a complimentary glass of dessert wine after learning that I have dined here on many occasions. Kudos for that!
Great food, great service for a Saturday night 7 pm reservation as well as a lively atmosphere equals a winner in my book.

Had dinner with a group of old friends on Tuesday night. Since we had a large party they seated us in the back patio. The back patio is really nice and can seat at least 50 people. The weather was nice, the only down side was Cal Train tracks are just a couple hundred feet away. So every 15 min a train would go by and jam on the horn. We had 4 pizzas (margarita & sausage), 6 different pasta dishes, 2 meatball appetizers and a couple bottles of wine. $ 440 including tip. The pasta dish portions were kinda small but prepared well. the ones were the stand outs were the Squid Ink seafood and Bologanese. The Meat Balls were excellent.
Service was good. Plenty of parking in the parking structure right behind the restaurant.

My daughter and I stopped in here on Mother’s Day for brunch. We got there just as the restaurant opened which was lucky on our part because they were able to seat us before their reservation rush started arriving.
You can tell this is a family favorite by the locals and the staff make you feel welcome and comfortable.
Cute place in the heart of super cute down town San Mateo. We got a window seat which was great for people watching.
Here’s what we ordered:
Margarita pizza: real good. The crust was thin and topped with the usual suspects. My daughter thought it needed a bit more cheese but then again you really can never have to much can you?
I ordered the frittata and it was SO GOOD! The rich gorgonzola sauce played really well with the peppery arugula on top. I thought this dish was creative and something I’d absolutely order again.
The tables surrounding us ordered the sweet items and bacon … Yum we’ll be back to give these a try soon.

Tasty but pricey lunch special addressing gourmands’ fine taste.
Last time I’ve had a chance to try a special lunch menu, it had some variety and was reasonably priced. Most of the items were well recognized but had a great twist uplifting your mediocre experience to a great one. A lot has changed since then.
These days a special lunch menu is fixed, cost more, and your plate is barely covered with food. I’ve had a fresh little salad with sliced apples, arugula, and some kind of soft cheese. The salad was green and crisp, great for a spring season, but it was so small and light. At this point I was hoping to have something more substantial for the entrée.
Unfortunately, the entry consisted of 6 thin ravioli spread out on a plate filled with some kind of nut based purée. The dish was sprinkled with onions, olive oil, and more nuts. I understand that these dry fruits are rich in nutrients, but it felt like too small of a plate that is too pricey.
A colleague of mine had a regular lunch dish which wasn’t any bigger than a special lunch entrée. Needless to say both of us were hungry several hours later.
I wish Coppa had previous special lunch menu back, it felt more substantial and reasonably priced.

Almost everything here is made in house from local ingredients which is pretty cool. We had the pleasure of dining here last week for a friend’s birthday. Surprisingly we didn’t have to order too much to feed 5 people. What we had:
dinosaur kale salad with duck
meatballs
Burrata starter
chef special seafood medley in tomato sauce
sausage pizza with egg
braised short rib pappardelle pasta with horseradish crème fraîche
brussel sprouts
espresso crème with fresh berries
My faves were the dinosaur kale salad and the pappardelle. They change the menu every single day O_​O as they only use fresh local ingredients, this is cool, but also comes with a price as you might not find something you were looking for «ahem ricotta ravioli». Anywho our server was great, as was the bartender, the overall service and experience was very pleasant. I’d love to come back for that brown butter ravioli!