L'Osteria Restaurant — Restaurant in Tirana Municipality

My companion and I love good pasta , so based on the reviews we’d seen here, we had high hopes for L'Osteria. Things started out well enough, with a friendly, knowledgeable waiter. We began with a tasty Mediterranean salad which came with olive and pimento spreads and two cold bread rolls. Quite some time after we’d finished the salad our pasta arrived. My companion ordered the tagliatelle alla boscaiola and I had carbonara with pappardelle noodles. The pasta was fresh, as promised, but the parts that had not been sauced were a bit dry, while the sauces themselves had a skin on them - obviously they’d been left too long sitting under a heat lamp. This might have been not so bad, but the carbonara seemed to be lacking in the eggy flavor you expect and was made with pancetta rather than guanciale. The restaurant might saved a few Leke using pancetta instead of guanciale, but the difference between them is night and day. There was also no trace of pecorino romano cheese, nor was any offered. The sausage in my companions boscaiola, meanwhile, was tasteless, gray, limp and sad affair - clearly no effort had been made to brown it to bring out the flavor. The only saving grace of our outing here was that the waiter forgot to deliver the sausage I’d ordered for my mains, thus saving me from additional mediocrity. Finally, after a long wait, our pasta bowls, half eaten, were cleared, and we finished up with the only desert available that day, a nondescript panacotta. In our search for great pasta in the city, I expect it will be quite a long time before we circle back...

This place is a delightful gem nestled in the heart of the city, offering an authentic Italian dining experience. The menu features a wide variety of pasta dishes. The portion sizes were generous, making it a great value for the quality.

The service was attentive without being intrusive, and the staff was knowledgeable about the menu, offering excellent recommendations.

To finish off the meal, I couldn’t resist trying the tiramisu. It was light, fluffy, and just the right amount of sweetness—a perfect end to a wonderful dining. The combination of fresh ingredients, skilled preparation, and a cozy atmosphere makes it a standout choice for both casual meals and special occasions. Highly...

Went in a rainy night, nobody was dinning, I was the only one, nobody in the reception, I said hello hello a couple of times and nobody attended me, but, I saw that there were people in the kitchen and here the unbelievable... they noticed I was waiting at the entrance, but maybe they didn't want to work and nobody appeared in the reception, they just ignored me. After a third try saying hello someone appeared and I asked if there were service, she said one moment but after a minute waiting and no one appeared I decided to leave. I really do not understand why to keep open if you don't want to...