Osteria Mozza — Restaurant in Los Angeles

This place is pasta heaven, as it should be, since it's owned by a few Italian restaurateur powerhouses. After dining here a couple of times, I have yet to try a single main dish from the Secondi section of the menu and I'm perfectly okay with that. It's probably a good idea to make a reservation ahead of time. Once inside, the restaurant is dimly lit with some dark wood and leather accents, and feels quite posh. Posh it is indeed, as this is the type of place that folds your napkin when you get up from your seat, and they cover up your food with metal domes, so it will not get cold when you return to your seat. Can't complain with that level of service!

We started off with a small $16 carafe of wine and a couple of $14 Gordon's cup - gin & cucumber cocktails, which was very refreshing for summer. They presented us with a small plate of toasted baguettes with what looked like a feta spread and a dollop of olive tapenade and chiffonaded basil, as well as some bread for the table with olive oil.

$29 Mozzarella di Bufala Tasting Mozzarella Tasting w/ fett'unta (Italian garlic bread): Three types of mozzarella were presented with a slice of Italian garlic bread. First of all, this bread is so good on its own. It is extremely crunchy, buttery, oily, garlicky, savory and just darn good. I can't remember the first two types of mozzarella. I believe one is a burrata, a simple mozzarella, and lastly, a smoked mozzarella. I really enjoyed the robust, almost meaty flavor of the smoked mozzarella. My only complaint about this dish was there was not enough fett'unta!

$11 Cippolini w/ thyme & sherry vinegar: I love cippolinis and pearl onions, so I'm glad to have tried this. It is a very rich dish, even though it is a vegetable. The first bite hits you with a lot of sweetness, which is what makes these onions so delicious. However, I must admit that the more you eat, the more overwhelming the sweetness becomes, especially since it is cooked in sherry vinegar. If you share this and just have a couple of onions, it is very good.

$25 Grilled Octopus - potato, celery, green onion & lemon: This is probably the best grilled octopus I have ever had stateside. Most grilled octopi I have had were probably made by people who didn't really know how to grill octopus very well, because it gets tough very easily. This one was very tender, yet meaty and chewy.

$15 Roasted Acorn Squash w/ braised greens & parmigiano: We only ordered this to have an accompanying vegetable, but let's be honest. It was more starch than anything else. The acorn squash was rather sweet.

$18 Bavette - cacio e pepe: Very good! This was very creamy and cooked al dente.

$24 Carbonara: Very good! Also superbly creamy, with some yummy lardons.

$24 Orecchiette w/ sausage & Swiss chard: Great! Very rich and savory. Each orecchiette holds sauce perfectly.

$23 Gnocchi w/ rabbit ragu: Great! This is one of the lightest gnocchis I have had stateside.

$24 Tagliatelle w/ oxtail ragu: Great! The smooth, silky strands of tagliatelle taste great and have a nice mouth feel.

$23 Pappardelle w/ rabbit ragu: Great! Tastes quite similar to the tagliatelle.

As you can see, I enjoyed pretty much all the pastas. I greet each plate with glee as the sprinkle that beautiful parmesan over the plates, like much anticipated snow. Don't know if I'll make a repeat visit to Mozza, but I am very intrigued in the ricotta raviolo and...

This was my first time eating at a Michelin star restaurant. My friend and I decided on an LA weekend for my birthday. We both are fans of MasterChef and Joe Bastianich and wanted to try one of his restaurants. About a week in advance, I booked a reservation on Open Table for 5:30pm on a Friday evening. I know reservations are recommended, but I think they have a limited number of walk-ins available too (bar seating). We spotted the one and only Jane Lynch at the bar while we were there (I didn't say anything to her... it would be rude to interrupt her meal). Talk about your full LA experience! The atmosphere here is very nice, but not stuffy. We both wore nice jeans and sweaters, and we were dressed appropriately. A few were more casual than us, some were more formal. There's music playing in the background, which gives it a more relaxed feel, which I loved.

The food... oh the food. So delicious! We were torn on which appetizer to get, so we each got our own. She got Nancy's Caesar, and I got the mozzarella tasting. She loved her caesar salad... the presentation is insane! Such a pretty dish! I loved the mozzarella tasting! It came with the most delicious (though slightly awkward due to its large size) garlic bread. Loved every bit! I'd definitely order it again.

Next was the pasta course. She ordered the orecchiette and I ordered the ricotta and egg raviolo. The Orecchiette was delicious! The sausage was so obviously fresh and had just the right amount of kick to it. The pasta was cooked to perfection! My raviolo was insane! It was sooo tasty! I understand why they only give one... it's very rich and decadent. You could taste the freshness and quality of the ingredients used. So good!

For our main course, we both chose the Grilled Beef Tagliata. We could've shared the dish between the two of us. We'll remember this next time. Not gonna lie... I still ate the whole thing... it was too tasty not to. The beef was perfectly cooked and had a good balance of balsamic flavor. The arugula that came with it was dressed with a vibrant dressing that paired nicely with the beef.

For dessert, she got the espresso semifreddo, which she thoroughly enjoyed. I got the Torta della Nonna. YUM. It was like an Italian cheesecake with delicious pine nuts. It's something I could eat over and over and never grow tired of. Basically, this whole experience was the best meal I have ever had. Vegetarians can totally eat here, but vegan may be a bit tougher.

They also give me a card and a candle on my dessert for my birthday... it was such a simple thing, but made me feel so special. Our server was so nice. He helped me when I was undecided on some things and he never steered us wrong. I'm sure he could tell we didn't frequent places like this, but he didn't make us feel weird about it. The meal was more of an experience... it lasted for over 3 hours, and we never felt like they were trying to rush us out. I highly recommend Osteria Mozza, and will...

Walked into this restaurant around 8PM by mistake, we were hoping to go to Pizzeria Mozza which was beside this restaurant and we got confused with the entrance as the Former didnt have any signs ooutside their orang door.

We had no reservations but they accommodated walk ins and had us stay by the bar, we got to our table at 8:45 PM(see photo for reference when I took the plate setting) took us about a good 5-8 mins before someone walked in to ask us what kind of water we wanted and handed the menu, for a 4 $ sign restaurant the waiter did not even bother asking us if it was our first time or at least even establishing rapport (considering they’re expensive the least thing i’d expect is a warm welcome, actually regardless of the price I believe every resto should be welcoming)

He asked for our orders and left immediately, appetizer (grilled octopus) came in 30 mins after we got seated, nobody came back to ask how our food was, I personally didnt like it, thought it was too salty and bland, the same waiter (bald tall with glasses) got our empty plates without a word, 30 mins later we were looking for him, eyeing on him hoping he would be sensitive enough to check up on us with no food on the table. Another waiter apparently noticed and we told him weve been waiting for a while so he said he’ll follow up on our order shortly after he brought out our pasta to share (primi meal), asked if we wanted the second course (main meal) served as well and told him yes bec weve been waiting for a while.

We finished the Tagliatelle pasta, it was good, or I might’ve been just very hungry, but I know i’ve had better ones for a cheaper price. Finished our pasta, our waiter (bald, tall with glasses) got our empty plates, no word at all but I already asked “how long will the main course arrive, because it’s taking so long”, it was 10:05 PM by this time, his replybwas “oh it happens” husband asked “will it be a while still?” He replied “it shouldn’t, why do you want to just cancel your order?” He did not even bother to apologize for the inconvenience we had, not an ounce of concern was shown. Husband was pissed(usually im the impatient one) and cancelled our order. He went back with the check not a word said, husband started writing a review on yelp, he went back with our receipt and gave my husband a hard pat on the back saying “Thank You for the review”.

I honestly would not recommend this restaurant, overpriced that’s not deserving nor worthy of the service nor the food (atleast for what we had).

I’ll probably still try the sister restaurant - Pizzeria Mozza (where we were supposed to go) which I originally saw on Youtube’s buzzfeed worth it.

I hope management gets to read this, and give their waiters more training on, sadly, the very least they should know how to do - give good customer service....