Mozza Bene

The Ultimate Meal: 4 courses at Osteria Mozza in Los Angeles. Mozza, Mario Batali's flagship west coast restaurant lives up to its hype. Which is exactly where I found myself on our LA uber meal. It helps if your eating in company that know's the Executive Chef, Matt Molina though. And with table guidance from Jesse on what to order and kitchen guidance from Matt himself, the only other thing we could ask for was the expert hand of the head sommelier, which we also got, who paired each of our five courses with a righteous wine.

Grilled Octopus with potatoes, celery & lemon: by far the best octopus I've ever had. To be fair, this was the first bite of my meal and I was hungry, but the octopus was grilled to perfection, sweet and aided by the celeric crunch.


Steamed Mussels with passato di pomodoro, chilies & herbs: I never grew up eating mussels, but gladly enjoy them nowadays. Then again, I am never the one to order mussels on a menu. However, these were amazing.

Little Gem Lettuces with hazelnuts, bacon, gorgonzola dolce & egg: a perfectly cooked egg can't be ignored, this was a light fresh bite that countered other more intricate dishes.

Burrata with grilled asparagus, brown butter, guanciale & Sicilian almonds: they have their own mozzarella bar, so you can't go in there without sampling something. Freshest of fresh mozzarella, melts in your mouth better than candy.


Second course came out all at once. In no particular order excepting the first two blowing my mind: Probably the single most outstanding dish of the night was the Fresh Ricotta & Egg Raviolo with Browned Butter. It's a giant single Raviolo, and when you cut into it, the gooeyness from the lightly-cooked Egg Yolk bursts out of the dish, turning this into something decadent and delicious. The Nutmeg and Brown Butter sauce works nice with the dish, and the crisped Sage Leaf on top as something too. A signature dish.


Ribollita "Da Delfina": I'd never heard of this rustic Tuscan classic before, but it blew me away. It's essentially a Tuscan Vegetable Soup cooked down and condensed and then pan-seared to create a hard outer crust. The concentration of flavor was almost Willy Wonka-ish.


Maltagliati with oxtail ragu: atleast I think it was maltagliati, but I can't be sure. the noodles were delicious and the flavor of the oxtail was on point. Having so much oxtail felt oddly luxurious.
Tagliatelle with wild boar ragu'. Mario Batali knows how to do noodles. By the time we were done with the first course, everybody was feeling full.


The first of our Secondi main courses arrived soon after: Crisp Duck al Mattone with Pear Mostarda & Brussel Sprouts. Its name hints at the cooking method, with the Duck being cooked "under a brick" to crisp it up. It was cooked, of course, to perfection with a crispy skin and moist meat. When paired with the pear mustard, the spicy sweet mixture complemented the Duck's savory flavor to a T.


Pan Roasted Sea Trout with Umbrian lentils & red cabbage sottaceto: By this time, the wine and many courses had begun to take their toll. However, I can't say no the the deadly combination of roast fish, lentils and braised cabbage. And my portion quickly vanished.


We thought we could leave, but they brought us a Beignets-esque dessert and some super secret imported liquor to top things off. We rolled out of there feeling more than satisfied, feeling like we should have put a Von before Isaacs when we signed the bill.