Osteria Novella is a small Italian restaurant with a small bar area that, due to its popularity, could easily fill a much bigger space.
Once you try the food and the cocktails, you’ll see why there’s a full dining room basically every day. All the pasta is made in-house, and you can easily discern its quality. For example, I enjoyed the Rigatoni ($23), which was topped with a tasty combo of beef and pork bolognese and whipped ricotta. I would have liked a little bit more salt in this dish, but otherwise it was splendid.
Other tantalizing pasta dishes include the fettuccini scampi ($25) and the mezze maniche genovese ($24) with pulled pork.
Pizza also is done well here. The pepperoni pizza ($19) was a hit for its delicious pepperoni cups plus the combination of sweet and spicy from the Calabrian chili honey drizzled on top. The vegan version ($20) includes vegan pepperoni cups, vegan ricotta and roasted mushrooms.
On that note, Osteria Novella has an extensive vegan version of its menu.
Among the main courses, the pollo saltimbocca ($26) was just okay. The white wine butter sauce was excellent, but the thinly pounded chicken was rubbery, and the array of vegetables seemed a bit undercooked.
For starters, the insalata di cavolo ($15) was a nice way to start the meal. It came with kale that was finely chopped, which somehow made it less bitter, plus toasted bread crumbs, Romano cheese and lemon vinaigrette.
Meanwhile, the burrata ($20) was a pleasant surprise. When the plate arrived, it looked like it was nothing but mushrooms. Fortunately, those funghi sott’olio turned out to be delicious, especially paired with the basil, balsamic glaze, prosciutto and toasted bread.
The bar, which has just a handful of seats, features a nice cocktail selection. I especially liked La Radice ($14), which had bourbon, Chartreuse and grapefruit, among other ingredients.
Osteria Novella serves dinner Monday through Saturday.
