I am not a big fan of restaurant chains, but once in a while they surprise me. Like Max & Benito, which is a fast food chain to boot. Unfortunately L’Osteria is not one of them. The brand already has already several locations in Austria and six in Vienna. The one I visited is in the one in Grinzing.
The restaurant is quite big and really invitingly. It has an open kitchen with a community table in front. It also has a garden area which is more than necessary in summer. Sadly the garden is next to a buy street. And although you don’t see any cars, you can still hear them.
open kitchen @L’Osteria
The menu looks simple enough with the standard pizza and pasta dishes as well as a couple of starters and desserts. I ordered the orecchiette di manzo al limone and changed the pasta to spaghetti. The beef was really good, seared just right and still juicy. The sauce though was missing the lemon taste. There was nothing refreshing in it. The menu also promised peppers, arugula and some spice in it. The spice and the peppers were there but I couldn’t detect the arugula. So while I didn’t especially like the pasta dish, I did get my leftovers for to go. Why should I waste food when I can improve it the next day for lunch?
spaghetti de manzo al limone @L’Osteria
The carpaccio my friend ordered fared a lot better. She liked it a lot and was only disappointed by the pizza bread. Here it doesn’t come in sticks but as a full pizza without toppings. Maybe a little bit much if you only want a couple of sticks. On the other hand she also took the rest home with her. So this place is big on portions.
pizza bread and carpaccio @L’Osteria
Unfortunately it’s not big on taste. As an apology for the long wait (for the main course) we both got a dessert, which was then not communicated to the waitress so we had to let her know. That was actually a bit overboard because the wait was tolerable but you know, never look a gift horse in the mouth. In that case I could have done without dessert though. Neither the panna cotta nor the crema di fragola al mascarpone were worth the calories. I also didn’t take any pictures of the dishes since it was already to dark to see anything.
Overall the service was hit and miss and the food was forgettable. I really should have listened to my colleague who told me before that she just goes there for pizza with her children. Will only go there again if nothing else is available. Yours, Pollybert
L’Osteria
1190 Wien, Grinzingerstraße 1
Tel: +43 1-3203200-10
Email: wien-grinzing@losteria.at
Mon-Sat: 11:00-24:00, Sun:12:00-24:00
https://losteria.net/at/restaurants/restaurant/wien-grinzing/
