Hmm... So as we write this, the Sunday Inquirer's Craig LaBan review of Osteria isn't showing up on the Inquirer's dining page—instead, it's replaced by a link to a horse racing feature. Weird. In any case, LaBan's verdict on this restaurant we've mentioned a few times before is that they have the "pizza that saved North Broad Street":
You can find all kinds of spectacular seasonal pies emerging from the 700-degree heat of the wood-fired brick oven here. There are pizzas topped with snails and fresh spring garlic scapes. There are crusts laced with tender octopus sparked by chile flakes and smoked mozzarella. They come stuffed with white truffled robiola cheese, or scattered with woodsy slivers of snappy bluefoot mushrooms. There is also the Lombarda, which sports homemade cotecchino sausage and a sunny-side-up baked egg.But it's the Margherita I love. The height of refined simplicity, its crust, sauce and toppings channel such vivid harmony that I'm transported to the pizzeria in Naples where I first encountered this taste.
A luscious Italian newcomer to N. Broad [Inquirer]
Osteria [MenuPages]
Osteria [Official Site]
