Note: This article is a combination of all my previous visits to Alaine's Osteria, while it does not include all of the nuances of my previous visits, it will offer an overall viewpoint with all dishes ever sampled.
Some places are memorable by lending themselves to haughty taughty pretenses with in your face food presentations. Others are memorable for their wild, exotic ingredients and others are memorable as the "cool, hip place for 20 somethings." Alaine's Osteria is none of these things, it is much better, a comfortable, wholesome, happy place where you can go to relax and enjoy good tasting comfort food.
The restaurant has a nice warm feel to it, dark wood and warm colors decorate the establishment a bar, mostly empty divides the restaurant from its more romantic, quieter dining area to the more social side where the bar is, where there are several 1-2 person tables.
Interior
Appetizers
- Kobe meatball in porcini broth, topped with melted mozzaralla
- calamari fritto, which had a fresh and lightly fried taste to it.
- The soft shell crab was delicious and the accompanying greens had a nice tangy taste which offset the soft shell crab that had a hint of being cooked in white wine
- Foie Gras in caramelized cream sauce
- The portobello cap was very delicious and felt fresh and healthy
- The cinnamon shrimp, a butterflied jumbo shrimp battered with a hint of cinnamon was more decadent. The truffle aoili was a nice flavor.
Entrees
- Short rib agnolotti in creamy porcini sauce -- a ravioli filled with shredded short rib and riccotta
- Branzino (seabass) a well prepared and light tasting dish as it was served in a rosemary buerr-blanc (a butter white wine) sauce over a bed of mixed vegetables. The ribeye was no slouch and tasted good, served with a demi-glaze sauce and truffle fries
- Scottish Grilled Salmon over a bed of vegetables served with creamy pesto sauce. The salmon was seared and had interior tender texture which had a light flavor that was complemented by the slightly heavier pesto sauce.
- Seafood risotto came with lobster tail, shrimp, calamari, oysters, with a creamy saffron sauce. We also had the Malafemmina which was a seafood medley of shrimp, clams, mussels and lobster served over a bed of linguini served with white clam sauce.
- Malafemmina seafood medley over a bed of linguine with white clam sauce.
- Filet Mignon with Bartolo wine reduction sauce and asparagus
- Fig Ravioli in four cheese sauce, has a nice sweet interior and the sauce was a good balance of savory. Of course, I have a special sweet spot in my belly when it comes to savory cheese sauces.
- Black Cod in what is otherwise a piccata sauce was delicious and I refrained myself from licking the plate when finished.
Desserts
The nice thing about Alaine's Osteria is the changing menu, from stone crabs during season to duck confit to crab cakes to quail to osso bucco to foie gras, I will never be bored with the selection.
Some may not remember the 1980s hit sitcom "Cheers" about a friendly neighborhood bar where everybody knows your name. In the current economy where it is tough to find quality workers and even tougher to find quality servers who value you, this place is a refreshing throwback to an era of hospitality. Getting here, on old cutler, during rush hour traffic was not the best experience, but the end result of a delicious meal in a well run, quality service place makes the drive worth it any day of the week.