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Last night we went to Osteria and came away disappointed in almost every facet imagenable. The service was perfunctory, the food was salty, the portions were small, the place was uncomfortable and the prices for the location were outrageous. Maybe it's a place for the younger and hipper set but unless you are getting pizza you'll have the opportunity to leave your wallet behind. Given the location I can't see how they will sustain the prices or the business. There are so many other fine restaurants in Philadelphia to go to that aren't pretentious and serve great food at reasonable prices. Save your money!

I lived in Italy for 2 years and I have to say this is the best Italian pizza I have found in America. It was delicious. I thought the portions were perfect and the service was outstanding. They did not bother my boyfriend and I as we took our time ordering and eating, and they allowed us to split a pizza (which I don't recommend since I wanted to eat the whole thing myself). The polenta budino dessert was out of this world. I would go there all the time if I could afford it.

My wife and I had a good meal here. My only food related comment is the wild boar ragout tasted slightly like hamburger helper. Everything else was fantastic. I had a polenta dessert that made me weak in the knees. Kind of pricey and you will be sitting directly in your neighbors lap, but worth a look.

I am taken back by the amount of negative reviews of Osteria. Its an amazing restaurant. You think the pasta portions are small? Go to Olive Garden where they come in pre packaged and frozen. The pastas here are hand rolled every day. Have you ever hand rolled and shaped pasta for a restaurant doing 300 covers a night? If you did maybe you could appreciate the hard work and care that goes in to every one. The dough is fresh and the ingredients are of very high quality. This place is modeled after an actual Italian restaurant. Not a all you can eat pasta buffet.

We expected much better. There are too many bells and whistles on the menu, and though the food is good, it's not particularly distinctive. Indeed, not a single person in a table of 6 liked one of the side dishes (grilled artichokes). Service was odd, very formal in some ways, yet also strangely sloppy and neglectful at times. If the prices were reasonable, we might give it another try, but they're not, so we won't be returning. Too bad. We had high expectations.

not only is this place over-priced, the wait staff were all incredibly unfriendly.The atmosphere was good, but was overshadowed by the almost invisible portions, and the downright unpleasant staff.

nothing is more disappointing than failed expectations. osteria was touted as being the beacon of all good things food, untouchable, another jewel in the crown. no place can live up to that kind of hype so people need to stop rating places as based upon their disappointments. osteria is an excellent restaurant even if it does not deliver the salvation that we were 'promised'. if a place like effie's can get 4 stars on menupages, and osteria is getting 3.5, then something is definitely amiss (and this is taking into account the craig laban style of voting for each restaurant as it measures up against its peers). my favies include the lombarda pizza, the tiny fried artichokes, the suckling pig special and the small but delicious octopus salad.