I ate lunch at Osteria Marzano (a new Franconia/Metro Park Italian restaurant) on opening day (last week) as well as at the media event a couple of days ago. It is a new restaurant and I feel like they need to work out the kinks on some dishes (a couple of dishes were over seasoned and two dishes contained overcooked shrimp), but quite a few of their dishes were spectacular right out of the gate. Below are pictures of some of their standout dishes:
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- These (beef and pork) meatballs are delicious, and I can be picky about meatballs since I make a good version myself.
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- Very good quality cheese plate. The fig jam is made at the restaurant and is wonderful.
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- Very good quality charcuterie, One of the salamis was spicy.
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- While the fried calamari was a bit over seasoned, it was still very good. Nice coating and the calamari was tender.
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- The Pappardelle Al Ragu D’Anatra (pasta with duck ragu) was done delicious.
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- Nutella Pizza! I saw something like this on TVFN years ago and have wondered why I don’t see it on Italian menus.
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- Phenomenal: Agnolotti Di Magro (stuffed with spinach ricotta and served with a walnut cream sauce) and Mezzalune Di Zucca (stuffed with butternut squash, parmigiano and amaretto cookies and served with a sage butter sauce).
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- Whole Mediterranean Orata. I expected them to serve a whole fish, while this was only one filet, Still one of my favorite dishes of the evening. A delicate white fish with a nice lemon caper sauce.
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- This organic pork chop with peppers, fingerling potatoes, and white wine was another of my favorite dishes. It is huge and somehow is a very pretty dish. It must be difficult to make a pork chop pretty.
While they are right on the S80 free bus route from Franconia Metro, the bus only runs 6am to 7pm on Monday through Friday. If you know the quick way to travel on foot from the metro, the walk is probably less than 3/4 of a mile from the metro.
Update (9/1/13): Marzano has great happy hour deals, with $4 (craft) beer and wine and $5 cheese flatbreads (mini pizzas) until 7pm on weekdays.
-JAY
