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So my husband and I had absolutely no plans today. He spent the day at the computer, I spent the day cleaning house and exercising. Suddenly, the evening was almost upon us and we had absolutely nothing going on. He turned to me and said “Hey, what would you think about going and trying to sit at the bar at Mozza? If it’s too long a wait, we could go somewhere else.”

I thought about for oh, about one second and decided definitely yes. After all, we had no plans, so even if we had to wait around it’s not like we had anything else to do. If we were at home, we would probably be watching TV. So at around 6:00 this Saturday night, we headed over to Osteria Mozza, the younger and more glamorous sister of Pizzeria Mozza.

To our surprise, we didn’t have to wait at all. There were two spots waiting for us at the bar, and okay, so it wasn’t the “Nancy” bar, but it was close enough that we could SEE her, and in exchange we got two fabulous bartenders and the fanciest barback in town ensuring that our dining experience was a pleasurable one.

The menu consists of antipasti, including selections from the Mozzarella Bar, a Nancy Silverton creation that got its start at Jar and has migrated over to Mozza; pasta; secondi (entrees); and contorni, which are like side dishes.

Both the antipasti and pasta portion sizes are small enough that you could order one of each and still have room for an entree. We started with Negronis, because - well, we like to drink. Good thing too, because it came with an entertaining orange twist flambe show. Whee!

We started with grilled octopus (with potatoes, celery, and lemon) and a burricotti with radicchio, spiced walnuts & honey. The octopus was amazing - somewhat like a good calamari, but so savory that it was almost like beef. And the cheese appetizer was a delicious blend of flavors and textures - creamy cheese, vinegary soft radicchio, spicy-hot and crunchy nuts, sweet herb-tinged honey, and crispy toast. Mmm.

After that we split the fresh ricotta and egg raviolo with browned butter. It was basically a giant ravioli island in a brown butter lake, with a flash-fried sage leaf resting atop. Inside are pillowy puffs of ricotta and golden gush of egg yolk that comes bursting out when you stick your fork in. It was gone in about three seconds.

It was around this time that I turned around and realized that the place was full. The noise level had risen considerably, the tables were filled and there were small groups of people hanging over the standing tables behind us, nursing glasses of wine and anxiously scanning the bars for empty seats.

For entrees we ordered grilled whole orata (a fish) wrapped in fig leaf with olio nuovo and Santa Barbara spot prawns “al diavolo.” One touch I loved is that the server came out and showed J. his fish, explaining that he had to go finish it at the serving table and then it would meet up with my prawns and come to us. The serving table appeared to be a table set up near the entrance with wines, liquors, oils, salts and other finishing touches or non-bartender required drinks.

The fish was no joke. First of all, it was really good. Crispy and charred on the outside, white, tender and fluffy on the inside. Second of all, it had teeth. Sharp teeth! I respect the fisherman who gave us that fish, even though he probably never came near the fish. It still looked pretty fierce, even all grilled on the plate and beheaded.

The prawns were big, buttery and swimming through a spicy, wine-y tomato broth cushioned on some of the biggest white beans I’ve ever seen in my life. I don’t know what they were, but I was impressed. I imagine it’s hard to cook those beans to the proper texture, since they’re so big. It reminded me of a Mickey Mouse cartoon I saw when I was little, where they are so poor that they slice up one bean for dinner. These beans could actually provide a little sustenance, even sliced up.

I also snuck a peek at my next door neighbor’s beef brasato and had to hold back the drool as I watched him scoop it up with a fork. Even from afar I could see how falling apart tender it was. If you’re a red meat lover, that looked like an excellent bet.

Even after all this, we still had room for dessert. J. went right for the bombolini, which were little round donuts while I stuck with a dainty plum and strawberry sorbetto from Gail Silverton. I’ve never had a plum sorbet before and it fully lived up to my expectations. It tasted just like a cold sweet plum.

About two hours later, we were finally done with our meal and extraordinarily, I didn’t feel heavy and full. The portions and pacing were done well, so I didn’t feel gorged at the end, but never felt like I was waiting too long. And even though we were at the bar and not at a table, I felt well served. The barmen were attentive and helpful and even the barback was always on the ball and offered up some nice touches. He never failed to ply us with Nancy’s bread, in white, wheat and whole grain and he slipped me a warm cloth with lemon and rosemary at the end that had me trying hard not to smell my hands for the rest of the night.

I’m happy we decided to go, because it was a lot easier than I expected. We didn’t have to wait forever and the atmosphere was casual and convivial while still retaining attentive service and excellent food.

Having a hard time getting a reservation? Go down early and hit up the bar. It’s fun and relatively painless. Worried about finances? We spent quite a bit (we had a gift card) but If you’re frugal with drinks, and order a few antipasti/pasta dishes and skip out on the entrees and desserts, you could get away without spending too awfully much.

By KT (see more of her posts). You can find more of KT's writing at her own website Gastronomy 101.