Osteria Pronto

So again, the eternal optimist, I met a friend for dinner at Osteria Pronto.  I really felt like this was a place I needed to try, and I have had a lot people ask me about it and several recommend it as well.  I do love the new JW Marriot in general though—at least the way it looks (I don’t know much more than that outside of this meal). And I was impressed when I walked in because you really feel like you are walking into a cosmopolitan hotel.  The interior of the restaurant is also nice—they have done a good job of skating the line between fine dining and more casual dining in décor—you would feel welcome here no matter what you were wearing (for instance, there are no tablecloths on the tables). I loved the marble everywhere though, including around the open kitchen.  We were sat at a nice booth looking at the kitchen which was sort of fun for me, although if you were much closer, some might feel a bit too close to all the servers hurriedly coming and going.

Our server, who I recognized from several other restaurants in town (you know it’s bad when you start recognizing the servers) came and greeted us and took our drink orders. I have to say I was a little giddy when he told us a bit about the chef and the fact that we would not see any marinara or Alfredo sauces coming out of the kitchen.  But there were cream-type sauces as well as tomato based, they were just a bit different.

My friend and I agreed to try two appetizers to share, both of which were recommended by our server.  The first was carpaccio ($10), which is always one of my favorites anyway and as my friend pointed out, one of my go-to dishes to compare at restaurants.  We also ordered the seared tuna appetizer ($11).  The extremely thin slices of the beef in the carpaccio were nice and fresh and tender, but the dish overall was a bit lackluster.  It was topped with slices of Parmigiano, a few capers and a drizzle of a dressing of sorts. The center was mounded with arugula.  So my problem was that while all the ingredients seemed impeccably fresh—the dressing that was drizzled on the beef didn’t seem to go (it was a little sweet) and there was really no dressing on the greens.  There was one lemon wedge on the side, so maybe that was for the greens, but if it were up to me, I would dress the greens with something a little more acidic that you could eat along with the beef, and maybe drizzle the beef with some olive oil.  And something with a little different texture would be good—onions or shallots or something?  The capers helped, but there wasn’t that many of them. The Parmigiano cheese was liberally applied and honestly saved it by acting as seasoning for everything else with its saltiness.

Sadly, the story sort of repeated with the tuna starter.  It was extremely high quality tuna, just barely seared on the edges, but it was just sliced and basically unseasoned.  Again, there was more arugula, which was topped with lovely very thinly sliced shaved fennel (oooh, that might be nice with the beef), more of the capers, and a Sherry vinaigrette.  I tasted the vinaigrette a bit more on the salad on this dish, but overall, it seemed generally under seasoned.  It is really kind of a shame, because like I said, the ingredients were lovely in their freshness, but the dishes didn’t completely come together.  Neither was bad, but neither was really great.

For our main dishes, we both got pastas, and I really appreciate that they have full and small sized portions. One of the reasons I rarely order pasta is that I fill up quickly on it and just end up feeling overwhelmed by the amount of food on my plate.  We both ordered the small sized portions and had more than enough (I don’t think either of us finished). I ordered the cappellini with shrimp, mascarpone, fava beans, fresh tomatoes, garlic, basil, and “truffle fontina fonduta” ($11).  So basically, their lighter version of a cream type sauce.  But it was much lighter, and honestly, it was pretty good.  The flavor was not quite as sort of complicated as I imagined from all those ingredients, but that may be a good thing.  The bowl of noodles had 3 or 4 large shrimp in it and lots of quartered fresh cherry tomatoes and quite a few favas.  It was topped with what was either the mascarpone of the fonduta, but it was sort of hard to tell—I mixed it all together.  It had a good, earthy flavor with just a bit of tanginess.  Honestly, the shrimp and the favas I could have lived without—the shrimp was, in typical fashion, overcooked, and the favas were sort of pasty.  Pretty sure they are not really in season anymore though, so that may be the problem—honestly I was surprised to see them on the menu.  I love fresh favas though, and earlier in the summer, I bet this dish steps up a notch. I will be curious to see if they come off the menu now that it is officially autumn.  My friend had the spaghetti with Tuscan meatballs ($12) in a light tomato sauce (see what I mean?).  It wasn’t bad, and as our server explained the meat in the meatballs in very finely ground, so the texture is very smooth, but I liked mine better overall (as did she).

So we did go ahead and order some desserts as well (all desserts are $7)—we got the tiramisu and the tortelli.  It was funny, when they were placed in front of us, we noticed how much smaller the portion of the tiramisu was, but in the end, we both ended up enjoying it a touch more I think.  It was served in a coffee cup, and had just the right balance of the coffee flavor with some chocolate too—our only complaint, (and our server warned us) was the thick topping of cocoa powder because it can make you sneeze.  We both actually choked a little on it, there was so much.  The tortelli were the restaurant’s version of doughnuts made with cream puff dough.   They were large and light and covered with a liberal amount of powdered sugar and drizzled in chocolate.  I would have loved something to dip them in (maybe a spicy hot chocolate?)in place of the drizzles of chocolate that sort of got lost with all the sugar, but maybe that’s just me. They are certainly an easier item to share and I would order either again.

Overall, I think Osteria Pronto is a nice addition to our downtown scene. It isn’t a chain, and in fact is making a real effort to offer alternatives to all the other Italian restaurants in Indy.  In my opinion, many of the dishes could use some tweaks, but at this point, I will say that it is probably one of the few Italian places I have been to that I will likely actually return to.  The interior is nice, the service professional, and the food is pretty good.  So let’s hear what you guys think about it.

(A side note, but something that was quite annoying, and something you should know about…I was running late and decided to valet park because my friend had told me that you could do it if you are eating in the restaurant and they discounted the price to $7.  The valet also told me the same thing as I pulled in.  When we left and went to pay for our valet tickets, we were both charged $23 (!) to valet park because we had been there longer than some arbitrary time frame they have set.  No one told us there was any limitation on the time.  I thought that was pretty lame. And expensive.  My advice, do the self park).

Osteria Pronto

at the JW Mariott

10 S. West Street

Indy  46204

317/860-5777

http://www.osteriapronto.com/