Osteria da Alberto has been around since the 1920s and serves homestyle Italian food.  The small place has 2 rooms with some windows overlooking the canal beside it.  The low ceiling is wood beamed with lots of pots hanging from it and also decorating the walls along with photos.  The dark wood tables have dampened lighting and paper cloths and napkins.  It has a cozy feel with efficient and friendly service.  They are known for their seafood and pastas and we took the wise recommendation to order the special of the day.  Looking around that is what many of the guests did too.    The food here was well made with a  good amount of flavor and an inexpensive price point.  The kitchen split our pasta dish for us but for the fish we were on our own.

Set Up

Food

The server brought a basket of white bread slices that was nicely soft in the interior with a good crusty exterior.  It was fine but not spectacular.

A special that day was spaghetti with clams and mussels in a tomato sauce.  The pasta was cooked perfectly and the tomato sauce was outstanding.  The clams and mussels were still in the shells and tasted fresh and good. There’s lots of tomato sauce out there but this was a wonderful rendition.  Lip-smacking good.

For the fish special there was a choice of branzino or sea bream.  We chose the former.  The whole branzino (Italian for sea bass)  came with potatoes, tomatoes, olives and herbs.  The fish was cooked nicely and the potatoes a bit caramelized.  The tomatoes were well cooked and blended into the sauce.  The olives added a touch of salt which was helpful to the dish.  It was really nice.

A side of vegetables was mixed.  It had squash, peas, potatoes, peppers and eggplant.  We really didn’t need more potatoes but they were the best thing on the plate.  This plate was a bit of a disappointment but there was plenty to share and I’m sure if varies with what they have available.