Amazingly, Osso Buco means “crappy family style” in Italian. No joke. It still amazes us that these “family style” places feel it’s okay to skimp on flavor and care just because people are going to be sharing dishes. We guess they figure people will have no recollection of exactly what they ate, so they won’t know exactly what to complain about. Sure the stuff looks like Italian food. It smells like Italian food. But it turns out to be some amateurish conglomerate of watered-down American idea of what Italian food is. Where’s the love!? This particular location was forced to close down for a while after a fire broke out in its building. We figure it should have stayed closed. There was very little traffic in the place before the fire, and even less afterward. We’ve walked by many a weeknight, only to see bored waiters standing around staring at each other. We see the curse of Johnny Tejano’s coming back to haunt this bland Italian joint very soon. [MF]
1662 3rd Ave.
212/426-5422
