Osso Restaurant & Lounge

I feel like I need some Unilocal Purgatory because although I LOVE Unilocal and everything it stands for, I feel as though I only visit when life is amazing or terrible but nothing in between.
I am an incredibly forgiving person and look far beyond normal hiccups in the service industry because I know that the individual servers in a restaurant, for example, are not the owners/​managers/​chefs that can lead to a restaurant’s demise/​ascension.
This evening I had reservations with 3 friends here at Osso (menus sporting a new name for some reason?). At 6:45PM after ordering 2 drinks, we received them at 7:25PM. Only two of us at the table ordered drinks because the restaurant was out of the other two drinks listed on the menu. Could you please tell us when ordering you are out of a certain beer? Why do we have to wait 35 minutes to find out?
Food requested ‘all at one time’ was brought out piece-​meal over 45 minutes. I love staring awkwardly at my friends while NO DRINKS are flowing and their food is growing cold in front of therm — everyone too polite to eat until everyone has at least one thing to munch on.
I found out the beef carpaccio I ordered could not be made a good 45 minutes after I ordered it. Not the server’s fault of course, just a kitchen miscommunication. The restaurant was half full so I do not know why the server was not told earlier?
Very slow, very overpriced and very overrated. I have to say this is one of the worst dining experiences I have had in Charlotte.

This was my first time going to this restaurant and I think it’s was very nice looking place and the décor was stunning.
I had a party of 20 people for my birthday and upon arrival everything was set up and ready for our entourage.
Our server was very nice and she checked on us throughout the night even though I would of thought that the manager should of introduced himself and welcomed us to the restaurant being that we made birthday party reservations.
The wine was very good the calamari was delicious and the meatballs very tasty.
I ordered the pork shank that was recommended by the waitress and it was very good and large in portion I couldn’t eat it all.
Everyone ordered different entrees so I got to taste the halibut and the salmon and both tasted very good.
Restrooms were clean and again the décor outstanding.
The pasta was not the greatest for this to be and Italian restaurant and it’s lacking in ambiance.
I thought they should of had some jazz playing or something that plays off the music factory theme.
I’m not sure why this place was so empty during restaurant week the entire music factory looked like a ghost town. Overall I had a great time and I would come back. By the way if the service wasn’t so slow i would of gave it 5 stars

I thought I’d write a review for osso because the reviews on here are underrated. I didn’t have high expectations because I read on here that the service was slow, etc. well… let me inform you that my restaurant week experience at osso superseded my expectations! The hostess was really nice and attentive – she was ready for us on arrival (party of 6). Now, my previous experiences with restaurant week with other restaurants are always on par with service because of volume. I’m not sure of it was because it was a slower evening, but the service here was great! Our server was excellent and I was impressed :-)
The décor inside is very trendy, and the space is small so it’s perfect intimate dinners. I liked how the music was not too loud, so there was no problem with hearing conversations.
As for food, I’m not a huge Italian foodie but I really enjoyed my NY strip steak! The portions here are huge! None of us could finish our food, so be prepared to share others at your table :-) the dessert here is fantastic too.
Overall it was a lovely evening, and I definitely consider coming back here.

Service was slow. Manager came to table and cleared glasses never introduced himself or checked on our experience. Not sure I would recommend.

The calamari was excellent! Everything had a great flavor! Ordered the steak and asparagus medium rare. The bartender let me create my own drink. He was very nice and easy on the eyes! Would definitely come back and try other food on the menu.

Came in at 7:30 on a Tuesday and stood by the hostess stand and bar for 10 minutes with absolutely no workers to be seen. Guess they didn’t want our business tonight. Someone came and acted like nothing was wrong. Oh well!

Not a huge menu, but there is something for everyone. The salmon my wife ordered was on the small side, but the osso buco pork shank was huge and delicious. The ambience is contemporary, but the dining area is sort of small; now what is the deal with 90% of the customers being chicks? Not sure if it is the norm every night there, but most of the tables were large groups of women…

Let me give you the quick review… good food, SUPER slow service. If the food wasn’t that good, they seriously would’ve just gotten a one star from me.
So I’ve been here twice now for lunch and both times it has taken me an hour to get out. The most recent time was the worst, and let me tell you of that experience. I went in on a Wednesday. First walked into the building and had to wait 5 minutes before a hostess even came to the hostess stand to seat us. When two of my friends and I sat, we were given menus. Cool right? Nope. It took another 8 minutes until someone came to ask if we were ready to order and I had mentioned I thought they had subs. Our waiter then goes, «Oh! You’ve been given the dinner menu,» then quickly rushes to get us the lunch menu. How does the hostess confuse a big black booked menu that is for dinner with a thin white paper menu for lunch? The annoying thing was that it took awhile again for our waitress to come back to take our order. All three of us had ordered their lunch subs that came with fries. Cool, shouldn’t take too long to make since we were only the fourth table to sit down, and after being in there for 20 minutes, there were only five. Alright, an hour has gone by since we’ve stepped foot in the establishment and I still didn’t get to eat yet because my food hadn’t come. I even noticed that the table of two came in after us had received their food before us. WHAT??? I saw the food, one guy had a sub, and another a pizza… a PIZZA. How is it that they came in after us and received their food before us when we clearly ordered first. By that time, I was already ticked off as I had a quarterly meeting to go to and I had to ask them to pack our food to go. Seriously? An HOUR to even get our food, and I didn’t even get to eat it? I had to walk across the street back to my desk before I got to eat it because I was already DONE with the place.
Okay, so that was the rant about their service. Their food, man, their food is so good. If you want to go for lunch and order the sub, I say, go for it because it’s delicious and their fries that come with it are amazing… just expect to stay there for a long time.
Osso, I definitely will not be recommending you to anyone. I was really hoping you’d be better so I could get away from my desk, walk over to you for a change of atmosphere, and then get back to work. Nope, having to wait an hour for my food will not make my work day any better.

The only thing that saved this restaurant was the hostess. We went there for the first day of their lunch and can I just say the food was horrid. I hope the dinner menu is better. This place is pegged to be the upcoming Charlotte hotspot they need to work on the food!!! I won’t be going back

We came to celebrate a friend’s birthday on a Wednesday night. Our party and a table of two were the only patrons the entire night. Sure there wasn’t a show at the Music Factory but this place was a ghost town.
My husband and I were the first to arrive. It was half price bottles of wine but the only waiter/​bartender in the place didn’t know what day it was so we had to remind him.
It took 3 hours to get dinner and dessert for 11 people. There was only one other couple in the entire restaurant. Was the waiter the only cook as well?
The food was ok but not great. The auto gratuity was a gift to the staff. There is no way they would have been awarded 18% from this generous patron.
All I can say is that your money is better spent just about any where else. Glad I am not the one in this party to have selected the restaurant.

Ok, so I bought a a Groupon for Osso and waited for days until I could use it because of their hours of operation. I was so excited to try this new place (new to me). When we arrived, I thought it was very eclectic being located at the NC Music Factory and Comedy Club. My first impression when I walked in was that they recently did some renovations because it smelled of wood varnish. Not a bad thing, just a very strong odor.
The waiter came to our table and he seemed a bit spacey, especially after he said, «let me deconstruct the dish in my head before I can tell you what is on it.» I had no idea what to think after that. He then all but refused to take our dinner order because he said we would be eating on the appetizer platter for a while so he would wait to take our dinner order.
We were there for one hour and thirty minutes before our food made it to our table. Sad part was it wasn’t busy at all. The waiter told us, when asked, that the cooks had over cooked the Chicken Marsala and they were preparing another one. To me, that was a terrible excuse for late food and to blame it on the cooks, not cool. He then told us that it was his first day waiting tables. If that was true, this place has some bad management. New waiters need supervision, unless you do not want repeat business! The tables on both sides of my table were also complaining about how long it was taking to get food.
Finally, dessert was free with an entrée order and a Unilocal checkin. Of course we all got a free dessert, which made up for the long wait times.
The décor was awesome, but there really were no windows. I would eat there again, if they reconcile their long wait times.

Yes, Osso, I will add another 3-​star review to keep you firmly entrenched in 3-​star review land.
Osso is actually a good little surprise in the least organic & possibly most obnoxious area of Charlotte: The NC Music Factory/​Complex/​Facility.
There is solid variety on the menu. Osso has some standard Italian fare, but most of the dishes have a slight twist. I had the pumpkin tortellini. A combination of cheese stuffed tortellini and ground sausage in a garlic & olive oil sauce. The pumpkin flavor was very slight. This was actually a light meal and the portion size didn’t leave me with the desire to loosen my belt & go into a coma at the table.
My dining companion had the tagliatelle pasta with roasted chicken. This is actually the dish I wanted to order, but I didn’t want to be THAT guy, getting the same exact meal like some sort of pathetic half man incapable of adapting to the situation. However, it looked great and I did try some. Wide, flat noodles in a thick creamy tomato sauce is cold weather carb country at its best. Reasonable for the most part, the prices do skew high.
Personally, I find the interior design to be like that of a Las Vegas hotel lobby, but that’s probably due to the unfortunate location of the restaurant. Although the location is probably fortunate economically, it’s near Label & other douche magnet venues. Red alligator leather benches, silk streamers, dim lighting, cowhide ceiling fans. It’s like an Italian joint owned by Soulja Boy. At least there’s not perfume coming out of the ventilation system.
If you happen to be meeting someone in this god-​forsaken artificial construct of an area, Osso is a solid bet. In fact, it may be the best thing about the NC Music Factory.

I’ve had drinks here several times, but finally had my first sit down meal experience here over the weekend.
We rolled in here with a crew of ten for dinner and adult bevs before the Benny Benassi show at Label Friday night. Our server was nice and a really good sport (we can be a rowdy bunch sometimes).
Our orders: a couple calamari apps for the table to share, chicken parm, seared tuna, seared scallops, meatball pizza, prosciutto & roasted mushroom pizza, and the pork shank. I tried a little bit of everyone’s. Pretty good. Two of us got the tuna and ordered it medium rare. They both came out medium well. Bummer. I think I would’ve liked it a lot more if it wasn’t so overcooked. The roasted butternut squash mushrooms that accompany it were delicious. Next time, I will be ordering the prosciutto & mushroom pizza. Prosciutto just makes everything better.
I love the décor here. Very trendy and swanky. Overall, I would say this place is probably around 3.5 stars. So, we’ll round up to four and call it a day.

Pros:
None
Cons:
Terrible service even when the restaurant is half full (twice).
Weak, overpriced drinks ($ 10+ for small mixed drink)
Unbelievably small portions of food, yet at a high price.
Food is average at best.

A decent restaurant. A hip Italian place with good music in the background. I was there with only about 75 prom goers! Wow!!!
I Started off with the Meatballs… good stuff! Entrée was the «Osso Bucco» as pretty good with some decent ravioli. I did ask the waiter to bring the recommended wine with the dinner dishes, but that never came. So i just continued drinking Ketel One w/​splash of cranberry juice. I didn’t bother with dessert because a. Nothing looked interesting, b. I didn’t want to spend any more time there, and c. I had tickets to the 9:30 show at the Comedy Zone anyway.
(Im not going to mention about the lamb that was ordered mid-​rare but brought out destroyed to a well done char. They did make it right on the second time around though)
It’s alright I suppose but you can do MUCH better…

86 health score.
…Need I say more?!
Do not eat here. EVER.
It looks fancy but go on the Mecklenburg health department site and you will see that they had mold in their stored food that they were serving to customers. I have had friends eat here and get sick.
And just think, restaurants know when the health department is coming, so that score reflects their best efforts. Imagine how bad it is when they aren’t being graded.

Really, really enjoyed this restaurant. Jason was the bartender and he came up with some great drinks for us. He concentrates on prohibition-​era drinks, which is interesting.
The butternut squash soup was souper good and I had the calamari appetizer, which was calamari with shrimp and scallop pieces. It was lightly fried with a good crunch and no oiliness. The remoulade that came with it was way too spicy for me (I don’t like any spice — so maybe it’s not that bad for others), but had a good flavor.
The atmosphere is really nice. Rustic upscale with an intimacy to it.

I appreciate the attention to detail that Osso put into the decorations at the restaurant. It’s absolutely beautiful inside.
However, the food and service here just didn’t do it for me.
My friend was visiting from out of town and we stopped here for dinner and drinks. We arrived pretty early and there were plenty of open tables but apparently you need a reservation to get a table… no problem so we just sat at the bar.
The drink menu is not extensive but they have a full bar and a decent selection of martinis. I ordered the Bikini Martini. It was good, not great. It’s a mix of pineapple, coconut and grenadine… sounds super yummy. But it was not…(that’s just my opinion) I finished it but I would not order it again.
For the meal, I went with the chicken, spinach and mascarpone ravioli. I ordered the small portion thinking it would be more than enough but I was mistaken. The plate came out with three pieces of ravioli in the parmesan cream sauce sauce. I didn’t enjoy it. And I was really underwhelmed with the presentation and after a few bites it was back to Unilocal to search for another spot to eat because I was still really hungry.
Also the service was lacking. It wasn’t that busy but after we ordered there were a few other guest that came in and ordered and got their food before we did… what’s up with that?!?
As we were wrapping up we felt rushed along… apparently there was an event there later that evening that they were setting up for… So it just seemed like we were in the way. Ugh.
All in all, for the price and location I expected better. I’m not sure I’d go back.

I love the atmosphere here: Hollywood chic meets an upscale ski resort. It’s beautiful!
We had the Lobster, ricotta and spinach Crostini as an appetizer. It was very good. For dinner, I had the small Seafood Linguini (which was a generous size) and my friend had the Pork Milanese. We both enjoyed the entrees, but the best part of the meal was the dessert. We had the Pistachio Semifreddo: a Gianduja brownie topped with pistachio ice cream and huckleberry jam. It was excellent: simple but delicious. The more I ate, the more I wanted.
There’s also a nice patio for outdoor dinning. I like coming here before heading to a concert or comedy show at the NC Music Factory. I wish I could assign this place three and a half stars. It’s better than a three, but the entrée was average so I can’t give it a four. I definitely recommend this place if you’re in the area. Overall, it’s a solid spot.

Meh. Just meh. Stopped in here to get out of the heat while checking out the local art festival. To be fair, they are only usually open at night, but they opened for lunch with a limited pizza menu and drinks. I was happy to get out of the hot weather, but wish I went somewhere else to eat. Their sirloin and gorgonzola pizza was OK, but nothing to call home for. They put the wrong drink specials up on their board outside and wouldn’t honor them, so we just kept to water since their prices were nightclub prices for 2pm on a Saturday afternoon.
The service was pretty slow considering there was literally seven people total to serve. I wouldn’t go back, but I’ll admit the décor was nice. i could see it being a nice lounge spot at night.