Osteria Francescana

Jocelyn L.

30 May 2026

I've saved Osteria Francescana for my 600th review to put an emphasis on how amazing an experience it was!

You need to make the journey to Modena to eat here, if you haven't already. Accolades:
-World's Best Restaurant (#1 spot) - 2016
-World's Best Restaurant (#1 spot) - 2018
-3 Michelin star rating
-Featured in Netflix Chef's Table Season 1, Episode 1
-Featured in Netflix Master of None, Season 2, Episode 2

Massimo Bottura has really revolutionized Italian Cuisine.

I'm a little embarrassed to say that I have eaten here twice in my life. First time was good, but 2nd time BETTER. There was something elevated about the 2nd time....the food had more Japanese influences, which the staff mentioned was due to the chef who is from Japan. My favorite dish was the pasta, "Spaghettini from the gulf of Naples to Hokkaido" which was spaghetti with Uni sauce....so amazing and creative. I also loved the "pizza" dish, which had breadcrumb crackers for the crust, a risotto for the cheese, and tomato sauce underneath as the surprise. It looked like a pizza, and also did taste like a pizza, but instead of an actual pizza, he recreated the flavors in different ways....he reinvented the pizza.

The menu is a poem format. It actually looked the same as last time (same poem), but the interpretation was completely different (except for his classic 5 ages of Parmigiano Reggiano). For instance, this time Autumn in New York was a completely different dish altogether.

Another highlight of this meal was not knowing whether or not Massimo would be present or not. We asked the staff during our meal, and they said it was not sure if he'd stop by the restaurant that evening. BUT by the later half of our meal, THERE HE WAS!!!!! It was amazing talking to him. He really is energetic, charismatic, and just so enthusiastic about his customers and his food. He is an artistic genius, but is also so poetic about the food and experience. He isn't just a chef that makes the food, but rather, thinks about the experience. My fiance and I asked him what his last great meal was. I was anticipating an answer about some Michelin restaurant in another country, but NO. It was when he was with his family in France, and they had prepared a special meal for him to celebrate Massimo. He said it was not about the dishes that were particularly spectacular, but rather the ingredients, and the people, emotions, and experience altogether that made the meal so great. Wow. A little over my head after having champagne and 2 bottles of wine. He truly is an artist!

It's definitely worth a trip to come here. I have pleasant memories here, and you will too!

Shirley H.

28 May 2026

Reservation:
I agreed OF doesn't have the most effective reservation system. However it is possible to score the reservation if you are patience, I mean VERY patience and HIGHLY flexible with your schedule. We were able to score two reservations, one for a Sat dinner and one for a Monday lunch. We had two people + two different credit card concierges trying for the reservations and ended up getting through one reservation online as everyone did and one through the credit card concierge. Around 5 days prior to the date of our Sat reservation, OF and the second credit card concierge contacted us for an availability on the same Sat that we already had a reservation. Given that I planned to stay 5 days in Modena for sightseeing allowed us more flexibility on the dates to score a table at OF. We were adamant in getting a table at OF so having 10 different date and time options really help our chance in getting one.

Food:
Even though knowing OF was the #1 best in the world, I knew what to expect from the kind of dishes and style Chef Bottura offers. Knowing his humbled beginning to how he ended where he is today also made me appreciated the efforts and hard work behind making each of these dishes. I enjoyed every one of the dish and felt truly blessed to have given this opportunity to dine at one of the best of the best restaurants in the world.

Service:
It is true that it's lacking somewhat. Dishes were explained differently from waiter to waiter. Some a bit more detail some not so. To be honest, I was only able to understand half of what was on my plate. For the rest, I just let my senses explored which ended up to be a good thing.

Chef Massimo Bottura:
We were told Massimo is in Modena but wasn't sure if he will drop by OF. That's understandable given he just opened up a new hotel and restaurant not far from Modena so he might be tied up there. Totally unexpected, after finishing up our desserts, there he was speaking to one of the three tables in the room. He then came over to speak to us. As I have watched him on tv and seeing his posts online, I have very much respect to him for giving back to the community. He said a new soup kitchen is in the work in Mexico, then San Francisco! We also talked about Corey Lee's replica of his famous "oops I dropped the lemon tart". (I made a point to not tried the replica in SF and told myself I will try the real thing at OF one day, and look where I was!)
Chef Bottura is just as lively and amicable as how I imagined. A very lovely man who is passionate of his calling with a genuine and humble attitude. Truly F.I.R.S.T class and one of a kind. I am so blessed to get to meet him in person!

Bottom line: it's not every day that you get to meet a legend, dine at his restaurant, and enjoy great food and company, let alone dining in one of the world's best. If you are financially, time, and health manageable, enjoy food big and small and appreciate the making of a legend, it is worth it. Life is short to not do what you love most.

Kat V.

25 May 2026

Didn't live up to its hype, but only because we'd already eaten at 75% of the restaurants on the World's 50 Best, and there were at least ten other restaurants that impressed us more. I will say that OF deserves credit for probably pioneering the contemporary movement in fine dining. Massimo was definitely ahead of his time when he rebelliously challenged traditional Italian dishes. I'd say this place deserved the #1 spot years ago, but not today when there are many other places doing more innovative and creative dishes. Nothing really stood out as absolutely amazing, and the signature lemon tart just tasted like a frickin regular lemon tart.

Also, what's up with the interior design and decor? Overall, aside from some cool art pieces, the ambience was dark and underwhelming. Oh and there's no official dress code so even though the staff wore tuxes, some guests came in casual hooded sweatshirts. Definitely lowers the class of the place.

I wouldn't eat here again, but I'm glad I got to try it to appreciate the moment in time when the fine dining world was beginning to become trendy.

Alex A.

25 May 2026

Furthermore, the guinea fowl tasted like the smoked oscar meyer turkey deli slices that you buy at target.

The gyoza tasted like the samples they pass out at costco.

So on and so forth. This sounds like a harsh review but its true. This is not an attack on the chef or his people.

If this is your first or second trip to italy, and this restaurant isnt your primary end goal, then you have more to look forward to. But for us, weve been to italy 5 times before and have done a lot of the bucket list things. This xmas trip from california was solely for this. We went to two 1 star michelin restaurants in rome during this trip, and both were better than osteria. One was aroma: with a direct view of the colosseum. The direct view in osteria is a white wall, shades closed and art that has nothing to do with anything. Nothing that made me think of modena. The other restaurant was pipero roma which at least was windowed and felt open and had xmas decorrations.

I really dont get how this top 50 list is made. Some of the selections make sense. Some of the restaurants/chefs that should be in the top 50 are not. Especially female chefs. Helene darroze, claire smith, crenn. This didnt feel deserving of number 1 at all. I feel like the chef sells himself on tv very well and that helped him a lot. His charity work and all that is saintly and very commendable and god bless him for that. But thats not the issue here. We thought about going to his new hotel on a 2nd trip, but now well skip it.

There are a lot of 5 star reviews here and i doubt this will deter any of you because netflix and everything else is very convincing. I hope you like it. Id stay in modena a couple days and try one of the other local restaurants also. Ill bet that youll like that better while spending about 20 percent of the cost.

Olivia R.

25 May 2026

I'm so confused. My world feels rocked. If this restaurant is the best in the world, then I don't know if it is a world that I want to live in.

We decided to go with the tasting menu and wine paring. I don't like eel so I asked if there was a substitute for the eel dish on the tasting menu. Instead of offering a different dish, they suggested just removing the eel. At a 3 Michelin star restaurant that also offers a la carte options, I would have hoped that they could provide a more customized option. The meal started off a little shakey- several of the staff provided absolutely no explanation of the dishes, and spoke far too fast for anyone to understand. It was disappointing considering how hard this reservation was to get, and how expensive it was!

The staff also laughed to each other throughout the service and squealed in a corner like school kids at recess. I'm used to staff socializing but at the number one restaurant in the world I would expect a higher standard, especially because the dining space is so small, and the meal is not cheap. The service was below average, with exception to the wonderful woman who kept refilling our breadsticks. In addition, Massimo came out and talked to each table - he was so nice and it was awesome to get to talk to him.

Overall, the dishes were innovative but the technique did not always translate to flavor. Sure, I think it is incredibly interesting to have pork that resembles waygu steak, but the taste was just not there. The dishes were structured to progress really well, but individually I did not find each dish that indulgent and tasty. I felt like I was in a movie that was ironically making fun of tasting menus. Except for the fact that I paid $500. The desert was a scoop of lemon icecream - it was uninspired and such a bad note to to end the meal on. Imagine lemon icecream from a gelatoria with a few crispy things and that was it. Sure, it was good, but it wasn't worth the amount that we paid.

The restaurant did provide 2 different types of bread and breadsticks throughout the meal so thankfully we left feeling full. I woke up at 4:00am to make this reservation and then paid upwards of $500- I didn't think the flavor was worth it. I totally appreciate the experimentation and modernist approach, but not for the price tag.

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Jocelyn L.

Shirley H.

Kat V.

Alex A.

Olivia R.

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