Prosecco Ristorante is the answer to the question of whether Downtown Burbank could support a genuinely serious Italian restaurant. It can. It does.
Owner Marco Valentino, who grew up in Bologna — that most food-obsessed of Italian cities — came to Los Angeles via the Beverly Hills restaurant circuit and ultimately bet on Burbank. That bet, now more than fifteen years old, has paid off. Prosecco is one of the finest Italian restaurants in the San Fernando Valley.
The kitchen, led by Chef Antonio Ricci who trained at Italy's prestigious Alma culinary academy, takes Northern Italian cuisine as its primary text. The truffle tagliatelle — house-pulled egg pasta with a proper black truffle cream and aged Parmigiano — is the dish to order first and to order again every time. It achieves the balance that truffle pasta always threatens to miss: present, not overwhelming.
The osso buco is the Sunday dinner dish made restaurant-worthy. Four hours of braising produces a veal shank that surrenders from the bone without resistance, placed on saffron risotto Milanese with a sharp gremolata cutting the richness. It is the best version of this dish being served in Burbank.
The wine list is weighted heavily toward Northern Italian producers — Barolo, Amarone, Gavi — with knowledgeable service to match. On weekends, the outdoor terrace on Palm Avenue is one of the most pleasant places to spend a Burbank evening, especially when the temperature does what Burbank temperatures do in late spring and early fall.
