Not since the days of Hue and Dexter’s has Thornton Park seen the sort of powerhouse restaurants it currently boasts. The culinary makeover is making the downtown district a dining destination once again, and its resurgence has been buoyed by Jason and Sue Chin. The 2025 James Beard Award finalists for Outstanding Restaurateur brought Osteria Ester to the neighborhood in early December, and the experience was such a total Bastianich that I had to include the restaurant as one of my Top Tables of 2025.
Osprey chef-partner Michael Cooper’s paean to Italian cuisine alla New Jersey feels like our very own Babbo (post-Batali, of course), and an instant classic in the making. In fact, Cooper was concerned more about the aspects of comfort and conviviality than he was breaking culinary boundaries and being able to garnish with the precision of a surgeon. “I want Osteria Ester to be like Il Giardinello in Toms River, New Jersey. That’s where families took you for your birthday or graduation, and I haven’t found a restaurant like that in Orlando.”
Certainly, Osteria Ester — in the space previously occupied by Soco, and Hue before that — feels like that sort of place, only the dishes are considerably more refined and, yes, precise. Our first taste was an amuse of mushroom arancini that warranted an inappropriate request for more of these complimentary fried pockets of porcini and arborio. Not that we made such a request. There were other carbs to get through, after all — a gorgeous loaf of focaccia ($12) with a garlic confit sheen, for one, followed by puffy squares of gnocco frito ($15) served with prosciutto and a creamy Parmesan fonduta.
On another visit, I had to stop myself from devouring more crostini ($12) coiffed with whipped ricotta, honey and brown butter because between Osteria Ester’s bread program and its fresh house-made pastas were antipasti I really wanted to sample. I doubt there are any red-sauce ristoranti in Toms River serving a wagyu carpaccio piemontese ($16) that looks like an edible Jackson Pollock painting, or a crudo ($16) of yellowtail daintily dressed with orange supremes, strawberries, olives and mint. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say tweezers were employed on that one. And about the only thing missing from the plate of burrata and heirloom tomatoes ($16) was more burrata and heirloom tomatoes. This one was gone fast.
But pasta is the pillar on which Osteria Ester, which is named after Cooper’s grandmother, stands. She couldn’t cook a lick nor, as it turns out, could Coop’s Italian mother. Indeed, all the talent went to Cooper, and no dish exemplifies his skills more than rectangular cylinders of caramelle ($28) — pinched tubes stuffed with a filling of Marcona almonds, braised shallots and garlic so smooth, you’d swear it was mascarpone.
Crispy-edged rolled lasagna ($36) is a stunner, set in a ragù snowed in with Parmesan and dollops of whipped ricotta, but if ever there was a poster pasta for Osteria Ester, one that complemented the restaurant’s warm tones and layered textures, it’s the braised beef tortelloni ($26). The elegant brown butter sauce with sage and topping of slowly roasted heirloom cherry tomatoes tossed in herbs, olive oil and aged balsamic is as can’t-miss a dish as the gnocchi sardo ($24) with truffle cream, roasted mushrooms and plenty (I mean plenty) of moans.
There are secondi that’ll have you loosening your belts (and purse strings), none more so than the hefty veal chop parmigiana ($47) set over pasta ($6). Disney fans: Attempting a spaghetti kiss with this dish may very well end with a Pumbaa belch. Yes, leaving full is a probable outcome, and all but guaranteed should the butterscotch budino ($12) with hazelnuts and whipped cream find its way to your table. I haven’t come across anyone who hasn’t finished this dessert of the moment. Tiramisu ($13) takes on a creamier texture than the cakier version served when the restaurant first opened. I scarfed down both versions just the same.
Beverage director Lorena Castro nails the Italian wine list, most offered by the glass, while cocktails, like the cacio e pepe 50/50, kick the bibulous with a taste of The Boot. It bears repeating that Sue Chin is a savant when it comes to restaurant design. Her eye for detail and what she’s done to this third-generation space is remarkable. “I wanted to make the restaurant feel as though it’s lived-in rather than styled,” and that she did with flying, earth-tone colors.
Graduation coming up? Put Osteria Ester on the top of your list. If not, I’ll see you there on my birthday.
Osteria Ester, 629 E. Central Blvd., 407-203-3577, osteriaester.com
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This article appears in Feb. 4-10, 2026.