Search the Community
Showing results for tags 'Italian'.
-
La Tagliatella is supposed to open this Monday, April 1, in Clarendon in the 3 Bar and Grill location. The menu is posted here on their website. It has a wide selection of mix and match pastas and sauces as well as pizzas and other items. I'll reserve judgment and give it a try first. (The website also says wifi is available at Clarendon.) According to its website: La Tagliatella, is owned by AmRest Holding SE (AmRest, WSE); the largest operator of independent restaurants in Central and Eastern Europe with more than 700 restaurants. We have more than 135 La Tagliatella restaurants globally in Europe, Asia, India and the US. There will also be a location where Extra Virgin in Shirlington was. -
I just called Park Cafe, and got a very normal sounding voice mail greeting, then hung up. To my surprise, they called me back! I asked if they were open today, and the gentleman told me they were closed (for renovations), but that they'd be opening again on January 15th. It has probably been since Phyllis Richman wrote about it when I last went to Park Cafe, but I remember being taken back by how charming it was - I hope it does reopen, and that the cooking lives up to the promise of its location and architecture. -
_svg.thumb.png.c50387abb33133634363845f12199fa0.png)
I was going to suck some ventworm nuts for Mother's Day but Rosa Mexicana is booked all day long. Incidentally, McCormick is also booked but I never thought to eat there. So we decided to go with Bond 45. Any recs? What are Roman style chopped chicken liver (how's it different from Dean's mama's chopped chicken liver)? -
First post, so let me introduce myself. I'm Chris and a refugee from EG where I was a refugee from C'hound. I've been in the DC area since 1993, lived in the city for 8 years, and now am out in Vienna/Tysons. Another Rockwellian, brr, turned my on to c'hound a couple of years ago and I've been following these forums ever since. I work in Penn Quarter, so there is no dearth of restaurants around here. Our company often has lunch meetings so I've been lucky enough to try a handfull around here - Ceiba, Ten Penh, Zatinya (been before), Red Sage (never again), Butterfield 9, etc...as well as my more pedestrian moments at Ollies Trolley, etc. These forums have been invaluable to me for personal dining as well. If not for EG, I never would have been to RTS and Dino's as early as I did, and have been fortunate enough to NOT dine at certain places I was planning on visiting. Okay, now the on topic question: So my admin coordinator booked a group of us for a going away lunch for a colleague at Finemondo at 13th and F. I work pretty much right there at the Columbia Square building and haven't even heard boo about this place. I'm a little worried as, to put it delicately, my AC has not the best taste in food. Anyone have anything on this place? I'd like to go in with some idea what is passable. Again, thanks in advance and I look forward to contributing. BTW, I've had a fair amount of dining experience in Tysons and Vienna. -
I'll second that emotion. It is one of my go to places for lunch when I do not feel like waiting on line for a table at Il Pizzico. I usually order whatever the special is and am rarely disappointed. It is somewhat hidden is a typically soulless "North Potomac" strip mall development. -
I seem to remember reading praises for Edgardo's pizza and pastas, but the place fell off of my radar until I got a postcard with coupon today. Does anyone have any experiences with Edgardo's? Pizza? It's nearby, so I'll give it a try soon. I just wanted a little input to ponder. (please excuse me if a thread already exsists--I couldn't find one) -
Y&H has the details on Fargione's new (mostly) tasting menu restaurant located just around the corner from Central. -
Osteria 1909 I have been following them for a little while. It is basically a galley style establishment with a long bar and some some smaller cocktail tables on the opposite wall from the bar. There might be more seating in the rear. They are promoting an always fresh menu in a seperate kitchen from La Strada. I like the concept very much, winecentric and small italian plates. Plus they are open until midnight at least 6 days/week which is unheard of for Del Ray. Will also be open for brunch in the future. Will report on food soon! -
This might be stretching it a bit, but Laurienzo is sort-of technically in Clarksburg. It's physically located up in Hyattstown but they have a Clarksburg address. Anyway, I have not yet been to this location yet, but this is a second location for the Mt.Airy restaurant. As far as I know this is a locally run place, so probably worth checking out.- 5 replies
-
- 1
-
-
- Local Chain
- Mount Airy
- (and 5 more)
-
De Marco is located on Collesville Rd in downtown Silver Spring (more or less across the street from the AFI). It used to be exclusively a deli/Italian gourmet shop but recently the renovated the shop and now have a small restaurant area. We've been meaning to check it out for a loooong time but given that it's next to RTC...well....ya know. We finally got around to trying them last night and I have to say that it was remarkably....boring. The service is attentive and casual. The atmosphere is neighbourhood romantic. It's obviously not high dining but the decor screams family home cooking. Unfortunately, the food doesn't measure up. I had a simple penne in tomato sauce with meatballs. Lisa had the special, which was fettucine with smoked mozzarela, pancetta, and hot peppers. Both of us though the dishes were lacking in flavour. I would have appreciated a touch of heat in the tomato sauce and certainly some browning of the meatballs (which looked like they were boiled as opposed to sauteed or roasted). The meal was preceeded by a simple salad drowned in balsamic and olive oil (which I was more than willing to forgive if the entrees had been good). Their reserve wines were so blah (tasted like they had been watered down) that we ended up running into RTC for a quick glass of good wine before our movie. The food wasn't bad - but it wasn't good. We'll give them another chance because I want a local family run business to succeed (people need to go someplace like that instead of Macaroni Grill). Hopefully they were just having a bad night. -
Boar's Head brand meats and decent bread - makes for a really good sub. Add roasted peppers and some zippy provolone and it is one of the better italian subs I've had in the metro area. Haven't tried anything else yet. Used to run Maggi's in Wheaton in the early 80s. Sadly, takeout only and a little pricy ($8.99 for a sub) but the quality is great and the portion is decent. -
Could you find out if it has new owners? Assuming yes, I'm starting a separate thread for Bella; if it's just a facelift, I'll merge the two threads back into one. I can't find anything about Bella on the internet - not one word - so I'm wondering if it opened very recently. Pasta Nostra had definitely closed, so there was a period of time with nothing open at 7423 Van Dusen Road. Thanks Pool Boy - you're our Mayor of Laurel. You too, Justin.
-
Radicchio Cafe in north Old City is a great modern Italian BYOB. Had an excellent lunch there in June of this year, with a focus on the scallops and fresh seafood. Clean. distinct cooking, very enjoyable vibe with a lot of regulars bringing their Tuesday afternoon hooch. -
Trattoria Villagio has been open for a couple of weeks in downtown Clifton. It's on Main St. across the tracks and across the street from Trummers on Main. I went to the soft opening and found mostly good food surrounded by chaos. It was even more disorganized that most soft openings. The dishes were mostly successful, but the Calamarato Pasta needed work. It arrived cold with the pasta underdone (we're talking pre-al dente here), so they tried again, and the second try was the same. Reverted to the safer Spaghetti Carbanata, which was very good. The pasta was clearly house made, the sauce quite good. The wine list is well chosen and reasonably priced, the drinks are well made. They claim that this was designed to look like an Italian rail station. I've been in a lot of railway stations in Italy, but this version is far too clean and orderly to really look like one. This is just as well since I don't think I'd like to eat in the main station in Gaeta, for example. If you find yourself in Clifton, it's worth a stop. There's also an attached market that has nice Italian groceries, but only in a limited supply. The market also sells carry out pizza. I plan to go back. Wayne Rash -
I'm on the hook to book a spot to celebrate the 80th birthday of a dear Uncle coming into town. He loves, loves, loves Italian but has more old world, red sauce and even Italian-American tastes. Something like Roberto's 8 (we'll just be 6) or one of the Fiolas won't work because the food is too elevated and I don't think he'd appreciate it. I know many of the more moderate Italian spots. Places like Dino's, a place in Old Town whose name escapes me at the moment, Sorriso in Cleveland Park, Casa Luca, etc. Bebo Trattoria is a bit too sophisticated and also in flux since Chef Stefanelli has moved on. But do we have anything in the area (can be MoCo, DC or NoVa) that is really outstanding and special despite being more traditional with it's dishes, maybe with more red sauce options? A place like JoeH's favorite in Atlantic City, Chef Vola's or just something really special or different in some way befitting the occasion? I'm really not sure there is a good answer to this question but, if there is, this group is my best chance. Thank you!! -
Olea is the latest venture in the space previously occupied by Parsian Restaurant and Zorkafor's SandVeg. They're currently in a soft opening phase, and are serving the menu at half-price for the next few weeks. I haven't been in yet, but plan to make a visit, as I did enjoy the sample of their pizza that was being offered out front. It had a light, crispy crust, good flavor, and wasn't at all greasy. The chef (Mehrnoosh) and her husband, Majid, are Iranian and, according to this blog post linked on their website, she had an Italian restaurant in Tehran prior to immigrating to the US. The menu includes panini and salads, though they may be adding breakfast and some other items in the future. The space has been nicely updated, the staff appear to be very friendly and enthusiastic, and I hope they'll be very successful! -
We had a delicious supper at Uptown in the K-mart plaza yesterday! This place is very unique and different for a pizza place which has a fancy ordering computer where you touch the screen to select what you want and what quantity or type. No "sit down style" waitress/waiter service when we were there. You order and they bring the food to your table and you get your own utensils, papergoods and drinks. We just wanted a quick supper We shared the New Yorker Pizza Medium (and took some home) I ordered Lobster Ravioli, hubby spaghetti and meatballs and we both ordered cannoli's for dessert. The pizza was very tasty and made almost to "bronx or NY perfection" and the cannolis were the best I've had since 1978 with an exception being a small place on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx in a real "Italian bakery". The food overall was not disappointing considering it is in a strip mall and more of a help yourself restaurant... and it was very empty but nice and clean and had alot of black and white photo's scattered throughout. It is very unique and definitely worth the trip. I've heard that if they were in DC they would be on par with 2 Amys. The lowdown information: Uptown Brick Oven Pizza 470 Elden St Herndon, VA 20170 (703) 230-0005 www.uptownbrickpizza.com Bring an appetite -
Highs and Lows. Highs - Charcuterie plate - Prosciutto, Mortadella, Capicola, and Salami. A moretti rosso and a glass of lacryma. Great company. Lows - The pizzas. Quattro Stagioni and Quattro Formaggi. To say that I thought they sucked ventworm nut would be an insult to ventworms and their nuts. Right now I'm eating sunflower seeds and the dough was saltier than they are. Consistency was about that of a piece of cardboard. No char whatsoever. Think the oven was not nearly hot enough. The quattro formaggi had more than its desired allotment of parmesan which made it even saltier. Severe disappointment. My rec would be to avoid the pizzas all together. Edit to add - And please train the busboys better. One of my companions nearly got a mouthful of elbow as the busboy reached clear across the table to refill a water glass. -
I told myself not to expect too much. Most of the carry out I've had from this area has ranged from mediocre to downright awful. But I was tired and hungry, and in the mood for something different. The staff were polite, both on the phone and in person. The restaurant was pleasant enough, and about 75% full on a Wednesday night in north Springfield (nearly Annandale). I ordered Calamara Grigliati and Spaghetti Porto Venere. It sounded good at the time. The calamari was packed in a black styrofoam container. When I opened it, the food looked pretty--attractive--maybe even beautiful. The squid was coated with a red seasoning, flecked with black grill marks. It was laid on sliced tomatoes drizzled with pesto, over a bed of chopped lettuce. It tasted as good as it looked, and maybe better. It is my new favorite calamari dish, supplanting Kinkead's grilled calamari appetizer. San Vito's grilled calamari was perfectly cooked--tender, tasty, flavored with smoke and gentle spices. The pesto enriched the flavor of the tomatoes, and set off the squid nicely. Wow! I wanted a second helping, not because the serving size was small, but because it tasted that good. The mussels were nicely presented, all in their shells atop spaghetti draped in marinara sauce. It was a generous portion, with plenty of mussels. It tasted like mussels, and the sauce was rich, tomatoey, and sweet. Many otherwise good dishes, including seafood, lose a lot as takeout. I'm figuring that, if this food was so good at home, it's probably really good in the restaurant. I'm already contemplating my next order. I don't know why I waited so long to try this place. It's only half a mile from home. Finally: decent carryout! ETA: I'm talking about the Kings Park/Springfield restaurant, and to fix spelling. -
I tried the newly-opened Catch 15. The menu looked pretty unfocused, but it is close to a friend's office and takes reservations, so we figured we'd give it a try. It was profoundly mediocre. We sampled about 10 dishes and all were a solid "eh." I wouldn't ordinarily even post, but because it's new, I figured that I'd pass along word: don't bother.- 2 replies
-
- 1
-
-
- Downtown
- McPherson Square
- (and 7 more)
-
That place is such a treat! Going to high school in Kings Contrivance, I probably ate there 4 out of the 5 weekdays for lunch! ABSOLUTELY the best Italian coldcut I've ever had! High quality meats and they heat the roll in the oven before they construct the masterpiece. -
Francoluigi's High Note Cafe, on Tasker St. just a block south of Victor's, has a more relaxed, less tourist-driven atmosphere with live music and opera-singing waiters as well. The food is better with bigger portions and you can eat without pressure from the staff to turn the tables over. The singing is accompanied by live musicians at the High Note, unlike Victor's where the waiters sing to piped in music through the speaker system. There's a pizzeria counter when you first walk in the door. Make sure to head into the separate back dining room if you want the music and dining. -
Lido is the corner restaurant which you wished you had on your corner. A place that can serve as midweek dinner at the bar, casual date night, a place to take the parents when they are in town, or to meet up with friends when you are visiting New York. Trying to cram as much in on a Sunday before our late afternoon bus back to DC, we snagged a 10:30am reservation, right when they opened. By 11am the place was full. The breakfasty brunch items skew to eggs: a hearty omelet of mushrooms, bacon, goat cheese and caramelized onions was served with a salad of lightly dressed greens and grilled bread. Poached eggs are served on top of a heaping pile of roasted potatoes and sauted spinach. A large pile of shredded braised short ribs sits on English muffins and adorned with yet more poached eggs. A side of grilled bread comes with good butter and runny jam. And the Bloody Mary was well balanced. You get the impression that the kitchen has developed dishes that they know will work, they keep it fairly straight forward, and they don't over think it. Pretty much exactly what you want on a Sunday morning at your corner restaurant. Lido 2168 Frederick Douglas Blvd. Harlem, NYC -
Had to chime in about a lovely little spot where we had a wonderful lunch at in March. It's called Pizzicato and is a few blocks from the Ben Franklin House at 3rd and Market. Nice and sunny, as it's on the corner of the block, and lively, with an open kitchen. Since then, I've been thinking about the honey lavender dressing on the salad I had, which was a tasty mix of pears, gorgonzola, crispy pancetta and some very nice greens. One of these days I'm going to have to try to recreate the dressing, as I asked for the recipe since it was so good. We also enjoyed the calamari appetizer dressed with a trio of sauces - plum, a spicy marinara and a third one that escapes me. A seafood pasta dish was generously loaded with all sorts of shrimp, scallops, squid, etc. and the pizza was nice and crispy. Nicest treat of all was that the meal ended with a dessert on the house, just because the manager was a nice guy.
-
First I should mention that on my first visit to a restaurant, I tend to go along with whatever they suggest, rather than requesting something else (another table, etc.), and evaluate the place based on the default experience they deliver. If it's bad enough I will tell them, and walk out and eat somewhere else. Tuscano West is one of those downtown restaurants (usually Italian) that I've walked by hundreds of times, but never really thought to try. You know -- once you've endured the disappointment of ballyhooed places like I Ricci, why bother? Wait until you get to New York, Boston's North End, Philly, or San Francisco. But a Groupon tempted me, so... I arrived at 6:00 on the Wednesday night following hurricane Sandy, well before my wife, who was coming from work, for our early (6:30) reservation. I checked in at the stand, and headed to the bar for a Scotch. The bar does not have a price list of its single malt Scotches. This is significant, since prices for the the same whisky vary wildly from place to place. (With over 100 single malts at home, why should I overpay for mediocrity at a bar?) My wife arrived at 6:25. We returned to the stand, which was staffed now by someone else, who had no idea who I was. We were not offered a choice of the nearly empty dining rooms, but were ushered immediately to the isolated front room, rather than the much more interesting rear room with views of the kitchen. And to the only microscopically tiny two-top in that front room. I observed that we wouldn't be able to order much with such a tiny table, but the woman either didn't get the jab, or chose to ignore it. In addition to being very, very small, the table was oriented along the long axis of the room, (the opposite of all the other tables), thus insuring that one person (me) would be able to observe absolutely nothing but the blank wall behind a wood service counter -- not the dining room, not the outdoors through the window -- for the duration of the meal. Already, Tuscana West had made a bad impression that it could not overcome. Normally, at this point, I would have gone elsewhere, but this was a Groupon night to try a new place... The wine list is not kept up to date; they were out of the wine we ordered. The waiter recommended a Chianti, Ruffino Ducale Riserva 2007, which he said was priced slightly higher, but would be provided at the same price as the wine they were out of. It tasted a bit astringent, of which I advised the waiter (there was no mention of decanting and no decanters in evidence), but opened up nicely by the end of our second course. A small plate of olive oil accompanied two breads: the usual completely ignorable, cottony, Italian Wonder Bread equivalent, and a Focaccia that my wife enjoyed. A shared appetizer salumi plate included one slice of a nice salami, three slices of a dull mild sopressata, one coarsely-cut slice of undistinguished prosciutto, three slivers of an unidentified hard cheese, and some excellent marinated peppers. It was good, but not excellent, and was more than we needed for a shared appetizer. Secondly, we shared a special hot appetizer of Italian sausage with sauteed onions in a sort of Italian barbecue sauce with stick cinnamon. The sauce was wonderful, but the sausage itself was quite bland and ignorable. My wife had a nightly special of duck breast in pomegranate sauce, with risotto. The duck was fine (though not nearly as good as the D'Artagnan breasts we cook at home), cooked medium rare as requested, but the risotto -- the same risotto with gorgonzola that was available on the menu as a stand-alone dish -- was a disappointment, somewhat dry and not at all toothy. I had a nightly special of pork loin with vegetables. The three generous slices of pork were overcooked, in a nice sauce of lemon and sage; potatoes were perfect, but the rest of the vegetables (carrots and beans) were barely warmed through,and not to my liking. We asked about desserts, and our waiter rattled off a list. I opted for cheesecake -- plain, so it could be the star that cheesecake deserves to be. A minute later, he returned, saying that he was told they were out of the cheesecake, so I ordered my second choice raspberry and blackberry tart. In a minute our waiter again returned, saying that they had only one slice, which I took to mean the tart -- until, ten seconds later, a server placed a slice of cheesecake before me. The cheesecake was a nice light ricotta variety, with a graham cracker crust flavored with cinnamon. We ordered double espressos, decaf -- but they don't offer decaf, so we settled for regular (I'm very caffeine sensitive, so I paid for this in lost sleep later.) What urban restaurant doesn't offer decaf espresso these days? How hard -- and expensive -- is it to keep a pound of ground decaf or decaf beans around? The double espressos, when they came, were of decent flavor, but weak -- more like an Americano -- and served in larger cups. At this point, we decided to have our after-dinner drinks at home, and paid the check. When we left at 8:50, the maitre d' stand was unmanned, so there was no farewell or opportunity to offer comments. To summarize: the table was horrendous, the food was interesting but also had significant flaws, the service was very good but hampered by the table location. For $200 on a Wednesday night, you can do much better.
_svg.thumb.png.c50387abb33133634363845f12199fa0.png)
