Cafe Oggi, Italian on Old Dominion and Whittier Drive in Downtown McLean

[Scott Johnston]

Anyone ever been here? We are being taken here tonight and noticed that there is not a thread on it. We will report back, but I thought I would place a shout out to see if anyone had any intel. This place has been in McLean a long time.

[mbucher]

Anyone ever been here? We are being taken here tonight and noticed that there is not a thread on it. We will report back, but I thought I would place a shout out to see if anyone had any intel. This place has been in McLean a long time.

Used to be a favorite of mine, years ago when I worked in McLean. I remeber it being a small family run place, i enjoyed it.

[hopsing]

My husband and I love this place. We usually get the fried calamari, zucchini fritti, ossu bucco, and spaghetti with seafood. The salad is quite good too. The crowd skews old or you may see teenagers with their parents; it seems like a family special occasion place. Yummy!

[goodeats]

We will report back, but I thought I would place a shout out to see if anyone had any intel.

Waiting for a report, still, as I am getting more curious about this place, as well.... Thanks Scott!

[Jimmy Chandler]

I know many locals like Oggi, but my one and only experience there was awful. Decent Italian food, but overpriced. Horrible service, and when we made a complaint about our waiter, the hostess told us our waiter was also the manager on duty that evening, so there was no one to escalate our complaints to. We basically were ignored so he could pay more attention to his regulars. Will never return and would never recommend.

[Scott Johnston]

I agree, a bit overpriced, the food was decent, but not outstanding.

[wristband]

I also agree with the grim assessments above. Service was uninterested and unimpressive. Went twice, both times: place only 1/3 full, waitrons chit chatting in a corner, studiously ignoring empty glasses needing refills and dirty empty plates that sat and sat before us.

Food was average but the most basic requests (e.g. no sauce on asparagus, add some tomatoes and drop the potato on a salad) were blissfully ignored.

Won't go back.

[jpbloom]

I'll join the chorus. Food is okay but nothing more, and it's significantly overpriced for what you get. Service is always quite weak. I went a number of times hoping things would improve (and because of a lack of worthwhile Italian options nearby) but I finally gave up.

[hopsing]

Without wanting to condemn with faint praise, this [Assaggi Osteria] is the best Italian restaurant in McLean.

Laugh if you will, but I happen to like Cafe Oggi in McLean for Italian. It has much better food than Sette Bello. If it were cheaper, I'd go there more often. Currently, I satisfy my Italian cravings at Argia's and Kora's (in terms of restaurants in my regular rotation). You have inspired me to make a reservation to eat at Oggi tonight!

[dcs]

Laugh if you will, but I happen to like Cafe Oggi in McLean for Italian. It has much better food than Sette Bello. If it were cheaper, I'd go there more often. Currently, I satisfy my Italian cravings at Argia's and Kora's (in terms of restaurants in my regular rotation). You have inspired me to make a reservation to eat at Oggi tonight!

[kirite]

Good for you! I love your "signature." I've been there twice. The first time was about a year ago, and I ordered pasta with basil and garlic. The pasta and basil were very good, but all of the garlic was burned and inedible. The second time was for dinner last summer. I ordered the two color pasta. The dish was so oversalted that I had to send it back. To their credit, they comped the dish. I like the ambience and the staff.

Assaggi Osteria was only a trifle better.

[hopsing]

Good for you! I love your "signature." I've been there twice. The first time was about a year ago, and I ordered pasta with basil and garlic. The pasta and basil were very good, but all of the garlic was burned and inedible. The second time was for dinner last summer. I ordered the two color pasta. The dish was so oversalted that I had to send it back. To their credit, they comped the dish. I like the ambience and the staff.

Assaggi Osteria was only a trifle better.

I have had some lackluster dishes (like the pasta with eggplant) and generally order the same thing when we go there (like we did yesterday). I generally order the fried zucchini appetizer (sort of a tempura zucchini sticks--juicy on the inside) and the osso bucco which is pure winter comfort food. My husband orders the fried calamari, salad with grapefruit and parmesan slices, and the linguini scoglio. All was good, except my husband not too keen on the calamari that night. We also ordered a bottle of wine, that when I googled it last night, turns out we were charged more than 4 times the retail price. My husband said sometimes it is better not to know these things, I am inclined to think he is right.

[NolaCaine]

I dinned for the first time at Cafe Oggi for lunch on Saturday. My husband and I split the crab and artichoke salad, the eggplant pasta dish, a veal dish and tiramisu. I was impressed that they split the plates of pasta and veal. So nice, and no up-charge.

We enjoyed the salad and think we could prepare it ourselves. the eggplant pasta dish was fantastic...full of creamy goodness with a cheese that did not over power the delicate flavors. The veal was fine and the tiramisu light.

One word of caution -- the service was old country Italian and by that I mean slow. We didn't mind as our day was spontaneously reorganized due to a car repair and husband sampled a bit too much wine at Super Wines and More....so we didn't mind. The lunch prices were fair, in our opinions, and we felt that the split dishes made for great value even if it was only perception.

Edited to read: One more thing. I'm not sure if this matters to anyone, but we are in our mid-30s and everyone in the place was about double our age...

Edited one more time to make Sthitch's comment not logically follow....

[Sthitch]

My husband and I split the crap and artichoke salad

Sounds tasty

[kirite]

Sounds tasty

I've eaten there twice, and while it might not have tasted like "crap", it was none too good. My first experience was with capellini with garlic and herbs. All the the minced garlic was burned and inedible. My second experience was with their two color pasta. It was so oversalted that I could not eat it. To their credit, they comped both dishes.

[MsDiPesto]

Edited to read: One more thing. I'm not sure if this matters to anyone, but we are in our mid-30s and everyone in the place was about double our age...

Isn't that pretty much the McLean demographic?

[kirite]

Isn't that pretty much the McLean demographic?

Yep. Since moving from Old Town a year ago, I have found McLean to be pretty much of a culinary waste land with the partial exception of Evo Bistro.

[Dr. Delicious]

We had a very good meal tonight. Here's a brief rundown:

Calimari: nice, think rings, very tasty breading, perfectly fried.

Cozze: a nice and simple white wine sauce

Service: very attentive, multiple bread basket refills and dipping sauce refills

Caesar: fresh lettuce, tasty and well dressed, with good homemade croutons

Pasta with cheese and sausage: good size portion, lots of sausage, pasta done very nicely, tasty if somewhat oily sauce.

Ravioli stuffed with chicken: house made and very delicate. Delish filling combo of chicken, pistachio and sundried tomato with a butter and sage sauce. The best dish of the night. Delicate sauce, with small fried bits of sage

Veal chop: tender and juicy, classic and tasty brown sauce. Good portion size.

They also made penne in a pesto sauce for our 4 yr old, even tho they don't actually offer a pesto sauce of any kind on their menu. And it was very good!

We were younger by 20 yrs than every other diner, and I'm in my 40s fwiw.

[hopsing]

We haven't been to Oggi for about 6 years (judging from my last post on this restaurant).  I had an old coupon so we went back.

Boy, was it good!  We couldn't remember why we stopped going...or they have some new talented chef!  First the bread was nice and fresh.  The olive oil was good quality - it reminded us of Italy.  My mussels appetizer was delicious.  Tender, tasty mussels in a nice garlic wine broth.  My canneloni was good too.  My husband, normally not one to be impressed easily, loved his salad, fried calamari and spaghetti with shrimp.

We will be back, with or without coupon.

Warning:  wine by the bottle is a little pricey: $44 for the cheapest red.  However I think wine by the glass was more reasonable.  The entrees are pretty cheap so that makes up for it.