Pre Dip Ball meal

Last Friday, before Dip Ball, Karen and I went out to dinner at this very nice Italian Restaurant in Foggy Bottom, Teatro Goldoni. Although there is live music, the atmosphere is really relaxed. The place itself is set up well too, with very open table seating in the middle, surrounded by elevated booths. We got to sit in one of the booths.

The meal itself was quite great, but don’t expect any of your traditional Italian food here. Teatro Goldoni specializes in the food from Venice, and its surrounding region Veneto. The menu is very diverse and can really satisfy any of your food yearnings. To start I had my usual foie gras, but this time it came with sweet almond bread and a pear confit and was cooked in a sweet red wine and cherry sauce. Totally honest, loved the idea in concept, it tasted very interesting, but kindof not what I was expecting. Karen instead got a green lentil soup with homemade lamb sausage, and that was quite good, with the lamb really giving a good flavor to the soup. It did taste a bit more Middle Eastern than you would usually expect though.

For starters we both had pasta, actually stuffed pasta. I had large tortelli stuffed with chestnuts and venison, in a butter rosemary, and it was truly incredible. The strong flavor of the meat was balanced by the mild but encompassing touch of butter. Whenever I see “unusual meats” on menus I go straight for them, and in this case it was a success. What Karen got was a bit different, it was pasta purses stuffed with braised beef and montasio cheese, which is kindof like gruyere or fontina (i.e. very heavy) covered in a mushroom wine sauce. Now, we agreed that they were good, and fitting for the weather since it happened to be snowing outside, but the 5 they bring are too much! Maybe you notice that I do by and large eat at least half of her food.

To close we had a rack of veal, topped with a leek and mushroom ragù and with fingerling potatoes. Now, this meat was incredibly tender and all in all spectacular. The waiter even brought me a complementary cup of red wine to match with the meal, ( a really strong Primitvo, a really expensive wine) on the house. More on our waiter later. We were a bit remiss in our ordering because being a Venetian restaurant, the place specializes particularly on fish, but I gave up meat and cheese for lent, but since I am Italian, Dip Ball happened to fall on St. Joseph’s day, which is a day exception for lax catholics like myself, so I got as much meat as I could. But, for those who love fish, there are all sorts of super fresh fishes on the menu, many of which you can dictate how to have made for you. There is also a whole section of the menu “Friggitoria”, which roughly translates to friery, where you can order all sorts of seafood, NOT just calamari, made to order fried. Chocolate pappardelle even find themselves on the menu, as a pasta dish, to show how creative the chef really is.

So, our waiter turned out to be great, though at first we were worried he was crazy. We ordered a bottle of wine a Pinot Grigio + Sauvignon Blanc mix, (Karen doesn’t like reds :( ) and when he brought the bottle he asked “I don’t need to see ID right?”, which caught me quite off guard, both of us are under 21, and then proceeded to serve us. Not only did he do us that favor, but he also brought us a desert on the house, tiramisù, which for once was only average. If you want real good tiramisu, which somehow has stuck as the quintessential Italian dessert, don’t know how!! And don’t get me started on canolis…. Go to Café Milano!! In closing our waiter also brought us limoncello, an Italian cordial that is basically a sweet lemon liqueur made from grappa, which I personally love.

The final tag was a bit pricey, about $200, so the place is not for any casual night. But, if you don’t order as much, or go for lunch you can really save and still have a great meal. All in all, I give this place 4 1/2 stars out of 5, for being incredibly solid in all regards, but not innovative enough and a bit overpriced ( I am still a college student after all…)

-Tano