Skip to main content

il Radicchio

Shhhhh ... don't tell.  This is, IMHO, the best Italian in the area for pasta.  It's not flashy, upscale or even a place tourists hit.  It's purely locals and that is just fine with me.  There is handmade pasta, spongy fresh mozzarella and a plethora of sauces made on the spot with local ingredients.  You can have salad with a wonderful collection of dark greens, pizza which is authentic, all for an extremely reasonable price.  It's a small place with Italian music always playing in the background, paper napkins on the faux marble tabletops and roosters painted on the walls.  I love it.  It can be busy on weeknights as it fills a great little void between Courthouse and Rosslyn.  Chefs will cook to order and have often fulfilled my request for off-menu items, like pasta aglio e olio arrabiata (garlic and olive oil, spicy).  Attempts have been made to update the offerings a tad.  Appetizers have become "small plates" and the dessert menu is more tempting than in the past (tonight I had an incredibly fluffy foam chocolate "cake" which was a perfect finale to the meal, sweet and light), but none of the fancifying is necessary.  This is a place which does what it does quite well and a restaurant which is a local favorite.  It doesn't need fancy.  But don't let the outside world know!

Family-style Italian Restaurant
1801 Clarendon Blvd
http://ilradicchio.com/

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Afghan Bistro

With family members moving to Springfield, it has been a struggle to find good places to eat so far afield.  After flirting with some chain restaurants near the mall, we tried a Pakistani restaurant (there are many, many Pakistani restaurants there), but it fell flat.  Finally, someone suggested this amazing place.  It's a little hole-in-the-wall in a strip mall.  With oilcloth table coverings, the vibe seems questionable.  For about a minute.  Then you are warmly greeted and given menus with a plethora of choices.  My party ordered a great number of items and every dish rose above expectations.  The staff are eager to please and checked in to make sure everything was okay, from food to drink needs.  When a member of my party dropped a piece of silverware on the floor one of the waiters swooped in with a replacement before we could even ask.   But onto the food.  We ordered the Potato and Leek turnovers, the Aushak (leek and sc...
Post a Comment
Read more

Dera

Was looking for a good Pakistani restaurant in Springfield and this one had some of the best reviews, so I gave it a shot.  Arrived for an early dinner to find some regulars around a table in a cavernous room.  The restaurant staff looked at us like we had interrupted a private party.  We sat and were grudgingly given menus after asking.  Tepid water in questionably clean glasses were eventually brought.  One member of the party ordered a salad.  It arrived in a large mixing bowl and was mostly iceberg lettuce.  A plastic basket of cold bread was literally "dumped" on the table, then the waiter disappeared.  Eventually we were able to get someone to take our orders, which included a curry, a biryani and a kebab.  Portions were huge and the rice, again, came in what looked like a mixing bowl.  It was enough to feed ten.  The food wasn't bad.  Sometimes the seasonings were a bit heavy handed (particularly for the rice) but it was...
Post a Comment
Read more

Junction Bakery & Bistro

Everything here was good.  My party got a Tofu Stir Fry, Roasted Chicken Breast Sandwich, Crispy Flounder Sando, Sweet Potato Fries and a Chocolate Cream-Filled Croissant.  The food took a while but arrived literally hot off the grill.  The two sandwiches came with a plethora of side salad and a great homemade dressing.  Portions were large and all of us took home enough for a second meal.  The bill, with tax and tip, came to just under $75.  As mentioned, it was good.  Very good -- but not great.  Everything came close to being great it just didn't cross the line.  The cross-cut sweet potato fries were extremely munchable but the "Harissa Sour Cream" had a lot of sour cream and very very little harissa.  The Tofu Stir fry had a nice mix for a cold day but needed a little more oomph (I borrowed salad dressing from my companions).  Everything, including the Tofu and Flounder, were breaded and fried but didn't seem greasy until later....
Post a Comment
Read more