Moroni & Brother's Pizza Restaurant

Review by caerphilly on April 5, 2008

My roommates and I found this spot on Chowhound and decided to take a stroll up there last night. It was a leisurely twenty-minute walk from our home in Columbia Heights. We arrived just past eight to find Moroni's - an unprepossessing spot near a couple of convenience stores and a tiny clothing shop - about half full, and were seated immediately by a reserved but polite hostess. Drinks came quickly - $3.89 for most beers and $4 for my roomie's class of white - and we ordered a mix of food from both their Salvadoran and pizza selections. The three of us shared an order of the fried platanos (plantains) with beans and sour cream (sounds odd, tastes divine), two fresh corn tamales, and the Parma pizza- which has neither Parma ham nor parmesan, but instead sweet red peppers, eggplant, and what we thought might have been a garlic oil brushed onto the thin crust. I have not been this happy at a restaurant for a long time. The combination of cuisines sounds like a weird one, but everything we had simply tasted so good that it seemed to work. All three of us are vegetarians and found a suprising abundance of options - most of the pizzas are veg, and they all looked excellent. (The Salvadoran side of the menu includes more meat-based dishes, including chicken, tripe, and tongue.) By the time came to pay up, our waitress/hostess had warmed to our table and our middling attempts at Spanish (everyone there spoke English), and we waddled out very content. Total before tip came to $42, including 4 drinks. No room for dessert, but have no fear- we'll be back.