Rater Comments
These comments express the opinions of individual Restaurant Raters, not those of Washington City Paper.
Review by pat1425 on March 11, 2010
Weekday lunch seemed to be quite good. Service was excellent; antipasti and salmon were fine. Lunch menu items appear to be priced fairly. Buffet also available.
Review by joe on December 15, 2009
I went to the lunch buffet. The food was edible. It was not worthy of the price one payed.
Review by diningindc on June 29, 2009
On a Sunday evening my family went to Extra Virgin, Modern Italian Restaurant. They have a nice outdoor seating area in front. Inside, the dining room is modern, colorful, and the dining room is quite large, however you can’t tell unless you get up and walk around. The restaurant is partitioned off into several small dining areas. Many tables are situated next to windows, which creates an intimate and cozy feel. I like that the tables aren’t on top of each other. We sat right in front of the large revolving door, yet it was not cold. I was worried that we were going to be cold while sitting so close to the front door. The winter menu provides a lot of excellent choices, however, I was very disappointed that there was no kids menu. It’s not very kid-friendly establishment. I ordered the pan seared Rainbow Trout with roasted almonds, served wit mashed potatoes and grilled zucchini and eggplant. The trout was delicious, cooked perfectly and was a nice size portion. The mashed potatoes were fluffy and very good. I tried the Veal Ravioli but did not care for it at all. It tasted like rancid meat. It tasted musty and had an awful aftertaste. I also tried the homemade ribbon pasta with asparagus, and shrimp in a cream sauce. I liked this so much I would consider ordering as my entree when I return. What was most memorable besides the trout was the Insalata della case which is heart of romaine and spinach salad with gorgonzola cheese, kalamata olives, red onion, diced tomato, and raisins. It was absolutely delicious and it really could stand alone as a entree salad.
Everyone enjoyed their meal, perhaps we shall return.
The service was pretty good however it became quite confusing right after we sat down and while we were waiting for other members of our party to arrive. At least four different people came over to the table to talk to us… all of them saying that they would be “taking care of us”. If I return to this restaurant, it will be after trying several others in the area. I'm not too motivated to return at this point.
Review by Spectater on August 14, 2007
Despite a lovely atmosphere and generally attentive service, the food served at Extra Virgin is woefully uneven. We have had a heaping plate of pasta with a meaty sauce that is everything you could want. Generally the pasta is fresh with a nice bite. On our last visit, the bruschetta was soggy (the bread was not toasted and it had clearly sat out for too long) and I had gnocchi with fresh mozzarella and, tomato and basil, which was cooked perfectly, but under-seasoned. The salads appear to be something entirely different every time you come to Extra Virgin (it's become a game to see what we'll get when we order one). At first, it appeared a new restaurant just needed to work out the kinks, but it's become apparent that the kitchen needs to work on their follow-through. All in all, I'd skip it for date night, but it's a pretty good place to come for a heaping plate of pasta and a nice glass of Chianti on a Tuesday evening.
Review by lazytiger on August 8, 2007
I was impressed by the resturant on the side walk but unfortunatly it did not live up to expectations in the food or ambience.
Review by kmadison34 on November 30, 2006
The atmosphere lends itself to the happy hour crowd, which is great if you like to socialize. The service was excellent, including the honest recommendations from the staff, but the best part is the food. In a party of 20, no one had a single complaint! One of the best italian restaurants I've been to in the area.
Review by rinamac on August 1, 2005
Well, I have to say, we really enjoyed the decor, but the food was somewhat of a disappointment. To be more specific, the main dish was the downer. We shared the onion stuffed with sausage appetizer and that was pretty good and really different. Our server was happy to be there and it showed (or at least he puts on a good act, but that is exactly how the wait staff is supposed to be, if they want the best tips!). We enjoyed him. The cocktail he slyly coaxed me into having before dinner was tasty and stiff and the various names on the cocktail menu were cleverly tied to the restaurant. He told us the specials, then mentioned a dish that he didn't understand why they'd left it off the menu when they redid them recently...we can tell you why. We BOTH ended up ordering this dish. After waiting what seemed like an eternity we finally realized our big mistake. We usually try not to order the same thing. When will we ever learn? It was a pasta dish with rigatoni-type noodles and a tomato-based sauce with sausage bits and cheese...it was glorified beefaroni in our minds. And 2 heaping bowls of it! Most of it was doggie-bagged for lunch at another time. Because our dinner took so long to come out, our server offered us free desserts. I had the tiramisu and he, the crem'brulee. Good, but by then my attitude was too poor to notice. All in all, I think I'll give them another shot before totally X'ing them off the list.
