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1724 Connecticut Ave. NW
(202) 462-8771
Hours of Operation and Prices
Lunch: M- F 11:30-4; Entrees: $7-$12
Dinner: M-Th 4-11, F-Sat 4-11:30, Sun 4-10:30; Entrees: $8-$13
Brunch: Sat-Sun 11:30-3; Entrees: $10.75-$12.75
Late Nite: M-Th 10:30-1, F-Sat 10:30-2; Entrees: $6.25-$9.50
Other Information
• All major credit cards
• No Reservations
• Dress: casual
• Street parking
• Nearest Metro: Dupont Circle
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You can often see tourists examining the menus outside this small Connecticut Avenue Italian restaurant, trying to decide whether to try it. All they really need to know is displayed in the front window. In its large bay, Cafe Parma sets up a daily antipasto buffet, and it is enough reason to venture in for a meal.
It's an exceptional deal: For a modest price ($8.95 at lunch, the last time I checked), you can eat your fill - and refill - of dozens of dishes. The best are the fresh marinated vegetables - platters of crisp green beans with onions, sliced beets, cauliflorets, shredded greens, plum tomato halves, shredded carrots or whatever else is in season. Pasta salads are pedestrian but filling, and there are several kinds of pizza, which suffer from being rolled too thick and served lukewarm. Seafood is always included, the likes of marinated squid, steamed mussels and canned anchovies. You'll find cold cuts and cheeses, the inevitable tomato-mozzarella salad (the mozzarella is better than the tomatoes) and reasonably crusty bread and bread sticks.
Cafe Parma has a long à la carte menu, too, with plenty of pizza and pasta variations, fish and seafood, and the usual Italian meat dishes. No single dish can compete, though, with the attractive display of the buffet, and nothing comes close to its value. A quiet little dining room with accommodating waiters, Cafe Parma would be just another storefront Italian restaurant without its generous buffet.
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