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1110 21st St. NW
(202) 293-7191
Hours of Operation and Prices
Lunch: M-F 11:30-2; Entrees: $11-$19
Dinner: M-Th 5:30-10, F-Sat 5:30-10:30, Sun 5-10; Entrees: $17- $30
Other Information
• All major credit cards
• Reservations recommended
• Dress: casual
• Complimentary valet parking at dinner
• Nearest Metro: Foggy Bottom
• Handicapped accessible
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For well over a decade Galileo has set the standard for Italian restaurants in Washington. Even while chef Roberto Donna has been racing around town opening new restaurants - I Matti, Il Radicchio, Pesce, Arucola - he keeps updating the menu of his spacious, dignified flagship (often inflating the prices as well). No simple asparagus salad here: The freshest of asparagus is moistened with black truffle vinaigrette and parmesan or with a fried egg to stir as an enrichment into an aromatic dressing. Donna's grilled portobello mushroom was the inspiration for dozens of others around town, yet none matches his. And the season's most dewy produce appears in a creamy risotto, atop handmade bow tie pasta or in fragile stuffed pasta. When Galileo is doing its best, no restaurant does better. That's what brings me back despite its frustrating inconsistencies.
In season, foie gras and game weigh in, and the breads have been so improved as to tempt you to overindulge. Overall, though, even the main courses have been lightened these days. Locally grown greens are mounded atop a small, crisp-edged risotto cake to accompany silken sea bass. Smoky grilled radicchio or spring onions, and sheer sauces of balsamic vinegar, heighten the flavors of simple sauteed or roasted fish or meat. No cream, no butter, not even a noticeable amount of olive oil weighs down this cooking.
But whatever restraint is exercised in the main course is let loose in desserts. Not that they are heavy - far from it. But they are as elaborate and fanciful as the savory courses are simple and serious. Above all, they are new. Sure, there's a classic tirami su. But there is also a crisp version, layered with fragile sheets of pastry, nuzzled by a transparent fan of caramelized sugar, a fillip of whipped cream, a scooplet of fabulous ice cream and a crosshatching of caramel sauce. The sludgy-cannoli era is over.
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