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1113 23rd St. NW
(202) 293-1511
Hours of Operation and Prices
Lunch: M-F 11:30-2; Entrees: $11-$19
Dinner: M-Th 5:30-10, F-Sat 5-10:30, Sun 5-10; Entrees: $15-$26
Other Information
• All major credit cards
• Reservations recommended
• Dress: casual
• Validated parking lot
• Nearest Metro: Foggy Bottom
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When a chef breaks out on his own to open his first restaurant, often he's timid at first, or maybe too ambitious and experimental. In either case, I frequently wish I could wait a year to give him a review. Thus it's been with Goldoni, where chef Fabrizio Aielli has come out from under the wing of Galileo's Roberto Donna. My most recent meal at Goldoni, however, was a triumph, the work of an experienced chef comfortable in his surroundings and showing the range of his talent.
A layered appetizer of potato, eggplant and fontina cheese with a chunky light sauce of dried tomatoes and a garnish of fried basil leaves blended into it was a distillation of a Mediterranean garden on a plate. The pasta, fat stuffed tortelli with a heady black filling of portobello mushrooms and ricotta, was superb: delicate in texture, straightforward and powerful as the best of Italian cooking. A veal entree - tenderloin rolled with asparagus, frittata and prosciutto, poised on a glossy brown rosemary sauce with a garnish of asparagus and spinach - was far more elaborate. It was also astonishingly good. Then there was Aielli's signature: fish grilled whole until the skin is slightly charred and the flesh is steamy white, served with soft polenta and sautéed mushrooms. Nothing simpler, nothing more delicious.
For dessert, who could eat more than a little sorbet? But with such choices as herbed lemon or blackberry with pepper and red wine, one certainly wouldn't want to miss out. Cooking isn't all at Goldoni. The food is enhanced by a dignified serving staff and a soaring, skylit, white dining room - modern and spare, yet lush with murals that hint of the Renaissance.
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