Heres what our guests have to say about us: If 24 people ordering almost as many different entrees all come away happy, you know a restaurant is doing something right. The women’s club my wife belongs to recently organized a dinner at Gregorio’s Trattoria for a dozen of their members (accompanied by a dozen dutiful long-suffering husbands). It was the middle of the long Memorial Day weekend, and although it seemed only two waiters were on duty, service was quick, efficient, and friendly. Kudos to them and the chefs for getting so many different orders out to us all within a few minutes of each other. Our orders ranged far and wide across Gregorio’s menu, from pasta to seafood to meat, so it was a good test of the restaurant’s kitchen. The house salads most of us started with were fine if perhaps a little run of the mill. The main courses, however, were stand-outs. They included entrees as diverse as veal piccata, penne vodka, seafood ravioli, braised beef short rib, mussels, chicken marsala, and the old standby of spaghetti with meatballs. Everyone compared notes on their food, and everyone was thoroughly pleased. My veal piccata, for example, was three generous pieces of tender veal in a very tasty sauce. As someone who grew up in an Italian area of New York City, I am pretty confident in saying that Gregorio’s could more than hold its own and thrive against similar competitors in such big city ethnic neighborhoods. Good, reasonably priced Italian food isn’t all that common in northern Virginia, which makes the presence of a restaurant like Gregorio’s all the more welcome.
Posted on: Thu, 10 Jul 2014 15:00:00 +0000