Teatro Goldini - Washington, D.C.

I know you have been waiting with bated breadth for this review! My Italian tour of D.C. restaurants continued last weekend with a stop at Teatro Goldini. While I had gotten mixed reviews about the restaurant in the past, Teatro Goldini has been an establishment in D.C. for some time (11 years at the K street location if you read the website). So with that, Chris and I headed on to Teatro Goldini for a special date night... ooooh la la.

After much debate, Chris and I decided to get the prosciutto wrapped scallops as an appetizer. Let me rephrase. I made Chris get the prosciutto wrapped scallops as an appetizer. He actually hates scallops! I found them to be over salted and hard to eat, frankly. Chris had a bite and claimed to like them, but I know the truth! While we ate our scallops, (or while I ate our scallops) we enjoyed the homemade bread. The focaccia style bread was coated with a light marinara sauce and was quite delicious. I only had a bite or two of that because of my tomato allergy, but the olive bread was absolutely fantastic.

I would not do this blog justice without commenting on the bread sticks. Now depending who you ask (Chris or I) the bread sticks were a nice amuse bouche.  While they were in a glass vase and no one else seemed to be eating them, I felt they were up for the taking. Some (ahem, Chris) felt otherwise and argued that they were a decoration.

On to the entree.  One of the things I liked about the Teatro Goldini menu was that there were quite a few pasta options I could choose from.  After much debate, I decided to get the tagliatelle with duck ragout, despite having duck the night before (long story). What excited me about the dish was that it was very similar to a bolognese, but without the tomato. It was delicious and I could eat that dish most nights of the evening. Chris tried the chicken parmesan and was a little disappointed that it did not come with a side other than sauteed spinach. I have to say I hate when Italian restaurants do that. He did not appear to love Teatro Goldini's rendition of one of his favorite dishes and I felt bad that our fancy Italian dinner out did not go as well for him.

We chose not to get dessert (I know lame) because we were pretty stuffed and instead walked home a little tipsy to eat some chips ahoy cookies.  All in all it was a nice evening, but not great. I would say the ambiance is a little weird in the evenings because there aren't many people there. My guess is given the location it's a hopping lunch spot and is worth checking out.  Teatro Goldini you get 3 dumplings out of 5 - I am sorry, but I still have not recovered from the salted scallops!

http://www.teatrogoldoni.com/