Teatro Goldoni, Washington, D.C.

After many, many months of wanting to try Teatro Goldoni, Leo and I used Restaurant Week as an excuse to go there last night. We've long been curious about both the food and the facility, and it's always gotten pretty good reviews.

The "teatro" part of the name always confused me a little bit, since that's the Italian word for theater. When I first saw the name on the building, I thought the place was an actual theater, though later I walked by and saw menus. Then, I thought that perchance there was some type of stage show or wandering entertainment, but that is not the case. They are using Venetian theater as a theme for their decor to match their Venetian recipes in the kitchen. The fairly dark bar and dining rooms have a lot of panels with harlequin patterns and one wall in the front dining room is filled with Venetian theater masks.

They have a large menu filled with the culinary specialties of Venice. I was tempted to order off the regular menu until I saw the prices, which were quite high, even for Washington. They offered a rack of veal for $43.50, rockfish for $32.50, and even a truffled parmesan-mushroom risotto was going for $33.50—all more than the $30.06 cost of the three-course Restaurant Week prix fixe menu.

After ordering a glass of wine (I forgot which one, but it was an odd blend of viognier, sauvignon blanc, and pinot grigio), Leo started with the insalata di Ceasare con parmesano, a little Caesar salad garnished with crisp, thin, garlic flatbread and little cherry tomatoes.



Then he had the salmone con peperoni servito con la salsa di cipolle pomodoro vinegrette, a pan-seared piece of salmon on a bed of spinach and topped with caramelized onions and a tomato vinaigrette.



Then for dessert, he had the tiramisu con la salsa di cappuccino, an individual round of tiramisu with a cappuccino sauce.



I started with the zuppa di mais servita con la frittella di gamberi, a very nice and slightly sweet pureed fresh corn soup with several medium sized shrimp in the bowl. I also had the salmon entree, and I found it rather ordinary and slightly overcooked.



My dessert was the tortino di cioccolato servito con la salsa di vaniglia, one of those warm chocolate cakes with the "molten" centers presented with a little raspberry sauce. Mine could have used a bit more baking, since I tasted "raw" and grainy batter; the raspberry sauce was surprisingly bland.



The service was efficient but rather terse. I suspected our waiter was not a native English speaker, and I noticed he lumbered around the dining room more like a big football player than an agile, graceful waiter. Our food came out with surprisingly fast "lunchtime" speed, and we were in and out of the restaurant in 50 minutes.

On the whole, though, my experience was not as wonderful as I expected or would have liked. I thought my food to be rather amateur. The chef here has had good reviews, but, while not knowing whether or not he was present, I would suspect that the kitchen was being run by one of his less-experienced assistants last night. Nothing was truly bad, but it just wasn't impressive, and, while I realize the Restaurant Week menus are designed to fit into an economical price point, the foods I was served make me extremely reluctant now to try the very expensive items on the regular menu.

The Restaurant Week menu is the same this week for both lunch and dinner, so if one is inclined to try Teatro Goldoni, I would recommend going at lunch to save that extra $10.