Chef Roberto Donna has gone suburban—at least while the building housing his downtown DC Galileo undergoes renovation. At his new location—a soaring Crystal City dining room—the focus is not on the haute Italian he built his name on but on rustic cooking that feels familial.

You have to order strategically to keep the tab under $55, but think of it more as sharing than sacrificing. Appetizers—a heap of fried rabbit with orange mayo, or wonderfully rich pork sausages with smoked mozzarella—are made for passing around. So are the oversize bowls of pasta, such as the bucatini with a piquant sauce of tomato and pancetta, and plates like a chili-and-lemon-marinated game hen cut into four pieces. A $5.75 bowl of wedding soup, its broth bobbing with pignoli- and Parmesan-studded meatballs and leaves of escarole, is hearty enough to be a meal on its own.

Desserts are worth allotting for, especially the bomboloni. The light, freshly fried doughnuts dusted with lemon zest and sugar are the same confection that closed out a 14-course meal at Donna’s extravagant Laboratorio del Galileo.

Open daily for lunch and dinner, Sunday for brunch.