100 Very Best Restaurants: #44 – Thompson Italian

Learn how to make pasta during a course taught by Thompson Italian chef Gabe Thompson. Photo courtesy of Thompson Italian.

About Thompson Italian

cuisines
Italian
Location(s)
124 N Washington St
Falls Church, Virginia 22046-4514

The pink neon sign at this jam-packed restaurant reads “Pasta Power,” but New York veterans Gabe and Katherine Thompson will woo you with far more than just bucatini all’amatriciana (good as it is). There are perfect little salads, nicely fried heaps of calamari and slivered lemons, a garlic bread to cross town for, and gorgeously appointed bulbs of burrata. Whatever you order, don’t leave without sampling sweets such as a cranberry Pavlova with candied fennel and pomegranate sorbet or olive-oil cake with Maldon salt. Katherine’s desserts are among the best in the area. Expensive.