Food

100 Best Restaurants 2012: 1789

Tried and True: 10 Restaurants that Have Consistently Offered Very Good Dining

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With its cobblestone foyer, wood-paneled dining rooms, and formal service, this Georgetown restaurant is a lovely throwback. (In winter, ask for a table by the fireplace.) Chef Anthony Lombardo, the Casa Nonna sous chef who took over the kitchen here in August, is keeping the menu rooted in the present, serving seasonal dishes that quietly show off his Italian roots. He turns out beef carpaccio topped with Everona cheese, slips burrata into short-rib ravioli, and offers white truffles from Alba as an accompaniment to beef crudo and duck tagliarini.

The steady stream of business types and Georgetown University students and parents who flock here prove that tradition sometimes can be as alluring as trendiness.

What to get: Tagliatelle with clams and bacon; mixed greens with apples and hazelnuts; rockfish with lobster farro; pork loin with cranberry beans and sweet potatoes; beef tenderloin with potato gratin and mushrooms; cider doughnuts with apple cider; fig-almond cake with almond semifreddo.

Open daily for dinner. Very expensive.

Ann Limpert
Executive Food Editor/Critic

Ann Limpert joined Washingtonian in late 2003. She was previously an editorial assistant at Entertainment Weekly and a cook in New York restaurant kitchens, and she is a graduate of the Institute of Culinary Education. She lives in Petworth.