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| The simple menu |
Brian and I recently ate at Graffiato for an early Valentine’s Day
dinner. Graffiato is Mike Isabella’s
restaurant located in the Chinatown area of DC.
You may recognize his name from Top Chef. Whether you are a fan of him from Top Chef or
not – this place is definitely worth checking out. We thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of our
meal.
We were seated in the upstairs dining room, but as we walked up the
stairs I noticed a large bar area downstairs which would be a great place to
stop for a bite to eat or a few drinks before a concert or caps game. *Mental Note*
When we were seated at our table, I noticed that the room was small, yet
comfortable. I also noticed that it was
a lot more casual than I expected, which was nice too. Some people were a little bit dressed up, but
a lot of people wore jeans and were dressed pretty casually.
Our server promptly brought water and a small dish of spiced pistachios
to our table. It was a nice little treat to snack on while we looked over the
menu.
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| Our yummy glasses of Prosecco |
She started out by telling us about the Prosecco they have on
draft and the flatbread and pepperoni sauce, which was only $5. She said, “You HAVE to
get it”. She then explained that most of
the dishes were small plates and that she recommends we each get three to four
different dishes, and that the pizza counts as 2 dishes.
We started out with a couple glasses of the
Prosecco and an order of the flatbread.
The flatbread was grilled and warn and the pepperoni sauce was served in
a small cup right next to it. The sauce
was smooth, thick, and warn, and tasted just like pepperoni. Since the cup of sauce was pretty small, we
finished it quickly. We were thinking
how good it must be to have some to put on top of pizza!
Next we ordered the lobster risotto with
mascarpone. O. M. G… It was to die
for. There were large chunks of juicy lobster
mixed into the perfectly cooked risotto.
The flavor of the risotto was just so perfect and lobster-ey (yes I just
made that word up). Seriously though, it
was good. Like close your eyes while
chewing good. I wish I had taken a photo
of it, but that still wouldn’t do it justice.
You just have to try it.
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| "Papa Smurf" pizza on top, "White House" on bottom |
Then we each ordered a pizza. Brian got the “Papa Smurf” which had speck (a
meat that looked and tasted like prosciutto), gorgonzola, caramelized onion,
and potato. I got the “White House”
which had mozzarella, ricotta, prosciutto, and black pepper honey. I wasn’t so sure how I would like the “Papa
Smurf” pie because it had potato on it and that seemed like a lot of starch,
but they were very tiny pieces, and the pizza dough was very thin. The caramelized onions were really sweet and
a perfect contrast to the salty meat and cheese. There was just so much flavor in that pizza, I
really enjoyed it. The “White House” was
very good too, but was a little milder in flavor. I enjoyed it too, but not as much as I did
with “Papa Smurf”.
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| Photo of Pooh's Lost Honey Pot. Source. |
I don’t usually order desert, but since this
was our valentine’s celebration and all, I decided to throw my diet out the
window and order something off the desert menu.
If you know me, you know I absolutely LOVE honey. There was a special desert called
