Il Radicchio — Restaurant in Arlington

I tried several items including a house specialty, the porcetta: bacon wrapped pork tenderloin with crispy polenta, perfectly poached eggs, and crispy kale at $15. Beautiful delicious. One of the chefs, Max Pena, cooked up the tenderloin with a yummy shallot-garlic-rice wine- brown sugar-honey method that is so melt-in-your-mouth!!

bacon wrapped pork tenderloin with crispy polenta, perfectly poached eggs, and crispy kale. I also enjoyed the black angus burger with crispy proscuitto and bruleed goat cheese, homemade pickle, and potato hash made from sweet and regular potatoes. The beef is local from Fells Point and Baltimore and tastes amazingly good with just a bit of salt and pepper to season it.

Black angus burger with crispy proscuitto and bruleed goat cheese, homemade pickle, and potato hash made from sweet and regular potatoes After I munched on my delicious burger, as I noticed the soothing Frank Sinatra music playing softly, I took a bite of Chito’s beautifully plated rosemary lamb with poached eggs, lemon mint hollandaise sauce, chimichurri, and potato hash (again mixed white potato and sweet potato.) Lamb that is so juicy!!

Rosemary lamb with poached eggs, lemon mint hollandaise sauce, chimichurri, and potato hash I did not have enough room today to try two other brunch house specialties I look forward to next time: “shrimp n grits” served with pesto, pancetta, peppers, and creamy polenta. Also I want to try “nectarines and cream parfait” with lavender and almond granola. The Head Chef Andrew Holden is really amazing! Dinner specialties include the following great salads and entrees among other options: • an arugula salad with figs, procuitto, pecorino, white vinaigrette • an insalata di mele with field freens, apples, walnuts, grapes, goat cheese, and prosecco dressing. For entrees: • GRILLED Eggplant Parmesan with fresh mozzarella melted parmesan, fresh basil, smokey tomato sause, rosemary potatoes, broccolini, pine nuts, and balsamic reduction. • Rosticceria Pollo e Salsiccia Tortelloni, a pulled rotisserie chicken over fire roasted kale and Italian sausage tortelloni in a rich chicken adn white wine broth • Gnocchi Salsiccia e Funghi, a pan fried gnocchi, sausage, arugula, toasted pine nuts, mushroom ragu, lemon, roasted garlic cream. So many other great items and the great pizza and pasta too. I learned that brunch menu will continue to evolve. I look forward to going back! Such a...

We were from out of town and staying at the nearby Holiday Inn for vacation and found this non-chain Italian restaurant.

First it seemed chaotic going in, but the town had prom that day. The website didn't say we needed reservations but we were able to get a seat still (would be 3* at this point for somewhat lacking communication and poor website). When we sat down, the menu was also different than the websites. It would be nice if both were consistent.

The waiter kept making sure we comfortable while waiting for food. (This kept the review at 3.x.) They offered bread and drinks free of charge and would get us whatever we wanted to make sure we were happy. The food took a long time, but during then the review got up to 4+. You could tell the staff were working really hard to satisfy their full, crowded, and small restaurant. At first it seemed they were greatly understaffed, but many of the waiters were constantly going back and forth.

Now we get to why we (I) go to restaurants - food! First, their pasta came separate with the sauce so you can make the ratio you like of sauce and pasta. I used little sauce to take advantage of the unlimited pasta (but not sauce) part of my meal. I got spaghetti Bolognese (meat sauce) and it was the best spaghetti I've had at a restaurant. They were afraid of seasonings to create flavor unlike most other restaurants I have been to (Chain Italian places, random local ones like this, Olive Garden, OSF, Fazolis even, and many places). Overall great food, the others with me enjoyed theirs too. However I personally don't like the bread they had as much as other places.

I give this place an overall 4.7 with just some minor things that the owners may (hopefully) find useful to know. The little things are not nearly as significant as the overall feel otherwise.

--The table could have used sanding. It was a little bit rough and had some minor holes in it. The menu was inconsistent with the website and generally not a great menu.--

--The food was great and why we...

Lived next to this place for a long time, decided to try it - very underwhelmed. The food was sadly bland, a real let down despite looking incredibly good online.

We got the P-Wrapped Scallops, Penne Ala Salmone, and Grilled Calamari.

The Calamari was soft but smelled old --- it even filled the car as soon as we got home and had no taste. The salmone had promising based ingredients but it turned out none of them go together and it tasted like stale pasta with a sauce mix that just does not work - again rather bland and falling off the pasta. The scallops themselves were cooked well but the prosciutto was a little overpowering rather than a good balance.

This would all be fine if it was cheaper that the other places around town, but it is not...

Sad to say we will not be returning, still, 2 stars since its not the worst Italian food we've had in the area.

Disclaimer: while yes it was takeout, we live 2 blocks away and were ready to pick up the food as soon as it came out, and ate it approximately 3 minutes later once home...we are taking that...