Aventino Cucina — Restaurant in Bethesda

Overall, a positive experience here though the food was hit and miss, and the surprisingly excessive noise took away from the otherwise polished ambience in this modern Italian restaurant. Service was solid, though not particularly insightful in terms of differentiating menu offerings.

We started with the MISTICANZA (local farm lettuces & greens, fresh herbs, shaved kumquat, white balsamic dressing), an absurdly large green salad with an odd ratio of super heavy greens and a scant smattering of kumquat. As a result, you tasted entirely greens with every bit throughout, with an occasional sighting of a thin slice of kumquat which added a fleeting citrus note. The dressing was lackluster as well, and so not a great salad.

We then had the SUPPLI AL TELEFONO (risotto fritters, tomato, chicken brodo, mozzarella, pecorino romano) and they were solid as risotto fritters go, fairly tasty.

As for the FIORE DI ZUCCA (crispy-fried zucchini flowers, baby summer squash, herbed bagna cauda), it was definitely the worst version of this dish I've ever had. Just surprisingly bland, the frying added nothing and took everything away from the natural zucchini taste, and the herbed bagna cauda dip could do nothing to remedy it, the dip itself was lacking any vibrant flavor. We didn't eat but a few bites and they were good enough to take it off the bill.

The pastas we tried were definitely above par, really quite enjoyable. Their TONNARELLI (‘cacio e pepe,’ pecorino romano, parmigiano, black pepper) was an admirable take on this simple but quite tasty dish, no complaints. And their LUMACHA (‘all’amatriciana,‘ tomato, Calabrian chili, onion, guanciale, pecorino romano) was a solid red sauce countepart, equally robust in flavor but bringing the heat quite effectively. The guanciale itself could have been prepared a bit better, but it didn't matter too much with all the other flavors peaking in the dish.

As for dessert, the DARK CHOCOLATE SEMIFREDDO (whipped mint chocolate ganache, Karma Farms basil, coffee cocoa nib crunch) was exceptional, the standout dish of the meal and one of the better versions of this classic treat.

The one cocktail I tried, the CUBANO ITALIANO (white rum, amaretto, pineapple, citrus) was tasty, but a bit too sweet and could have been more well balanced.

Definitely worth a try, and my sense is there are far more hits like the pastas than misfires like the fried zucchini flowers.

But please do something to dampen the noise, it sounded like a Roman coliseum and that's not the vibe I think they are...

Aventino is a work in progress. I suspect that it will be an even better restaurant after the opening crowds thin out a bit. That said, the food is very good, some items are excellent, and the staff went well above and beyond to make us happy customers.

Atmosphere: Attractive, modern decor but unpleasantly L-O-U-D. Impossible to hear companions without multiple repetitions. The servers had trouble hearing us.

Food: Very, very good throughout, although a shade less than excellent, especially considering the price point. We enjoyed the braised artichoke starter (good, but not a showstopper ), the spaghetti al limone (lovely lemon sauce and worth ordering), and the rigatoni carbonara (sauce was delectably creamy and made properly with egg yolks, but the dish would have been better balanced if the gunciale had been chopped more finely to disperse it more evenly throughout the dish.)

The most delicious main course dish that we tasted was a side of savory mushrooms, served atop polenta. Dessert, a chocolate semifreddo with basil, was outstanding, the basil providing an interesting counterpoint to the chocolate. The wine list is excellent.

Service: A tad uneven at times, but Aventino took extraordinary steps to ensure that we were happy. I had requested a quieter table when reserving, but that appeared not to be possible when we arrived. I mentioned this to the waiter and, much to my delighted surprise, the front of the house team came over to apologize and to offer us a new table when the crowd thinned out. We were ultimately reseated at a spacious back booth, a remarkably generous gesture that we appreciated tremendously.

Our mushroom side dish was forgotten by the kitchen, but provided swiftly when we informed our server.

We had ordered a glass of wine during our main course that did not arrive until after-dinner espresso was served. We were again happily surprised when the server told us that the wine and espresso would be...

This literally just happened. We came out here for the first time with some family who were in town for the week. We made a reservation, we were seated, we ate and talked, and everything was lovely. Nice and attentive staff, good food. Everything was fine up until the last 10 minutes of our evening. The manager came by and asked us if we enjoyed our meal, and we said everything was great. Then she said “okay glad to hear it, now is the time where I need to ask you to leave to make room for our next table.” They had just served us dessert about 10-15 min prior. We had just paid the bill and tipped to the total amt of $560. She sent her servers over to take our water. They took my dessert while I was still eating, and also tried to take my coffee and wine. I’m honestly still in shock and so flipping angry. This was our first time at this restaurant, and we were just thinking what a nice place to take friends, we will come here more often. Nope! I’ve never been asked to leave a restaurant in my life. Also it’s Wednesday night. If you’re thinking this is Friday Saturday and we were just hogging the table, absolutely not. If you’re thinking maybe we were rude and loud, I assure you absolutely not. For the first time in my life I wanted to confront the manager on the way out like a Karen, but she’d escaped somewhere to the back and let her staff take the fallout, and I wouldn’t have said anything to them because they were super nice. But we won’t be going back there literally ever, even though we live close enough by. So freaking rude, I cannot believe it. And it was so obvious we were almost done. That’s the absolutely wild part. Two almost empty glasses of wine left, a couple waters, 1/2 a remaining dessert being eaten, and the check signed barely 5 min prior. Hopefully they get some more professional managers in the future cause this woman was unreal. I feel bad for her staff. Wednesday night,...