Nostra Cucina — Restaurant in Washington

As the adage goes - "better ruins everything." I have a real skepticism of Italian food simply because when I was a kid, Italian was "box pasta and a jar of generic ragu." I grew up in the suburbs too - so "good" Italian usually meant Olive Garden. Nostra Cucina is the closing argument.

This place is tucked away amongst some brownstones outside of the capitol. It has white linen tablecloths and exposed brick. It looks - to be fair, pretentious. But there is no host to impolitely dismiss you from the premises (Hello Cafe Berlin around the corner). There's some guy who looks like Chumlee from "Pawn Stars" who says "sure, sit where you would like" and then proceeds to come to your table and hand you menus and answer questions unassumingly, confidently, and helpfully. He's not wearing anything but a tee that says "Nostra Cucina" on it. I'm from Boston originally and these guys look like they run a "House of Pizza" but...

They serve ridiculous food. The garlic bread is hands down the best garlic bread I ever have had. The butter doesn't overwhelm the sweetness of the bread, the garlic isn't acidic. Add in some mozzarella and some marinara and it's like a reperfected bruschetta. We ordered the tortellini and we asked for the meat marinara. That was when I learned that their "regular" marinara was cooked on pancetta base but we could also have the ragu that was cooked the same but with pork and beef added in. Great inside baseball and that sauce was the best I've had.

Italian cooking is pretty simple if you know how to cook, and people who know how to cook can do incredible Italian. Add in excellent service and a welcoming venue - save yourself some trouble and enjoy...

This family-owned quaint little Italian restaurant is located in Capitol Hill off the beaten path. They make the pasta and marinara sauce homemade from scratch, and their meatballs are all beef. The food was ok, not the kind of hole-in-the-wall little Italy type quality I was expecting when I saw it and read that everything was made there. I tasted a lot of salt. My test dish for any Italian restaurant is eggplant parm, and this particular one was so salty I could have been eating fish. It must have been a mistake it was so bad I couldn't even fake it and politely swallow. The side of pasta was good, so I ordered something else. The server/management was extremely apologetic and accommodating. The meatballs were good, but again, not the hole-in-the-wall quality I was expecting, so even though they were good, I was still a little disappointed. I also had a side of vegetables as well, and those were delicious. Whatever seasoning was on them was quite tasty. Ceasar salad and cannoli were satisfactory, too, and my guest and I polished the rest of the food off. This place is busy and gets packed fast, but they do a good job of seating folks at the bar and keeping tables rolling without feeling rushed. They had a steady stream of take out orders, so they are clearly a...

A wonderful neighborhood Italian spot on Capitol Hill.

The food here was stellar! My husband and I went in for a Friday night dinner. We enjoyed a lovely bottle of Chianti. They don’t have a large wine menu, but it’s well curated. It was great for someone like me who likes wine, but is a bit intimidated by choosing it.

We started with a caprese salad and calamari. Both were fine and what you expect. Although, the calamari was served with their marinera sauce, which was out of this world good. I’ve never had red sauce that packed with umami with a perfect balance of acidity.

The main course we split the veal parmigiana and a salad. The portions are generous so it was perfect to split. The veal parmigiana was perfectly breaded and fried thin pieces of veal layered with mozzarella and red sauce and served with spaghetti. It was delicious!

Cannot wait to go back and try more. And to eat more of that red sauce. This is what every neighborhood red sauce Italian joint should be.

The atmosphere could use a little work, but that is not stopping me from giving...