Osteria Morini — Restaurant in Washington

I've been to this restaurant three times in the last 10 days. You know how you can tell when food is made with love? This place makes food with love. Well seasoned, cooked just right. They've mastered their process and it shows. Consistently the best tasting food in the Navy Yard.

Service is very attentive. I love it when I dont have to ask for water refills. I did have to ask for refills of bread, but I'm coming off of keto and craving carbs like crazy so I dont think anyone could have kept up with my requests for bread. (!)

My friends and I ordered each of the pasta dishes and the steak dish. Each of the pastas are good, I preferred some over others. There's Gramigna, a dish that's like an adult beefaroni. Wasn't bad, but not my favorite as I dont like white sauce on pork, but a friend has ordered each time and it's one of their best sellers.

I preferred the Cappaletti pasta dish with the truffle sauce. The texture and weight of this sauce compliments the pasta well and it has a saltiness that's just right.

I also like the squid ink pasta dish. Very subtle flavor with a hint of something in the sauce (maybe) that I cant pinpoint, but it works.

What Morini has taught me is that homemade pasta makes a pasta dish. There's no ifs ands or buts about it. Their pasta has just the right amount chewiness (and seasonings ?) and adds additional flavor to the dish. I've been looking for a pasta maker on Amazon as I have been enlightened. Homemade pasta is the way to go.

I'm from Baltimore and lived not too far from Baltimore's Little Italy neighborhood where old school Italian families still run restaurants that sell dishes of family recipes. Morini is not that type of restaurant, but that's not a bad thing at all. Their spin on the pasta dishes is well appreciated. Its middish-pricey. The three of us spent over $280 for each of the pasta dishes, a steak, wine, and dessert. Not bad at all. Check out their chai chocolate cake, leave the pistachio lime and the tiramisu options).

I've only seen business casual here as I've come straight after work, but I've seen some very casual dress, no problems.

It's a beautiful restaurant with candlelit tables. I have been there during a thunderstorm which made for a really nice atmosphere because of the ceiling to floor windows and the candlelights.

This...

I have always loved dining at Osteria Morini. On any given day, you can wear a blindfold, choose a random dish, and not be disappointed. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same about the customer service.

Earlier this week (on a Tuesday), I scheduled a dinner at Osteria Morini to celebrate my birthday. Sadly, hours before my reservation I came down with a terrible sickness that incapacitated me and left me immobile - lethargic would be an understatement, I felt sleep deprived. Moments before the sickness fully hit me, I shot a text to my group that I had to cancel the dinner. I then attempted to notify Osteria through the Opentable app of my condition but was so overwhelmed with pain that I was unable to follow through with all the steps. Sadly the reservation came and went, along with missed calls and a text from Osteria. For my no show, I was charged a fee of $250.00.

The next day (Wednesday), I attempted to contact Osteria to apologize. I spoke to a man who identified himself as the General Manger and explained that I had been unbearably sick and did not intentionally miss my reservation. I asked if it would be possible to reschedule the dinner to another day and set the dinner minimum to $250, which I knew my group would exceed. There was no willingness or compassion, just a cold "no." I asked to increase the dinner minimum to $500, still "no." I get it, I missed the reservation. However, you would think that after battling through a pandemic, there would be a bit more compassion for unfortunate situations.

In good faith, I cannot support a restaurant that isn't willing to work with its customers, especially after faithful customers, like myself and others, answered the call during the pandemic to support the hard hit restaurant sector and Osteria. If someone from Osteria reads this, please feel free to contact me to discuss further. My reservation was scheduled for Tuesday, March 29th at 7pm. I am hoping there is still interest in...

To be honest, we ended up at Morini because no one else in the area had space. I'm so glad we ended up here, though, as the meal was a real treat.

We started with the trout spread, which came with warm, slightly chewy crostinis. I'm not one for crostinis, generally, but these were delicious in their chewiness and warmth, and worked well with the spread. The portioning felt fine for $5. We also shared a plate that had two cheese and one pâté. None were particularly thrilling, but all were quite good. The serving size of the cheeses felt disappointing for the price, but I suppose that's what happens with a cheese plate at a fancy restaurant. The serving size of the pâté was fine.

We were also offered bread, and it was warm and rosemary-filled. Yum!

For the meal, I ordered the gnocchi. I was surprised to see it arrive with ham laced in, and the waitress told me that the menu had stated ham would be present (the word "speck" was listed, and I hadn't known what speck was), but was nice about taking it back and getting me one I could eat. And I was SO happy she did because that dish, my goodness, I could eat that every day and still not be eating it often enough. It's ricotta gnocchi, with a balance of fullness and delicateness, and it was all in this dreamy balsamic sauce with the crunch of diagonally-sliced snap peas. I kept going "mmm," which must have been incredibly annoying to all around me.

We didn't taste any of the desserts or drinks, but the dessert descriptions were very tempting.

The bill came to about $40pp (including tax and tip). A nice meal out, and nice it was! I'd happily recommend this...