L'Ardente

The food is so tasty here. The dim lighting makes it perfect for a date night. We were able to walk in with no reservation and the food was perfect! The drinks are well crafted too. The coffee for the expresso martini is so rich. The waiter was knowledgeable about the menu and you can even see them cooking the pizza from the dining area.

Fantastic food, service, and ambiance. Our server Chris was absolutely amazing. We had the duck ravioli, fried cauliflower, Venetian risotto, Caesar salad and of course the 40 layer lasagna. Everything was insanely delicious to the extent there was nothing left on our plates! I enjoyed 3 sidecar cocktails that were all perfect and we ended dinner with the smores which was another cleaned plate at the end. Highly recommend!

We chose l’Ardente to celebrate our anniversary because we love much of the food we get in Italy, where we happen to travel frequently. To say it was a gargantuan disappointment is a huge understatement. The bottom line? l’Ardente is a restaurant run by people who know or care nothing about Italian food served by people who have no clue what they are doing. And the prices are outrageous -- especially considering the poor quality of the food and service. The very best thing about the entire experience was the wine. We chose far and away the cheapest bottle of red wine on the menu, at $68, a 2020 Chianti Classico from Nozzole that we know well and for which we regularly pay a small fraction of that price -- even at liquor stores in Washington. Imagine our surprise when the waitress served us the wine without having opened it at the table! I’m pretty sure what we drank was actually Nozzole, but that is an amateurish breach of restaurant etiquette. I simply cannot remember the last time that happened. Who trains these people? We ordered one antipasto and two pastas. The menu described the first as Venetian "Risotto" with "king crab, riced calamari, leek soffritto and Amalfi lemon". What we got was, at most, two heaping tablespoons of minced who knows what. I would not be surprised if there were a thimble-full of king crab, but it was certainly not easy to taste it. The price for this stingy, untasty appetizer? $32. Then we both ordered tagliatelle with clam sauce. The traditional recipe in Italy comes with a regular spaghetti, tiny, tasty clams in their shells, and a light white sauce made with the juice from the steamed clams, olive oil, white wine, maybe a smidgen of butter, salt and pepper, -- black and/or red “pepperoncini”, l’Ardente’s version was thick, overcooked pasta drowned in a thick, pasty, buttery glop that totally erased the taste of the clams – and, of course, the pasta. Instead of the simple, clean-tasting sauce which lets you appreciate the taste of the clams and the pasta, we got an indigestible mess. The price? $32 for each. You have to order -- and pay separately -- for bread. What we were offered was, according to the waiter, "focaccia". Focaccia is, by definition, flat bread, brushed with olive oil and sprinkled with coarse salt. What they serve bears no resemblance to any of that. It was a small French "boule" -- with no olive oil and no coarse salt. And the price was $9. And it was, far and away, the best thing we got to eat. The total price for this dreadful mistake of a meal: $228.36 – with no dessert -- including a mandatory tip of 20 percent for the amateurish service. And we simply couldn't eat anywhere near what we were given. It was that inedible. And on top of that, we were required to provide the restaurant, in advance, with a credit card number before we could make a reservation – and we were repeatedly threatened with being charged if we didn’t show up on time. Can this possibly be the third best restaurant in Washington – as rated by Washingtonian Magazine?

Had a solo dinner at the pizza bar. Really excellent service. Tip: ask the staff for recommendations from the menu. I got the Caesar salad, Fuoco pizza and a beer. I loved that I ended up having a classic meal combo but upscaled with high quality ingredients, creativity and excellent execution. What I ordered had generous portions - probably more for 2 people, so I brought home half a pizza. I think this was the best pizza I've ever had!