Not All Restaurant Week Stories Are Happy Ones

We decided to try another of the restaurants that extended Restaurant Week and we chose Pinzimini in the Westin Arlington Gateway, the area we consider Ballston, for lunch on Saturday. They'd lost our reservation but it didn't matter as the dining room was empty. I have to say, the room was very elegant but that's probably the high point. We ordered off the special Restaurant Week menu but they were out of one of the two appetizers. The waiter came back to the table after we'd ordered to share the news that the tuna wasn't fresh and so hubby would need to go with something else. The something else was the crab soup. When I suggested that perhaps there was another offering since a choice of one wasn't really a choice, the waiter looked at me blankly. Hubby joined me in ordering the crab soup, which was molten and heavy with cream. He got the pizza and I got the pasta. We both got the gelato for dessert. Nothing here was particularly light or flavored in an interesting way. The pizza crust looked under done (sort of a thin gummy consistency) and tasted mostly of sun dried tomatoes and cheese. A few herbs would have been nice. The pasta, again with sun dried tomatoes and cheese plus asparagus, was only slightly more flavorful. Hubby and I both felt ill after this meal--one wonders if the the tuna wasn't the only thing that was going bad in the kitchen--and so I would not recommend this restaurant nor do I think it's worth rating the other features.

This kind of experience, especially coming off such a high like Farrah Olivia, makes me sad. DC is a town you can spend huge amounts of money in for food and when you get really sub-par food it's such a waste.

Important lesson: Just because a restaurant takes part in Restaurant Week doesn't mean it deserves attention.