90. Assaggi
This week I tried out Assaggi in Bethesda, located in the spot on Besthesda Ave. that seems to have a different restaurant every two years. My first impression didn’t bode well for the restaurant—there were no people in it. A personal policy of mine is to never go in to a restaurant that is empty at meal time since there is probably a good reason for it. But, after weighing my options of Chicken Out vs. Le Pain Quotidien my lunch date showed up and convinced me to quit screwing around since eating at non-Washingtonian sanctioned restaurant wouldn’t get me any closer to my goal.
Once we got inside, there were a few more tables full than it seemed from the outside, all full of the retirement home set. We were not only the youngest people in there, but the youngest by a couple generations. But with a pasta heavy menu, I can see why this place would appeal to those hoping to gum their meals to death. I thought the menu was relatively pretentious for a lunch spot in Bethesda since each item was written in Italian and then translated in to English. It seemed a bit much since the menu boiled down to salads, sandwiches and pastas.
We both went with a pasta choice, I had the maccheroni pasta with baby artichokes and sausage. I’d never had maccheroni before (and I’m assuming they think no one else has since it was on the menu in quotes), but it ended up being an eggless pasta that resembled buccatini. It had a much denser consistency than regular pasta—a bit like it was undercooked—but according to the hostess thats the idea since it picks up the sauce better than it’s egg-full friends. Seemed to be true. They would have really had to screw it up for me to not like something with sausage and artichokes, and luckily I thought it was great. Shannon had the penne with the seasonal veggies, which looked lovely but she pointed out that it had ‘too many vegetables’. I also think it didn’t have enough sausage. True, it wasn’t supposed to have any on it, but I can’t really understand a restaurant that puts something on the menu without sausage or bacon as a major ingredient. Whatever, it’s your funeral, Assaggi.
The service was less than stellar, it took almost 15 minutes for the waiter to refill our water glasses. Not so impressive in a restaurant with only six full tables. I will give them snaps for their price point though. The bill was only about $21 for the two of us, and in a restaurant that seems to take itself a little too seriously, I thought that was a good deal. I have heard mixed reviews from Assaggi patrons and it mostly goes like this: the pastas are delicious, everything else is mediocre. And for a girly lunch in Bethesda, that works fine for me.
