Sietsema Praises Rialto's Hearty Italian Fare

Tom Sietsema devotes his First Bite column to Rialto, Georgetown's latest addition to its Italian offerings. The design "pulls you in," he says — and the food is generously portioned.

His food leans to the hearty; chances are good that part of the Flintstonian lamb shank, rich with wine and herbs and shored up with soft polenta, will go home with you. Among the many small plates, sauteed broccoli rabe is mugged by garlic." [WaPo]

Tim Carman surprises himself at Chocolate Crust for the $20 Diner this week. Though some dishes sound weird on paper — a chocolate BLT, for example — they work.

I tend to put chocolate in its corner and prefer it stay there, but as I chewed on Cabeca's chocolate-crusted pizza, I willed myself to remain open minded. By the second slice of my sausage, onion and garlic pie on chocolate crust, I was sold. The Valrhona chocolate lends a dusky sweetness to the dense-but-crispy crust, not unlike honey in pizza dough, but with an added undercurrent of bitterness. [WaPo]

Candy Sagon visits Forlano's Market in The Plains. The kitchen could use a heavier hand with the salt, but the restaurant receives two stars. "It's unpretentious, but the roast chicken is juicy and flavorful (so many chickens these days aren't), and it comes with what we used to call "Texas risotto" — spicy jalapeño and cheese grits. My father, who, at 88, has assiduously avoided eating grits his entire adult life, took one forkful and said he may have to reconsider." [WaPo]

NoVa Mag has a mini review of Mazadar Restaurant online. Stefanie Gans writes of the vegetable delight, "Chopped bits of vegetables and fruits—cauliflower, cabbage, plum—pickle from red, balsamic and white vinegars and emerges 30 days later aggressively sour from a lack of sugar. It is harsh at first, but becomes addicting, like sitting with your hilariously caustic friend at the bar. Use torshi on bread or mixed into rice. It's salsa with pucker." [NovaMag]

Tyler Cowen hits up two places: Fredericksburg's Peter Chang's Cafe and Siroo. Of the former, he says, "I've only been three times, but each time it was excellent, and that was without the Master in the house. The tastes are finer than in the other Sichuan places." [TC]

Don Rockwell takes a trip to Old Angler's Inn. He compares it to another beloved Italian restaurant in D.C. "Old Anglers Inn, long-forgotten by the DC restaurant world, is suddenly a serious contender for Best Restaurant in Suburban Maryland, with deferential nods to Sudhir Seth and Jeff Heineman. Make no mistake, it's right up there with The Red Hen in quality, and in fact, I see something of a similarity in style (distant cousins) – if you like one, I think you may like the other." [DR]

THE BLOGS: DC Wrapped Dates gives 3.5 stars to Etto...Eat More Drink More has brunch at Range...Capital Cooking tries Daikaya's brunch...Bitches Who Brunch give Nopa an A- for brunch.