Northern Virginia is home to some of the best Italian cuisine around, and we’ve rounded up the top spots that make this region a haven for pasta lovers and pizza aficionados alike. Featured in our 50 Best Restaurants list, these eateries offer everything from vibrant, interactive dining experiences to innovative seasonal dishes.
By Alice Levitt, Olga Boikess, Dawn Klavon, and Alyssa Langer
Price Key: Entrées = $ 15 and under | $$ 16–25 | $$$ 26–40 | $$$$ 41 and over | * = prix fixe only
Carbonara
Arlington | Italian | $$
The Rat Pack fills the room at this new Italian restaurant with their music — and their spirits. Frank, Dino, and Sammy would all feel right at home in the always packed dining room here, watching a server set a cheese wheel ablaze to add salty Parmesan to the restaurant’s namesake bucatini.
The show doesn’t end there. Watch the team roll out everything from pappardelle to gnocchi in the open kitchen. For a sampling of their efforts, order the prime short rib lasagna, so packed with melting meat that the cheeses and even pasta piled within are almost an afterthought. Watch a server slide a layer of mozzarella cheese onto the chicken parmigiana tableside.
Just like the souls on the stereo, Carbonara knows that all the world’s a stage.
Eat This:
Italian long hot peppers, famous chicken parmigiana alla vodka, prime short rib lasagna
Roberto’s Ristorante Italiano
Vienna | Italian | $$$$
When a chef and restaurateur has gained Roberto Donna’s level of fame, it would be easy to sit on one’s laurels. But while James Beard Foundation Award– and Iron Chef–winner Donna may have decamped to quieter Vienna from DC, he’s not shy about continuing to challenge himself.
The menu is approachable to suburban diners, but Donna adheres to seasonality with fervor, making additions and subtractions almost daily. The results can be lip-smackingly creative. Diners shouldn’t be afraid to try a dessert of fried ravioli stuffed with tomato jam and drizzled with creamy dots of pistachio sauce. After all, it’s an appealing way to prolong the lives of summer tomatoes.
Guests feel like valued friends as they dine beneath a candy-colored Chihuly chandelier. As comfortable as they are, their chef is never one to sit still, and the meal is all the better for it.
Eat This:
Culatello e fichi, pappardelle al cinghiale, tiramisu
Semifreddo Italian Cuisine
Manassas | Italian | $$$
Chef Franklin Hernandez’s celebrated eatery in an everyday shopping center hides a pleasant surprise — sharp white tablecloths and simple elegance. Knowledgeable staffers are supremely attentive, offering enticing menu descriptions and frequent check-ins.
Hernandez creates unexpected pleasures like grilled Romana salad — his version of a Caesar — with value-added char to the lettuce’s exterior. Classic calamari fritti balances delicate crispness with zesty marinara, achieving exceptional results.
Housemade pastas prevail here, with plenty of choices; ravioli polpa di granchio (crab ravioli) is bathed in lobster bisque for a rich, hearty plate. Diverse entrées like pan-seared barramundi filet or vitello marsala provide consistently noteworthy options. Don’t leave without sampling the restaurant’s namesake semifreddo to end your experience on a sweet note. The strip-mall location may not be able to boast of its beauty, but Semifreddo’s other assets make it amply clear what diners find attractive about this Italian eatery.
Eat This:
Grilled Romana salad, ravioli polpa di granchio, semifreddo
Sfoglina
Arlington | Italian | $$$
Food lovers hail chef and restaurateur Fabio Trabocchi as a gastronomic alchemist turning flour and water into satisfying pasta dishes. At his Rosslyn paean to the noodle, this magic is on full display.
A flexible menu that invites sampling and sharing offers a range of regional recipes. Whether it’s goat cheese–filled ravioli or spaghetti with zucchini, the thinly rolled noodles have a bit of a bite. The sauces blossom with flavor. Zucchini coins entwined in spaghetti are a testament to a less-is-more approach to fine dining. Roman-style rigatoni with pecorino cheese and black pepper is another minimalist winner.
Edgy art, unusual light fixtures, marble-topped tables, and café-style chairs establish a chic atmosphere that adds a further dimension to an outstanding meal. But the true magic is on each plate that features an unforgettable bite of pasta.
Eat This:
Fabio’s ravioli San Leo, spaghetti alla Nerano, parmigiana di melanzane
Thompson Italian
Alexandria & Falls Church | Italian | $$$
What swam in the ocean hours ago is now memorialized in a sea of garlic. Onyx-colored tendrils of linguine twist and curl around scallops that taste of a briny sweetness that tells you one thing: Thompson Italian is a restaurant more obsessed with fresh, seasonal ingredients than it is with the dogma of classic cuisine.
Leave it to chef-owners Gabe and Katherine Thompson to upgrade tried-and-true recipes with Virginia’s bounty. The fritto misto centers around meltingly tooth-friendly calamari but also zucchini and chunky peppadew peppers. The coating is tempura-light with nary a hint of grease.
Seasonality extends to desserts, where coconut tapioca pudding is bathed in blueberries or tiramisu is flavored not with coffee, but with bright, bursting berries. With every bite, the Thompsons pay tribute to tradition, but best it with their of-the-moment flavors.
Eat This:
Fritto misto, squid ink linguine, berry tiramisu
Trattoria Villagio
Clifton | Italian | $$$
A festive vibe seasons the hearty pastas at this welcoming, celebratory spot. Whether you sit at a cozy indoor table or on the enchanting patio, there’s sure to be something on the wide-ranging menu to satisfy your party’s lust for Italian American fare.
Dunking the perfectly cooked crustaceans of the Shrimp Badda-Bing in tangy tomato sauce is a delightful, hands-on experience.
Pastas are a must-order, and there are lots of tempting choices. The supple noodles in the tagliatelle Bolognese are bathed in a fresh-tasting meat sauce. It’s a classic that never gets old in the hands of the expert chefs here. The towering, multilayered chocolate cake is the ideal end to your occasion; not too rich or too sweet, it’s bound to please your crowd.
Eat This:
Shrimp Bada-Bing, tagliatelle Bolognese, chocolate cake
Feature image of Carbonara by Connor Reed
This story originally ran in our November issue. For more stories like this, subscribe to Northern Virginia Magazine.
