Yahoo! - washingtonian

Very Best Restaurants: Cafe Milano

Very Best Listing | Very Best by Cuisine | Very Best by Location

Cafe Milano ***
Washington, $$

The exuberance of its nightly scenea commingling of attractive young people, old-guard Georgetowners who are still young at heart, a local tycoon or two, and an occasional visiting celebrity like Demi Mooretends to obscure the fact that Cafe Milano serves some of the best Italian cooking in the city. Over the past year, chef Caroline Bruder's kitchen has performed consistently at a three-star level.

Bruder oversees the preparation of a seasonally changing menu with a long list of daily specials. She offers a mix of dishes drawn from traditional and contemporary sources. You will find composed salads given high-fashion presentations; a luxurious "pizza" stuffed with cheese perfumed with white-truffle oil; linguine with lobster, the strands of pasta sparely coated with a glaze of tomato-lobster sauce; a memorable saute of moist quail with artichokes; and a white-sauced rabbit stew that would be an Italian grandmother's pride.

Last fall, owner Franco Nuschese took a gamble on spoiling Cafe Milano's broth with too many cooks: He hired chef Enzo Febraro to prepare a changing, fixed-price menu of Neapolitan specialties, whose robust flavors and weight are in sharp contrast to Bruder's enlightened style. Those who have enjoyed Febraro's cod salad, stuffed eggplant, timbale of penne, and house-made sausage with brocoletti hope that Cafe Milano's kitchen will continue to have room enough for both.

Cafe Milano , 3251 Prospect St. NW, Washington; 202-333-6183. Open daily for lunch and dinner. MapIt!

QUALITY: ****Excellent; *** Superior; **Very Good; * Good
PRICE RANGE: $$$= Very Expensive; $$ Expensive; $=Moderate; ¢=Inexpensive

Return to Restaurant & Entertaining Directory