Yahoo! - washingtonian

Very Best Restaurants: Tragara

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

Tragara *
Bethesda , $$

This attractive Northern Italian restaurant boasts the talented French-born chef Michel Laudier and delivers some very appealing food at prices that demand special touches. When many pastas are $20 and a number of main courses exceed $25, even minor lapses in servicean occasional slowness or a too-aggressive effort to push a second glass of winebecome more noticeable.

Appealing beginnings include oysters with spinach and cheese, a fine version of oysters Florentine; baked baby artichokes served either warm or at room temperature; a carpaccio of beef, sliced paper-thin with shavings of Parmesan; and mussels with a light sauce of white wine, tomato, and herbs. Among the good house-made pastas, linguini with shrimp, cream sauce, and herbs stand out, as it should for $23.95.

Main-course highlights center on veal and fish. Consider the nodino of veal, a very good veal chop, veal scallopine with wild mushrooms and sage, or a very large and tender osso buco. The fish is fresh and good whether grilled or braised. Try the braised red snapper with onions, tomato, capers, and olives.

Tragara , 4935 Cordell Ave., Bethesda ; 301-951-4935. Open Monday through Friday for lunch and dinner, Saturday and Sunday for dinner. MapIt!

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

Return to Restaurant & Entertaining Directory