I had wanted to try FAMOSO (www.famosorestaurant.com) since it opened over a year ago, but could not get myself there. I finally purchased a dinner as an auction item for a charity, so I HAD to go. Last night we dined there and it was, for the most part, an impressive evening, if you can find the restaurant.
Famoso is at 5471 Wisconsin Ave in Chevy Chase, just outside the DC line, but the entrance and signage is on the rear of the building where there is complimentary parking in the lot at the :Collection at Chevy Chase" shops.
We settled in and had some yummy flatbread and bread with olive oil and sundried tomato as we sipped Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc 2007 and celebrated a couple of birthdays as well. We ordered off the four course tasting menu and the regular menu and it was quite varied with many options.
I started with VITELLO TONNATO that magnificent dish of cold veal with creamy tuna sauce, here served with a nice Radicchio, Endive & Arugula Salad. The BURRATA here is served in a Tomato with Green Beans, but is not at the high quality level of Dino's in Washington. The pastas were varied and all got rave reviews from LINGINI con VONGOLE & Garlic to the superb STROZZAPRETI alla ROMAGNOLA con Foglione di Spinaci with the "strangled" pasta having an excellent sausage ragout with spinach and prosicutto. My RAVIOLI di CINGHIALE were filled with tasty Wild Boar and served in a rich and tasty Butter Sage Sauce with a hint of Goat Cheese.
By this time we had moved on to GRECO di TUFO Loggia delle Serre 2006 from Terredora di Paolo and a SOAVE CLASSICO 2005 from Pieropan, not to mention a San Lorenzo 2005 MONTEPULCIANO d'ABRUZZO which was great with my boar. One should note that on Monday's at Famoso the ENTIRE wine list is HALF PRICE.
Entrees were a bit less stellar, but still quite tasty with ranging from a huge seafood platter to BRANZINO (sea bass) con CARCIOFI, OLIVE, Patate e Pomodorini baked and served with artichokes, olives, potato and cherry tomatoes. My COSTATA de MANZO was a 10 ounce ROAST CAB (I did not really know the meaning of this term) PRIME RIB with Grilled Veggie Potato Cake (called "lay" on the menu) in a Veal Demi-Glace. The dish somehow did not seem very Italian, but was one of the better entrees indeed.
The menus had some odd English usage which we giggled at, especially at the bottom where it noted "Menu presented by Ex Chef Romina Lugaresi," which we laughingly took to mean the chef had departed, as opposed to being EXecutive Chef!
Our final two wines were big wonderful red, first a ROSSI di MONTALCINO La GERLA 2003 followed by a huge 2005 Le VOLTE from Ornellaia which had an even bigger nose.
Our dessert wine was a superb CHATEAU LIOT 2003 Sauternes which went well with all the desserts, mine being a PUFF PASTRY with MASCARPONE, STRAWBERRY and WILD BERRY, a glorified rich berry Napoleon so to say.
Big hits were the Hot Molten CHOCOLATE CAKE and the WARM APPLE STRUDEL with Vanilla Gelato. Needless to say, nobody went home hungry. Kudos to the excellent staff under manager Giorgio who seemed to have everything served at just the right time!
