Galileo - Overrated?
 

I am of of course talking about the Roberto Donna restaurant and not the 16th century astronomer. My wife took me there for my birthday. I thought the food was good, but not great. The decor was :td:. They have the ever so classy drop ceiling and some blah so-so art. The service was very slow (especially considering the restaurant was only half full) and I thought the staff was pompous.

Did I just catch them on a bad day, or is this par for the course?

That pretty much mirrors my experience. I thought the food was terrific, but the atmosphere and service were pretty poor. My other issue was that we found the menu to be overwhelming and confusing (but we'd had a few drinks so that may have been a factor :) ). We were rushed to make a selection and then abandoned.

I was so put off by my one experience at Galileo that I never went back... until I was dragged kickin' and screamin' ;-) to Laboratorio. Laboratorio is definitely worth it, IMHO.

I'd be willing to give that a shot. It seems like a different restaurant. Maybe more like a restaurant within a restaurant.

The place got its' great rep from phyliss richmond(post reviewer a few years back), who gave great reviews to anyone who sucked up to her.

Now, much to my surprise, even Zagat still gives them a decent review. One can do much better in DC.

My current favorite Italian of the day, is Dino's on Conneticut.

Looks good to me. Wines at reasonable prices too!
3435 Connecticut Avenue NW, Cleveland Park, Washington DC, 20008
www.dino-dc.com

My one experience there was okay but as stated above not great. I would agree that it is over rated and over priced in my opinion.

Galileo will close early this fall, for about a year, while the office building it inhabits is renovated, and the restaurant itself undergoes a redo. In the meantime, chef-owner Roberto Donna and his crew will open Bebo Trattoria in Crystal City, Virginia (location TBA), featuring moderately priced favorites from his osteria menu, including fried rabbit, housemade salami, grilled panini and pizzas.

Absolutely. I'm a contributor to Zagat, and even I'm surprised that every year the "expected" restaurants do so well despite inconsistent food and/or mediocre service. It's also funny how people in Zagat complain about the prices at nicer places... what do they expect?! :confused:

They are going in the space currently occupied by Oyamel on Crystal Drive.

This sounds great; where did you see/hear this. I live in Crystal City and will always welcome another good restaurant. ^ ^

Is Oyamel closing? or moving? I haven't heard.

Edit: Never mind, I should Google before I post...it seems it may be moving downtown: link

Oyamel hasn't been as good lately as when it first opened; however, their tacos are always delicious and I will miss those.

I don't know if they will re-open downtown or just incorporate some of the menu into a new place.

Looking forward to trying out the new effort from Donna. I hope they meet with greater success than Oyamel did. Evenings and weekends still aren't busy times for the Crystal City area; it's tough to make it on the weekday lunch business - good as it is.