“Group” Date Night: Carmine’s DC

Get your group of friends ready because it’s time you made reservations at Carmine’s in Penn Quarter. This traditional Italian restaurant proves there is most certainly a place in Washington, DC for good family-style cuisine.

With 700 seats, Carmine’s appears as a larger version of a restaurant from the classic Godfather movies, but in this town it’s more likely you’ll hear whispers of a member of Congress in one of the back rooms. In a town where new restaurants open on a weekly basis, those that are established seem to have to work twice as hard to keep guests coming back. Many of these new locations are striving for originality rather than mastering the classics. However, this is where Carmine’s thrives. Not only do they deliver classic Italian entrees with ease, they’ve turned heads with the mention of their meatballs – our personal favorite.

For the two of us, the wheels started turning as we thought about the friends or visiting family members who needed to accompany us on our next visit. I can’t help but think of sitting around my grandmother’s kitchen table during the holidays when large trays of lasagna would be brought out to feed the entire family. You never had to worry about the size of the piece you were taking and whether or not there would be enough for the next person at the table. This is exactly how you’ll feel at Carmine’s. Portions are well suited to be shared and not just among two people.

Now, if you’re going to go to Carmine’s with one other person, consider ordering an appetizer, one entree, one dessert, and ask for take home boxes so you have lunch for the next day. You’ll want to finish the food that night, but don’t ruin your ability to enjoy it again the next day. On our visit we were 2 of 6 people, giving us the opportunity to try a variety of plates.

In addition to the warm bread, we started dinner off with the Cold Antipasto. Good appetizers can really set the mood for the entire meal, and this plate was no exception. Al couldn’t get enough of the eggplant, while I took down a good portion of the rest.

Moving onto the larger dishes we had the Porterhouse, Rigatoni Country Style, and the Pasta with White Clam Sauce. If you’re feeling overly macho, go ahead and try to handle the large piece of meat on your own. All three were excellent, but the Porterhouse and Rigatoni Country Style are the ones I know we’ll be seeing in front of us again.

There’s a chance that if you haven’t stopped in for dinner yet, you’ve still had their meatballs. We tried them for the first time at the 2014 Best of DC celebration, so when we heard they were coming out with dinner we immediately remembered how good they were during that first bite nearly 11 months earlier.

Sometimes restaurants use terms like “Big” and “Gigantic” to describe larger than normal desserts. You might see a 5 layer chocolate cake or maybe the cheese cake is just twice as big as the ordinary piece. Well, when we heard we were getting the Titanic to wrap up our meal we should’ve known better. Picture a large-mouthwatering brownie, 5 full scopes of ice cream, whipped cream, strawberries, sliced bananas on the side, peanuts, and so much more. This was easily split between the 6 of us, and there was plenty leftover. Heads were turning as this dessert was walked through the aisles on its way over to our table, it was certainly the dish that had celebrity status. 

One additional note that needs to be made is the overall cost of dinner. A couple could easily enjoy three courses, a glass or two of wine, and leftovers for easily under $80-$100. The next time our friends want to do a group dinner or we’ve got family in town we’re going to Carmine’s in Penn Quarter.

Cheers!

-Scott