Sfitzi Italian in Fairfax, VA

Its been a while since I’ve posted anything, but I had to post about our night last night.  My sister was in town for a business meeting yesterday morning and she decided to hang out with Cris and do girl stuff during the day and then we all went out for a low key meal after I got off of work.

Our choice for the night was a little Italian gourmet deli cafe called Sfizi that doubles as an Italian market and wine shop.  We’ve been there a couple of times but it had been a while.  We’ve always had good experiences with the food, but last night was by far the best.  I think we benefited from having the owner of the place serve us.  I’m not exactly sure why he brought us menus b/c they had about 15 or 20 specials that all sounded excellent.

I’ll try not to butcher the Italian names, if I can remember then at all.  We started out with a bufalo mozzarella capreze, which is basically buffalo mozzarella slices paired with tomato slices with a scattering of basil leaves and drizzled with olive oil.  Not something I would normally get form myself, but it was delicious.

I don’t remember what my entree was called, but it was awesome.  I had a chicken breast covered with a layer of prosciutto ham, which was all covered with mozzarella cheese.  There was some kind of sauce on it, but I honestly don’t know what it was except for good.  It also came with a side of penne in marinara sauce, and I think their marinara sauce is one of my favorite things about Sfitzi.

Cris had gnocchi bolognese (meat sauce).  Very simple but very, very good.  My sister had pasta putanesca.  The pasta was hand made and one of the specials for the day.  Puttanesca is a traditional Italian sauce that can have a variety of ingredients depending on how you want to make it, and I don’t remember what was in hers exactly, but she was very pleased with her meal as well.

The whole meal was topped off with some really good garlic bread and oil and vinegar dipping sauce, a great bottle of chianti, and some of the best company you could ask for.

We sat outside at one of the handful of tables they had.  The only drawback to sitting outside at sfizi is that its located on a pretty busy road and there was a bit of traffic noise when we first sat down.  There are a couple of tables inside, but its not a very big place.

If you’re in the Fairfax area and you want some very, very good authentic Italian food at a very reasonable price, Sfizi is definitely a great place to go.

Sapori Italian in Marina Del Rey

Cris and I went to a great Italian restaurant last night for dinner and I thought I’d share.  As we so often do, we set out from our place looking for food not really knowing where we were going to end up.  We hadn’t explored the far side of the Marina yet, so we decided to essentially follow the road around and see what was there.  We happened upon the Fisherman’s Village at Marina Del Rey.

The Village itself was a surprisingly subdued small collection of restaurants and what appeared to be shops that are no longer open.  You could also pick up boat trips and dinner boat cruises from the harbor there right next to the restaurants.  There was a Mexican, seafood, Mediterranean, and Italian restaurant there to choose from.  We obviously picked the the Italian place, Sapori.

Sapori was, in general terms, a great dining experience.  Their website describes the atmosphere as charming, and I would fully agree with that very apt description.  Its a pretty small restaurant that is right next to the water overlooking the Marina.  The setup of the tables and the lighting inside provided a nice atmosphere that was intimate without being too dark.  The one drawback about the atmosphere was that it seemed a little loud for the number of people that were there.  I’m not sure if I’m remembering correctly, but I think the floors were tile which wouldn’t be very good for trying to dampen a cacophony of conversations on a full night.

The food was excellent.  Cris had a beef tenderloin and mushroom risotto in a red wine sauce.  The most simple statement of approval was Cris’ sentiment that “this is how risotto is supposed to be cooked.  Its creamy without being squishy or soggy.”  The tenderloin pieces were also tender and moist.

I got adventurous with my meal last night.  I had a square spaghetti with calamari, scallops, shrimp, muscles, and clams in a marinara sauce.  I had never had muscles or clams before, and I’ve always been generally suspicious of shellfish like that so it was going out on a limb a little bit for me.  I could have done without them bringing the clams and muscles out in the shells mixed in with the pasta (Cris liked it though), but the dish was excellent.  The marinara sauce was fantastic and all the mixed in seafood was really great.  The muscles and clams were a little bit chewy, but they were good.  One funny little thing about the dish was that the spaghetti was square.  If you’re like me you ask, “how can spaghetti be square?  Its a long slender piece of pasta?”  Well, when I looked at the end of the pasta I realized it was square long-ways instead of being round.

For desert we had one of the best pieces of tiramisu we’ve ever had.  The ladyfingers inside were nice and fluffy and the marscapone was the perfect amount of creaminess.  The espresso flavor wasn’t overwhelming, which is important to me because I don’t like coffee.

Sapori is definitely a place that we would recommend to people in the Marina Del Rey area.  While we were looking at the menu outside before we went in, a guy that was leaving gave a glowing recommendation of the lasagna.  With our positive experience on the first visit, we very well may be going back to try out that lasagna.