Tag Archives: Italian

Ahh yes it is Friday, finally. They can never get here too quickly and it was especially exciting because tonight we went out for dinner  to Cristina’s in Wheaton. This place has GREAT Italian food and we can walk there from our house, which is an added bonus. It is so nice to leave the car behind sometimes.

Cristina’s has a charm about it that you don’t see a lot in this area. The owners were there seating people and checked in with us to ensure we enjoyed our meal. There appears to be a good crowd of regulars and we found ourselves to be some of the youngest people there (it was before 7pm!) at first, but as it got later some younger people did come in as well. It’s nicely lit and small enough where you may need a reservation, but big enough where you probably won’t. It’s a great date spot, but would also be nice to go with others. Overall, we just love it and food wise it always delivers a great meal.

We started off with La Caprese Completa: Fresh homemade mozzarella served with fresh sliced tomatoes, basil and olive oil. I don’t know how they always manage to have these delicious ripe tomatoes, but they do. Also, the olive oil they use is out of this world. This was a great way to start off the meal.

Both of our entrees came with salads (house or cesar) and we both chose cesar. You can’t go wrong with either choice here. Of course there was some fresh bread that accompanied the meal, including a rosemary focaccia-type bread and a classic italian white.

For our entrees, Greg ordered the Vitello Benito: Tender slices of veal sauteed with shallots, balsamic vinegar and marsala wine topped with asparagus. I praise him for branching out and trying this dish. The veal was very nice and tender and had a marsala based sauce. It also came with linguine. I don’t know if they make their pastas in house, but they taste so fresh that they must be homemade. The pastas are so tender they just melt in your mouth. For my entree I did not branch out and ordered something I had before and loved. I had been thinking about all day and was not deterred by the big menu! I had the Gamberi Florentine: Fresh jumbo shrimp stuffed with spinach, feta cheese and fresh herbs. Topped with lemon-butter sauce and broiled to perfection. Served with linguine. This dish is absolute perfection in my opinion. I really want to try to recreate this at home some time soon!All in all, we had a fantastic meal at Cristina’s tonight and I already cannot wait to go back again. I have not yet become comfortable with the idea of taking pictures of my food in public so sorry for the lack of pictures! Maybe I will get there one day…

After dinner we checked out Dad’s Pub in Rockville, mostly due to the fact that it’s close and has live music. We have been there once before and I think the crowd really makes a difference here. Tonight, it was rather small and was most likely the spill-over of the happy hour crowd (ie: people were pretty nice and toasty by the time we got there). Also, it was apparent that there was a caps game that just ended as several people meandered the bar in their obnoxious red jerseys. Sorry, I could live without caps fans in my life. Anyway, we called it quits pretty early and headed home… looking forward tomorrow night’s “winterfest” at our house!