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In Italian, the name of the restaurant means “Pasta Maker”. That’s what the dining experience at Sfoglina is all about. The pasta house is apart of the Fabio Trabocchi Restaurants group, founded by highly acclaimed chef Fabio Trabocchi himself. For those who don’t know why that may carry significance, it is because Trabocchi is widely regarded as being the pinnacle for Italian chefs and the Italian cuisine in Washington DC. While that of course would be a matter of opinion, Chef Fabio has the recognition to back it up. He worked as an apprentice under 3-star Michelin Chef Gualtiero Marchesi in Milan before coming to the States. In 2011, he opened his flagship restaurant, Filoa, which holds one Michelin star and is currently one of only two Italian restaurants in the District that hold one. Fiola has been on Michelin’s list since 2011. Furthermore, Fabio Trabocchi Restaurants include numerous other highly acclaimed spots: Fiola Mare in Georgetown, Del Mar at The Wharf, and Sfoglina which currently has three locations in DC. All of those restaurants have a place on the Michelin list, so when I arrived to dine at Chef Fabio’s establishment, my excitement and expectations couldn’t be higher. 

Sfoglina is intentially supposed to be more casual, less fancy and place emphasis on the pasta. While emphasis at this establishment certainly is on the pastas, we felt that the while the interior may have been more casual than other places such as L’Ardente that we visited, it still felt classy and reflected some elegance. We went to the Downtown location and were able to snag an 8pm reservation, which was the only indoor res for Saturday evening we could find. For this review, I want to start by talking about the ambiance of this place: I thought it was beautiful. That’s it, beautiful. We absolutely loved the interior of the restaurant with its dimly lit appearance as well as the warm whites and reds, not to mention their gorgeous bar. The dining room isn’t huge but we found that it was a mastery of blending elegance and welcoming /cozy into one. 

Secondly, before we get to the food, I want to make sure I mention just how great the service was as well from start to finish. Our server did an excellent job of checking in on us in a timely manner. Our waters were consistently being filled up before they could even be more than halfway finished. He also was very personable and checked to make sure everything was good and made himself available to answer any questions we had about the menu. Of course, these are things that should be expected at any highly regarded restaurant but the service was up to par, and the hospitality was excellent. 

After glancing over the menu, we decided to begin with the Provolone Garlic Bread. It came out after a short wait of ten or so minutes and it was absolutely tremendous. It featured soft bread with excellent crisp on the bottom and edges of it. Additionally, it featured plenty of fresh garlic and herbs as well as sharp provolone cheese and some heat from the Calabrian chilis included in the spread. It came alongside a dish of their house made red sauce which was the perfect compliment. Of course, a bread starter at an Italian restaurant is something hard to mess up but this one was done tremendously. In fact, it was one of the best bread dishes we have had. If you aren’t an enormous fan of garlic and want an alternative option with a more mild taste, they offer warm rosemary bread with whipped ricotta. 

We then moved on to our starters. We decided to go with two of the pastas in their “Hall of Fame” category on the menu. The two we opted to go with were the Penne alla Vodka and the Fettucine Alfredo, which included the heavy presence of mushrooms in their Roman style sauce. Both pastas were cooked to the perfect al dente but I preferred the freshness of the fettuccine noodles to the penne.  Their take on the vodka sauce was very interesting, however, as the smoked speck was the star of the show. The salty pork was the first thing to hit me as it was the last thing when I had finished my meal. I appreciated that there wasn’t too much sauce as well so the dish wasn’t overwhelmed and by the time I finished, there wasn’t a soup of sauce remaining. The rosemary in the pasta was also a nice touch but I found it to be overwhelmed by the presence of the smoked speck. 

For desert, we opted to try their chocolate hazelnut cake. It was rich but to my surprise and delight, it was very light and not dense so it wasn’t an overwhelming combination of dense and rich. We also ordered their blueberry sorbet which was an extremely fresh and refreshing contrast from the richness of the chocolate. The cake also featured bits of hazelnut chunks in the layers which added an appreciated textural feature to our desert. Overall, the experience from the meal to the ambiance to the service all hit the mark and to date, this was probably the most enjoyable dinner I have had since I have been in DC. I look forward to continuing to make my way around the city and try new places but Fabio Trabocchi’s pasta house will certainly be on my list of places to return to. 

8.9/10. 

written by Andrew Petrino.